Charles Frank Bolden Jr. (born August 19, 1946)[1] is a former Administrator of NASA, a retired United States Marine Corps Major General, and a former astronaut who flew on four Space Shuttle missions.

In 2020, Bolden was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for leadership and development of U.S. human spaceflight and space operations programs, and for revitalizing fundamental aeronautics research.

In high school Bolden was turned down for an appointment to the United States Naval Academy by South Carolina's Congressional delegation, which included then segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond.

Bolden received his appointment after personally writing, as a high school senior, to President Lyndon B. Johnson.

A recruiter came to his house a few weeks later, eventually leading to Bolden receiving an appointment from U.S. Representative William L. Dawson from Chicago, Illinois.

He underwent flight training at Pensacola, Florida, Meridian, Mississippi, and Kingsville, Texas, before being designated a United States Naval Aviator in May 1970.

From February to June 1998, he served as Commanding General, I MEF (Forward) in support of Operation Desert Thunder in Kuwait.

In July 1998, he was promoted to his final rank of major general and assumed his duties as the Deputy Commander, United States Forces Japan.

The need for a human test was determined following a launch abort on STS-41-D where controllers were afraid to order the crew to use the untested escape system.

[10] A few years before his appointment by President Barack Obama to be administrator of NASA, Bolden auditioned, along with professional actors, for the role of virtual host for NASA's "Shuttle Launch Experience" educational attraction at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Merritt Island, Florida.

During the six-day flight, crew members deployed the SATCOM Ku-band satellite and conducted experiments in astrophysics and materials processing.

Coincidently, Senator Bill Nelson, who like Bolden would also go on to serve as a NASA Administrator, also flew on STS-61-C as a payload specialist.

During the nine-day mission, the crew operated the twelve experiments that constituted the ATLAS-1 (Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science) cargo.

[13][14] On the same day, at a question and answer session with employees at the Johnson Space Center, Bolden compared the Constellation Program to a stillborn baby calf extracted from a camel's womb by U.S. Marines.

[15] In a June 2010 interview with Al Jazeera, Bolden said that the top three goals he was tasked with by President Obama were to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, to expand NASA's international relationships, and, "perhaps foremost", "to reach out to the Muslim world ... to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science... and math and engineering".

And I just cannot bring my little pea brain to believe that a God like that would pick one planet of one of millions of suns and say that's the only place in the vast universe that I'm going to put any kind of life.