WASHINGTON - He's been described as everything from a champion of change to the "Captain of Craziness." In a town where careers rest on a bedrock of political quicksand, NASA administrator, Daniel Saul Goldin, has silently floated past a bureaucratic milestone.
Today Goldin celebrated his 2,794th day on the job, becoming NASA's longest running, single-term lead administrator. He now has beaten former agency chief James Webb, who held the job for 2,793 days. But while Goldin still has a ways to go to surpass the two separate tenures of James C. Fletcher -- whose combined time adds up to 3,260 days -- it is unclear if he will reach that mark.
In the early 90s, outside observers characterized the agency as a bloated bureaucracy, pushing missions that were too expensive, took too long to develop and flew far too infrequently. But since 1992 Goldin has overseen NASA as it switched gears to "faster, better, cheaper" mode.
For the most part, NASA has prospered under Goldin's tenure, with such projects as the Mars Pathfinder reviving the 1960s can-do spirit.
But it has not all been happy rocket trails and touchdowns for Goldin. He has dealt with an out-of-focus Hubble Space Telescope, the politics and technical hurdles which swirl around the $100 billion International Space Station project, as well as October's Mars Climate Orbiter fiasco when NASA and its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin, didn't quite measure up, at least in metric terms.
But the Bronx, New York-born Goldin rebounds from such criticism. "It is a great time at NASA," he contends. On more than one occasion he has identified what he likes most about his tenure, which is to help get the NASA team to dream again -- to think big, boldly and creatively.
"Before we look ahead to the bright future, I want to lay the foundation by looking at the past. Our achievements, and yes, our problems, have prepared us for the future," Goldin said.
"Goldin has taken an agency with a long post-Apollo hangover and forced it to confront the realities of its situation as it approaches the millennium," said John Logsdon, director of the George Washington University's Space Policy Institute.
What perplexes Goldin now is how best to ensure a robust future for the commercialization of space. However, while Goldin has chosen safe and cheap space travel as his personal cosmic crusade, the NASA/private sector industry work on the X-33 spaceplane, a step toward single-stage-to-orbit rocketry, has literally come apart at the seams of late.
Before taking on the top slot at NASA in 1992, Goldin had spent 25 years with TRW in Redondo Beach, California, cutting his management teeth as a vice president and general manager of the company's Space and Technology Group before making the leap to the agency. At TRW, Goldin worked on a wide variety of projects, including still hush-hush military and intelligence-gathering spacecraft.
Prior to his TRW experiences, Goldin had worked in 1962 at NASA's Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. At Lewis, he worked on electric propulsion systems for human interplanetary travel.
Even today, his zeal for propelling humans and mechanized emissaries to new destinations within and outside the solar system is alive and well. "Increasingly intelligent robotic probes may plunge deeply beneath the icy surface of Europa," Goldin said recently. "Eventually we will send humans to Mars and beyond...and when we can explore and monitor planets millions of miles from Earth, exploring and monitoring our own planet is almost child's play."
Goldin is not without his critics. Charged by some as having inconsistent policies, Goldin is viewed at times as having trouble in delegating -- then sticking to -- the roles and responsibilities at the various NASA centers he oversees.
"Few doubt on balance he has made major strides in re-shaping the NASA culture and organization to be more prepared for the future," Logsdon told space.com. "He has not been gentle, or consistent in his leadership, but he has certainly led!"
NASA's Lori Garver, in the Office of Policy and Plans, adds: "He measures himself by his deeds, not his days. He's still focused on change at NASA. Goldin comes in every day with the same energy he had over seven years ago."
Harold Finger, President of the NASA Alumni League, underscores the hard fought battleground that Goldin continues to trod.
"I certainly think he's been a very dynamic and innovative man. He has a very good appreciation for the value of our aeronautics and space activities. He's been fighting a hard battle with Congress and the White House to try and build a strong and effective program, Finger said.
Space policy guru, Logsdon, deems Goldin as "the most influential NASA Administrator ever."
"The space agency and the U.S. space program are much better for that influence," he concludes.
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