Bolden confirmed as NASA chief

While the Senate Judiciary Committee grills Judge Sonia Sotomayor over her speeches if not her decisions, the full Senate confirmed President Obama’s choice to head NASA, former astronaut Frank Bolden, The Register reports.

In accepting, he called for a renewed commitment to “technological leadership”:

Today, we have to choose. Either we can invest in building on our hard-earned world technological leadership or we can abandon this commitment, ceding it to other nations who are working diligently to push the frontiers of space.”

If we choose to lead, we must build on our investment in the International Space Station, accelerate development of our next generation launch systems to enable expansion of human exploration, enhance NASA’s capability to study Earth’s environment, lead space science to new achievements, continue cutting-edge aeronautics research, support the innovation of American entrepreneurs, and inspire a rising generation of boys and girls to seek careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

Also confirmed: Lori Beth Garver as deputy administrator.

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