Key NASA Appointments

 

Space radiation will be just one of the concerns for the new head of NASA. President Barack Obama has chosen retired astronaut Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden to lead NASA. He also named former NASA associate administrator Lori Garver to the number two post at NASA. If confirmed, Bolden, who flew in space four times, would be only the second former astronaut to run NASA. Vice Adm. Richard Truly was the first. Bolden, 62, would inherit a NASA quite unlike the agency he originally joined in 1980. Former Pres. Bush set steps in motion to retire the space shuttle fleet at the end of next year, to return astronauts to the Moon, and then to head out to Mars in a series of rockets and capsules that borrows heavily from the 1960s Apollo program. Earlier this month, the White House ordered a complete outside examination of the manned space program and announced that a clear policy would be forthcoming after a NASA chief was named. View the original White House press release online.

---