Sean O'Keefe
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Sean O'Keefe (born January 27, 1956) was the tenth Administrator of NASA, leading the space agency from December 2001 to February 2005. His tenure was marked by a mix of triumph and tragedy, ranging from the tremendous success of the Mars rovers to the disintegration of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
O'Keefe is currently the chancellor of Louisiana State University, a job he took after resigning from his NASA position. O'Keefe is also a member of the board of directors of DuPont corporation.
Asteroid 78905 Seanokeefe was named after him "for his vision and leadership in advancing the spirit of exploration during his tenure as the 10th NASA Administrator."[citation needed]
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[edit] Tenure as NASA Administrator
O'Keefe became NASA Administrator on December 21, 2001 after his nomination by President George W. Bush was confirmed by the Senate. O'Keefe's tenure at NASA can be naturally divided into roughly three equal periods, each marked by a single problem or event of overriding importance:
- December 2001 through January 2003: O'Keefe eliminated a $5 billion cost overrun in the construction of the International Space Station.
- February 2003 through December 2003: O'Keefe helped NASA to cope with the trauma of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and its aftermath.
- January 2004 through February 2005: O'Keefe re-organized NASA to start working on President George W. Bush's newly announced plan to send humans to the Moon and Mars.
[edit] Controversy at NASA
O'Keefe came from a background in accounting, and as such was the first NASA Administrator to have no formal training in science or engineering. O'Keefe changed the organizational structure of NASA senior management so that a small staff within headquarters were the only people who reported to him directly. Many senior managers who had formerly reported directly to the Administrator, including the Center directors, were now restricted to reporting to those under O'Keefe. Ironically, the same organizational change had been made twenty years earlier under Administrator James Beggs, and the bureaucratic remove was implicated as part of the dysfunctioning management culture that contributed to the loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger.
Sean O'Keefe's most controversial decision occurred in February 2004, when he attempted to cancel an upcoming mission by the Space Shuttle to service the aging Hubble Space Telescope. O'Keefe claimed that, in light of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, the mission would be too risky, especially since if the shuttle was damaged while visiting the Hubble, the shuttle would not have enough fuel to dock with the space station as a "safe haven." This decision was assailed by numerous astronomers, who felt that the Hubble telescope was valuable enough to merit the risk. In late October 2006 O'Keefes successor , Mike Griffin reversed this decision. Griffin had previously expressed a willingness to send up a repair mission and to launch the Discovery on July 13, 2005 to the International Space Station (see STS-114). One of Griffin's first actions as NASA administrator was to organize a group at Goddard Space Flight Center to study and prepare for a potential Hubble maintenance mission with the Shuttle. The final Hubble mission, tentatively scheduled for May 2008, will service Hubble's gyroscopes and install two new instruments: the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and the Wide Field Camera 3.
In April 2004, O'Keefe forbade astronauts Steve Robinson and Stephanie Wilson and other NASA scientists from travelling to Israel, saying it was too dangerous. Robinson, Wilson, and the other NASA scientists were due to attend an Israel Space Agency (ISA) science conference centered on the results of the scientific research performed by Ilan Ramon, the first ever Israeli to fly in space, on the final flight of the Columbia. This was the only research from the Columbia mission that was transmitted to the Earth prior to the attempted landing, and so the only science results to be saved from that mission. Besides the scientists from NASA and Israel, other scientists from Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Greece were committed to attending the conference. Israeli Science and Technology Minister Eliezer Sandberg vehemently criticised NASA for this decision, pointedly asking how NASA expected to return to spaceflight, let alone voyage to the Moon and Mars, if it considered a trip to Israel too dangerous.
Later in 2004, O'Keefe again drew popular criticism for going on tour to openly campaign for President Bush's re-election effort. He defended his action by saying that he was not campaigning for Bush in his official capacity as NASA chief, but as a private citizen.
