NASA Staff Meeting Minutes 7 October 1996

Minutes of Senior Staff and Center Director’s Meeting October 7, 1996
The following documents the discussions addressed at the Senior Staff and Center Director’s Meeting on October 7, 1996. Mr. Goldin was not in attendance. Action assignments have been placed in brackets [ ] for easy identification.

1. AA Reports
S/Huntress: The X-ray Timing Explorer (XTE) spacecraft entered a 12-hour safehold this past weekend. The craft is back online, and the anomaly is currently being investigated. The SAC-B launch has slipped to October 25, 1996. The Mars Pathfinder closed its pedals for the last time before it lands on the surface of Mars. Dr. Huntress congratulated Dr. Stone for all of JPL’s efforts.
AE/Mulville: Dr. Mulville thanked JPL for hosting the Provide Aerospace Products and Capabilities Process Team last week.
Y/Mann: The recent images from the Advanced Earth Observing System (ADEOS) space- craft have been released. The ESSP program has begun its step 1 evaluation of the scientific merit of 44 proposals.
W/Gross: On October 9, 1996, a Federal Grand Jury in the Northern District of Florida returned an indictment charging Transistor Devices, Inc.’s (TDI), Brian K. Fish, William R. Dodson, George E. Effinger, and Rhonda Aycock, with eight counts of filing false claims, eight counts of making false statements and entries, seven counts of mail fraud, one count of major fraud against the United States, and 24 counts of aiding and abetting. The investigation was conducted by the NASA Office of Inspector General, U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, U.S. Investigative Service, and the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division Command. The indictment alleges that TDI and the individual defendants created and maintained quality assurance inspection documents that were false and fraudulent, as well as false and fraudulent invoices and Certificates of Test and Compliance (CTC) that were delivered to NASA through NASA’s contractor DNE Technologies, Inc., the Air Force, the Navy, and the Army. The invoices and CTC’s were false and fraudulent in that they represented that the products being delivered were manufactured and inspected in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contracts.
U/Nicogossian: Professor Christopher Beckermann of the University of Iowa, Principal Investigator of the Equiaxed Dendritic Solidification Experiment, has won the American Society of Metals 1996 Marcus A. Grossman Young Author Award for the paper entitled: “Formation of Macrosegregation by Multicomponent Thermosolutal Convention during Solidification of Steel.” The award was established in 1960 to honor authors under 40 years of age whose papers had been selected as the best of those published in a specific volume of “Metallurgical and Materials Transactions.” Dr. Beckermann shares the award with his co-author, Dr. Marc C. Schneider, MAGMA Giessereitechnologie GmbH, Aachen, Germany. U/Dr. Wargo has been selected as a Consulting Editor to Odyssey magazine for the upcoming February issue that will focus on Space Laboratories and Microgravity Research. Odyssey is a popular, award-winning national publication. Dr. Neal Pellis participated in the JSC biotechnology program as one of the only three plenary speakers at the Cell Transplant Society 3rd International Congress, Cellular Transplantation: The Next Frontier, which was held in Miami, Florida, from September 29 through October 2, 1996. Dr. Pellis spoke on Three-dimensional Tissue Culture, using NASA bioreactors in the session on tissue engineering and bioartificial origins.
Q/Lloyd: Mr. Gregory is at MSFC for the HEDS Assessment Board. On a sad note, George A. Rodney, former NASA Associate Administrator for Safety, Reliability and Quality Assurance, died at the age of 75. His memorial service will be held on October 19, 1996, in Melbourne, Florida.
R/Reeves: Dr. Whitehead gave the keynote address at the Instate for Computer Applications in Science and Engineering’s roundtable workshop on October 7, 1996. Last week’s workshop with Dr. Whitehead, the Aeronautics Enterprise’s Center Directors, and the Aeronautics Science and Engineering Board to develop the Aeronautics Strategic Plan was a success. A briefing was provided during the Strategic Management Meetings this week at HQ. Bob Norwood will provide a briefing on Small Business Innovative Research to OMB on October 10.
J/Cooper: As a result of a recent informal discussion between J/Phil Chait and GAO’s Frank Degnan, the following GAO Audits are anticipated. As a followup to a July 1996 report that resulted in a hearing before the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics (Science Committee) on NASA’s uncosted obligations and unobligated funds, a review of how well NASA is managing its “carry-over balances” will be initiated. A followup on GAO’s recent review of NASA’s infrastructure, particularly directed to NASA’s progress regarding cooperation with DOD, is anticipated. A “budget scrub” review will begin that will be similar to the 1995 report entitled “NASA Budget Adjustments” that was intended to identify the size and nature of changes implemented to align the Agency’s operating plan with its final budget authorization. Additionally, a review of the X-33 flight test portion of the contract will be conducted, in light of the accident that occurred when the test vehicle landed. The General Government Division will announce a Governmentwide, multiagency review on downsizing and customer service in which NASA will be included because it is one of the larger, independent agencies.
K/Martel: Mr. Thomas is the keynote speaker at the Small Business Administration’s National Training Conference being held in Virginia this week.
2. AD/ Dailey
The Strategic Management Meeting will be held at HQ on October 8, 1996, for 1 day and will be followed by a Senior Management Meeting on October 9.
The NASA Advisory Council will meet on October 31, and November 1, 1996.
General Dailey will be conducting Center visits to rollout the new Strategic Management Handbook. Representatives from the Institutional Program Offices will be invited to attend these visits with him which will begin next week at SSC and JPL. The remaining Center visits are currently being scheduled and will continue through December.
The Headquarters softball tournament is down to the final games. Last week, during the October 1 game, Code R was defeated by Code E/G/H, 8 to 2, while the IG beat Code Q 7 to 6. During October 3’s game, Code M won its game against Code U 14 to 6, and Code W defeated Code E/G/H 10 to 5. On October 8, Code W will face Code U to determine the team that will meet Code M on Thursday’s final game. (Editor’s note: The October 8 game was canceled due to weather and rescheduled for October 9, where Code W defeated Code U 8 to 4.)
3. Center Director Reports
JSC/Abbey: The decision has been made to replace the orbitor Columbia’s number 3 and 4 windows, which may delay the November 11 launch of STS-80. However, preparations for the launch continue to proceed well.
LeRC/Campbell: LeRC implemented its organizational realignment as of October 1, 1996.
SSC/Craig: Mr. Craig thanked B/Stephen Varholy for his presentation on Full-Cost Accounting and the Integrated Financial Management Program (IFMP).
NOTE: ACTION ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE TRANSMITTED UNDER SEPARATE COVER AND TRACKED BY THE HEADQUARTERS CORRESPONDENCE OFFICE. SPECIFIC QUESTIONS MAY BE ADDRESSED 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/Mr. Townsend (Acting)
Z/Mr. Ladwig
Directors, NASA Field Installations:
ARC/Dr. McDonald
DFRC/Mr. Szalai
GSFC/Mr. Rothenberg
JSC/Mr. Abbey
KSC/Mr. Honeycutt
LaRC/Dr. Creedon
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. Michael
AO/Ms. Wissinger
AT/Ms. Doss
CMC/Analysts
C-3/Ms. Soper