March 18, 2003
Logsdon Named to NASA Shuttle Investigation Board
By Eric
Solomon
John Logsdon, director of the Elliott School of International Affairs
Space Policy Institute, has been selected by NASA to join the Columbia
Accident Investigation Board. Admiral (ret.) Harold W. Gehman,
Jr., chairman of the board investigating the disaster of the space shuttle
Columbia, recently announced the appointment of Logsdon along with two
other prominent experts including Sally Ride, the first American woman
in space.
I hope that my long career as an independent scholar and analyst
of space issues can help the board put the Columbia accident in the
historical perspective of national policy regarding human space flight
and can help frame the needed debate over the future of that policy,
says Logsdon, professor of political science and international affairs.
The independent panel investigating the loss of the space shuttle Columbia
has grown from its original eight members of mostly government and military
officials to include Logsdon and four other individuals from outside
the government.
A recipient of the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, Logsdon
is a member of the NASA Advisory Council and the Commercial Space Transportation
Advisory Committee of the US Department of Transportation.
Logsdon is the author of The Decision to Go to the Moon: Project
Apollo and the National Interest and general editor of the eight-volume
series Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History
of the US Civil Space Program.
GWs Space Policy Institute is one of the few places in the world
providing focused research and analysis attention to space policy issues
and offering graduate courses in space policy.
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu