President Obama has chosen former astronaut Charles Bolden to be the new top administrator at NASA. If chosen, Bolden would be the first African-American space chief in U.S. history. His story and his list of accomplishments are very impressive.
In a long and distinguished career, the one-time Navy pilot has logged more than 680 hours in space, including some of the most high-profile missions in recent history. He was aboard the flight that originally deployed the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990, and was part of the first American shuttle mission to include a Russian crew member. And all of this after being born in a place and time that didn’t allow black children the same rights as their white peers. With his own hard work and commitment — not to mention his big brain! — Charles Bolden has come a long way to a very cool job.