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thedrifter
05-16-09, 07:23 AM
Ex-Astronaut Is Top Candidate to Run NASA
By KENNETH CHANG

Charles F. Bolden Jr., a former space shuttle astronaut and retired Marine major general, is the leading candidate for nomination as the next administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Asked whether an announcement of a nominee would be coming on Monday, the White House secretary, Robert Gibbs, said Friday, “I think you know that the president will meet with somebody that he hopes will — wants to meet with somebody about filling the important role of future NASA administrator.”

Mr. Gibbs then confirmed that General Bolden was the person Mr. Obama would be interviewing.

“He will meet with him on Monday, and we’ll see how that goes,” Mr. Gibbs said.

NBC News first reported the likely nomination of General Bolden on Thursday evening.

If nominated and confirmed by the Senate, General Bolden would become the first African-American to head NASA. He would begin work as the agency undergoes a major transition, finishing construction of the International Space Station in the next year and a half and then retiring its three space shuttles.

But General Bolden’s past connections with the space industry could conflict with ethics policies that would appear to prohibit him from taking part in the central decisions regarding NASA’s manned space program.

The Ares I — the first of the next-generation rockets on the drawing board, part of what NASA calls its Constellation program — has come under criticism as underpowered and too expensive. The Obama administration announced a week ago that an independent panel that would consider other approaches.

After retiring from the military in August 2004, General Bolden, 62, worked as a lobbyist for ATK, which manufactures the solid rocket boosters for the space shuttle and what is to be the first stage of the Ares I. More recently, he was on the board of directors of Gencorp Inc., which owns Aerojet, a company that has a contract to build engines for the Orion capsule that is to ride on top of the Ares I rocket.

General Bolden stepped down from the Gencorp board in March last year, but an executive order on ethics by Mr. Obama states that appointees cannot take part in matters “directly and substantially related” to their former employers for two years.

Berin Szoka, a fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a Washington research organization, said that if the ethics policy were consistently applied, General Bolden would recuse himself from issues that could affect Gencorp, and those would essentially include the entire Constellation program.

Aerojet also makes the strap-on solid rocket boosters for the Atlas V rocket, which has been promoted as a potential alternative to the Ares I.

Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, has been pushing for General Bolden for the top NASA position. Mr. Nelson said last month that NASA needed an administrator familiar with all facets of the agency and who had experience in management. “I think that is uniquely found in the person of General Bolden,” he said.

Selected by NASA as an astronaut in 1980, General Bolden flew on four space shuttle missions in the 1980s and 1990s, the first two as pilot, the second two as commander, including a flight in which Mr. Nelson was a member of his crew. General Bolden left NASA in 1994 and returned to the Marines, where he rose to the rank of major general.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg contributed reporting.

Ellie