IT IS IRONIC-OR PERHAPS TOTALLY apropos-that the first politician to serve as NASA administrator puts the highest emphasis on bridging partisan divides, especially when it comes to space. "When I think back to my days in the [U.S.] House of Representatives ... I remember being on the Science committee, and it was just bizarre to me that Republicans were for the Moon and Democrats were for Mars," says Jim Bridenstine, a Republican who represented Oklahoma's 1st Congressional District. Even stranger, says Bridenstine, who was swept into office in January 2013 as part of the conservative populist tea party movement, was a perceived partisan wedge between human and robotic space exploration.
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