VIDEO: House Hearing on NASA FY 2011 Budget
House Science and Technology Committee Hearing on NASA’s Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Request.
Date: February 25, 2010
Time: 10:00 am – 12:00 pm EST
Witness: Charles Bolden
House Science and Technology Committee Hearing on NASA’s Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Request.
Date: February 25, 2010
Time: 10:00 am – 12:00 pm EST
Witness: Charles Bolden
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation’s Science and Space Subcommittee held this hearing on the Challenges and Opportunities in the NASA FY 2011 Budget Proposal.
Witness Panel 1:
Witness Panel 2:
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden appears on CNN to discuss the STS-130 mission, his career, and African American History Month.
NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden met with reporters at the Kennedy Space Center press site to discuss the agency’s new direction, Constellation, and Sunday’s scheduled launch of space shuttle Endeavour.
Endeavour’s STS-130 mission to the International Space Station is set to begin Sunday with a liftoff from Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39A at 4:39 a.m. Eastern.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden outlines the administrations fiscal year 2011 budget request as the agency’s road map for a new era of innovation and discovery, and answers questions from reporters as the featured Newsmaker at the National Press Club in Washington.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Deputy Administrator Lori Garver addressed a standing-room-only crowd in Langley’s Reid Conference Center on Wednesday, while another group of employees watched from a quarter-mile away at the Pearl Young Theater.
Bolden spoke for 40 minutes about research, aeronautics, education, space and almost anything else anyone wanted to talk about. The people at Langley Research Center listened intently, and many heard the words of support they were waiting for from their new boss and his deputy. Garver noted that she has special affection for Langley because it is the only NASA center with a woman director. The director, Lesa Roe, introduced the two at the event.
Questions from employees elicited thoughtful, sometimes unexpected answers. It was Bolden’s first visit as NASA administrator to the place he repeatedly referred to as the “Mother Center.” Several old friends Bolden knew from his 14-year career as a shuttle astronaut were present in the audience.
Bolden remarked in response to one question that while any operation “is always at a crossroads . . . NASA is at a critical crossroads.”
“My vision is that we will find ways to do a little bit of all of the things that we need to do,” he said.
With answers come “challenges,” which Bolden said he said he doesn’t consider a politically correct synonym for “problems.” NASA, he said, is about research. He described a third-grader’s drawing that soon will be on his office wall in Washington; it says “We’ll never know if we don’t go.”
“That’s why we do what we do,” he said. “What we do is research and experimentation. We are a research organization, but we don’t do enough R and D, basic research. I’ll go down on my hands and knees if I need to, but we have got to find more money for you all to do basic research.”
Bolden interrupted building applause in the room and told the audience to wait for action instead of words. “It’s easy for me to stand up here and say that,” he noted. “You’ve got to back this stuff up.” Bolden also asked for employees’ assistance.
“I need your help,” he said, “because we’re going to find ways to get back to basic research as well as applied research.”
NASA, he said, is about research, and Bolden harkened to a child’s drawing that soon will be on his office wall in Washington. Lettered on that third-grader’s art is “We’ll never know if we don’t go.”
After a questioner offered a possible solution to several project issues, Bolden challenged employees to have the courage of their convictions. He encouraged center directors to support and nurture that courage.
In response to a question on the “10 healthy NASA centers philosophy,” Bolden said he has spent time working at Langley as well as NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Marshall Space Flight Center and Goddard Space Flight Center. Visits to other field centers will come soon.
“You never make an assessment or a judgment about how everything is working until you have a chance to see it,” he said. “It appears to be working.”
In response to a query about the cost of industry’s use of NASA facilities, Bolden said he hoped to convene a summit of the major players in the aerospace industry.
“I need your help,” he said, “because we’re going to find ways to get back to basic research as well as applied research.”
NASA, he said, is about research, and Bolden harkened to a child’s drawing that soon will be on his office wall in Washington. Lettered on that third-grader’s art is “We’ll never know if we don’t go.”
After a questioner offered a possible solution to several project issues, Bolden challenged employees to have the courage of their convictions. He encouraged center directors to support and nurture that courage.
In response to a question on the “10 healthy NASA centers philosophy,” Bolden said he has spent time working at Langley as well as NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Marshall Space Flight Center and Goddard Space Flight Center. Visits to other field centers will come soon.
“You never make an assessment or a judgment about how everything is working until you have a chance to see it,” he said. “It appears to be working.”
In response to a query about the cost of industry’s use of NASA facilities, Bolden said he hoped to convene a summit of the major players in the aerospace industry.
