The aerosapace community of "old boy firms" is very tight-knit. So tight-knit that there are people with stars on their shoulders who---even though these processes are ostensibly open-bidding---will start asking questions about someone's national security clearances and loyalty to the country if one of the blessed firms doesn't get a contract. After all, if one of the "old boy firms" goes bankrupt, there goes America's capacity to construct missiles and rockets in wartime, and then where would we be?

It would be a funny legacy of this White House administration if it succeeded in breaking up the traditional aerospace cartel by appointing someone so green to a NASA executive position they actually weren't aware of the politics here and ran the contracting process as if every player were on equal footing. It'd be the first I'd ever heard of it happening in aerospace. ;)