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	Walker Won"t Take NASA, Even If Asked By Stew Magnuson Spacenews.com Staff Writer posted: 07:17 pm ET 15 March 2001

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WASHINGTON -- Former U.S. Rep. Robert Bob Walker said March 15 that he would not accept a nomination to serve as NASA administrator even if it were offered to him.

"I spent 30 years in government and have no desire to go back again," Walker, a former chairman of the House Science Committee, said during a speech at the Cato Institute in Washington, the sponsor of a one-day symposium called "Space: A Free Market Frontier."

Walker's name is one of several that have been floated in Washington as possible candidates to replace NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin. When asked by reporters after the speech if he was a candidate, Walker said he was not and stressed that he also has never been offered the job.

Walker served 20 years in the House of Representatives and also chaired the House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee that oversees NASA.

Walker also served as an adviser to the campaign of President George W. Bush last year. He's currently president and chief executive officer of the Washington-based Wexler Group.

Later in the conference, Rick Tumlinson, head of the Space Frontier Foundation, called for Goldin's resignation.

"Dan Goldin must go," he told the conference, blaming the administrator for a host of NASA-related problems, including cost overruns on the International Space Station.