New NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a respected former shuttle commander and retired Marine Corp major general, said Tuesday he's confident an on-going presidential review of NASA's manned space program will not result in changes that would lengthen the projected five-year gap between the end of shuttle operations and the debut of a new rocket system to replace it.

NASA's new administrator Charles Bolden and his deputy Lori Garver. Credit: NASA TV

While he would not say what sort of rocket system he favors - NASA's current Ares program or some alternative - Bolden said review Chairman Norman Augustine understands the critical need to replace the shuttle as soon as possible to minimize reliance on Russian Soyuz rockets.

"I definitely have concerns about the gap growing," Bolden told CBS News in an interview. "I don't want anyone to think I have any doubts whatsoever that the Augustine committee is going to bring in a group of options that will include something that is incredibly attractive. I would not be surprised if they brought in an option that was incredibly incredibly attractive, but we couldn't do for one reason or another.

"So, I'm comfortable that we'll get reasonable options that we can make work. ... In my conversation with him, I came away feeling good that he understood the importance of not prolonging the gap. So my guess ... is the options he's going to bring in are going to be options that don't prolong the gap. I don't want to second guess, but I would be surprised if he brought in an option that said OK, it's worth waiting 10 years for."

Confirmed by the Senate last week, Bolden assumes the leadership of the civilian space agency at a particularly critical time. Along with the Augustine review of NASA's plans to build a new rocket system to replace the shuttle, national space policy is being re-assessed and NASA's long-range goal of returning to the moon is in some doubt.

Under a post-Columbia Bush-administration directive, NASA is attempting to complete the International Space Station by the end of 2010 before retiring the space shuttle fleet. Money freed up by retiring the shuttle and finishing the station will go into development of a new rocket, known as Ares 1, that will propel Apollo-like Orion crew capsules to the space station starting around 2015.

Until then, NASA and U.S. partner astronauts will have to hitch rides to the station aboard Russian Soyuz rockets.

NASA's long-range plan is to build a huge new unmanned rocket called the Ares 5 to boost lunar landers and docked Orion capsules to the moon for long-duration stays on the surface. The ultimate, as-yet-unfunded, goal is to launch manned missions to Mars.

But NASA was not given significant new funding to kick start development of the new rockets, resulting in the projected five-year gap between the end of shuttle operations and the debut of Ares-1/Orion.

President Obama has expressed support for the Constellation program, but he ordered the Augustine review, which could result in a major change of direction. Another presidential review is underway to look at whether changes are needed to the national space policy that governs commercial, civilian and military space operations.

The space policy review is "totally different from everything else you hear about," Bolden told agency workers Tuesday. "The nation needs to have a coherent idea about what it's going to use space for. And that's military space, that's commercial space, that's NASA space, that's everything, satellites, people all that stuff. And there needs to be a coherent policy.

"So President Obama has asked (for) a group to come up with, to at least take a look at, the national space policy. And that's already underway to a limited extent and we hope to be participating in that as a full member of the people doing that work.

"The Augustine committee is something everybody's heard about. It is not something to fear, to be afraid of. I would have been remiss in my duties as the NASA administrator if I came in to office and I didn't go pull the center directors together and the (associate administrators) and say OK, tell me what we're doing, tell me how it's going and tell me what we might need to change."

In an "all hands" meeting with agency workers carried by NASA's satellite television system, Bolden said he goes by Charlie, not Charles or Chuck, that he cries easily, that he is a "participatory" leader and a dedicated environmentalist.

"I think I was an environmentalist before the first time I flew in space, but my first spaceflight - other than crying a lot because of its awesome perspective - I really gained a healthy respect for this planet on which we live. ... My favorite place is the Middle East. I have friends there, I have traveled there, I have done lots of things there. It is incredibly beautiful from outer space and you would never think it is as violent as it is.

"In contrast, you look at the Amazon rain forest, which is just incredibly breathtaking from space and yet now, because of our remote sensing and other things, you can see the devastation that's being wreaked there by deforestation and other things. So there are things we need to do. We need to provide data to policy makers and decision makers ... so people can make smart decisions about it."

In an interview with CBS News Tuesday, Bolden and Deputy Administrator Lori Garver discussed the challenges facing NASA with space consultant William Harwood. Here is a transcript of the conversation (questions edited for space):

CBS News: You're coming in at a critical time for NASA. There's the five-year gap between the end of shuttle and whatever replaces it, the Augustine review, the national space policy review, the Office of Management and Budget seems to be after your money. I know you've barely gotten your feet wet and I know you're waiting to see what comes out of the review panels. But what's your personal take on the Constellation program? Do you support the current goals of finish station, retire shuttle and return to the moon?

Bolden: Bill, interestingly, I don't feel I am coming in having to start anything from scratch. I have told the NASA community as well as Congress that I owe an incredible debt of gratitude to ... the NASA leadership team that have kind of really kept things moving since (former Administrator) Mike Griffin left. They have been doing a lot of internal reviews and the like that I think will go hand in glove with the Augustine committee.

