What may be expected of a Charles Bolden administration?
Recently, president Obama announced his choice for NASA administrator. He has selected career military and career astronaut Charles Bolden. It seems appropriate for me to comment on what we may expect from Charles Bolden in the event he is confirmed by the Senate.
It has also been announced that Lori Garver, a person I met about two decades ago, has been named to be Bolden’s deputy administrator. It also seems appropriate to comment on her fitness for service at NASA.
The country is poised between two major paths forward for space policy. One path would be to continue existing policies to have NASA build and operate space transportation systems such as the Constellation space flight vehicle. This policy would have NASA continue to operate the space station. Under the last president, a policy to send astronauts back to the Moon in some future decade was announced.
Another path forward would be to choose space policies conducive to the development of private commercial space transportation and space capabilities. Companies like Scaled Composites, Virgin Galactic, Orbital Outfitters, Blue Origins, XCOR, Armadillo Aerospace, Bigelow, and many more are poised to provide suborbital and orbital passenger transportation, commercial satellite launch, and hotels in orbit. In several instances, these companies have built and tested hardware. Bigelow space habitat test modules are in orbit right now, for example.
Which policy path should we anticipate would be chosen by Bolden? I believe the clues to his preferences are found in his job history. He has not been involved in private commercial space companies. His military and astronaut careers argue for a government-oriented outlook. His post-NASA career as a lobbyist for rocket contractor Alliant Techsystems and his position on the board of directors of Constellation contractor (and conglomerate) GenCorp suggest he’ll prefer a government dominated space policy approach.
Indeed, there is a very high potential for conflict of interest in Bolden pushing for a policy that continues the Constellation development program since he has a past work history with Constellation contractor companies. Whether the Obama administration actually enforces its policy against such conflicts of interest is, of course, made more doubtful by the appointment of Bolden.
This matter may be moot. There are rumors that senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland may oppose Bolden’s appointment on general suspicion of having another astronaut as head of the space agency. However, in the event of his appointment, I would expect Bolden to be a promoter of NASA domination of the civilian space sector. He does not seem likely to be friendly toward space tourism start-ups or free market space policies.
My experience of Lori Garver suggests the exact same expectations. I met her when she was the notorious executive directrix of the Nationalist Space Society (NSS), a group founded by arch-Nazi mass murderer Wernher von Braun - the designer, developer, and man in charge of the V2 weapons program that slaughtered so many in Allied cities like London, Paris, Antwerp, Lille and others. About 2,724 people were killed, nearly 6,000 injured, and many thousands made homeless by von Braun’s weapons.
Garver impressed me as an exceptionally unpleasant bureau-rat. In her capacity as executive directrix she hounded former L5 Society staff after that group’s unfortunate merger with von Braun’s Nationalist Space Institute formed the NSS. I was particularly appalled at the treatment of chapters administrator Aleta Jackson at the hands of Garver.
In 1990, I resigned from the board of directors of the NSS because the group had, to my surprise and embarrassment, come out against cheap access to space. They did so without consulting the board of directors. Though we were not consulted, a major expenditure for the group paid a law firm to draft a petition based on the 1974 Trade Act accusing China of dumping its Long March Rocket in a sale related to the launch of an Arabsat. I felt at the time that the action by the legislative committee of the board was wrong, and that the action was meant to benefit NASA contractor McDonnell Douglas (McDAC) in marketing its Delta launch vehicle. The president of NSS at the time had worked extensively for McDAC.
In my view, the NSS became a pro-government and government-only space policy organ. I believe it was substantially funded by defense contractor companies to create the impression that there was grassroots support for endless government boondoggles. Naturally, I saw Garver as one of the leading proponents of that policy approach.
It should come as no surprise that someone as committed to state solutions and as opposed to free market concepts as president Obama would appoint people like Bolden and Garver. Since Garver worked during his campaign as Obama’s space policy advisor, we can expect he’s thoroughly briefed on her views.
What may be expected of a Charles Bolden administration of NASA? More policy twists and turns. The same sort of thing that caused Andrew Beal to give up on Beal Aerospace. The same sort of thing that destroyed Rotary Rocket, Pacific American Launch Systems, Space Travel Services, American Rocket Company, and many other commercial space start-ups.
We can expect that NASA won’t be opening the door to the human settlement of space. Instead, NASA will continue to be the door. Earth is on lock-down until further notice.
June 9th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
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