NASA Staff Meeting Minutes 28 May 1996

Minutes of Senior Staff and Center Director’s Meeting May 28, 1996
The following documents the discussions addressed at the Senior Staff and Center Director’s Meeting on May 28, 1996. Mr. Goldin was not in attendance. Action assignments are bolded.

1. AA Reports
B/Peterson: Code B has been providing informal briefings to the Hill on the NASA Operating Plan. The AA’s have been provided an advance copy of this plan, and it is anticipated that Mr. Goldin will sign the plan this week.
R/Reeves: Dr. Whitehead will join Mr. Goldin on his visit to ARC on May 29, 1996.
G/Frankle: Mr. Frankle expressed his appreciation to LeRC for hosting the General Counsel Conference last week.
X/Stein: Code X has been very pleased with the payload experiments aboard STS-77. Code X had three primary payloads and a variety of secondary payloads aboard the mission. The crew experienced some difficulties with the fluid transfer experiment during the mission; however, those difficulties were eventually overcome. The exact cause will not be identified until a post- mission analysis is conducted.
M/Trafton: Mr. Trafton congratulated Dr. Szalai for the excellent work that Dr. Szalai and his team did on the review of the Tether mission. On May 24, 1996, Dr. Szalai briefed Mr. Trafton and Mr. Allen on the report’s findings, and in a separate meeting that afternoon, they briefed Mr. Goldin. This week, Members of Congress will be briefed on the report’s findings, and a press conference is scheduled for next week.
L/Lawrence: Mr. Lawrence stated that the House Science Bill will be reviewed on May 29, 1996. It is the first item on the House’s agenda and should take most of the day. (Note: At this time, the bill is anticipated to go to the floor on May 30, 1996.) The debates can be heard on CSPAN. The VA/HUD Subcommittee will mark the FY 1997 Appropriations Bill on May 30, 1996. Code L will have a summary of these events on their home page on May 31, 1996.
P/Boeder: STS-77 has received very positive coverage throughout its mission, and the video taken by the crew of the satellite stabilization experiment is receiving a great deal of interest. Code P is currently working with the new astronaut class to ensure that their hometown papers have an opportunity to interview them. Additionally, NASA has received favorable press for their participation in the ValueJet search with specially equipped helos from KSC.
U/Nicogossian: On May 29, 1996, the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) will conduct a symposium on Accountability of Risk from Radiation –Application to Manned Space Flight. The Cooperative Agreement between NASA, the Foundation for Transplantation Research, and VivoRX continues to be developed for the application of NASA bioreactor technology to the expansion of islet cell populations in the treatment of diabetes. A draft of an interagency agreement between NASA and the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NEI/NIH) has been completed. This agreement will transfer the NASA-developed fiber optic probe technology to the NEI/NIH for the early detection and diagnosis of eye diseases such as cataracts. A cooperative proposal between NASA, NIH, Center for X-ray Optics at the University at Albany, and X-Ray Optical Systems, Inc., is being developed with the purpose of transferring the new high-intensity X-ray technology to the NIH for use in structural determination of medically important proteins. This technology will also find use in a wide variety of industrial applications.
Q/Lloyd: Mr. Lloyd congratulated Dr. Szalai and his team for their work on the Tether mission assessment. Mr. Lloyd explained that Code Q will be coordinating a rapid turnaround of the HQ concurrence needed prior to the release of this report and requested support from the reviewing codes to ensure that their comments are submitted by May 30, 1996.
Z/Ladwig: Mr. Ladwig thanked Russell Bardos, Code M, and Steve Richards, from MSFC, for their assistance last week in providing rapid responses to several questions from Mr. Goldin.
K/Thomas: The Department of Justice recently announced a call for comments on the findings of a Federal agency group on which Mr. Thomas participated.
Y/Mann: Dr. Kennel’s farewell party is at 3 p.m. on June 3, 1996. At 1:30 p.m., Dr. Kennel will provide a farewell lecture discussing Mission to Planet Earth and NASA Headquarters. NOAA 9 has stopped transmitting data after 11.5 years of service. Originally launched with a planned life span of 2 to 2.5 years, the satellite is considered a resounding success. The satellite’s functions have been replaced by a variety of other, newer systems, so there will not be a degradation of service.
F/Armstrong: On May 23, 1996, General Armstrong signed a letter to the Officials-in-Charge requesting their comments on GS skill-mix requirements for the year 2000. This is a critical part of the detailed workforce planning that is being conducted at HQ and is due to Code F by July 12, 1996.
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
The annual HQ picnic will be held on June 22 from 12 to 4 p.m. at the GSFC recreation center.
