President Barack Obama has chosen retired astronaut Charles Bolden to lead Nasa.
Here is the Cliffs Notes version of the Bolden story:
-
He has 680 hours in space
-
Maj-Gen Bolden grew up in segregated South Carolina and flew on more than 100 combat sorties in Vietnam.
-
He joined Nasa in 1980 and is a veteran of four space shuttle flights, commanding the mission that launched the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit in 1990.
-
If confirmed, Maj-Gen Bolden, 62, would be only the second astronaut to lead Nasa during its 50-year history.
-
Bolden served for three months as a lobbyist for ATK, the Minnesota-based firm that builds solid rocket boosters for the space shuttle and the next generation Ares rocket. Bolden also was a member of the board of GenCorp, a second major NASA contractor.
-
Lori Garver, a former Nasa official and space adviser to the Obama campaign, was named as his deputy. Both positions require US Senate confirmation.
-
Bolden will now begin a series of courtesy calls to senators on Capitol Hill who will review his nomination, starting with the 25-member Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
-
Those who have flown or worked with Bolden can’t praise him enough.
More at the LINK
After graduating from the Naval Academy, he joined the United States Marine Corps and served as Commander of the Miramar Air Station (San Diego) a few years ago.
quangxpham,
The article said that he is retired. Do you have any impressions of him?
He certainly is a contrast to his predecessor, who had his wife campaign on his behalf to keep his job.
BTW, here is a short interview of him in 1995. Very personable, very accessible and very much respected in his roles:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v29LxaJUtAk
he retired a few years as a two-star. a trailblazer, he was out of the marine corps a long time due to his time with nasa as an astronaut. similar to john glenn in the 50s and 60s, bolden had the right stuff. when he came back to the marine corps, bolden faced some challenges but overcame them quickly. he didn’t the typical marine corps aviator career track: squadron co, group co and wing co due to his time with nasa. i am confident he will do very well there.