NASA Staff Meeting Minutes 20 May 1996

Minutes of Senior Staff and Center Director’s Meeting May 20, 1996
The following documents the discussions addressed at the Senior Staff and Center Director’s Meeting on May 20, 1996. Mr. Goldin was not in attendance. Action assignments are bolded.

1. AA Reports
B/Peterson: The May 16, 1996, Appropriations Committee Hearing went well. Code B is placing the finishing touches on the Agency’s Operations Plan and it is anticipated that it will be published this week.
H/Lee: Ms. Lee will distribute a letter this week that explains NASA’s responsibilities in the DOD-lead initiative concerning block process changes. Code H has been working with Code Q and AE to understand the implications of this government-wide initiative that will allow contractors to make recommendations to improve the company’s efficiency by standardizing processes across government agencies in the hopes of reducing costs.
E/Alexander: The NASA-sponsored Center for Food Production, Processing and Waste Management for CELSS at Tuskegee University has been selected to receive the Department of Agriculture’s most prestigious award, The Secretary’s Honor Award. USDA has invited NASA to attend the award ceremony on June 5, 1996. The GSA’S Civil Rights Officer visited the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs on Thursday, May 16, 1996. The purpose of the visit was to alert NASA of the need to comply with two requirements of Public Law 100-542, the Telecommunications Accessibility Enhancement Act of 1988. Under this law, NASA’s telecommunications system must be fully accessible to individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired. Another requirement of Public Law 100-542 is for GSA to publish and maintain a directory of Federal Government TDD/TTY numbers. GSA audited some of NASA’s headquarters TDD numbers, as published in the Federal Government nationwide telephone directory and found some of the numbers were not working. Some of the Centers do not have all of their TDD Numbers listed in the Federal Telephone Directory as required by the law. Ms. Alexander recommended that as a minimum all Personnel and EEO offices should have their TDD/TDY number in the Federal Directory. The GSA due date for the NASA review is June 3, 1996.
G/Werner: This week is the Chief Counsel Meeting at LeRC.
P/Vincent: The coverage of STS-77’s launch has been very good and there has been some spectacular coverage of the inflatable antenna experiment. It will be a busy week for science, as NASA is anticipating announcements from the American Geophysical Union Meeting concerning Galileo, SOHO, and Tether. Dr. Lucid will be interviewed by People Magazine on May 23, 1996, and on May 24, NASA will obtain the video from the Russian Space Agency (RSA), of the Mir’s solar array EVA. A joint news conference, with representatives from the RSA and NASA, will occur on May 28, 1996.
X/Reck: Code X remains very excited about the experiments being conducted on STS-77. 90 percent of the experiments are commercialization and technology experiments. Mr. Reck expressed his appreciation for the efforts of KSC in support of the mission. The inflatable antenna experiment is attracting a great deal of interest and is performing as anticipated. During the DC-XA flight test on May 18, 1996, the rocket was scorched during the landing phase of the test flight. However, the DC-XA is anticipated that it will be ready for its second test flight on June 7, 1996.
W/Gross: Ms. Gross reported that both Mr. Prussin and his company Flag Fasteners, Inc. (Flag Fasteners), entered guilty pleas to felony charges in U. S. District Court, District of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland. Prussin and Flag Fasteners, a subcontractor at GSFC ,were charged with one count of mail fraud in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1341. It has been alleged that Prussin and Flag fasteners, a distributor of military Specification (MS) and National Aeronautic Standard (NAS) fasteners (nuts, screws, bolts and washers) schemed to defraud the United States Government in connection with the sale of fasteners to Government contractors. Prussin and Flag Fasteners falsely represented that the provided commercial fasteners met all applicable Government specifications. Prussin could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and fined up to $250,000. Flag Fasteners could be fined up to $500,000. This task force investigation was conducted by Special Agents of the NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG), Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Transportation OIG, Naval Criminal Investigations Service and the USAF Office of Special Investigations.
R/Whitehead: On May 24, 1996, Dr. Whitehead will attend the dedication of the AERO Education Lab at LeRC. On May 24, the U.S. Air Force will fly a C-17 to LaRC for a ceremony that will recognize the contributions of the employees in developing the technologies responsible for making the C-17 a reality. On May 29, 1996, Mr. Goldin will speak in Sacramento, reinforcing ARC’s role as the center of excellence for information technology.
Y/Townsend: The response to GAO’s report announcing that NASA has too few scientists to review the data being received by the Mission to Plant Earth studies was signed on May 17, 1996. This study was initiated by Congressman Sensenbrenner (R-WI) this past March. Last week’s hearing on May 16, 1996 went well with Senator Burns. In support of the NASA testimony, GSFC created a video production. Senator Burns was so impressed with the demonstration that he complimented the video during the afternoon’s hearing. Mr. Townsend thanked GSFC for their contribution and efforts. Representatives from MTPE and NASDA will conduct the mission review of Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) and Advanced Earth Observing System (ADEOS) on August 17, 1996. With the recent success of the Pegasus XL launch, GSFC has scheduled the launch readiness review of the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) and the Earth Probe (EP) for the end of the month.
S/Huntress: The press coverage of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) discoveries has been very good. Dr. Huntress stated that he was looking forward to the results of the inflatable antenna experiment and congratulated Code XM in advance. The first launch of the Arian 5 will be on the evening of May 30, 1996.
L/Lawrence: The May 16, 1996, hearing on the FY 1997 NASA Budget Request before Chairman Bond’s (R-MO) Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on VA-HUD and Independent Agencies went well, with NASA receiving several actions. It is anticipated that the House Authorization Bill will not go to the floor this week.
