The only NASA administratorto serve three different presidents, Goldin is widely believed to be nearingthe end of his tenure. He says he is much too busy, however, to thinkmuch about life after NASA. "I have no idea about what the future holdsfor me," he told Space News staff writer Brian Berger in the followinginterview, which was conducted at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.A shorter version of this interviewappears in this week's issue of SpaceNews.
Q: On March 6, you became the longest-servingNASA administrator. You will celebrate nine years on the job April 1 andwill turn 60 this year. How do you feel?
Goldin: I feel vital. I swim, I exercise.I have an incredibly aggressive schedule. I can't believe I'm 60. I feellike a little child running through the playground. I remember thinkingI'll never get old. I was a lifeguard in New York on the Atlantic Ocean.I must have been 18 or 19. I'd take a hot shower in the evening and gorunning on the beach and I would think, "I'm going to live forever." AndI still feel that way.
Q: As you look back on your nine yearsas administrator, what's your proudest accomplishment?
Goldin: Fixing the Hubble Space Telescope.
Q: Your biggest disappointment?
Goldin: Not going to Mars.
Q: You just came back from witnessingwhat commander Jim Wetherbee described as a flawlessshuttle launch....
Goldin: (Knocking on the coffee tablein his office) I'm superstitious. See this shirt? Its STS-98. I wear theshirt from themission before. I dont feel like I can put on the mission shirt duringthe mission. When I go down to a launch, at T-minus three minutes, I puton my Bronx hat. There are a whole bunch of things I do, and I cant handlethat things are going so well. This is a tough program, were going tohave trouble.
To get to the station's altitude, youonly have a five-minute launch window. When I came to NASA, we had troublegetting the shuttle up in an hour and a half, let alone five minutes. Somemembers of Congress were skeptical that we could do it. I assured themwe had a plan that would get us to that five-minute launch window. I feelpride. This team did it. Not only do we get off in a five-minute launchwindow on the majority of flights, we get off when the window opens.
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John Young has been pushing for a 2.5-minutelaunch window...so that if we have a problem, we can land on the East Coast.We're looking at a 2.5-minute launch window now. I believe United SpaceAlliance (USA) has really come through and privatization appears to beworking. There is incredible teamwork between the NASA people and the USApeople. I come from a corporate culture that says if you work on safetyand quality, schedule and cost are dependent variables and they improve.
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