The US Senate has easily confirmed former astronaut Charles Frank Bolden as the new NASA administrator, along with Lori Beth Garver as his deputy.
Bolden, a former Marine Corp pilot, flew in the space shuttle four times between 1986 and 1994 (STS-61C, STS-31, STS-45, and STS-60), which included the 1990 deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Bolden said in a press release, "It is an honor to have been nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate to lead this great NASA team. Today, we have to choose. Either we can invest in building on our hard-earned world technological leadership or we can abandon this commitment, ceding it to other nations who are working diligently to push the frontiers of space."
He continued: "If we choose to lead, we must build on our investment in the International Space Station, accelerate development of our next generation launch systems to enable expansion of human exploration, enhance NASA's capability to study Earth's environment, lead space science to new achievements, continue cutting-edge aeronautics research, support the innovation of American entrepreneurs, and inspire a rising generation of boys and girls to seek careers in science, technology, engineering and math."
The theme was highlighted in his confirmation hearings when Bolden emphasized that NASA needed to re-ignite public interest in the space program, particularly among children. "If I go to a classroom today, it's different from when I went as an astronaut in 1980," he told members of the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
"I could ask, 'How many of you want to be an astronaut?' Every hand went up in the class. When I go to a school today and ask that question, I may see three hands. All of them want to go into business."
Bolden will have a number of critical issues to manage at NASA. The space shuttle is scheduled to be retired next year and the White House is reviewing plans for its replacement.
Paul Guinnessy
It is good to have the former astronaut Charles Frank Bolden at the helm of NASA.
Manned spaceflight definitely needs to be pursued and advocated for.
The plans to go back to the moon to build a permanent settlement or outpost can surely lead to the formation of additional outposts on the moon.
Then its on our way to Mars, potentially with permanent outposts, research stations, and settlements.
The asteroids are also fair game, potentially for prospecting for valuable minerals such as metallic ores.
Paul Gilster of the Tau Zero Centauri Dreams, which is the news forum of the Tau Zero Foundation, a 501 c(3) not for profit organization founded by Marc Millis, the former head of the now defunct NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Program, works tirelessly for promoting interest in, collaborative research within, and general advocacy directed at governments, academic institutions, commercial interests, wealthy individuals, and any one else who is interested in, the cause for the dreams of one day sending humans crewed missions to other star systems.
A number of technologies under development or already on the drawing boards can lead to humans reaching minor planetary objects in the Kuiper Belt. A good example is the VASIMR rocket being developed by the Ad Astra Rocket Company. This electrical plasma rocket under solar or nuclear power can get us to Mars in only 39 days and its acceleration profile under nuclear fission rocket power can get us out to the Kuiper Belt and inner radius of the Oort Cloud in about 1 year of travel time.
We need to think very Big and Boldly when it come to manned space flight.