[FPSPACE] BREAKING NEWS...Bolden publicly confirmed to lead NASA; Lori Garver No. 2

[Peter Pesavento]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/23/charles-bolden-obamas-pic_n_207043.
html

 

 

First African-American to lead NASA.

 

>From the Associated Press

 

Charles
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/23/charles-bolden-obamas-pic_n_207043
.html>  Bolden, Obama's Pick To Head NASA

 

 
<http://reddit.com/submit?url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/23/charl
es-bolden-obamas-pic_n_207043.html&title=Charles%20Bolden%2C%20Obama%27s%20P
ick%20To%20Head%20NASA> 

 
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/23/charles-bolden-obamas-pic_n_207043
.html##> SETH BORENSTEIN | May 23, 2009 02:08 PM EST 

HOUSTON - The nation's turbulent space program will be run by one of its
own, a calming well-liked former space shuttle commander.

 
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/23/charles-bolden-obamas-pic_n_207043
.html##> President Barack Obama on Saturday chose retired astronaut Gen.
Charles Bolden to lead
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/23/charles-bolden-obamas-pic_n_207043
.html##> NASA. He also named former NASA associate administrator Lori Garver
as the agency's No. 2. If confirmed, Bolden, who has flown in space four
times and was an assistant deputy administrator at one point, would be the
agency's first black administrator.

Bolden would also be only the second astronaut to run NASA in its 50-year
history. Adm. Richard Truly was the first. In 2002, then-President George W.
Bush unsuccessfully tried to appoint Bolden as the space agency's deputy
administrator. The Pentagon said it needed to keep Bolden, who was a Marine
general at the time and a pilot who flew more than 100 sorties in Vietnam.

"Charlie knows NASA and the people know Charlie; there's a level of
comfort," especially given the uncertainty the space agency faces, said
retired astronaut Steve Hawley, who flew twice in space with Bolden.

Bolden likely will bring "more balance" to NASA, increasing spending on
aeronautics and environment missions, working more with other nations in
space, and emphasizing education, which the president often talks about when
it comes to space, said former Johnson Space Center Director George Abbey, a
longtime friend.

"He's a real leader," Abbey said Saturday. "NASA has been looking for a
leader like this that they could have confidence in."

Bolden's appointment came during the tail end of the space shuttle Atlantis'
mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope one final time. He was the
pilot on the flight that sent Hubble into orbit in 1990.

Bolden, 62, would inherit a NASA that doesn't look much like the
still-somewhat-fresh-from-the-moon agency he joined as an astronaut in 1980.
NASA now "is faced with a lot of uncertainty," Abbey said.

Bush set in motion a plan to retire the space shuttle fleet at the end of
next year and return astronauts to the moon and then head out to Mars in a
series of rockets and capsules that borrows heavily from the 1960s Apollo
program. The shuttle's replacement won't be ready until at least 2015, so
for five years the only way Americans will be able to get in space is by
hitching a ride on a Russian space capsule. And some of NASA's biggest
science programs are over budget.

Earlier this month, the White House ordered a complete outside examination
of the manned space program. The Obama administration hasn't been explicit
about its space policy, with White House science adviser John Holdren saying
the policy would come after a NASA chief was named.

"These talented individuals will help put NASA on course to boldly push the
boundaries of science, aeronautics and exploration in the 21st century and
ensure the long-term vibrancy of America's space program," Obama said of
Bolden and Garver in a statement.

Bolden, a native of Columbia, S.C., and his wife donated $750 to the Obama
campaign in 2008.

At NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, where Bolden spent about a
decade, his impending appointment was quietly cheered on all week long.

The diminutive salt-and-pepper haired Bolden, who lives only a few miles
from the space center, on Saturday morning said he couldn't talk until after
Senate confirmation. He was busy answering congratulatory e-mails from home.
He has his own consulting firm in Houston and sits on corporate boards.

Those who have flown or worked with Bolden can't praise him enough.

Retired astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz interviewed to become an astronaut the
same week as Bolden, was picked at the same time, and they flew together on
their first flights.

Soon after that much-delayed launch of the space shuttle Columbia in January
1986, Chang-Diaz looked at his friend Bolden and saw that the shuttle pilot
had a "big, big smile... we were kind of like kids in a candy store."

Hawley and then-U.S. Rep. Bill Nelson were also aboard that 1986 flight.
Nelson, now the chairman of the Senate subcommittee on space that will
oversee Bolden's nomination and one of the people pushing Bolden's
nomination to the White House, commented: "I trusted Charlie with my life -
and would do so again."

Kathryn Sullivan was the payload commander on the 1992 flight of Atlantis,
which was Bolden's first of two shuttle commands. She said Bolden has all
the aspects of leadership that a good chief requires. That includes
experience, wisdom and the ability to listen to all sides. She called him
"one of the finest people I've ever known."

"Charlie's a great leader," Chang-Diaz agreed. "He takes care of his team."

 

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