National Aeronautics and Space Administration - Obama Presidency Oral History Back National Aeronautics and Space Administration Index / Organizations Transcripts Jordan Brooks ...government, including things like NASA [National Aeronautics and Spac... ...including things like NASA [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ] and the Department of Transportation... ...Making sure when we were talking to NASA , we were actually bringing in... Alicia Garza ...Never mind the picture of him in the NASA [National Aeronautics and Spac... ...mind the picture of him in the NASA [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ] polo at Space Camp, or the picture... Thomas Kalil ...or the National Science Foundation, or NASA [National Aeronautics and Spac... ...National Science Foundation, or NASA [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ], or broadband networks, o... ...of Defense, Department of Energy, NASA [phonetic], and the National Scienc... Megan Smith ...has extraordinary tech. We have NASA [National Aeronautics and Spac... ...has extraordinary tech. We have NASA [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ], we have DOE, we have the IT teams... ...You're using government with NASA to organize a ton of federa... ...different people; like, somebody from NASA , and agriculture, and Department o... ...States, we have great data science at NASA , and at some places, but maybe not s... ...at CTO—they don't run the enterprise of NASA or other things, but the... ...Kennedy, taking NAS and making NASA ; then NASA runs. So you're onboardin... ...taking NAS and making NASA; then NASA runs. So you're onboarding ne... ...they finished presenting, in came the NASA Commercial Crew, with Kristin Kopperud... Show more... Charles Bolden ...who was the administrator for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA] from 2009 to 2017. Prior to hi... ...Aeronautics and Space Administration [ NASA ] from 2009 to 2017. Prior to hi... ...in Vietnam. As an astronaut with NASA , he flew four space shuttl... ...assistant deputy administrator of NASA in 1992. As well as his extensiv... ...As well as his extensive career with NASA and with the Marine Corps, he's hel... ...not even in consideration to become the NASA administrator for quite some time. H... ...quite some time. He did not select a NASA administrator until well into the firs... ...fields, and talked quite a bit about NASA . As he described it, he wanted to pic... ...was good. No mention of being the NASA administrator. In fact, I don't eve... ...In fact, I don't even think the term “ NASA administrator” came up in th... ...wants to nominate you to be the NASA administrator, and we need to get yo... ...His opening remarks blasted me about NASA 's record on not being able to get ... ...we were not talking about being the NASA administrator, one of the things, th... ...was saying that one of his visions for NASA was that they would be an organizatio... ...capability, or background, but that NASA could find ways to work with them t... ...science—you name it. We had a NASA subgroup to the US-China dialogue, an... ...in the Marine Corps and then my latter NASA time, before I came back to the Obam... ...as a marine, but during my time as a NASA astronaut, between what worked out t... ...I was sent to Washington, DC, because NASA had a new administrator. Dan Goldin ha... ...“Well, I'm Dan Goldin. I'm the new NASA administrator,” and I kind of gulped... ...able to do some really good things for NASA .” So he brought me back to NAS... ...for NASA.” So he brought me back to NASA headquarters. My wife stayed i... ...with members of the Congress, because NASA was trying at the time to promote ... ...Space Station, but, at that time, NASA was trying to build its first spac... ...Caucus to try to inform them of what NASA was doing, and the fact that minoritie... ...and astrophysicists needed. So NASA worked for three years to come up wit... ...I was not comfortable at all as the NASA administrator. There was a lot o... ...the cabinet secretary—heard that the NASA administrator was feeling unloved. H... ...of Cairo—had an address about NASA and what we hoped to do with th... ...Qatar. His depth of knowledge about NASA and the US was unbelievable. It was ... ...pressure the president to fire the NASA administrator, because if that's wha... ...Committee, responsible for NASA 's budget. I was starting to get t... ...budget to come out—and so in the 2011 NASA budget, he added an amendment tha... ...funds for bilateral activities between NASA and the Chinese. It wasn't just th... ...just the Chinese space program. It was NASA and the Chinese. Had he held to that... ...I pleaded with him to come help me at NASA , and he gladly came. I made him m... ...was even named as the nominee to be the NASA administrator. So I unfortunately ha... ...Commission, because I had people from NASA who were over there, and former NAS... ...NASA who were over there, and former NASA astronauts and the like. And all I go... ...which eventually grew on me, was that NASA should really follow through on th... ...commercializing low-earth orbit—that NASA should focus, mainly, on earth scienc... ...The budget essentially said that NASA will now be relegated to producing ... ...would be a national security asset. So NASA could use it, the Department of Defens... ...civilian companies could use it, but NASA was to get out of the business o... ...you may remember at the time, was NASA 's deep space exploration program. I... ...one for cargo. That came about because NASA decided—the NASA administrato... ...came about because NASA decided—the NASA administrator preceding me, or severa... ...was the first I had gotten a look at NASA 's budget. And everybody said, “Yes... ...They went after us, really, after NASA , for having worked deviously with OM... ...with that—but that we should let NASA take about a year or so to look a... ...and we started this battle. It was NASA against—somebody coined the phrase “ne... ...was, financially and workforce wise, NASA could not continue to spend the kind o... ...that whoever did it, whether it was NASA working with the private sector t... ...vehicle the way we had always done, or NASA working with the private sector to hav... ...back to where we were with the way NASA always did business. If you've got on... ...I never talked about programmatics at NASA . Not one time did we ever talk abou... ...wasn't his way; you know, I was the NASA administrator. So if he had ... ...members of the Congress who loved NASA , and really wanted to see us advanc... ...but it goes through a lot easier than NASA programs did. So I put the blame o... ...name here soon. But he was the key for NASA because he was so highly respected b... ...to build a nice, sustaining budget for NASA , and the authorization committee i... ...right. And in spite of what was in NASA 's budget, the president's address a... ...vehicle,” which was death for us at NASA because one of the agreements we ha... ...So all this stuff I talk about NASA —that's chump change. There wa... ...from healthcare. They felt that if NASA talked about visionary kinds of things... ...Kennedy Space Center alone. But the way NASA does programs—we have contractors al... ...out. So that was one thing. For the NASA people working the programs, this wa... ...D.] Eisenhower has decided that, Okay, NASA is going to send somebody to Mars... ...only program they had ever worked in NASA . So it was like—if I can give yo... ...