Aerojet Rocketdyne’s Eileen Drake on Potential Impact of Political Changes on Space, Military Programs

Eileen Drake, president and CEO of Aerojet Rocketdyne, said the company thinks some civilian space and defense programs could be in jeopardy if a new president is elected in 2020, SpaceNews reported Thursday.

“We’ve all seen, when there’s different administrations, is a different focus,” she said Thursday at the G.research Aerospace and Defense Conference in New York.

Although some NASA exploration programs enjoy considerable support, Drake said she believes the political aspect surrounding such initiatives is the thing that aerospace companies cannot control.

She also mentioned the company’s efforts to ensure continued support for the Space Launch System and other programs.

“What we do is we work with the other primes that are on SLS and that program — companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman — and we continue to work with the administration, our local, individual state governments, to make sure that those programs are supported and they’re funded,” Drake said.