Robert W. Cobb, the long-embattled NASA inspector general, resigned under pressure from several Senate and House lawmakers who earlier had slammed his performance in office and requested that he be fired.

Cobb for years has been assailed for lax performance in ferreting out problems at NASA, for cozy relations with former NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe, and for browbeating NASA employees. (Please see Space & Missile Defense Report, March 12, 2007; April 9, 2007; May 28, 2007; June 11, 2007 and Jan. 19, 2009.)

Cobb’s departure, effective Saturday, drew a note of good riddance from some members of Congress on both sides of Capitol Hill.

One of them was Sen. John D. "Jay" Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), the Senate Commerce Committee chairman.

In a letter March 18 to President Obama, Rockefeller, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) requested the "immediate removal" of Cobb from office, accusing himof stifling investigations, retaliating against whistleblowers and prioritizing social relationships with top NASA officials over proper federal oversight of agency programs.

Under Cobb’s watch, probes of waste, fraud and abuse plunged from 508 in 2002 to just 68 in 2007, the senators noted, as many IG office investigators left their jobs.

Rockefeller welcomed Cobb’s following them out the door.

"News of Robert Cobb’s resignation is certainly welcome and this is an important step forward," Rockefeller said. "I applaud the White House for taking a zero tolerance approach to lax enforcement and oversight. President Obama is setting the tone from the top and holding all employees who serve the American people accountable for improper conduct and just plain not doing their jobs. The time has come to close the door on this troubling chapter for NASA and a fresh start awaits."

Another sigh of relief came from the House, where Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), the House Science and Technology Committee (HSTC) chairman, said NASA needs more than just the departure of the controversial IG.

"This is a good first step," Gordon said. "Mr. Cobb was not up to the job. But the end result can’t just be the removal of an ineffectual IG. We need to put in place a strong IG. NASA is too important an agency, with too important a mission, to risk letting waste and abuse run rampant due to lax oversight."

Rep. Brad Miller (D.N.C.), HSTC investigations and oversight subcommittee chairman, also looked beyond the unhappy past with Cobb, toward the future.

"This is an opportunity for President Obama to return NASA to its original mission, to make it the ‘right stuff’ agency again," Miller said. "A scientific agency should not be political in the way NASA became in the last eight years."

The HSTC first urged firing Cobb in 2007. Gordon and Miller sent a letter to Obama in February asking him to "ensure Mr. Cobb’s expeditious removal and replacement with an inspector general who can rebuild the NASA OIG [Office of the Inspector General] into the highly competent, thorough, and independent operation that both NASA and the American taxpayer deserve."

In his resignation letter sent to Obama, Cobb asserted, "Challenges facing NASA are many, but I am confident that they will be ably met by your Administration, working with NASA’s gifted scientists, engineers, institutional leaders, and contractor workforce."