NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Selected as Speaker for Commissioning Ceremony

Charles F. Bolden, the 12th administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and a retired Marine Corps major general, will deliver the address to newly commissioned officers of the Old Dominion Army ROTC and the Hampton Roads Naval ROTC on May 10.

The 2 p.m. ceremony, at ODU's Ted Constant Convocation Center, will see 75 officer candidates be commissioned to the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. Those commissioned will report to postings around the world. Since the Naval ROTC Unit, Hampton Roads, encompasses the entire region, nine Hampton University cadets and two from Norfolk State University will also be commissioned at the ceremony, joining 64 students from ODU.

His 34-year career with the U.S. Marine Corps included 14 years as a member of NASA's Astronaut Office. He traveled into orbit four times on the space shuttle between 1986 and 1994, commanding two of the missions. His flights included deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope, and the first joint U.S.-Russian shuttle mission, which featured a cosmonaut as a member of his crew.

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