Former Shuttle Pilot to Lead NASA’s Langley, Va., Center

Jun. 14–NASA’s Kennedy Space Center director in Florida for the past six years is coming to Hampton to lead NASA’s Langley Research Center, officials announced Thursday.

Gen. Roy D. Bridges, a retired Air Force major general and former space shuttle pilot, has been named Langley Research Center director and will begin work Aug. 10.

“This is a historic day at Langley Research Center,” said NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe, because three of the center’s directors were united for the announcement, including Bridges, past director Jeremiah Creedon and current director Delma Freeman.

Bridges, who will be the ninth director at Langley, has been at Kennedy Space Center since 1997.

Among his duties there, Bridges managed NASA’s operations of the processing and launch of the space shuttle and other launch vehicles.

His move to Hampton is described as neither a promotion or demotion by NASA officials, but rather a lateral move that follows the agency’s current theory of moving people around to create a united operation. Bridges also will strengthen Hampton’s engineering department in preparation for the space shuttle fleet’s eventual return to flight, O’Keefe said.

His tenure in Florida was not, however, pristine. Last fall, Bridges publicly was reprimanded for his handling of personnel changes at Kennedy Space Center. In what was called “outrageous display of poor leadership,” Bridges and other managers announced in a parking lot the end of a program that included 570 jobs, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

A costly computer upgrade at Kennedy was being canceled and management took employees by surprise in announcing the cuts. Bridges, a vocal supporter of the project, said he made the announcement of its death suddenly because that is how he found out, the Sentinel reported. O’Keefe said there should have been better, and more gradual, communication between managers and employees.

“It shows an absolute insensitivity and failure to be leaders,” O’Keefe said at the time. The chastisement was one of the toughest public statements by a NASA administrator in recent memory, the Sentinel reported.

O’Keefe later said he told Bridges to make sure the scenario was not repeated.

O’Keefe and Bridges could not be reached for further comment after the announcement Thursday.

Langley Research Center spokeswoman Marny Skora said the local NASA community is “pleasantly surprised” by Bridges’ move, and that she was not aware of any tensions between Bridges and upper management that could have led to his transfer to Virginia.

In Florida, Bridges managed a team of about 13,800 civil service and contractor employees. At Langley he will oversee about 3,800 civil service and contractor employees, Skora said.

The move comes as Langley Research Center’s capabilities are becoming more nationally known, O’Keefe said.

Following the explosion of the shuttle Columbia in February, Langley researchers were thrust into the spotlight, in part, because of e-mails by a Langley engineer analyzing problems that could have led to the Columbia disaster, O’Keefe said. Langley investigators also played an important role in collecting and analyzing shuttle debris in East Texas, he said.

“(Bridges) will think creatively of how to use research here for all of NASA’s portfolio,” O’Keefe said.

Bridges, 59, replaces Freeman, who is retiring, Skora said.

A retired Air Force major general who was commander of the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Bridges headed the Eastern Space and Missile Center at Patrick Air Force Base near Cape Canaveral. He flew aboard the Challenger in 1985.

Described as quiet, down-to-earth and approachable by friends and colleagues, Bridges had few words Thursday. He said it was too early to comment on projects he would be leading, including any related to shuttle safety. But he is looking forward to his new role in Hampton, he said.

“It’ll be a privilege to be a member of the team,” Bridges said.

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