Thursday, Jan. 08, 2009

Will Obama pick Bolden to lead NASA?

Rumor mill puts Columbia native at the top of the list, but he says he hasn’t been contacted

Ret. Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden Jr., is a candidate to head NASA, several media outlets have reported, but the Columbia native said Wednesday he hasn’t talked to anyone from the Obama team about the position.

The former astronaut, who has been to space four times, heard of the idea from a friend who read a blog posting. NBC News and newspapers in Orlando and Houston carried the reports.

Members of the Obama transition team declined to comment.

“As far as I know, it’s rumor,” Bolden said. “I have not talked to anyone in the transition team nor any representative of the Obama administration. Personally, I think it’s probably early for the transition team to even be thinking about NASA.”

Based on his experience, Bolden said a new NASA administrator isn’t named until several months into an administration.

Asked if he would consider the position, “I never say never to anything.”

This is the third time Bolden, 62, has been mentioned for one of the top two jobs at NASA.

In 2004, he was among a handful being mentioned as the next head of the agency, but was never contacted about the post.

Two years earlier, the White House withdrew his nomination for the No. 2 job, saying he was needed to fight the war on terrorism.

Bolden is CEO of JackandPanther, LLC, a military, aerospace and leadership consulting firm based in his Houston home.

His wife, Jackie, is president of the firm, which has contracts with NASA and military-related and security-related contracts.

Under one contract, Bolden serves on the NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, a nine-member group that advises the administrator, he said.

Bolden retired in 2002 from the Marine Corps, after serving 34 years.

He is the former commanding general of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing in San Diego.

Bolden serves on the board of directors for St. Lukes Episcopal Health System, Marathon Oil and Bristow Helicopters, all of which are in Houston, he said.

He also is on the board of directors of BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, he said.

Bolden enjoys being a grandfather, playing golf and riding a motorcycle.

He is a 1964 graduate of C.A. Johnson High School, where his late father, Charles F. Bolden Sr., was a teacher and administrator.

Bolden graduated from the Naval Academy in June 1968 and two days later married Jackie in the chapel at Annapolis.

He flew more than 100 combat sorties during the Vietnam War.

Bolden qualified as a space shuttle pilot in 1981, later logging 680 hours in space.

In 1990, he piloted the space shuttle Discovery and helped deploy the Hubble Space Telescope.

On his final mission, in 1994, Bolden commanded the Discovery flight that was the first joint U.S.-Russia space mission.

Bolden also served as a deputy commander of U.S. forces in Japan and commanding general of a unit involved in 1998’s Operation Desert Thunder in Iraq, which supported U.N. weapons inspection teams.

Whether the rumors are true or not, Bolden said he’s honored someone has taken the time “to think I’m qualified.”

Reach Higgins at (803) 771-8570.

About NASA

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., NASA has more than 18,000 civil service employees and a variety of installations ranging from laboratories to wind tunnels. It has a $17.6 billion budget for fiscal 2009.

BEGINNINGS

• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was established in 1958 by President Eisenhower — about a year after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite.

• President Kennedy spearheaded a NASA focus on enabling an American to go where no man had gone before — to the moon — during the 1960s.

• NASA scientists worked on technology needed for space flight and the moon landing, as well as for weather and communications satellites, space exploration and a reusable ship (the space shuttle).

GOALS

• NASA continues to work on flight technology, exploration by people and robots, and discoveries in our solar system and beyond. Future missions are planned to the moon and Mars.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969. Ten other astronauts followed in their footsteps.

• The space shuttles have flown more than 120 successful missions, starting in 1981.

• The United States and Russia established the International Space Station in 2000.

• Two NASA exploration vehicles have been studying Mars for more than three years. The Cassini spacecraft orbits Saturn, and the Hubble Space Telescope sends images from space.

TRAGEDIES

• The first NASA fatalities occurred on the ground, when three astronauts died in a fire on a space capsule during training in 1967.

• In January 1986, the Challenger space shuttle exploded shortly after launch, killing seven crew members including teacher Christa McAuliffe.

• The seven-member crew aboard the Columbia space shuttle perished when it disintegrated while trying to land in February 2003.

CONTROVERSIES

• Soul-searching, finger-pointing and safety concerns were heightened after the shuttle disasters — though none spelled an end to the program.

• Lisa Nowak was the first astronaut to be publicly dismissed from the program after a salacious incident in 2007. She faced attempted murder charges after authorities said she attacked a romantic rival for the attention of another astronaut.

• NASA also came in for ridicule when a 2007 report claimed astronauts had flown in space while under the influence of alcohol. A safety review found no evidence for the claim.

• Supporters of rocket scientist Michael Griffin, NASA administrator, were accused late last year of blatant campaigning for him to keep his job in the new administration.

SOURCES:

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