Obama Picks Shuttle Vet To Be First Black NASA Chief

The Washington Post
By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 24, 2009

President Obama yesterday nominated a former Marine aviator and space shuttle astronaut to become the new head of NASA and oversee a broad review of the agency's ambitions for manned and robotic space exploration.
Retired Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden Jr. will become the first African American to run the space agency if approved by the Senate.
In addition to his long résumé of military and NASA experience, Bolden served more recently as chief executive of a defense and aerospace consulting firm. He briefly worked as an aerospace lobbyist.
Bolden would take over NASA as it is winding down the decades-old shuttle program and working toward Obama's stated goal of returning a man to the moon by 2020.
Obama has also endorsed the deployment of a climate change research and monitoring system in space. But those ambitions are colliding with fiscal challenges posed by an $18.7 billion budget for the coming year, a modest 5 percent increase from the previous one.
"He's a patriot, a leader and a visionary," Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said of Bolden in a video statement. "He understands the workings of NASA and the importance of America remaining a leader in science and technology through space exploration."
Nelson flew on the space shuttle Columbia with Bolden in 1986. It was the first of Bolden's four shuttle missions.

Full Story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/23/AR2009052301529.html