NASA is administratorless.

Yeah — we’re 102 days into Obama’s administration, and he has yet to nominate an administrator for the agency.

Which matters because an agreement between NASA  and Congress regarding their handling of the space shuttle program expired yesterday.

The fine print: NASA could begin to dismantle the program today, in theory.

However, Christopher Scolese, the acting administrator, promised to hold off on any major decisions until Obama’s given the word or made an announcement regarding the agency’s future.

What worries us is Obama’s apparent lack of concern for the agency’s immediate future. NASA officials say the earliest they could have a redesigned shuttle on the launch pad — given they were already started on it — is 2015, at a price tag of about $230 billion. And it’s not that the federal government isn’t all about spending money right now, but how much do you really want such fiscally large decisions to be made by an “acting” administrator?

So, although Obama’s got plenty on his plate — between the swine flu and Congress’ speedy confirmation of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebilius as the new secretary of Health and Human Services, a struggling economy and a Republican party that seems either set on his failure or ready to join his party — we’d still like to see him make some attempt at progress.

Because as president, it is clear that one of his strong suits is going to have to be the ability to multitask.