Enlarge / Vice President-elect Mike Pence looks on as President-elect Donald Trump shakes the hand of Peter Thiel during a meeting with technology executives at Trump Tower, December 14, 2016 in New York City.

The future of NASA and human spaceflight has led to a civil war of sorts within the upper echelons of the incoming Trump administration. As Ars reported last month, there are essentially two pathways forward for NASA in the Trump administration—one favors the status quo, while the other favors increased commercialization. For a time, the forces for status quo and continuation of the Space Launch System rocket had the upper hand. But now advocates for the increasing commercialization of NASA have struck back, led by Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel.

About two weeks ago, the first formal member was named to NASA’s “landing team:” Chris Shank, a longtime confidant of former NASA administrator Mike Griffin and his director of strategic communications. With Shank as their leader, several other members of the initial landing team also had connections to Griffin, who favors a model in which NASA develops and builds its own rocket and spacecraft, rather than handing over the reins to commercial companies such as SpaceX or Blue Origin.

During this time, momentum began to build for another Griffin protégé, Doug Cooke, to become NASA administrator. Other advocates for the status quo were also considered, including former astronaut Charles Precourt. While NASA’s human destination might change from Mars back to the Moon under these candidates, they were expected to continue support for large government contractors such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK, and Aerojet Rocketdyne. They would also continue support for the development of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft.