Bridenstine Visits Israel on First Foreign Trip

SPace.com ^ | July 18, 2018 11:02am ET | Jeff Foust,

[BenLurkin]

On his first foreign trip since taking office nearly three months ago, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine traveled to Israel last week to meet with the country's prime minister and other officials.

Bridenstine's two-day visit to Israel, not announced by the agency until after he arrived in the country, highlighted NASA's good relationship, but only modest cooperation, with Israel's space agency and industry.

He separately met with his direct counterpart, Israel Space Agency Director Avi Blasberger, and signed a "joint agreement" on cooperation. That one-page agreement "reaffirmed their strong mutual interest in strengthening cooperation" but did not specify any new initiatives for the two agencies beyond an agreement "to convene a seminar of technical experts to explore opportunities for enhanced cooperation." "We're working to make this partnership even stronger," Bridenstine said in a brief video posted to his Twitter account July 12. "We're trying to figure out what all of their capabilities are and how those capabilities might fit into our architecture."

According to a readout of his trip provided July 13 by Megan Powers, NASA press secretary, Bridenstine met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "to discuss the strategic importance of continued close cooperation in civil and commercial space." He also met with the American ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, to discuss potential Israeli cooperation with NASA on exploration activities.

[SpinnerWebb]

Wonder what Israel will have to say about all the Muslim relations work NASA has been doing over the last 8 years.

[Patriot777]

Yep. NASA thinks it ‘owns’ space; actually, space has ‘pwnd’ NASA. Bibi is about a thousand steps ahead of them, and they can’t stand it, and want a piece of it. Let them beg. And then they’ll likely threaten. So what?