Why Does NASA Need New Office Buildings?

NASA JSC Solicitation: Construction of Office Building 20 at NASA Johnson Space Center

“NASA/JSC plans to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the construction of a new three story office building onsite at the Johnson Space Center. The new office building will be approximately 93,400 square feet and accommodate approximately 520 people.”

Reader note: “I just saw your posting on the JSC office building. It’s explained on page SD21-22 of the FY08 budget: http://www.nasa.gov/about/budget/index.html” Basically, folks have been working out of temporary metal buildings. There’s a lot of info in that supporting data section of the FY08 budget doc.”

Editor’s note: Even without knowing what this building is for I am a little confused.

Mike Griffin and others have spoken about how there won’t be any upsurge in hiring i.e. NASA’s number of contractors and civil servants is not going to rise. Indeed, they talk about either a steady state or people leaving the agency through attrition and possibly targeted layoffs. SOMD and ESMD also talk about synergies – with many people (they claim) who are working on both Shuttle/ISS and Ares/Constellation and how a significant number of existing exployees will move over to Exploration programs when Shuttle is retired and ISS is finished. As such, why is more office space i.e. a new building needed? I can understand if it is replacing a building that needs to be torn down or putting up a building with special facilities – but that does not seem to be the case. Not that I expect an answer, but perhaps someone at JSC can explain this to me.