The following is a statement from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on the death of veteran journalist Walter Cronkite.
“It is with great sadness that the NASA family learned of Walter Cronkite’s passing. He led the transition from print and radio reporting to the juggernaut that became television journalism. His insight and integrity were unparalleled, and his compassion helped America make it through some of the most tragic and trying times of the 20th century.
“From the earliest days of the space program, Walter brought the excitement, the drama and the achievements of space flight directly into our homes. But it was the conquest of the moon in the late 1960s that energized Walter most about exploration. He called it the most important feat of all time and said that the success of Apollo 11 would be remembered 500 years from now as humanity’s greatest achievement.
“It was Walter Cronkite’s impassioned reporting on America’s inaugural moon landing that inspired me to join in the dreams of many to travel to space and accept the risks that this exploration brings while I was a student in naval flight training.
“In honor of his ethical and enthusiastic coverage of our nations’ space program, NASA was proud to honor Walter in 2006 with an Ambassador of Exploration Award and presented him with an Apollo lunar sample.
“For decades, we had the privilege of learning about our world from the original ‘anchorman.’ He was a true gentleman. Our thoughts and prayers are with Walter’s family and his millions of friends and supporters.”
Nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Charles Frank Bolden, Jr., began his duties as the twelfth Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on July 17, 2009. As Administrator, he leads the NASA team and manages its resources to advance the agency’s missions and goals.
Bolden’s confirmation marks the beginning of his second stint with the nation’s space agency. His 34-year career with the Marine Corps included 14 years as a member of NASA’s Astronaut Office. After joining the office in 1980, he traveled to orbit four times aboard the space shuttle between 1986 and 1994, commanding two of the missions. His flights included deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope and the first joint U.S.-Russian shuttle mission, which featured a cosmonaut as a member of his crew. Prior to Bolden’s nomination for the NASA Administrator’s job, he was employed as the Chief Executive Officer of JACKandPANTHER LLC, a small business enterprise providing leadership, military and aerospace consulting, and motivational speaking.
A resident of Houston, Bolden was born Aug. 19, 1946, in Columbia, S.C. He graduated from C. A. Johnson High School in 1964 and received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. Bolden earned a bachelor of science degree in electrical science in 1968 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps. After completing flight training in 1970, he became a naval aviator. Bolden flew more than 100 combat missions in North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, while stationed in Namphong, Thailand, from 1972-1973.
After returning to the U.S., Bolden served in a variety of positions in the Marine Corps in California and earned a master of science degree in systems management from the University of Southern California in 1977. Following graduation, he was assigned to the Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Md., and completed his training in 1979. While working at the Naval Air Test Center’s Systems Engineering and Strike Aircraft Test Directorates, he tested a variety of ground attack aircraft until his selection as an astronaut candidate in 1980.
Bolden’s NASA astronaut career included technical assignments as the Astronaut Office Safety Officer; Technical Assistant to the director of Flight Crew Operations; Special Assistant to the Director of the Johnson Space Center; Chief of the Safety Division at Johnson (overseeing safety efforts for the return to flight after the 1986 Challenger accident); lead astronaut for vehicle test and checkout at the Kennedy Space Center; and Assistant Deputy Administrator at NASA Headquarters. After his final space shuttle flight in 1994, he left the agency to return to active duty the operating forces in the Marine Corps as the Deputy Commandant of Midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Bolden was assigned as the Deputy Commanding General of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in the Pacific in 1997. During the first half of 1998, he served as Commanding General of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Forward in support of Operation Desert Thunder in Kuwait. Bolden was promoted to his final rank of major general in July 1998 and named Deputy Commander of U.S. Forces in Japan. He later served as the Commanding General of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, Calif., from 2000 until 2002, before retiring from the Marine Corps in 2003. Bolden’s many military decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross. He was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in May 2006.
Bolden is married to the former Alexis (Jackie) Walker of Columbia, S.C. The couple has two children: Anthony Che, a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps who is married to the former Penelope McDougal of Sydney, Australia, and Kelly Michelle, a medical doctor now serving a fellowship in plastic surgery.
The Senate confirmation hearings for General Charles Bolden, President Obama’s nominee for NASA Administrator and Lori Garver, Obama’s nominee for Deputy Administrator will be broadcast live Wednesday July 8, 2009.
Tune in at 2:00 PM EDT to watch the Senate hearing live on Galaxy Wire TV.
President Barack Obama meets with General Charles Bolden, right, and White House aides earlier this week in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. The President announced May 23, 2009 his intent to nominate Bolden as Administrator of NASA.
Official White House photo by Pete Souza