WASHINGTON - NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin said today he will depart Nov. 17 satisfied and proud that the U.S. space agency launched so many spacecraft during his tenure.
"NASA is alive!" Goldin, the agency's longest-serving administrator, said in a telephone interview. He noted that NASA had 60 spacecraft launched and planned during his tenure and said his proudest moment was the in-orbit repair of the Hubble Space Telescope. "We opened up the universe," he said.
Goldin also praised the agency's work to assemble the international space station. "It is a technical achievement that is nothing short of brilliant. It could not have been executed in a better fashion," he said.
While acknowledging the budget problems that have plagued the space station program, Goldin said: "I make no apologies. I am convinced that we delivered the station at the lowest cost we possibly could have given the conditions and challenges we had to deal with. I think we have identified the operational cost problem and we have fixed it … We will be back on track. Could we have done better? Maybe, but we had to stress technical excellence. It is a very difficult balancing act."
Goldin said his biggest disappointment is not going to Mars. "My life will be complete when an astronaut sets foot on Mars," Goldin said. "I want to be associated with it in some way."
For now though, Goldin, 61, said it is time for a break. "I need some decompression time. It's hard to explain the amount of intellectual investment you put into this job. I feel very satisfied. It was a long task. I feel good."
Goldin said he plans to remain very active in his remaining month at the agency and will help the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush find his replacement. He said he would be on board to receive the report from the commission headed by former Martin Marietta Chairman Tom Young.
That commission, the International Space Station Management and Cost Evaluation Task Force, is evaluating NASA's predictions for how long it will take to complete the space station and how much it will cost. The task force is due to report its findings to the NASA Advisory Council Nov. 1.
Goldin noted that he served nine months and 20 days under former U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush and will have served nine months and 27 days under the current President Bush, the former president's son. "I think that makes for a nice pair of bookends," he said.
In between, Goldin served for eight years under former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
While he ponders his future, Goldin will take a position as a senior fellow at the Council on Competitiveness, a Washington-based non-profit organization.
According to its World Wide Web site, the Council on Competitiveness was created in 1986 to foster technological innovation and workforce development, and to benchmark U.S. economic performance against other countries.
The organization is guided by a 30-member Executive Committee and has a staff of 16 people who provide research and operational support. "Chief executives from 50 of the country's most prominent nonprofit research organizations, professional societies and trade associations contribute their expertise as national affiliates of the Council," according to the Web site.
Goldin has been NASA's administrator since April 1992 and is credited with pushing the agency to streamline its operations with an approach that became known as "faster, better, cheaper."