Sean O'Keefe - Tenure As NASA Administrator

Tenure As NASA Administrator

Sean O'Keefe became NASA administrator on December 21, 2001 after his nomination by President George W. Bush was confirmed by the Senate. Sean O'Keefe's tenure at NASA can be divided into roughly three equal periods, each marked by a single problem or event of overriding importance:

• December 2001 through January 2003: Sean O'Keefe eliminated a $5 billion cost overrun in the construction of the International Space Station.
• February 2003 through December 2004: Space Shuttle Columbia accident and its aftermath.
• January 2004 through February 2005: Sean O'Keefe re-organized NASA to start working on President George W. Bush's newly announced plan to send humans to the Moon and Mars.

Sean O'Keefe came to NASA with a background as a former Secretary of the Navy and Director of OMB. As was the case with James E. Webb who served as administrator of NASA from 1961 to 1968,

One of Sean O'Keefe's most controversial decisions occurred in January 2004, when he cancelled an upcoming mission by the space shuttle to service the aging Hubble Space Telescope. O'Keefe claimed that, in light of the Space Shuttle Columbia accident, the mission would be too risky, especially since if the shuttle was damaged while visiting the Hubble, the shuttle would not have enough fuel to dock with the space station as a "safe haven." While supported by members of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) this decision was assailed by numerous astronomers, who felt that the Hubble telescope was valuable enough to merit the risk. In late October 2006, O'Keefe's successor, Michael Griffin, reversed the decision, regarding the mission to Hubble, after several years of study. After several delays, the final Hubble mission, STS-125 was successfully completed in May 2009.

In the buildup to the 2004 election, a scuffle in the press occurred between Sean O'Keefe and NASA climatologist James Hansen. In 2003, it was revealed, Mr. O'Keefe warned Dr. Hansen not to discuss humans' role in global warming. "The administrator interrupted me;" Dr. Hansen said in the New York Times "he told me that I should not talk about dangerous anthropogenic interference, because we do not know enough or have enough evidence for what would constitute dangerous anthropogenic interference." O'Keefe's spokesperson said that O'Keefe did not admonish Hansen or mean to suggest that research efforts should be cut.

In 2004, O'Keefe drew criticism for openly campaigning for Bob Riley who was running for re-election as governor of Alabama and a member of Congress. He defended his action by saying that he was campaigning as a private citizen.

O'Keefe responded to President Bush's Vision for Exploration by hiring retired Navy Admiral Craig E. Steidle who had previously led development of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) as an associate administrator in charge of a new office: Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD). A mission architecture for lunar exploration was developed based on four launches of medium-lift vehicles and four space rendezvous per mission. This mission architecture was immediately scrapped by Michael Griffin upon his arrival at NASA. NASA started over with the Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS), sixteen months after the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) had been announced by President Bush. That architecture led to the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles (later canceled) and the Orion Crew Exploration vehicle.

O'Keefe tendered his resignation on December 13, 2004.