Charles Bolden
Charles Frank "Charlie" Bolden Jr. (* 19th August 1946 in Columbia , South Carolina ) is an American former NASA - Astronaut and Major General of the Marines . From July 2009 to January 2017 he was NASA administrator .
Training and military service
Bolden received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the United States Naval Academy in 1968 and a master's degree in systems management from the University of Southern California in 1977 .
In 1968, Bolden went to the United States Marine Corps , where he trained as a naval aviator. In 1972 and 1973 he flew more than 100 sorties in the Vietnam War . Upon his return, he was a selection and recruiting officer in Los Angeles and then for three years at the Marine Corps Air Station in El Toro ( California ). In July 1979, he received his license as a test pilot from the United States Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland .
Astronaut activity
| Charles Bolden | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Country: | United States |
| Organization: | NASA |
| selected on | May 19, 1980 ( 9th NASA Group ) |
| Calls: | 4 space flights |
| Start of the first space flight: |
January 12, 1986 |
| Landing of the last space flight: |
February 11, 1994 |
| Time in space: | 28d 8h 37min |
| retired on | June 27, 1994 |
| Space flights | |
Bolden was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in May 1980.
STS-61-C
Bolden took off on January 12, 1986 as a pilot of the Columbia space shuttle for its first flight into space . The main objective of the mission was to put the SATCOM Ku-1 communications satellite into orbit. In addition, numerous smaller astrophysical and material science experiments were carried out.
STS-61-J
This Atlantis mission STS-61-J , which was canceled due to the Challenger disaster, should have deployed the Hubble Space Telescope in October 1986. The crew included Commander John Watts Young (would have been his 7th start), pilot Charles Bolden and the three mission specialists Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan , Bruce McCandless and Steven Alan Hawley . The mission later became STS-31.
STS-31
Boldens second flight - again as a pilot - began on April 24, 1990. The main task of STS-31 was to deploy the Hubble space telescope . In addition, images of the earth were made with an IMAX camera. The Discovery landed on April 29th after five days.
STS-45
As the commander of the space shuttle Atlantis , Bolden flew into space on March 24, 1992 as part of the ATLAS-1 mission (Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science). During this Spacelab mission, studies in the fields of atmospheric chemistry , solar radiation , plasma physics and ultraviolet astronomy were carried out.
STS-60
On February 3, 1994, Bolden started on his last mission. A special feature of this flight was that Sergei Krikaljow was the first Russian spaceman to fly an American spaceship. The Wake Shield Facility and the Spacehab module were the main payloads on board the Discovery .
After working as an astronaut
In June 1994, Bolden left NASA and returned to active service in the US Marine Corps. In July 1998 he was promoted to major general. He retired from the Marine Corps on August 9, 2002 and has been President and Chief Operating Officer of American Puretex Water Corporation and PureTex Water Works since January 1, 2003 .
On May 20, 2009, he was nominated by President Barack Obama for the post of NASA administrator and Lori Garver as his deputy. On July 15, 2009, Bolden was confirmed by the Senate as NASA administrator and successor to Michael Griffin . He held this position until January 19, 2017.
In 2020, Bolden was elected to the National Academy of Engineering .
Private
Charles Bolden and his wife Alexis have two children.
See also
literature
- Charles Bolden , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 37/2009 from September 8, 2009, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
Web links
- Short biography of Charles Bolden at spacefacts.de
- NASA biography of Charles Bolden (English; PDF)
- Biography of Charles Bolden in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
- Charles Bolden's Story: "From the Segregated South to Low Earth Orbit"
Individual evidence
- ↑ FliegerRevue July 2009, p. 9, Charles Bolden becomes the new NASA boss
T. Keith Glennan (1958) | James E. Webb (1961) | Thomas O. Paine (1969) | James C. Fletcher (1971) | Robert A. Frosch (1977) | James M. Beggs (1981) | James C. Fletcher (1986) | Richard H. Truly (1989) | Daniel Goldin (1992) | Sean O'Keefe (2001) | Michael D. Griffin (2005) | Charles Bolden (2009) | Jim Bridenstine (2018)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bolden, Charles |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Bolden, Charles Frank Jr. (full name); Bolden, Charlie junior (nickname) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | NASA American astronaut and Major General in the Marine Corps |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 19, 1946 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Columbia , South Carolina |