Senate Confirms Retired Astronaut Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden as new NASA Administrator

By: Christine Simmons, Associated Press Writer

The Senate confirmed retired astronaut Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden as administrator of NASA, just in time for the space agency's 40th anniversary celebrations of man's first steps on the moon.

The Senate confirmed Bolden to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration without objection. Bolden, who has flown in space four times and was an assistant deputy administrator at one point, will be the agency's first black administrator.

Bolden's mother, the late Ethel M Bolden, was a 1940 JCSU alumni. In 2007, Bolden visited JCSU to speak to high school students as a CIAA/NASA outreach initiative.

The confirmation allows Bolden to be sworn in by July 20, 2009, 40 years after the Apollo 11 moon landing. Bolden told senators last week that if the U.S. chooses to lead in technology, it must commit to, among other measures, inspiring the rising generation of children to contribute in the fields of science and engineering as well as enhancing NASA's ability and expertise in understanding Earth's environment.

Bolden, a native of Columbia, S.C., will be only the second astronaut to run NASA in its 50-year history. Vice Adm. Richard Truly was the first.

In 2002, former President George W. Bush unsuccessfully tried to appoint Bolden as the space agency's deputy administrator. The Pentagon said it needed to keep Bolden, who was a Marine major general at the time and a pilot who flew more than 100 sorties in Vietnam.

Bolden was the pilot of the shuttle flight that launched the Hubble Space Telescope into Earth orbit in 1990.