The Strategic Management Meeting will be held on July 16 and a half day on July 17, 1996. The review of the codes’ go-to plans has been completed. Meetings have been scheduled with the various codes to discuss cross-code activities.
General Dailey will travel to KSC for the May 29, 1996, Shuttle landing.
3. Center Director Reports
ARC/Dean: Dr. McDonald is escorting Congressman Sensenbrenner on a tour of the Center today. Dr. McDonald will join Mr. Goldin at the luncheon for the Coalition for Science and Technology meeting in Sacramento on May 29, 1996. Mr. Goldin will be the keynote speaker and will address ARC’s role as the Center of Excellence for Information Technology.
DFRC/Peterson: The F-18 High Angle-of-Attack Research Vehicle (HARV) will fly its final flights this week. Paul Holloway and Lee Beach will participate in the observation of the successful completion of this joint research program. The Theseus vehicle flew its first flight on May 24, 1996. The flight was aborted shortly after takeoff because of an indicated engine problem and was recovered successfully on the lakebed. DFRC is looking forward to Mr. Goldin’s visit this week.
GSFC/Rothenberg: Mr. Rothenberg thanked the STS-77 crew for all of their hard work during the mission.
JPL/Stone: Dr. Stone stated that he was very happy with the results of the inflatable antenna experiment and is looking forward to reviewing the experiment’s data.
JSC/Abbey: STS-77 has gone very well and everything is ready for a landing on May 29, 1996. The rollout of STS-78 at KSC will occur on May 30, 1996. Dr. Lucid had a good interview last week. Preparation for the July Mir mission that will return Shannon Lucid, replacing her with John Blaha, is proceeding well.
KSC/Thomas: The weather at KSC for the May 29, 1996, landing of STS-77 is looking very good; however, the weather forecast at KSC for May 30, 1996, is poor. (Note: Endeavour landed at KSC on May 29, 1996.) There was a peaceful protest at the gates of Cape Canaveral AFB on May 25, 1996, against the Cassini mission. KSC has specially equipped helos that are participating in the ValueJet search.
LaRC/Tang: Paul Holloway and Lee Beech have departed for DFRC for the last mission of the F-18 HARV. The Air Force and McDonnell Douglas are flying a C-17 to the Center for a ceremony that will thank the NASA employees for their contributions to the aeronautics technologies that developed the C-17. Senators Warner (R-VA) and Robb (D-VA) and Congressmen Bateman (R-VA) and Scott (D-VA) will attend.
LeRC/Campbell: On April 22-23, 1996, a meeting of the inter-Center Aero-Sensors Working Group (ASWG) was held to discuss instrumentation research programs and activities. Representatives from ARC, LeRC, LaRC, and HQ (with telecon participation from DRFC and LaRC) reviewed the current status of Center instrumentation organizations, research programs and accomplishments, and research funding. Action items to document NASA instrumentation research needs and industry customers of instrumentation technology were planned. A subsequent meeting at ARC is scheduled for July. On May 22, 1996, the Ohio Aerospace Forum and Governor Voinovich convened a meeting with the Ohio congressional delegation. The forum represented members of the business and university communities from Northeastern and Southwestern Ohio. The forum voices Ohio’s commitment to maintaining LeRC and Wright Patterson Air Force Base as vital institutions that provide maximum economic benefit to the State.
The purpose of this meeting with congressional Members was to gain support for aerospace issues across the State of Ohio. The May 22 forum was a first step in the process of securing Ohio’s aerospace future, with follow-on meetings between business leaders and congressional Members planned. The Ohio Aerospace Forum has launched a Statewide effort to ensure that Ohio’s strategic investments in aerospace technology will be protected and will prosper. The Mobile Aeronautics Education Laboratory (MAEL) was dedicated on May 24, 1996, by a host of dignitaries which included Dr. Robert Whitehead, Associate Administrator for Aeronautics, Congressmen Martin Hoke (R-OH), Steven LaTourette (R-OH), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Thomas Sawyer (D-OH), and Congressman Louis Stokes (D-OH) participated via a video message. The MAEL is a mobile, state-of-the art classroom that brings new technologies to partnership cities to excite students about science and math. The MAEL’s trailer and program were created through a partnership between Cuyahoga Community College (CCC) and LeRC in Cleveland, Ohio. Special congratulations to Dr. R. Lynn Bondurant, Jr., and the MAEL team for a job well done.
SSC/Estess: SSC has been requested to provide information concerning the technology transfer initiatives as part of a Senate Subcommittee investigation. SSC is hosting the National Association of Public Administrators this week.
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 358-4525.
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