ISSUE: S.C. native Charles Bolden leading NASA

OUR VIEW: Restoring agency’s focus on technological advances is key to its future

Forty years ago on this date, the United States made history by putting the first man on the moon. Neil Armstrong’s “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” will forever be a source of great pride for Americans.

Much has changed with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration since the space race of the 1960s and ’70s, that era when beating the Soviet Union in space was more than a matter of proving capitalism superior to communism. The space race was about technology, about one country’s ability to develop an advantage over the other.

The massive push for technical advantage led to all sorts of inventions and breakthroughs. Many of the modern conveniences we take for granted today -- the microwave oven for one -- grew out of the space race.

Today, it is unclear what the NASA focus is. Yes, we remain the only country capable of putting people in space in vehicles such as the shuttle. But two shuttle disasters have led to the inescapable conclusion that 1980s-model vehicles are not suitable for continued use. It will be five years before a new generation of shuttles is ready, a period during which our people in space will be taken back and forth to the international space station by the old adversary, Russia.

With China as a new player in space, it is critical that America today define what the mission of NASA is to be, fund that mission and reap the benefits.

That’s where South Carolina native and astronaut Charles Bolden comes in. As President Barack Obama’s choice to lead NASA, Bolden enjoys great respect. He made history last week as the first American-American chosen to head the space agency, but more importantly, he will bring focus to the space mission.

During his recent confirmation hearing in the U.S. Senate, Bolden was careful in how he addressed former President George W. Bush’s stated priority of a mission to Mars by 2020.

“It’s a long way to Mars,” Bolden said. “I want to go to Mars. I think everybody wants to go to Mars. (But) Mars is a 20-year venture ... I cannot go out and tell a kid, ‘I want you to come to work for NASA because we’re going to Mars’.”

That’s because the mission to Mars is not the top priority at NASA in 2009. Without regaining the technological edge that the agency always has had, making it to Mars by 2020 is not practical anyway.

Bolden sees it as critical that the agency again attract the best and brightest of young people interested in being on the cutting edge of research and development. He says the present NASA force is very talented, but the agency is suffering as the United States allows “aeronautics to sort of wither on the vine.”

Obama has asked Congress for a 5 percent increase in NASA’s budget for next year. He also has set up a special commission to help chart the agency’s future course.

With Bolden at the NASA controls, look for a pragmatic approach that could put the agency back at the forefront of public appreciation, even without the spectacular nature of a Mars mission.

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