Comments on: Lampson: not going to be NASA administrator

By: Ron Carlson

Ron Carlson — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:57:47 +0000

I think that Chris Scolese, Bill Gerstenmaier, and John Young would all make excellent candidates for NASA Administrator. Whether any of them would actually want the thankless job of dealing with "Obama" and Congress is open to question.

By: Brian Koester

Brian Koester — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:10:16 +0000

@Doug Well said! Lol!

By: Doug Lassiter

Doug Lassiter — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 23:11:41 +0000

In fact it might be useful for elements of the Chinese Space effort to see an Military man as the NASA chief

Oh, great. So the idea is to intimidate the Chinese with military prowess on the 9th floor of HQ? Such that they’ll back off from space exploration, bow down to us, and continue to buy up our T-bills, right? It’s pretty obvious that, much like with the Russians two decades ago, their allegedly threatening space efforts are simply a ploy to get us to join forces. They know they can’t compete with us technologically, but they can buy in to greater glory by working with us, and making it look like we need them. Which we probably do, money-wise. That, I can confidently predict (and I think you were trying to), is what’s going to happen. The template for this is well established.

By: Brian Koester

Brian Koester — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:03:45 +0000

@Doug
You raise a good point about his Space Command experience, but if it came up I would point to the fact he has been retired for a while and if President Obama takes NASA in a different policy direction — like a more international version of the Vision for Space Exploration (see my comments on Pres. Obama’s science rep Holdren on this site) voila! Problem solved.

(In fact it might be useful for elements of the Chinese Space effort to see an Military man as the NASA chief)

By: Doug Lassiter

Doug Lassiter — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:38:57 +0000

I suspect that a good sense of humor would be a valuable survival skill right now, even if it is pretty irrelevant to the program. But Worden is a politically savvy, well connected, and creative guy. He veers towards left field sometimes, or at least takes unconventional approaches to problems, but the agency may need that. He may well keep things on track, but it might not be the track you’d expect. His science background is solid. Some might be concerned about his DOD experience (not just “military”, but Pentagon and Space Command), which may well not be seen as sending the right message in an Obama administration.

By: Brian Koester

Brian Koester — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:58:35 +0000

Len Fisk would be great, not sure if he’d go for it at this stage in his life. The more I look at Pete Worden, the more he seems like the guy with the life experience, the NASA experience and the chops to do the job.

Former military(29 years), runs NASA’s Ames Research Centre and was involved in the DC-X program. Loads of credible experience and has pretty good sense of humor too apparently.

Even if he could be Admin for 2-3 years, I think he would keep things on track.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Worden

By: Ferris Valyn

Ferris Valyn — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:55:11 +0000

I’ll offer up a name – Dr. Lennard Fisk – he is also a former SMD Associate Administrator, and preceeded Dr. Stern, until he was forced out by Goldin in the 90s.

By: Space Politics » Lampson back in the running?

Space Politics » Lampson back in the running? — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:05:57 +0000

[…] the Houston Chronicle wrote the obituary for Nick Lampson’s prospects to become NASA administr…, after Lampson himself appeared to tell the paper that the White House had not offered the job to […]

By: Brian Koester

Brian Koester — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:53:26 +0000

Jeff’s article about Rep. Giffords top three nicely sums this up also:

http://www.spacepolitics.com/2009/03/29/the-three-things-rep-giffords-is-looking-for-in-a-nasa-administrator/

By: Brian Koester

Brian Koester — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:15:54 +0000

@SC220

Decaf, ever tried it? just kidding….

Dr. Stern has made it clear that he indicated to the other contenders he is not interested in the job and is focusing on his kids.

Sure I admire Dr. Stern’s accomplishments and thought he would make a great administrator, not because he is my hero (although we should have more scientists & engineers as hero’s in my opinion) but rather because his career in space science is exemplary(see wikipedia), he is a pilot (or used to be) he is a COTS (Commercial Off the Shelf) program supporter. He had/has an intimate understanding of the budget challenges involved at NASA, is a reformer and can handle the politics of it (such as speaking to congress) and is a good public speaker who has some charisma.

He is NOT in the running though, but aren’t all these characteristics qualities that the next admin should have?? IMHO – Yes

That’s why when Steve Isakowitz’s name was floated I paid attention because he has a very interesting resume that had a lot of the same experience.

I challenge other poster’s to list their top three qualities a future admin should have.