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NASA's Top Administrator Steps Down

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After nearly a decade of service, NASA’s top administrator is calling it quits. Daniel Goldin, 62, the long time head of America’s space program is set to leave his post on November 17. For the moment, it is unknown who will take his place. Although, it is rumored to be Courtney Stadd, NASA’s chief of staff and a George W. Bush appointee. During his tenure, Goldin led the International Space Station to its first operational stages. He leaves at a time of internal crisis within the government agency.

Despite the continuing development of the ISS, what will most likely be remembered during his time at NASA are the deep budget cuts that have crippled the agency. Goldin has seen the reduction of its civilian work force to over 30% and a 40 billion dollar annual depletion in budget.

Goldin’s career began as an engineer at NASA’s Lewis Research center in 1962. Before being appointed by George Bush Sr. in 1992, he served as Vice President of TRW Inc., a NASA contractor. He is the longest serving NASA administrator and only the ninth in its short history.

In recent years, critics have scolded Goldin for his support of the agency wide philosophy of “cheaper, faster is better.” The ideology has had only mixed results. With the complete failure of the Mars Climate Orbiter in 1999 and the loss of the Mars Polar Lander in 2000, this way of thinking appears to be slowly being phased in favor of a few expensive projects rather than many less costly ones. Although, in all fairness, the recent success of the NEAR spacecraft, (which provided the first close-up pictures of an asteroid and then made an impromptu landing) and the ion propelled Deep Space 1(which came in close proximity of the Borrelly comet) have sparked a reaffirmed belief that a program can be created, built and implemented in a few years. Goldin, in his “cheaper, faster is better” belief, has in reality, only tried to achieve the most with the scraps the federal government has thrown his agencies way.

The last few years have witnessed the actual construction of the ISS, which will surely become Goldin’s brightest accomplishment at NASA. The habitable space station is currently the largest structure ever constructed in space and has only now begun to reach full scientific potential. Unfortunately, like the Space Shuttle, it to has come under the heavy slash of budget cuts and waning support from a space unfriendly executive branch. As a result, the ISS’s Habitat module and escape module were met with cancellation earlier this year. The next administrator will have a difficult time with NASA’s fiscal budget, which must deal with the ever -decaying shuttle fleet and the fledgling giant of the ISS. Goldin has often been blamed for NASA’s massive over runs of the ISS budget (although, in all fairness again, if NASA was given the money it asked for this would never happen).

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