• Nationality

    American

  • Missions

    STS-61‑C, STS-31, STS-45, STS-60

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Charles F. Bolden Jr.

Astronaut

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Charles Bolden

Charles F. Bolden Jr. is a NASA astro­naut and 12th Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 

First as a Marine Corps Major General and then as NASA Administrator, the Honorable Charles F. Bolden Jr. has ded­i­cat­ed his life to the ser­vice of the United States, work­ing to secure the nation’s secu­ri­ty, pros­per­i­ty, and guid­ing efforts to explore our uni­verse and bet­ter under­stand our frag­ile planet. 

In 2009, President Barack Obama appoint­ed Bolden to be the 12th NASA Administrator, mak­ing him only the sec­ond astro­naut to hold that posi­tion. While head­ing NASA, Bolden over­saw the tran­si­tion from the space shut­tle sys­tem to a new era of explo­ration, ful­ly focused on the International Space Station (ISS) and aero­nau­tics tech­nol­o­gy development. 

Bolden led the devel­op­ment of the Space Launch System and the Orion Crew Capsule. Bolden also over­saw the shift toward com­mer­cial space ini­tia­tives han­dling resup­ply of the ISS. He cre­at­ed NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, respon­si­ble for devel­op­ing the tech­nol­o­gy that will make future explo­ration mis­sions suc­cess­ful. Bolden’s tenure includ­ed the tri­umph of the Mars Curiosity Rover land­ing, the suc­cess of the Juno mis­sion that is help­ing us under­stand the plan­et Jupiter more com­plete­ly, increas­ing the num­ber of satel­lites tasked with Earth obser­va­tion tasks, and con­tin­u­ing progress toward the December 2021 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope. Not for­get­ting that the first A” in NASA stands for Aeronautics, Bolden also focused his atten­tion on NASA’s aero­nau­tics pro­grams and the agency’s goal of devel­op­ing air­planes that can trav­el faster, far­ther, qui­eter and green­er than ever before.

During his career as a NASA astro­naut, Bolden flew on four space shut­tle mis­sions, log­ging over 680 hours in space. He pilot­ed Space Shuttle Columbia in 1986 (STS-61C) and Space Shuttle Discovery in 1990 (STS-31) – the mis­sion that deployed the Hubble Space Telescope. He also served as Mission Commander on Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1992 (STS-45), and Space Shuttle Discovery in 1994 (STS-60). Bolden also served as Chief of NASA’s Safety Division at the Johnson Space Center in the wake of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Bolden also had a long and dis­tin­guished mil­i­tary career. A grad­u­ate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Bolden flew over 100 com­bat mis­sions dur­ing the Vietnam War. He lat­er served as a test pilot for the Naval Air Test Center’s Systems Engineering and Strike Aircraft Test Directorates. After com­plet­ing his ser­vice as an astro­naut in 1994, he served as the Assistant Commandant of Midshipmen at the Naval Academy, and in 1998 as the Commanding General of the Marine expe­di­tionary force attached to Operation Desert Thunder in Kuwait. He last served as Commanding General of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, pri­or to his retire­ment from the Marine Corps. 

Bolden holds a Master of Science Degree in Systems Management from the University of Southern California. His past hon­ors include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, three NASA Exceptional Service Medals and four NASA Space Flight Medals. He received the Rotary National Space Trophy in 2014, the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy in 2020 and holds Honorary Doctorate degrees from numer­ous insti­tu­tions of high­er edu­ca­tion. He was induct­ed into the U.S Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2006 and the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2016. He served as a U.S. Department of State Science Envoy for Space from 2018 – 2019.

Charles serves today as the Founder and CEO Emeritus of The Charles F. Bolden Group LLC, a vet­er­an-owned small busi­ness spe­cial­iz­ing in space/​aerospace explo­ration, nation­al secu­ri­ty, lead­er­ship, edu­ca­tion (STEM) and health ini­tia­tives.

Charles Bolden received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Liege in 2012.

Sources
Picture
www​.fly​ing​mag​.com
Text
www​.nasa​.gov