O'Keefe also responded to President Bush's Vision for Exploration by hiring retired Navy Admiral Craig E. Steidle as an associate administrator in charge of that effort, and by producing a mission architecture based on four launches of medium-lift vehicles and four space rendezvous per mission. This so-called "quadruple-quadruple" or Q-Q mission architecture was derided by famed astronautical engineer Robert Zubrin as "clearly unworkable", "nonsensical", "pure bullsh--", and "a measure of [O'Keefe's] unfitness for his position..." While Admiral Steidle infamously emphasized "systems of systems" and "spiral development" in a plan to develop a long series of incrementally modified hardware elements, incoming NASA chief Mike Griffin told Congress "I hate the term 'spiral development' - I hate buzzwords in general." [1] Griffin immediately scrapped the Q-Q architecture and started over in designing the Vision for Exploration mission architecture, sixteen months after the Vision mandate had been given.
[edit] Career before and after NASA
O'Keefe is currently the chancellor of Louisiana State University, having replaced Mark Emmert. LSU students commonly refer to O'Keefe as the "Rocket Man," "Space Chancellor," or "Space Chancellor O'Keefe."[2]. Before his jobs at LSU and NASA, O'Keefe served as Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget from January to December 2001, a job that strengthened his reputation, in the eyes of some, as a "bean counter" — someone who counts every penny[citation needed].
Prior to that, O'Keefe served as United States Secretary of the Navy from 1992-1993 under President George H. W. Bush.
Prior to joining the administration of George H. W. Bush, O'Keefe was the Louis A. Bantle Professor of Business and Government Policy, an endowed chair at the Syracuse University Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He was also a Professor of Business Administration and Assistant to the Senior Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School at Pennsylvania State University.
Before serving as Secretary of the Navy, O'Keefe had been Comptroller and Chief Financial Officer of the Department of Defense since 1989. Before joining the Department of Defense, he served on the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations staff for eight years, and was Staff Director of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.
O'Keefe recently confirmed to the LSU student newspaper, The Daily Reveille, his membership in the all-male exclusive Bohemian Club. As a member of the Wayside Log camp, O'Keefe traveled during July, 2005, to visit the famous Bohemian Grove grounds near San Francisco, California.
[edit] Education
O'Keefe earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1977 from Loyola University New Orleans, and a Master of Public Administration degree in 1978 from the Syracuse University Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.
[edit] External links
- Official NASA Biography and Speeches
- NASA History Office Entry
- NASA Resignation Release
- Official LSU Office of the Chancellor
- LSU Profile
[edit] References
- The Career and Education portions of this article are based on public domain text from NASA.
- Some definitions are from Dictionary.com.
| Preceded by Mark Emmert |
Chancellor of LSU 2005–present |
Succeeded by — |
| Preceded by Daniel Goldin |
Administrator of NASA 2001-2005 |
Succeeded by Michael D. Griffin |
| Preceded by Daniel Howard (acting) |
United States Secretary of the Navy 1992-1993 |
Succeeded by Frank B. Kelso II |
| Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration | |
|---|---|
| Glennan | Webb | Paine | Fletcher | Frosch | Beggs | Fletcher | Truly | Goldin | O'Keefe | Griffin | |
| United States Secretaries of the Navy |  |
|---|---|
| Cabinet Level: Stoddert • Smith • Hamilton • Jones • Crowninshield • S Thompson • Southard • Branch • Woodbury • Dickerson • Paulding • Badger • Upshur • Henshaw • Gilmer • Mason • Bancroft • Mason • Preston • Graham • Kennedy • Dobbin • Toucey • Welles • Borie • Robeson • R Thompson • Goff • Hunt • Chandler • Whitney • Tracy • Herbert • Long • Moody • Morton • Bonaparte • Metcalf • Newberry • Meyer • Daniels • Denby • Wilbur • Adams • Swanson • Knox • Forrestal
Dept. of Defense: Sullivan • Matthews • Kimball • Anderson • Thomas • Gates • Franke • Connally • Korth • Nitze • Ignatius • Chafee • Warner • Middendorf • Claytor • Hidalgo • Lehman • Webb • Ball • Garrett • O'Keefe • Dalton • Danzig • England • Winter |
| E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (DuPont) |
|---|
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Corporate Directors: Alain Belda | Richard H. Brown | Curtis Crawford | Louisa Duemling | John T. Dillon | Charles O. Holliday | Lois Juliber | Masahisa Naitoh | Sean O'Keefe | William K. Reilly | Rodney Sharp | Charles Vest |
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Products: ChromaFlair | Corian | Kevlar | Mylar | Neoprene | Nomex | Nylon | Teflon | Tyvek |
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Annual Revenue: $27.3 billion USD ( |