“Go home. There is no more program. NASA is out of the human spacefligh... ...today who say President Obama “ended NASA 's human spaceflight program,” “too... ...human spaceflight program,” “took NASA out of human spaceflight,” “ende... ...to the commercial sector so that we, NASA , can move back into deep space, wher... ...and accept that kind of risk. That's NASA 's job to put astronauts at risk, t... ...Blue Origin, SpaceX, the US Air Force, NASA , everybody. So anybody who goes t... ...Mission Directorate, which was NASA 's heart and soul. That is NASA'... ...was NASA's heart and soul. That is NASA 's heritage, and it had really bee... ...know, you've spent a long time with NASA . Were the challenges the Obam... ...were all focused on what was good for NASA and what was good for the country, an... ...somebody in the industry or somebody in NASA who's gone around the NAS... ...somebody in NASA who's gone around the NASA administrator. And even though w... ...didn't send it over to be put into the NASA budget, it ends up in the NASA budget... ...into the NASA budget, it ends up in the NASA budget, and you go, “Where the hell di... ...I had been nominated to be the deputy NASA administrator way back in 20—I mean i... ...of the Marine Corps, Jim Jones, and the NASA administrator, Sean O'Keefe, had worke... ...and I would end up being the deputy NASA administrator. It had been done onc... ...in massive increases in the president's NASA budget for earth science, wit... ...in. I mean, they were incredible, and NASA played a key role in helping him to pu... ...we had the US-India dialogue, again, NASA played a key role for him, and we ha... ...at earthquakes. We had a team from NASA that worked in the Himalayas with ... ...and support of the US, you know, from NASA . And that was because President Obam... ...getting ready to start training with NASA in Houston. They've already flown thei... ...in the world that operates the way that NASA does, where there is a steel curtai... ...Even people who were big supporters of NASA , and even with China, is the fact tha... ...identity. You've spent a long time with NASA at different points over time, and ... ...get your reflections on that role for NASA and for the space program. I thin... ...space program. I think it's critical. NASA is the—I tell people all the time—i... ...normally cause two organizations like NASA and Roscosmos to be on the verge o... ...together. When you talk about what NASA does, one of the dreams—remember, ... ...to bring over to the White House. Can NASA help?” So what we did was, we worke... Show more... John Holdren ...the National Institutes of Health, NASA [National Aeronautics and Spac... ...National Institutes of Health, NASA [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ], and so on, figuring out how to d... ...the Department of Defense, of NOAA, of NASA , of the Environmental Protectio... ...brought telescopes and astronomers from NASA and the American Museum of Natura... ...to the wide range of missions which NASA has, which include aeronautics. I... ...already in the transition that NASA would need to be rebalanced. At th... ...belong to cabinet departments, like NASA and the National Science Foundation... ...with the Department of Energy, with NASA , with the National Science Foundation... ...as the others. And, by the way, NASA and NSF were particularly intense... ...of reporting to the White House. NASA does not belong to a cabine... ...to President Obama that he be made NASA administrator, but that was after thre... ...we talked frequently on the phone, the NASA administrator and I, the NS... ...to discuss the big issues in front of NASA , the big issues in front of th... ...teams. And I would typically take the NASA administrator, the NSF administrator... ...start with, what was the vision for NASA and for the United States space progra... ...initially coming in? We inherited a NASA , a National Aeronautics and Spac... ...coming in? We inherited a NASA, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration , that was in some disarray. It was i... ...the human-exploration part of the NASA mission had taken over a larger an... ...budget, to the detriment of a number of NASA 's other responsibilities. NASA doe... ...of NASA's other responsibilities. NASA does many different things. It i... ...And it was reducing the capacity of NASA to do its other missions, and even t... ...fact, President Obama asked me and the NASA administrator, “What is the smalles... ...the other important missions of NASA for the purpose?” Our answer, afte... ...And we set about trying to restructure NASA with that budget in mind. We had ... ...But ultimately, we got agreement on a NASA budget that had about a billion dollar... ...more, which was not really enough. NASA struggled to make everythin... ...Charlie Bolden and the other leaders of NASA , they actually did a very creditabl... ...And during the Obama administration, NASA succeeded in launching a large numbe... ...of the reasons that I have argued, and NASA administrator Charlie Bolden argue... ...initiatives, the broader science that NASA was doing, or even work like th... ...exhibit and the robotics exhibit. The NASA exhibit with live astronauts in thei... ...people. Is that another part of why NASA was a priority for you or for th... ...recognized, I recognized, everybody at NASA recognizes—that space is an attracto... Show more... Bill Ivey ...Kohlenberger, who is a tech guy. He had NASA [National Aeronautics and Spac... ...who is a tech guy. He had NASA [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ], National Science Foundation [NSF]... ...our group dealing with everything from NASA to the NEH. Right, right. How did yo... ...bound volumes, loose-leaf binders, on NASA . Wow. You know, so that was—and w... ...Katz was the head of NASAA, the other NASA , National Assembly of State Art... Gretchen Stewart ...I would have been a Hidden Figure at NASA [National Aeronautics and Spac... ...have been a Hidden Figure at NASA [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ] had I been able to pursue, or had ... 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