Sean O'Keefe

Sean O'Keefe

Sean O'Keefe (born January 27, 1956 in Monterey , California , USA ) was the tenth head of the US space agency NASA from December 2001 to February 2005 .

Life

O'Keefe was born in California but grew up in Louisiana . He spent his youth in various US states because his father was an officer in the US Navy . After graduating from Wheeler High School in North Stonington, Connecticut , he studied political science in New Orleans and received a bachelor's degree from Loyola University in 1977 . He moved to New York and received a Masters in Administrative Science from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University the following year .

Upon leaving the university, O'Keefe was accepted into a program aimed at introducing graduates to work in a US government agency. In 1980 he joined the staff in cash and cash grants committee of the US Senate and after eight years as Chief of Staff of the Subcommittee on the allocation of funds for the Ministry of Defense appointed.

In 1989, O'Keefe joined the Department of Defense and served as an auditor for three years until he was named Secretary of the Navy by US President George Bush . After just three months, O'Keefe left in January 1993 and embarked on a university career. Initially, he taught business administration at Pennsylvania State University and was the dean of the local college for postgraduate studies. In 1996 he became professor of business and government policy at his alma mater , the Maxwell School.

In February 2001, US President George W. Bush appointed O'Keefe as Vice Director of the Office of Management and Budget in the White House, which controls the federal budget. After only ten months, President Bush had a new assignment for him: O'Keefe was sworn in as the tenth administrator of the US space agency on December 21, 2001 - two months after his predecessor, Daniel Goldin , announced his resignation.

O'Keefe earned a reputation as a "bean counter" during his three-year tenure because managing finances seemed to interest him more than aerospace engineering. He was also busy restructuring the management level of the space agency.

The darkest chapter of his service time was the crash of the space shuttle Columbia on February 1, 2003. The open investigation of the accident and the return of the space shuttle to flight operations were greatly credited to him. After President Bush announced the new direction of US manned spaceflight in January 2004, O'Keefe initiated the implementation within NASA.

O'Keefe came under renewed criticism when, a few weeks later, in February 2004, he canceled another maintenance mission to the Hubble space telescope . Such a shuttle flight is too risky because in the event of an accident the International Space Station cannot be approached as a “safe haven”. His successor, Michael Griffin , reversed this decision in October 2006.

In December 2004, O'Keefe submitted his resignation. In a letter to US President Bush, he cited family and financial reasons for his decision to step down from the post of NASA director. O'Keefe resigned from office in February 2005. Griffin succeeded him two months later.

From 2005 to 2008, O'Keefe was Chancellor of Louisiana State University . On November 1, 2009, he assumed the position of Chief Executive Officer of EADS North America .

2010 plane crash

Sean O'Keefe and his son were seriously injured in a plane crash in Alaska on August 9, 2010 , when the single-engine propeller plane de Havilland Canada DHC-3 crashed while on a fishing trip near Dillingham with nine people on board. The accident resulted in five deaths, including the US politician and former US Senator for Alaska Ted Stevens .

Web links

Commons : Sean O'Keefe  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• NASA biography (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ O'Keefe steps aside as LSU chancellor , January 16, 2008
2. ↑ Sean O'Keefe named chief executive officer of EADS North America. Airbus, October 20, 2009, accessed April 18, 2020 . 
3. ↑ Former NASA boss survived plane crash. AFP , April 18, 2020, accessed August 10, 2010 . 
4. ↑ Bad weather delayed rescue in Alaska crash for 12 hours . CNN , accessed August 11, 2010