Peggy Whitson: chief astronaut

Whitson: In charge of astronauts who will soon have no spaceship

Fifty years ago, the astronaut corps was exclusively a boys club. Now, the astronaut office is headed by Peggy Whitson, an experienced shuttle astronaut with two ISS missions behind her.

She may not be like “the icy commander”, Alan Shepard, who headed the astronaut office in the 1960s. But Whitson is tough—she was the first woman to command the International Space Station on Expedition 16 in 2007. She’s spent (cumulatively in 2 flights) more than a year in space. She’s had five EVAs. And she came through a very difficult hard landing on a Soyuz spacecraft. Basically, she’s done it all.

She takes the post at a strange time. The shuttle program is scheduled to end next year. There are only five flights left. And it may be years before America has a functioning manned space vehicle. So, if she stays in the post into 2011, she’ll be in charge of a bunch of grounded astronauts—or passengers on Russian spacecraft.

Meanwhile, nobody knows for sure what vehicle will be piloted by American astronauts in the future. NASA’s Constellation program—which is their proposed successor to the shuttle—is in jeopardy…although probably financed for at least one more year. Another unusual possibility: American astronauts flying SpaceX’s Dragon, a privately developed spacecraft.

In any case, Whitson’s in charge in a difficult transitory time. I feel confident she’s up to the task.