I'm excited personally about the prospective presidential review of national space policy, because I think that's critical. I wish we had done it the other way around, to be quite honest. I would have loved for there to have been a national space policy review that set the overall tone and then come in and allow us to take a look at how NASA could better ensure the things we're doing fit into that. Because what you don't want to do is come out of Augustine, make some decisions about how you want to do things and then find that all of the sudden the national space policy has changed. We're going to have to be a little clairvoyant in trying to hope that we're in tune with whatever the revised national space policy is.

In answer to your other question, I'm very positive on Constellation in concept. We actually need, we have got to have routine alternative access to space, and that's for humans as well as cargo. I welcome the Augustine committee work because it's work that I would have had to do on my own dime after coming in as the administrator. I would have had to ask the kind of questions that Norm is going to ask and I'm not as smart as Norm. I don't have the depth of experience in the corporate world that he has, nor the exposure to the experts that he can bring in. So I probably could have found all the information that he's going to bring us. I'm not sure I would have been able to do it in the amount of time ... he's going to do it. So I'm excited about seeing the results that come in, I'm not afraid of them, to be quite honest.

CBS News: Looking at Ares 1, Ares 5, starting around 2015, going to the moon. Is that a program that before you were approached to be administrator, was that a program that made sense to you?

Bolden: As a result of my experience with co-chairing the previous space transportation architecture study group that was ordered up by (former Administrator) Sean O'Keefe, I think, we were headed in this general direction. You may remember that all those different study groups that we were doing ... we were all headed in the direction of trying to decide the same kinds of things that I think the Augustine committee is going to bring in. So the tendency of our study at that time was toward what has now become known as Constellation and Ares and everything. I wasn't surprised that was the decision made at all.

CBS News: If it turns out Ares is not supported by the upcoming reviews, do you have any concerns the gap will grow?

Bolden: I definitely have concerns about the gap growing. Let me couch this the best way I can. I don't want anyone to think I have any doubts whatsoever that the Augustine committee is going to bring in a group of options that will include something that is incredibly attractive. I would not be surprised if they brought in an option that was incredibly incredibly attractive but we couldn't do for one reason or another. So, I'm comfortable that we'll get reasonable options that we can make work. The one thing that Augustine, in my conversation and Lori's conversation with him, I came away feeling good that he understood the importance of not prolonging the gap. So my guess ... is the options he's going to bring in are going to be options that don't prolong the gap. I don't want to second guess, but I would be surprised if he brought in an option that said OK, it's worth waiting 10 years for. I could be wrong.

CBS News: You mentioned OMB in your NASA Update. There are those who believe OMB is out to pretty much kill off Constellation, if not manned space flight. You mentioned you've had some talks with them. Have you had a toe-to-toe with them? What's your take?

Bolden: "No, no, no, we have not had a toe to toe, I've not had a toe-to-toe with anybody and I don't intend to have them, to be quite honest.

CBS News: I stated that badly. I didn't mean toe to toe in the sense of a fight. I just mean do you have optimism you can get along?

Bolden: You will hear me use the term 'I've been blessed' a lot, and I have. I have the greatest deputy administrator for the time. Lori was here through the (presidential) transition. She (has) had an opportunity to get to talk to people in a totally unbiased way in trying to get information about the space agency and what other people thought about us and which direction we should be going. The purpose of the transition team was to gather information, as it turns out, for me. At the time, they didn't know who the administrator was going to be but their job, as directed by the White House, was to get information that will help the next NASA administrator, but also help the president give that NASA administrator some guidance.

And my guidance from the president has been very brief, in fact, very explicit: incite inspiration in young people and the country again. I mean, it was a very simple message. He didn't give me any specific direction about how to do that, but his challenge to me was make it the way it used to be when he was a kid. The term he used was riding on his grandfather's shoulder as he saw the Apollo 11 astronauts, when his grandfather would hoist him up on his shoulder and watch the Apollo astronauts come in to shore after being picked up out in Hawaii. That's my charge, to inspire kids to want to get into space and science and all that stuff again. But we can do that.

CBS News: But it's obviously going to take money to do that and...

Bolden: Everything takes money! We have got to figure out ways to regain - I hate to use that word because that means it's been lost - I have to figure out a way for Lori and me to gain the confidence of Congress, the Office of Management and Budget and even the president. You know, the president took a gamble on us. He knew about our work, I think, and people like Sen. Nelson probably beat him up a little bit about both of us because he has an opinion about our capability. But he is waiting to see if we can deliver. And we've got to do that. We can't ask for anything if we don't give people an indication that we know what we're doing, that we have a clear path that we want to follow, and I think we're developing that. I think we will gain people's trust.

CBS News: I've got 30 seconds left, so let me ask Lori a quick question. What's your optimism level that when all is said and done that you're going to come out with a manned space program that's going to be viable and will perhaps do at least some of what Charlie wants it to do, which is inspire people and go somewhere beyond Earth orbit?

Garver: Well, I am incredibly optimistic about that, Bill, and I wouldn't be here if I wasn't. I think it's transition time and change is not necessarily a bad thing. I do believe that under Charlie's leadership, as he says, we'll have some options which he can choose, he and (presidential Science Advisor John) Holdren, which will take us beyond Earth orbit in a way that all of America and the world can again be proud.

CBS News: Thanks very much.

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