NASA Glenn's expertise will make it a cornerstone of President Obama's plan to enhance research in deep-space exploration, the head of NASA says.
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View full sizeNASA administrator Charles Bolden speaks during a news conference at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla. earlier this year. Speaking today at the City Club of Cleveland, Bolden said NASA's Glenn Research Center would fare well under President Barack Obama's space plan.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- President Obama's controversial plan to turn away from a Moon mission and focus instead on new, space-exploring technologies will "significantly raise the profile'' of NASA Glenn Research Center, says Charles Bolden, the space agency's leader.
Administrator Bolden, speaking today at the City Club, said NASA Glenn, between its Brook Park campus and spacecraft-testing facility near Sandusky, will benefit "quite a bit'' from efforts to bolster propulsion, communications and astronaut health in deep space.
Those are all areas of strength for NASA Glenn, Bolden noted.
Obama wants to scrap NASA's Moon-and-Mars mission in favor of one leaving routine space flights to the commercial sector, while the space agency invests more in exploration technologies, earth sciences and climate-change studies.
But Obama's approach faces opposition in Congress, especially in states whose NASA centers are heavily invested in the Moon-and-Mars program, known as Constellation.
Bolden turned diplomat when asked about the opposition.
"The only thing I can say is the administration and Congress are in consultation,'' said a smiling Bolden, drawing laughs from the City Club crowd.
While in Cleveland, Bolden also announced that NASA Glenn Acting Director Ramon "Ray'' Lugo III will become permanent head of the center's 3,000-plus work force on July 18.
Lugo was named NASA Glenn's deputy director in November 2007, and has been acting director since March. Before coming to NASA Glenn, Lugo served as deputy manager of the Launch Services Program at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Lugo began his NASA career at Kennedy as a cooperative education student in 1975, a NASA news release said.
