How plausible woud it have been, for the head on NASA in the 1950s or later, to have been a science fiction writer, such as Robert Heinlein, or Issac Asimov, and how would that have changed the timeline?
To be fair, those two were just the first I thought of, rather than to only ones allowed by the OP.Asimov might be pluasible. He was a Dr. of Chemistry after all, and in the 50s he gave up teaching to become a full time writer. If he got tired, he might go job searching again, though he did lack experience, only teachning for 6 years I believe, and not as a full professor, but as an associate. I can't remember, but I think he might have specialized in biological chemistry too, which might hurt his chances.
All in all kinda iffy.
Hmm... Have Clarke take US citizenship and dont ever even notice there is a closet, let alone come out of it.
Pournelle is another libertarian that would just looove to kill NASA. Project Thor is a inaccurate misinterpretation. Honest data and reports tell of total KE delivered at best equal to JDAM, and delivery time over a hour or a hour and half, at a price per a single projectile close to a F-22. Too useless and too expensive. For a civilization that has $100/kg @ LEO lauch costs, its feasible, for us, its hopeless.
Um, the head of NASA doesn't have control of how much money goes into NASA's budget, the U.S. Congress does.