Miramar Pilot Eyed for Post at NASA
High Tech
by Brad Graves
Staff Writer
President George W. Bush has nominated Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden Jr. , a Marine Corps aviator and a veteran of four space shuttle flights , to the No. 2 administrator’s job at NASA.
The nomination was announced Jan. 31; Bolden still needs Senate confirmation.
Bolden, 55, now serves as commanding general of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.
One published report said the NASA job would give him the third star of a lieutenant general.
NASA compares the position to a chief operating officer. If confirmed, Bolden would serve under NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe.
Bolden’s varied Marine career included a stint as assistant deputy administrator at NASA.
Bolden is a native of Columbia, S.C., and a 1968 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. He later received a master’s degree in systems management from USC.
He flew more than 100 missions during the Vietnam War.
Bolden piloted space shuttle flights in 1986 and 1990, and served as mission commander in 1992 and 1994. The latter flight, aboard space shuttle Discovery, was the first joint U.S.-Russian space shuttle mission, and included a cosmonaut as a mission specialist.
In all, Bolden has logged more than 680 hours in orbit.
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Off The Wireless Wire: San Diego and Los Angeles are among the costliest places to use a cell phone.
Only the talkative citizens of Cincinnati, Boston and Philadelphia have higher bills, according to a survey of 25 major U.S. cities by Econ One Research, Inc. of Los Angeles. The company operates independently of carriers and does not sell telecom products or services.
Econ One figures that in December, the average monthly bill of a San Diego cell phone user was $37.10.
The good news is the cost has gone down 15 percent since the same time last year. In December 2000, the average San Diego bill was $43.65.
In unrelated wireless news:
– San Diego-based Ericsson CDMA Systems has a contract with Verizon Wireless to provide the authentication, authorization and accounting system for Verizon’s next-generation Express Network. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
– San Diego-based telecom carrier Leap Wireless International Inc. is predicting 2 million subscribers by the end of the year, and claims 1.1 million now.
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Making Sense Of Sensors: “Sensor Networks for Healthcare, the Environment and Homeland Defense” is the subject of three conferences Feb. 21-22 at UCSD’s Price Center.
The events are open to the public, but registration is required. For online registration, go to (www.soe.ucsd.edu/Research_Review).
The more general program , the Jacobs School of Engineering Research Review , runs for the entire day Feb. 22. It includes breakfast and lunch.
Speakers will include National Academy of Engineering President William Wulf, Rear Adm. Kenneth Slaght of the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (Spawar), homeland security expert David Kay of Science Applications International Corp., and several UCSD faculty members. Cost is $25.
Two free events are set for the day before.
The San Diego Telecom Council will hold a meeting of its Sensor Networks special interest group beginning at 11:30 a.m. Feb. 21.
A technical workshop on sensor networks, produced by the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, begins at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 21.
Send high-tech news to Graves by e-mail at bgraves@sdbj.com, or by fax at (858) 571-3628.
