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Former astronaut and decorated military man Charles Bolden is reportedly atop the list to head NASA, an agency nearing four months without an administrator. NBC and the Wall Street Journal report that Bolden, 62, will head to the White House Monday to meet with President Barack Obama and will likely be nominated to lead the space agency.

Bolden, who retired from military service in 2003 as a major general in the U.S. Marine Corps, would be the first African-American to run NASA.

Bolden piloted or commanded four space shuttle missions between 1986 and 1994, including the 1990 Discovery mission that put the Hubble Space Telescope in orbit. Hubble is currently undergoing its final scheduled tune-up at the hands of astronauts on board space shuttle Atlantis.

As Inauguration Day loomed in January, Bolden’s name first popped up. But other potential candidates arose as well, and there has been little public movement toward finding an administrator for the agency since Obama took office. Associate administrator Christopher Scolese has been acting as interim agency chief following the resignation of Michael Griffin, a Bush appointee, in January.

Bolden's astronaut portrait courtesy of NASA

4 Comments

1. 1. Telrunya 01:03 PM 5/16/09

   Thats it? You guys didn't even interview him and find out what direction he wants to take NASA? What his vision is? I have absolutely nothing against black people or Bolden in particular. I know somethng of him and I'm hard pressed to think of someone better qualified to run NASA but the only thing this article suggests that distinguishes this phenominal individual from the other canidates is that he's black. When are people going to wake up and realize that skin color does not qualify people for a job. Bolden has the ability and the experiance, thats why he should be the next director of NASA, not because he's black, brown, white, orange or green skinned.

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2. 2. annb 02:05 PM 5/16/09

   I agree with Telrunya . Bolden certainly sounds extremely well qualified. I don't know much about him, except for the fact that he commanded all those NASA missions. That kind of hands-on experience would be especially valuable in making decisions as more and more work is done in EVAs, like on the current Hubble refit mission. Of course, heading NASA demands administrative skills, too. But I doubt that someone could make major general in the Marines without plentiful administrative and executive skills. And Telrunya also makes a good point about skin color. Green would be great, but lacking any Vulcans, Charles Bolden would be the logical choice!

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3. 3. Telrunya 04:11 PM 5/18/09

   ROLF They changed the article conciderably from when I made my first post. This is much better, but I would still want to see an interview with Bolden or atleast some comment on his being the prospective new head.

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4. 4. BCC_Meteorites 07:15 AM 5/23/09

   Now maybe the new Administrator can begin using CFR-1275; Investigation of Research Misconduct filed by NASA in the federal register during the Bush administration. Since Griffin had very little incentive to use the law we can start with a new slate and move forward.
   
   http://www.bccmeteorites.com/misconduct-planetary.html
   

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