A NASA administrator from 1992 until his resignation in 2001, who had the longest tenure in NASA history. His style of leadership was based on the mantra ‘faster, better, cheaper’.

Goldin was with TRW Space and Technology Group in Redondo Beach, California, for 25 years (as vice-president and general manager) before joining NASA. In 1962 he worked at NASA's Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio, on electric propulsion systems for human interplanetary travel.

In 1999, an independent review panel concluded that Goldin had over-curtailed budgets at NASA to the detriment of mission successes. By the time of his resignation NASA was experiencing a budgetary crisis.