OPINION: S.C. proud of native for NASA administrator post

An honest-to-goodness South Carolina hero with out-of-this world credentials was confirmed as NASA’s top administrator last week.

Columbia native Charles Bolden, a former Space Shuttle commander who has orbited the earth 444 times, takes charge of the space agency during one of its toughest times.

The Vietnam War veteran and retired Marine Corps Major General steps in as NASA celebrates the 40th anniversary of man’s first steps on the moon while figuring on where we go from here.

Bolden graduated from the Naval Academy in 1968 and was destined for greatness. He flew more than 100 sorties during the Vietnam War, with missions in North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. He has more than 6,000 hours flying time as a pilot.

In 1981, he became an astronaut and completed four space flights. He has 680 hours of experience in space. He was commander during two of his shuttle missions. Bolden was part of the crew that deployed the Hubble Space Telescope and commanded the first joint shuttle mission with U.S. and Russian astronauts in 1994.

Bolden’s impeccable background makes him the ideal candidate to shape NASA’s vision for the future. The agency has to rebuild its vehicle fleet for space travel and decide which missions are critical to future discovery and exploration.

“Today, we have to choose,” Bolden, 62, said. “Either we can invest in building on our hard-earned world technological leadership or we can abandon this commitment, ceding it to other nations who are working diligently to push the frontiers of space.

“If we choose to lead, we must build on our investment in the International Space Station, accelerate development of our next generation launch systems to enable expansion of human exploration, enhance NASA’s capability to study earth’s environment.”

Americans understand the costs associated with the space program, and we choose to lead rather than follow.

NASA’s vision has the strength to inspire thousands of students to seek careers in science, technology, engineering and math. That power cannot be underestimated when we’re considering ways to expand on innovation.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., another ex-astronaut, said Bolden will “bring back the magic from a time when we rode rockets to the moon.”

It’s a good thing NASA’s day-to-day operations will be entrusted to a hard-nosed, battle-trained veteran such as Bolden. The agency faces unprecedented challenges. Most are technological and financial in nature.

The space shuttle fleet is supposed to be retired at the end of this year, but replacements are not expected until at least 2015. The focus will return to moon exploration and missions to Mars at a time when NASA’s programs are painfully over budget.

Sen. David Rockefeller, D- W. Va., warned NASA about failing to keep itself accountable. He said the agency’s future is “not a given.”

In wake of budget excesses and a public skeptical of NASA after two shuttle disasters, Bolden knows accountability is key.

“We have been made aware that NASA has been unable to obtain a clean financial audit for several years. While we are told that the agency has been working hard to address this problem, it can and must do better,” Bolden said.

We congratulate Bolden on his new position and think NASA will do much better under his guidance. He has earned the right to become only the second astronaut in 50 years to head the agency.

— Unsigned editorials represent the views of this newspaper. Editorial Board members are Mark Laskowski (regional publisher), James Bennett (regional editor), Sam Bundy (sports editor), Kimberly Ginfrida (news editor), David Johnson (regional circulation director), Charles Tomlinson (Lake City News & Post editor) and Jackie Torok (metro editor).