Thanksgiving

NASA Internal Memo: Message from the Administrator

“How many of us could take a lesson from these folks at MAF and apply it to our own work? Whether we do research, generate spreadsheets, solve equations, interpret the law, write code, do accounting, lay out wiring harnesses, calculate orbits, design structural elements, or whatever it is that we do, how many of us show the dedication to our work, without fanfare or expectation, that is demonstrated by this workforce at Michoud, technicians who spray and shape the foam on our shuttle external tanks? Some of these folks are still living in FEMA trailers, and many cannot rebuild their old homes in an area still devastated two years after Katrina. They are making these personal sacrifices in the midst of lives that are still in turmoil. Yet they keep doing what they do so well. It is incomprehensible and wonderful at the same time.”

Reader note: Yes … nice Thanksgiving note by Mike G. relative to the MAF folks working so hard to keep the ET work going. I read it and wasn’t until far down that I see “This is our workforce — in this case our contractor workforce — at its very best.” Why is it that NASA has such trouble complementing a contractor by name when they do something well? When they screw up that doesn’t seem to be a problem.