Ex-Astronaut Set to Pilot NASA

Former astronaut Frederick D. Gregory is expected to be named NASA’s acting chief, a congressional spokesman said Thursday.

House Science Committee spokesman Joe Pouliot said Gregory, 64, would become acting administrator to replace NASA chief Sean O’Keefe, who leaves the job today.

Gregory, a veteran of three space shuttle flights and a former combat pilot, has been deputy administrator since 2002; it was not immediately clear whether he would be O’Keefe’s permanent successor.

He would be the first African American to head the U.S. space agency.

Gregory would take the helm at NASA as it moved to return the grounded shuttle fleet to flight more than two years after the Columbia disaster, in which seven astronauts died.

Last month, during a tribute to those killed in America’s spacecraft tragedies, Gregory fought back tears as he remembered the seven Challenger astronauts. He was in Mission Control for the liftoff on Jan. 28, 1986.

“It is still painful to think about those moments when we lost contact with the crew and our worst fears were realized,” he said.

“It was my intent that day at that moment to press the transmit button as I saw the Challenger break up and say, ‘Godspeed, Challenger.’ I didn’t -- and I should have.”

The space agency remains committed to finishing construction on the International Space Station and developing a new space exploration vehicle in line with the Bush administration’s long-term plan for a human mission to the moon and eventually to Mars.

O’Keefe, a former Navy secretary, led NASA through three tumultuous years and was shadowed by Columbia’s deadly breakup and its painful aftermath. Investigators criticized the agency for having a “broken safety culture” that contributed to the accident.

O’Keefe will become chancellor of Louisiana State University.