Charles Bolden, President Barack Obama’s appointment to be NASA’s administrator, had plenty of support at his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday. He thanked an entire busload of friends and family, filling an overflow room, who had come to Washington DC from his home state, South Carolina. He had three Republican Senators — two from South Carolina, and one from Texas, where Bolden now lives — vying to claim him as a prodigal son. And he had the chief architect of his eventual appointment, Florida Senator Bill Nelson, extolling his virtues as an “overcomer” who rose through the ranks of the Marine Corps (he’s a retired general) and astronaut corps (he flew on four shuttle missions) despite growing up in the segregated south.

But Bolden didn’t need much help. On a busy day for Congress, little time was left for actual questioning. Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the chairman of the Senate committee that handled the confirmation, was the only politician to put NASA’s dilemma in blunt terms. He described NASA as “not what it was”, an agency “adrift”. He reminded Bolden that NASA’s budget had to be “earned every year.” What was he going to do about it?

Several themes emerged in the responses from Bolden and Lori Garver, appointed to be Bolden’s deputy after handling Obama’s campaign space policies. First, they would emphasize the Earth-exploring aspects of NASA — a shift towards Earth science that’s already being seen in NASA budgets. “We have to look at Earth, our planet, and NASA has to lead in providing remote sensors, space-borne sensors, to understand not just what’s out there, but what’s in here,” said Bolden.

Second, they mentioned the importance of NASA R&D — and of using the International Space Station for this. Somewhat weirdly, they focused on potential life science research on the ISS, even though many scientists take a dim view of this. The billions of dollars that NASA spends on planetary science throughout the solar system and astrophysics through the universe didn’t get a mention.

Third, Bolden said that NASA had to make space exploration more entrepreneurial. He cited the example of a friend who was using venture capital to pursue a rocket engine that could take people to Mars in “39 days instead of 8 to 11 months.” “The government cannot fund everything we need to do,” he said.

And finally, Bolden says NASA needs to inspire a new generation of scientists and engineers who will help replace an aging workforce and develop the technologies for a human mission to Mars, which he wants, but which he says is two decades away. He acknowledged noticing a different attitude towards space among schoolchildren. “If I go to a classroom today, it’s different than when I went when I was an astronaut in 1980,” he said. “I could ask, ‘How many of you want to be an astronaut?’ — and every hand went up. When I go today and ask that question, I may see three hands. All of them want to go into business.” An anecdote which doesn’t seem so terrible if space is somehow going to be an entrepreneurial goldmine. Here’s Bolden just after the hearing today, as he was being whisked out of the Senate Russell Building.