If Duffy is serious about his stated objective, then he and the president must work more effectively to integrate SpaceX and other private space startups more fully into NASA.

And after five months of attempting to do it down, NASA has been forced to abandon the $72 million mission. The project was successfully launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on February 26.

A NASA astronaut from Minneapolis is set to launch on a mission to the International Space Station next summer.