That's the rumor. Jeff Foust has the story here and here, as does NASA Watch.

I find this a little surprising, given that he's just gotten the budget go ahead for the new exploration initiative. I would have thought that he'd at least want to see the program off to a good start (though perhaps he thinks it already is).

What's most surprising is where he's going--to academia. There were rumors throughout his tenure at NASA that he was being groomed to replace Rumsfeld in a second term. Either those rumors weren't true, or the fact that Rumsfeld is staying for now has thrown a wrench into them, or the administration is unhappy with him for some aspect of his job performance (Columbia? The Hubble fiasco?).

In that case, it's sort of like the old "up or out" philosophy for military brass. Get passed over for your next scheduled promotion, and you might as well take your retirement.

Fortunately, with the new initiative and the budgets, it's a more appealing job to many competent people than it's been in the past. In previous vacancies, the running joke was that the administrator had to be someone smart enough to do the job, and dumb enough to take it. That may not be the case any more.

[Monday morning update]

A commenter wants to draft Pete Worden. Now Keith Cowing is reporting that this is, indeed, one of the names being discussed. I wonder who the "well-known millionaire" is. Dennis Tito? Paul Allen?

It would certainly be an interesting appointment, and reasonable payback for the shabby treatment (in my opinion) that he got from Don Rumsfeld's Pentagon. If it were to happen (it seems unlikely to me), NASA would for the first time have as administrator a member of the alt.space movement.

Draft Pete Worden!

The next person in this job might have a very tough time. Perhaps they will be the bad guy that has to kill Shuttle and ISS, making O'Keefe's job of killing Hubble look like a walk in the park (after all the angst, is Hubble really dead?).

Mike Puckett, I second your call. Great choice.

The story is now breaking on www.cnn.com

No rumour, Rand. Just watch the news in the days ahead.

Let's start a "Draft Rand" movement!!!

Yes, put the military man heading up the joint. About time it got into order.

Is this the shortest tenure ever for a NASA admininstrator?

Gary Hudson for administrator! :-)

Hey, I'll voluteer for the job!

Anyone have President Bush's number?

A few things:
1: We always put old guys in charge of NASA. How about the first Gen X administrator? I'm 32.

2: O'Keefe just has a moustache, and Goldin was clean-shaven. I've got a full beard!

3: I'm a Texan, so I speak the President's language.

4: I would make sure to fund some aeronautics research as well as following through on the new space initiative

5: I would make sure we do a Hubble mission, to give it a few more years of operation, while planning to replace it with a new telescope after it's dead. Hey, why not just put a new, better one up?

6: I hate stupid slogans, but I'm sure I'll come up with some that will be better than "Faster, Better, Cheaper"

Finally, since I don't know all the details about everything in NASA, I'd hire Rand, Oberg, and Cowing as my assistants. Actually how about one of them for administrator, and we can sit back and watch?

I nominate Robert Walker for the job. Or how about Harrison Schmidt?

From what I've heard of Schmidt, perhaps he doesn't have the patience to deal with Washington bureaucracy. I think this is what caused him some problems when he was a Senator, too.

What about Tom Stafford? He has lots of management experience, both in and out of NASA, and the political skill to get things done, a la James Webb. Plus, it would be nice to have an administrator for once who has actually left the planet. I think that might bring some perspective to the matter. The only downside here is that he's pretty old. Of course, Schmidt is no spring chicken either.

Two words: Burt Rutan.

1. Because it would send a wake-up call throughout the bureaucracy that change is on the way.

2. Because he would focus more of the energies on things like the SATS program (http://sats.nasa.gov/) which would boost things that could, truly, change the way we live in the next 10-20 years

3. Because I want the nuclear-powered flying car I was promised in the 1950s, and if anyone can do it, Burt Rutan can.

-cwk.

I'm sure that Burt would have no interest, nor does he have the skill set required. One has to know how to manage a large bureaucracy, and schmooze Congress and the White House, something that Burt has never done, or had the interest in doing. Putting him in such a position would be a waste of his talents, and do little to advance the national space agenda.

Paul Allen could not be the millionare as he is a billionare.

Perhaps Robert Bigelow? Or is he too a billionare?

Glad to hear somebody with some pull concurs with my pick.

Pete Worden.

I saw him speak during lunch at the MIT SpaceVision conference. Awesome!

I believe he also wrote an article for a special edition of Ad Astra (the NSS magazine) under an alias - - Lucian Samosata.

Why are you surprised he's leaving, Rand? He's not a space-oriented person, and he's reportedly been offered $0.5M/year to be chancellor at LSU. I doubt the NASA administrator's salary is anywhere close to that.

Paul, if he were in it for the money, he probably wouldn't have taken the administrator job in the first place. I think that the salary offer is attractive, but only given that he has other reasons for leaving.

Doesn't seem that surprising to me. O'Keefe by his own admission is a non-technical bean-counter. He was necessary because NASA's bookkeeping and organization was a mess. So he came in, re-org'd the place, got the books in shape, and shepherded through the change in structure to the new exploration initiative.

Maybe he feels that what NASA needs now is a director with more technical capability. The next phase in NASA's growth is technical - making hard engineering decisions about various methods for going to the moon and beyond. O'Keefe may feel he's simply out of his depth there.

I saw General Worden at the International Space University in the summer of '03. He's great. You should have seen the looks on the faces of my European counterparts when they started to realize what a "physics package" was.

My guess on the millionaire is Elon Musk.

B

> Paul, if he were in it for the money, he probably wouldn't have taken
> the administrator job in the first place. I think that the salary offer is
> attractive, but only given that he has other reasons for leaving.

Especially since O'Keefe doesn't have an offer. He's simply one of several candidates being considered for the LSU position:

http://www.southernillinoisan.com/articles/2004/12/13/top/doc41bd90482ca9d330731080.txt

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041211/NEWS01/412110360/1002/NEWS

If he were leaving for more money, it would make sense to have a job offer in hand before jumping ship.

Thanks boys
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