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
President Barack Obama officially announced his intent to nominate General Charles Bolden, Administrator of NASA and Lori Garver, Deputy Administrator of NASA.
The President said, “These talented individuals will help put NASA on course to boldly push the boundaries of science, aeronautics and exploration in the 21st century and ensure the long-term vibrancy of America’s space program.”
US Senator and one time Shuttle Astronaut Bill Nelson said, “When people get to know Charles Bolden you’ll see why the President picked him. 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.
NASA Astronaut Charles F. Bolden is likely to be named NASA’s new administrator. He is expected to meet with President Obama on Monday. Bolden flew on four space shuttle missions and commanded the first shuttle mission to include a Russian cosmonaut.
FAST FACT: Astronaut Bolden was on Columbia STS-61C the last flight before the Challenger disaster; STS-61C included a special passenger: Senator Bill Nelson.
Today in Space History: April 27, 1971
James C. Fletcher was sworn in as NASA Administrator.
Dr. James Chipman Fletcher, was the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration who gained the approval of the Nixon Administration on January 5, 1972, to develop the Space Shuttle as the follow-on human space flight effort of the agency. He also served as NASA administrator a second time, for nearly three years following the loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986.
During his first administration at NASA, Dr. Fletcher was responsible beginning the Shuttle effort, as well as the Viking program that sent landers to Mars. During his second tenure, he presided over the effort to recover from the Challenger accident. Indeed, he oversaw or initiated virtually every major space project of the last two decades. Although the missions were planned before he took over, he was Administrator during the three Skylab missions in 1973 and 1974 and the two Viking probes that landed on Mars in 1976. He also approved the Voyager space probe to the outer planets, the Hubble Space Telescope program, and the Apollo-Soyuz mission, which in 1975 linked American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts in space.
During his second administration at NASA, Fletcher was largely involved in efforts to recover from the Challenger accident. With the accident, the Shuttle program went into a two-year hiatus while NASA worked to redesign the solid rocket boosters and revamp its management structure. Fletcher ensured that NASA reinvested heavily in the program’s safety and reliability, made organizational changes to improve efficiency, and restructured its management system. Most important, he oversaw a complete reworking of the components of the Shuttle to enhance its safety and added an egress method for the astronauts. A critical decision resulting from the accident and its aftermath–during which the nation experienced a reduction in capability to launch satellites–was to expand greatly the use of expendable launch vehicles. He was in charge of the agency when the Space Shuttle finally returned to flight on September 29, 1988.
Dr. Fletcher was born on June 5, 1919, in Millburn, New Jersey. He received an undergraduate degree in physics from Columbia University and a doctorate in physics from the California Institute of Technology. After holding research and teaching positions at Harvard and Princeton Universities, he joined Hughes Aircraft in 1948 and later worked at the Guided Missile Division of the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation.
In 1958 Fletcher co-founded the Space Electronics Corporation in Glendale, California, which after a merger became the Space General Corporation. He was later named systems vice president of the Aerojet General Corporation in Sacramento, California. In 1964 he became president of the University of Utah, a position he held until he was named NASA Administrator in 1971.
When he left NASA in 1977, Dr. Fletcher became an independent consultant in McLean, Virginia, and served on the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh. During the nine years between his terms as NASA Administrator, Fletcher was extremely active as an advisor to key national leaders involved in planning space policy. Among other activities, he served on advisory board involved in developing the Strategic Defense Initiative.
Dr. Fletcher died of lung cancer, at his home in suburban Washington on December 22, 1991.
Source: NASA