NASA's New Science Chief Settles in for Long Haul

WASHINGTON — Ed Weiler, the 30-year NASA veteran who agreed in March to lead the agency's Science Mission Directorate temporarily, will fill that position permanently, NASA announced Wednesday.

Weiler returned on an acting basis to the position he had held from 1998-2004 following the abrupt March 25 resignation of Alan Stern after one year on the job. At the time of Stern's resignation, Weiler was director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

"I'm very pleased to have Ed officially accept a more long-term position as science chief. His leadership style and 26 years of headquarters experience will be vital to the success of upcoming science activities and missions," NASA Administrator Mike Griffin said in a prepared statement.

Weiler joined NASA in 1978 as a staff scientist and was promoted to chief of the agency's ultraviolet/visible and gravitational astrophysics division in 1979. He also served as the chief scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope from 1979 until 1998, when he then was promoted to associate administrator for the agency's Space Science Enterprise — now the Science Mission Directorate. He was appointed director of Goddard in August 2004.

Weiler will lead the $5 billion Science Mission Directorate amid criticism of declining Mars exploration spending plans and cost overruns on the Mars Science Laboratory, a large rover slated for launch in 2009. Colleagues said political and bureaucratic demands of the job, as well to opposition to his plans for dealing with the rover cost growth, prompted Stern to resign.

Weiler said in a recent interview that he is not afraid to cancel programs that bust their budgets. He also said back-to-back Mars mission failures in 1998 — under his watch as science chief — taught him that cost controls should be balanced with good engineering.

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