Refer to: http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/spacestoryN1212OKEEFENU0.htm

It looks like Sean O'Keefe is going to leave NASA and take a job as Chancellor at Louisiana State University. This surprises me a little bit. The gossip I heard was O'Keefe wanted Rumsfeld's job (Secretary of Defense). Maybe Rumsfeld's job became less appealing with the nation at war (certainly being Chancellor of LSU is a safer job). O'Keefe had the advantage of being Administrator after Dan Goldin (Goldin was easily the worst Administrator in NASA's history). There was some low-level bitching (perhaps unfair) that O'Keefe was too focused on bean-counting. Hopefully the next Administrator will be a better one.

The short list for the people to replace O'Keefe as NASA Administrator are:

Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish
Congressman Robert Walker
Ron Sega
Charles Bolden
Robert Crippen

Robert Crippen with John Young flew on the first flight of the Space Shuttle. Without question Crippen is a man of great courage. He was also President of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). I don't believe Crippen has any real political connections in Washington. He would probably be a less than ideal Administrator.

Robert Walker is or was a career politician and very knowledgeable about the Space Program. He's genuinely interested in the Space Program and politically well connected. He'd be my first choice for NASA Administrator.

IMHO, Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish is the spooky one. He served for three years as the director of the United States' effort to develop a missile defense system. Kadish obviously comes from the military-industrial complex. There's no doubt that he'd be good at bringing money into NASA. However would he keep NASA focused on civilian space activities or turn NASA into an R&D agency for the Department of Defense? Aerospace Engineering like "The Force" has its Light and Dark sides. NASA is supposed to represent the "Light Side of the Force". However General Kadish might be a "Senator Palpatine". We will watch his progress with interest.

Gary