Richard H . Truly Richard Harrison Truly ( born November 12 , 1937 ) is a retired Vice Admiral in the United States Navy , a former fighter pilot , former astronaut for both the United States Air Force and NASA , and was the eighth Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) from 1989 to 1992 . He was the first former astronaut to head the space agency . After his departure from NASA , he led the Georgia Tech Research Institute from 1992 to 1997 , and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory from 1997 to 2005 . Early life . Born in Fayette , Mississippi , Truly attended schools in Fayette and Meridian , Mississippi , receiving a bachelor of aeronautical engineering degree from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1959 , where he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order . Truly was ordered to flight school and was designated a Naval Aviator on October 7 , 1960 . His initial tour of duty was in Fighter Squadron 33 ( VF - 33 ) where he flew F - 8 Crusader s aboard USS " Intrepid " and USS " Enterprise " ) and made more than 300 carrier landings . From 1963 to 1965 , he was first a student and later an instructor at the U . S . Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base , California . Astronaut career . In 1965 , Truly was among the first military astronauts selected to the United States Air Force ' s Manned Orbiting Laboratory ( MOL ) program in Los Angeles , California . He joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in August 1969 after the cancellation of the MOL program . At NASA , he was a member of the astronaut support crew and capsule communicator ( CAPCOM ) for all three of the manned Skylab missions in 1973 , and the Apollo - Soyuz mission in 1975 . He was assigned to one of the two - man crews for the Approach and Landing Tests of the Space Shuttle " Enterprise " in 1977 , and the STS - 2 mission in 1981 . Truly served as commander of STS - 8 in 1983 . After STS - 8 , Truly left NASA to become the first commander of the Naval Space Command . Return to flight . Three weeks after the Space Shuttle " Challenger " disaster , Truly returned to NASA to became NASA ' s Associate Administrator for Space Flight on February 20 , 1986 . His primary task was to watch over the Space Shuttle ' s return to flying status . Along with that , he was also responsible for such long term issues as whether or not the " Challenger " would be replaced , the role the Shuttle would play in the future and the mixture of expendable spacecraft and the shuttle for upcoming missions . While it only took a few days to determine the technical reason for the accident , sorting out the root cause was more difficult . In the end , it took Truly and NASA ' s " Return to Flight " program 31 months before the Space Shuttle " Discovery " successfully flew on September 29 , 1988 with STS - 26 . In March 1986 , Truly noted in a memo that there were several actions NASA needed to accomplish before launching another Shuttle . They included " Solid Rocket Motor joint redesign , Critical Items review , and Operations and Maintenance Instructions review " . Truly was named to head NASA as its eighth Administrator in May 1989 . He held this position until May 1992 . He is credited by Carl Sagan of interceding in an internal dispute regarding whether Voyager 1 should be commanded to take one last photograph of earth before finalizing its primary mission . The resultant photograph has since become known as the Pale Blue Dot photograph . He retired from the Navy as a Vice Admiral shortly before becoming NASA Administrator . Post - NASA . After leaving NASA , Adm . Truly became Vice President and Director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute , part of the Georgia Institute of Technology , in Atlanta , Georgia . He served in this role from 1992 to 1997 . Then he served as Director of the Department of Energy ' s National Renewable Energy Laboratory and as Executive Vice President of the Midwest Research Institute from 1997 - 2005 . In May 2007 , Retired Vice Admiral Richard Truly testified before the U . S . Senate Committee on Foreign Relations as a member of a military advisory board on the subject of the threats to U . S . national security posed by global climate change . Truly is married and has three children , Michael , Daniel , and Lee Truly . Decorations . His decorations include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal , Defense Superior Service Medal , two Legions of Merit , Distinguished Flying Cross , and the Meritorious Service Medal . His NASA awards include the NASA Distinguished Service Medal , two NASA Space Flight Medal s , and two NASA Exceptional Service Medal s . In 1988 , he was awarded the Society of Experimental Test Pilots James H . Doolittle Award . He also received that year the Collier Trophy for his role in assisting NASA ' s return to launching manned missions after the " Challenger " disaster . In January 1989 , Truly was presented the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Ronald Reagan .