U/Nicogossian: On May 15, 1996, Code U was able to assist a medical emergency in Russia by linking Dr. Debakey via telemedicine links with the attending physicians. Preparations for the next life and migrogravity mission, STS-78, are going very well. After the Priroda docked with the Mir, the crew members were required to discontinue their exercise schedule due to resulting vibration.
K/Thomas: A Small Business Conference will be held at GSFC on May 23, 1996.
AE/Mullville: An Engineering Management telecon will be held on May 20, 1996, to review and discuss the systems engineering capabilities and methodology of the Centers and HQ.
Z/Ladwig: The next Strategic Management Meeting will be held on all day on July 16 and half of the day on July 17, 1996. Mr. Goldin has been participating in a series of breakfast meetings with opinion makers. Mr. Ladwig requested recommendations for future invitations. Additionally, Codes Z, P, and L have been meeting with Mr. Mott to perform detailed reviews and coordination of Mr. Goldin’s long-term and short-term calendars. It is requested that events be specifically coordinated with the members of this team to ensure that all events are dovetailed with the existing calendar.
Q/Gregory: Mr. Gregory will attend the services at Arlington National Cemetery for former astronaut Col. Robert R. Overmeyer.
C/Christensen: Mr. Christensen reminded everyone that the deadline to complete the position description reviews is rapidly approaching.
2. AD/Dailey
It is anticipated that the review of the initial HQ “go-to” plans with the AAs will be completed this week.
The annual HQ picnic will be held on June 2 from 12-4 p.m. at the GSFC recreation center. General Dailey expressed his sincere appreciation to DFRC for his visit last week.
3. Center Director Reports
ARC/Dean: There will be a 2-day Full-Cost Accounting Workshop held at ARC this week. An Aero Council meeting will be held on May 23, 1996. Mr. Rothenberg will visit the Center this week and Congressman Sensenbrenner will visit the Center on May 28, 1996. Additionally, on the afternoon of May 28, Mr. Goldin will visit the Center.
DFRC/Szalai: Dr. Szalai thanked General Dailey for visiting the Center and participating in the medal ceremony. The F-16XL Supersonic Laminar Flow project had a good flight last week. Five flights were flown on the F-18 High Angle of Attack Research Vehicle including two by Phil Brown of LaRC. The first flight of the Theseus is scheduled for this week, weather permitting. The final report of the Tether Investigation was sent to NASA HQ and to the Italian Space Agency last Friday.
GSFC/Rothenberg: Mr. Rothenberg thanked Mr. Peterson, Mr. Lawrence, and Mr. Ladwig for speaking to the GSFC employees last week.
JPL/Stone: Dr. Stone stated that he was watching the inflatable antenna experiment as he was speaking and it looked as if the experiment was doing well.
JSC/Abbey: Everything is going well aboard the Mir and there is an EVA scheduled for May 20, 1996. The STS-78 launch for June 20, 1996, is proceeding nicely.
KSC/Honeycutt: STS-77 had a great launch.
LeRC/Campbell: During the 1995-1996 school year, the NASA/East Tech partnership Committee, which is a component of Educational Programs at LeRC, have put together a project with East Technical High School’s Thematic Engineering Program. This project is called the U.S. FIRST Project. It was designed to give students an educational experience in engineering, science, physics, and math. Working with engineers, technicians, and scientists to brainstorm and design a robot champion, the student would then compete in a national engineering competition at Disney World, Florida. The team did a great job and came in 11th out of 80. The Ohio Business Roundtable will meet with the Ohio Delegation on the morning of May 20, 1996, with a reception held on the evening of May 21, 1996. The focus of the events will be Aeronautics in LeRC, Wright Patterson AFB, General Electric, etc.
MSFC/Littles: Dr. Littles discussed the Source Evaluation Conference on the X-33 that was being hosted at MSFC on May 20, 1996.
NOTE: ACTION ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE TRANSMITTED UNDER SEPARATE COVER AND TRACKED BY THE HEADQUARTERS CORRESPONDENCE OFFICE. SPECIFIC QUESTIONS MAY BE ADDUCED TO LORIE PESONEN AT 358-45254.
Distribution
Officials-in-Charge of Headquarters Offices:
B/Mr. Holz
C/Mr. Christensen
E/Mr. Reese (Acting)
F/Gen. Armstrong
G/Mr. Frankle
H/Ms. Lee
I/Mr. Schumacher
J/Ms. Cooper
K/Mr. Thomas
L/Mr. Lawrence
M/Mr. Trafton
O/Dr. Lundy (Acting)
P/Ms. Boeder
Q/Mr. Gregory
R/Dr. Whitehead
S/Dr. Huntress
U/Dr. Nicogossian (Acting)
W/Ms. Gross
X/Dr. Mansfield
Y/Dr. Kennel
Z/Mr. Ladwig
Directors, NASA Field Installations:
ARC/Dr. McDonald
DFRC/Mr. Szalai
GSFC/Mr. Rothenberg
JSC/Mr. Abbey
KSC/Mr. Honeycutt
LaRC/Mr. Holloway
LeRC/Mr. Campbell
MSFC/Dr. Littles
SSC/Mr. Estess
Director, Jet Propulsion Laboratory:
Dr. Stone
cc:
A/Ms. Wilcoxen
AB/Ms. Saldana
AD/Ms. Shaeffer
AE/Ms. Moore
AI/Ms. McClung
AO/Ms. Wissinger
AS/Ms. Magnotto
AT/Ms. Doss
CC/Analysts
C1/Ms. Soper