Since Saturday morning’s announcement of the nominations of Charles Bolden and Lori Garver to the positions of NASA administrator and deputy administrator, respectively, the reaction has been almost uniformly positive. Members of Congress, industry organizations, and newspaper editorials have all endorsed the nominations, calling them a positive step forward for an agency that they felt was in desperate need of permanent leadership.
An exception to those accolades, though, is an editorial in Thursday’s New York Times. The paper is not opposed to Bolden and Garver necessarily, but unlike others is also not immediately won over by them. “Unfortunately, General Bolden lacks deep expertise in space science and engineering and his past ties with the aerospace industry will raise conflict of interest problems,” the editorial states. Garver, it adds, “has no technical background or major managerial experience but knows the agency and its issues.”
Besides Bolden’s previously-discussed ties to ATK and GenCorp Aerojet, the Times raises another potential conflict: “There is also concern that General Bolden may feel indebted to Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, one of his most outspoken backers, who tends to favor space activities that generate jobs and revenues in his home state.” Because of those potential conflicts, the editorial concludes, “The Senate needs to assure itself that General Bolden will be fiercely independent.”
A few minor notes on recent events and miscellaneous items:
Sen. Bill Nelson told the Orlando Sentinel that he wants to get Charles Bolden confirmed “quickly”, and that he was already making arrangements for a confirmation hearing. No word, though on when that hearing would take place. Nelson added that Bolden and President Obama “really clicked” in their White House meeting last week.
I talked briefly with Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-FL) after she gave the closing speech at the Space Investment Summit in Orlando yesterday. She said that she had not had a chance to speak with Bolden since the nomination was announced, but assumed that Nelson had. She said she felt “way optimistic” about the nomination.
I also asked her about Norm Augustine’s review panel. She said she hadn’t been in touch with him since a telecon between him and members of Congress some time after the panel was announced three weeks ago. “We wanted to be sure that at the end of the review period that the budgetary aspects would be revisited,” she said, referring to potential fiscal impacts to NASA should the remaining shuttle flights slip past the end of 2010, “and he assured me that that would be the case.”
In an interviews with Aerospace Daily, Augustine said that the panel’s membership would not include any “zealots”. “By zealot I mean somebody who’s made up their mind and is just interested in selling their position, because that’s not our role. Our role is to listen and weigh,” he said. The report said the panel’s membership could be named “as early as May 27″, although yesterday came and went without an announcement.
Huntsville TV station WAFF scored an exclusive interview with former NASA administrator Mike Griffin recently, with the first part of the interview airing last night. Griffin, who in the past has said it will be “unseemly” for the US to have to rely on Russia to access the ISS, was even blunter in the interview:
“We should be mad as hell and not going to take it any more,” said Griffin on the gap left between the shuttle retirement and Constellation project. “I am tempted to use the word disgusting, but at the very least, it is unseemly.”
Griffin said extending the shuttle would be one way to avoid that gap, but would require spending an additional $3 billion a year, money that neither the current nor the previous administration seemed willing to spend. “So far, President Clinton, President Bush and now President Obama, not one of those presidents has raised their hand and said, ‘we should make sure to provide continuous human access to space,'” he said. He added that he was hoping that the upcoming review chaired by Norm Augustine would help: “Are we going to renew our commitment as a country to being a space-faring nation? I hope this review will settle that if anything can be settled once and for all. I hope that this review will do that.”
The Space Foundation issued a statement Saturday endorsing the nominations of Charles Bolden and Lori Garver to the NASA administrator and deputy administrator positions. “[T]he White House has demonstrated that it appreciates the importance of both of these key positions to the future of America’s space agency,” Space Foundation CEO Elliot Pulham said.
The Coalition for Space Exploration expressed a similar sentiment in its own statement endorsing the nominations. “We look forward to working with the new NASA administrator and his leadership team as we address the rapidly approaching human spaceflight gap following retirement of the Space Shuttle, the next generation Constellation program and full utilization of the International Space Station,” said Dean Acosta, chairman of the coalition’s public affairs team.
