Biden Cabinet Confirmation Live Thread ***hearings, votes, etc.***

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/burgessev/status/1359300611049738247

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/BreakingDefense/status/1363950066810171396

[GeorgiaModerate]

Would Nelson be the first NASA Administrator who has actually been to space?  I haven't kept up with NASA that much over the last few years.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Isn't Bill Nelson a little bit too old to be NASA Administrator?

What does age have to do with anything when he has more than enough experience - basically being Capitol Hill's NASA liaison for 3 decades - to do the job well, especially when much of the job as Administrator involves just fighting Congress for the funding that your divisions want & need?

In any event, he's literally the same age as the President, so if a 78-year-old can be Commander-in-Chief, I see no reason why one can't be NASA Administrator too.

LOL, calm down there buddy. I'm not opposed to Bill Nelson being NASA administrator but I think that you could find someone with similar knowledge as Nelson but younger.

I am perfectly calm? Why are you so quick to presume that this was an attack of some sort or something? I was simply pointing out that age shouldn't really have anything to do with the proposed nomination here.

And in any event, no, I don't believe you could find somebody younger than Bill Nelson who has the same mix of congressional & NASA-based knowledge that would allow him to both fight with Congress for the funding that they want while not actively trying to f**k with NASA & their own undertakings like Bridenstine did (& that - inherently speaking - only he has, since only he was NASA's Capitol Hill go-to for 3 decades).

Would Nelson be the first NASA Administrator who has actually been to space?  I haven't kept up with NASA that much over the last few years.

No, Charles Bolden - the NASA administrator under President Obama - was a former astronaut who has been in space before.

And in addition to Bolden, who flew up on 4 Space Shuttle missions from the mid-80's through the mid-90's, there were also W.'s 2nd-term administrator Frederick Gregory, who flew up on 3 Shuttle missions from the mid-'80s through the early-'90s, & Poppy Bush's administrator Richard Truly, who went up on the 2nd & 8th Shuttle missions in the early-'80s.

Aargh, can't believe I didn't remember Dick Truly was a former administrator.  I worked at the Cape at the time of his two Shuttle missions.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Would Nelson be the first NASA Administrator who has actually been to space?  I haven't kept up with NASA that much over the last few years.

No, Charles Bolden - the NASA administrator under President Obama - was a former astronaut who has been in space before.

And in addition to Bolden, who flew up on 4 Space Shuttle missions from the mid-80's through the mid-90's, there were also W.'s 2nd-term administrator Frederick Gregory, who flew up on 3 Shuttle missions from the mid-'80s through the early-'90s, & Poppy Bush's administrator Richard Truly, who went up on the 2nd & 8th Shuttle missions in the early-'80s.

Aargh, can't believe I didn't remember Dick Truly was a former administrator.  I worked at the Cape at the time of his two Shuttle missions.

In the late 70's and early 80's, I worked for an aerospace/defense contractor that was a subcontractor for the development and operation of the Air Force's Eastern Test Range, which supports launches at the Cape/KSC along with a few other places (NASA's Wallops Island and ESA's Kourou launch center are the ones I recall offhand).  I worked on dozens of missile launches during those years; most were unmanned, of course, but I was there for the first eight Shuttle flights.  In fact STS-8 was my very last launch, as I moved on to another project at a different military base a few days later.

Working at the Cape in those days was an extraordinary experience, and is something I'm extremely glad to have been part of.  But there's no way I would want to go back to it at my age (way too stressful).

[GeorgiaModerate]

During today's session:

https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1364314498052587520