From Number Cruncher to Space Fan

In December 2001, a senator asked the man in line to become the next chief of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to give his vision for an agency formed to reach for the moon, planets and stars.

Sean O’Keefe replied in his confirmation hearing that he wanted to bring an “entrepreneurial spirit” and “prudent management principles” to NASA.

In the year since he took over as the 10th NASA administrator, he has left the soaring rhetoric to others and has focused instead on restoring credibility to an agency plagued by budget troubles and an increasingly uncertain mission. To a large extent, lawmakers and NASA observers say, he has succeeded.

On Feb. 1, when the nation’s first space shuttle broke apart over Texas, O’Keefe became a crisis manager. Today, he is scheduled to testify in a joint House-Senate hearing as congressional inquiries into the Columbia catastrophe begin.

In the Senate Caucus Room, speaking as the lone witness, O’Keefe is expected to face a host of difficult questions. Among them: How long should the remaining three space shuttles continue to fly? Have they received enough funding? What should be done with the international space station, the orbiting research platform supported by the shuttle?

O’Keefe is likely to hedge some answers, pleading that the Columbia accident investigation is still ongoing. But no one doubts that he will reiterate a firm commitment to continued exploration, with manned and unmanned vehicles.

“I felt confident that even though he didn’t know anything about space, he was going to get bit by the space bug and become an aficionado,” said Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who flew on the Columbia in 1986 and quizzed O’Keefe at the confirmation hearing. “And that, I think, has happened.”

Evidence of O’Keefe’s commitment to space is in the numbers and in his public statements. He said this week that he wants to “get back to flying safely as soon as we possibly can.”

The president’s budget request for NASA in fiscal 2004, released Feb. 3, bumped up the space agency’s proposed funding by 3%, to $15.5 billion.

The increase, although modest, was considered a victory for the new administrator. More important, there are also signs that the space station has returned to semi-stable footing after being rocked in recent years by billions of dollars in cost overruns.

The White House budget office indicated that the project is on the road to reform. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), chairman of a NASA oversight panel, also credits O’Keefe for cultivating support for the station during a meeting with international partners in the venture last year in Japan.

O’Keefe, 47, came to NASA with a reputation as a number cruncher that initially worried many researchers.

“We didn’t know whether he was really interested in NASA’s science programs,” said Joseph Alexander, director of the space studies board of the National Academy of Sciences. “He’s turned out to be a strong supporter.”

Before President Bush nominated him in November 2001 to replace longtime NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin, he served as the No. 2 official in the White House Office of Management and Budget. In the first Bush administration, he was the top budget official in the Pentagon when Dick Cheney was Defense secretary. And before that, he served as a top aide to Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

But he also is experienced in handling crises. When the Tailhook sex scandal devastated the Navy in 1992, the first President Bush named O’Keefe Navy secretary to help the service clean house.

He emerged from those various stints as a GOP go-to man, close to Cheney -- now the vice president -- and to many powerful lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

“When he deals within the administration, he deals from a position of strength,” said Rep. Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-N.Y.).”This is a guy who is well-connected throughout the inner circles of Washington.”

Boehlert, chairman of the House Science Committee, will lead one of the congressional inquiries into the disaster. He also introduced and recommended O’Keefe at his confirmation hearing.

Another close ally is Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, who has said he stands ready to help his former aide with funding when needed. A third is James T. Walsh (R-N.Y.), chairman of a House subcommittee that oversees NASA funding. Walsh represents the district that includes Syracuse University, where O’Keefe was a professor of public administration during the Clinton years.

Such ties will help O’Keefe as he navigates one of the most harrowing periods that any administration official in any agency could face.

Walsh, who flew with O’Keefe to watch the Columbia launch on Jan. 16 from Kennedy Space Center, said he was impressed by O’Keefe’s rapport with the staff that day -- “a very joyous time” -- and by his disciplined response to the crisis since Feb. 1.

“He’s been very forthright, and NASA has reflected that,” Walsh said. “That’s his style. He’s tough to flap. He’s been through a lot.”