In a press release issued by the Senate Commerce Committee today, ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) said the committee would work quickly to confirm the nominations of Charles Bolden and Lori Garver as NASA administrator and deputy administrator, respectively. “I believe the Commerce Committee will move expeditiously to consider this nomination, and that of the nominee for Deputy NASA Administrator, Lori Garver upon receiving their paperwork,” Sen. Hutchison said, adding that she spoke with Bolden today after the nomination was announced. “He and I agree that space exploration is essential for America’s future security and we look forward to working together to continue America’s preeminence in space.”
There’s no similar statement on the web site from the committee’s chairman, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), but he did provide a statement to Bloomberg News, saying Bolden “will bring just the kind of leadership and management NASA needs”. He also said that he promised to move Bolden through the confirmation process “in short order”.
What is “short order”? In 2005 Mike Griffin was nominated on March 11 and had a confirmation hearing on April 12; he was confirmed by the full Senate the next day. The Senate is on recess this coming week for the Memorial Day holiday, and will also be on recess the week of June 29 for the Independence Day holiday. So if the process moves at the same speed as Griffin (which is pretty fast, given that earlier this year the average time from nomination to confirmation was over two months) it may be possible to get Bolden confirmed before the end of next month. However, any number of things can come up that could throw off that schedule.
The chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, Bart Gordon (D-TN) and the chair of the space subcommittee, Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), offered their comments on Bolden’s nomination in a joint press release, both welcoming the nomination. “I am impressed by Maj. Gen. Bolden’s resume, and I look forward to learning more about him during the confirmation process, and working with him in his new role,” Gordon stated. “We look forward to working with the Administrator, once he’s in place, to ensure that vital programs at NASA flourish,” added Giffords.
Not willing to settle for one of those old-timey press releases, Sen. Bill Nelson provided a video statement (below) about the nomination of Charles Bolden as NASA administrator. “When people get to know Charlie Bolden, you’ll see why the president picked him,” Nelson, Bolden’s leading advocate for the job, said. “He’s a patriot, a leader, and a visionary, and he understands the workings of NASA and the importance of America remaining a leader in science and technology through space exploration.”
Later in the statement: “I trusted Charlie with my life, and a lot of other people did so, and that’s why we feel so strongly about him,” Nelson said, referring to the STS-61C shuttle mission—the last shuttle mission before the Challenger accident—where Bolden and Nelson were crewmates.
“At NASA it’s no ordinary job: he’s going to face budgetary constraints, technical issues, the remaining shuttle launches and the pending retirement of the space shuttle,” Nelson continued. “He needs, and he has to, restore that wonder that space exploration provides, and he needs to carry out the president’s mission, and that is to have us on the Moon by 2020.”
The first official reaction to the official nomination of Charles Bolden to be NASA administrator appears to be from Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas (D-FL), whose district includes NASA KSC. It’s safe to say this is an endorsement:
(Port Orange, FL) – Today, Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas issued the following statement on the announcement that President Obama intends to nominate General Charles Bolden as the new NASA Administrator:
“The nomination of General Bolden to lead NASA is a positive sign for the future of our human spaceflight program. General Bolden’s background has given him the relevant management and technical experience to address the great challenges facing NASA today.
“Thousands of jobs at Kennedy Space Center and across Central Florida are at risk due to the impending spaceflight gap. Without direct access to the International Space Station, we will be forced to rely on the Russian Soyuz, sending billions of taxpayer dollars overseas and risking our national security interests.
“These challenges will have a lasting impact on our economy and our standing as the world leader in space, science, and technology. I look forward to working with our new NASA administrator to ensure a robust human spaceflight program and to minimize the gap in order to protect jobs and support America’s strategic interests. General Bolden is eminently qualified to accomplish this important mission.â€
The timing, it seems, was intended to be tied to the landing of the space shuttle Atlantis to end the STS-125 Hubble repair mission. However, the announcement came out around the time NASA waved off a landing attempt today, deciding to try again tomorrow and hope for better weather in Florida rather than land today in California. That, combined with the early-morning announcement at the beginning of a holiday weekend, would seem to deprive this of the “hoopla” that President Obama had promised earlier in the week: so much so that the news wasn’t immediately available on the White House web site.
The Sentinel’s Robert Block calls Bolden for comment and doesn’t get anything more than variations of “no comment”, like this: “I promised I would not talk to any media and here I am already violating that by talking to you.”
