Daniel Goldin

For the American journalist, see Daniel Golden.
Daniel Goldin

Official NASA photo
9th Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
In office
April 1, 1992  November 17, 2001
President George H.W. Bush
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
Preceded by Richard H. Truly
Succeeded by Daniel R. Mulville (Acting)
Personal details
Born Daniel Saul Goldin
(1940-07-23) July 23, 1940
New York City, New York
Nationality American
Alma mater City College of New York
Occupation President & CEO of KnuEdge (formerly Intellisis)

Daniel Saul Goldin (born July 23, 1940) served as the 9th and longest-tenured Administrator of NASA from April 1, 1992, to November 17, 2001. He was appointed by President George H. W. Bush and also served under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Career

Born in New York City, Goldin earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the City College of New York in 1962. He began his career at NASA's Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio that year, and worked on electric propulsion systems for human interplanetary travel.

Goldin left NASA a few years later to work at the TRW Space and Technology Group in Redondo Beach, California. During a 25-year career at TRW, Goldin eventually became Vice President and General Manager and led projects that conceptualized and produced advanced communication spacecraft, space technologies, and scientific instruments.

When Goldin returned to NASA as administrator, he pioneered the "faster, better, cheaper" approach that proposed NASA could cut costs while still delivering a wide variety of aerospace programs. The approach ultimately proved controversial with the loss of several missions to Mars due to project management failures. During his administration, Goldin supervised projects such as the Mars Pathfinder, Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions, and the International Space Station.[1] Goldin initially promoted a low-cost manned lunar project, but following the 1996 announcement that evidence had been found of biological activity in Martian meteorite ALH-84001, the focus was shifted to unmanned Mars probes.

A criticism of Goldin's administration is that he failed to provide a far-sighted focus for NASA other than inherited projects. However, in mid-1999 he and senior Agency leadership quietly created the Decadal Planning Team and its successors, which paved the way for NASA's contribution to the Vision for Space Exploration. Additional controversy related to Goldin are found in the documentary film, Orphans of Apollo.

In 1992, Goldin brought back the traditional NASA blue "meatball" logo. It had been replaced in 1975 by the NASA red "worm" logo. By 1997, Goldin had started a largely successful campaign within NASA to eradicate the "worm". He would become irate whenever he would see a "worm" logo that was not replaced.

On November 17, 2001, President George W. Bush accepted Mr. Goldin's resignation as NASA administrator. Goldin was replaced first by Dr. Daniel S. Mulville (acting 19 Nov - 21 Dec, 2001) and finally by Sean O'Keefe (21 Dec 2001 - Feb 11, 2005).[2] Since leaving NASA, Daniel Goldin has been engaged in robotics research at the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, California.[3]

He is the President and CEO of KnuEdge (formerly Intellisis), a company he founded in 2005 that produces neural computing hardware.[4]

In 2003, Goldin was selected to be the ninth president of Boston University, but his contract was terminated a day before he took office at a cost of $1.8 million.

Quotes

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Government offices
Preceded by
Richard H. Truly
NASA Administrator
1992 - 2001
Succeeded by
Daniel Mulville
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