It's Official: Charles Bolden and Lori Garver Confirmed by Senate for NASA July 16, 2009
Posted by Nick Azer in : African-American History, Charles Bolden, NASA , add a comment
It’s now official: Charles Bolden and Lori Garver have been confirmed as Administrator and Deputy Administrator of NASA, as of yesterday.
Check out NASA Watch for a nice wrapup of the coverage, and also you can take a look back at my coverage of the long and interesting search for a nominee.
It's Official: Obama Nominates Charles Bolden as NASA Administrator May 23, 2009
Posted by Nick Azer in : African-American History, Charles Bolden, NASA, Obama , add a comment
It’s official: President Obama has now nominated former astronaut Charles Bolden to be the first African-American Administator of NASA.
After quite the long saga, Sen. Bill Nelson‘s primary choice ended up as the nominee, with Obama advisor Lori Garver (head of Obama’s space transition team) selected as deputy administrator.
Here’s a video of Sen. Bill Nelson discussing the Bolden appointment:
Bolden–Obama Update: Meeting, But No Administrator Announcement Yet May 19, 2009
Posted by Nick Azer in : African-American History, Charles Bolden, NASA , add a commentThe AP has an update on Charles Bolden’s meeting with President Obama today.
Many had expected a potential announcement of Bolden being the new NASA Administrator today, but looks like that is still on hold, despite the angst of many at NASA over the temporary void in leadership.
Keep an eye here (and at the always-dependable sites NASA Watch and Space Politics) for updates as they come :)
Charles Bolden to Be Named NASA Administrator Monday? (Updated) May 15, 2009
Posted by Nick Azer in : African-American History, NASA , add a comment
NASA Watch and MSNBC are reporting that Charles Bolden will likely be nominated as NASA’s administrator after meeting with President Obama on Monday, ending a long process full of twists and turns.
The primary choice of Sen. Bill Nelson, Bolden is an astronaut veteran and would be the first African-American adminstrator of NASA. In the past I talked about the significance of that in regards to specifics of NASA’s history, in the context of Gen. Lester Lyles having then been a candidate.
Keep an eye here for further updates once his nomination becomes official…
(Editor’s Note: Originally understood meeting with Obama and potential appointment would be Friday the 15th; meeting is instead this coming Monday the 18th. Post updated with correction.)
Obama's NASA Administrator List Thinning With Appointments March 22, 2009
Posted by Nick Azer in : African-American History, NASA, Obama , add a commentThe candidate list for the new NASA Administrator (previous being Mike Griffin, who has since begun working on starting GriffinSpace, LLC) under President Obama has been thinning as of late through various appointments.
Scott Gration, originally thought a leading contender, was recently posted as envoy to Sudan; and now today, other leading candidate Steve Isakowitz has been reappointed to his current role as the CFO of the Department of Energy.
This leaves two candidates, barring any dark horses: Lester L. Lyles, and Sen. Bill Nelson‘s favorite, Charles Bolden–a former astronaut and Deputy Administrator nominee.
To keep up on all the latest skinny on NASA’s internal goings-on, I highly recommend two great blogs that cover the subject well: Space Politics and NASA Watch :)
New Contender for NASA Administrator: Ret. USAF Gen. Lester L. Lyles February 10, 2009
Posted by Nick Azer in : African-American History, Apollo, Civil Rights, NASA, Obama, Theatre , 2comments
Despite Gen. Scott Gration having been an apparent early leader for the role of new NASA Administrator, reports have been indicating that there is a new frontrunner for the job: Retired USAF Gen. Lester L. Lyles.
Early murmurs surfaced at NASA Watch, and culminated in an article from the Wall Street Journal (with some excellent additional coverage to be found over at Space Politics).
According to the WSJ article, opposition from key Democratic leadership (including Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, an avid space supporter and congressional NASA expert, pictured above with President Obama before the November election) arose over Gen. Scott Gration’s lack of space experience.
Gen. Lyles, pictured above and at top, has a great wealth of space experience, including being a member of a 2004 Presidential commission on how to get us back to the Moon and Mars.
I recently saw an excellent play, written by Nancy Keystone, called “Apollo” (at the Portland Center Stage), about some of the societal and ethical costs of the birth of the American space program–the third part of the play exploring African-Americans, our country’s slave history, and the relation of those to the Huntsville, Alabama location of the Marshall Space Flight Center (key to Apollo development) during the 1960′s, height of both the Civil Rights Movement and the space race (with the first two parts exploring ethical considerations of the history of Nazi engineers with rocketry and NASA).
While the play currently doesn’t include anything on the recent election of President Obama (and his space dreams), I found it interesting in context that it’s, in fact, an African-American President that will be carrying the significance of space in America (both private and government) forward into bold new territory. If Lester L. Lyles were to become the NASA administrator under President Obama in this central and historical stage of mankind’s space development, this poignant shift becomes even more marked as we progress into a promising new era.
For some video of Gen. Lyles, below is a Youtube video of him recieving an Engineering award (his speech beginning at 6:00):