Stephen Dwornik
Stephen Dwornik
“While at NASA, he acted as a Project Manager for the Surveyor Program (seven unmanned moon landing spacecrafts). Mr. Dwornik co-authored several books including Atlas of Mercury. One of his fond memories was providing the first substantial NASA grant monies to a young astronomer named Carl Sagan. After Mr. Dwornik’s retirement from NASA, he enjoyed a second career with Ball Aerospace, including volunteer work helping to create a planetary Braille map and being a speaker for ElderHostel courses.”
I’ve always felt that Surveyor was under-appreciated in the run-up to the moon landings. 5/7 Surveyors successfully landed on the moon, sending back the first hard data about the surface composition and conditions. It was a highly successful program, and Stephen Dwornik could be proud of his role in getting it to work.
Steve was from a different era; one where the HQ staff both understood and valued the work done by the people at the centers, universities, and industry. They worked to get things done and were less concerned about their perceived stature than seeing useful work be done. He, and others like him, are sorely missed.
Could more details between HQ & the centers be an answer, so that people from both sides can understand the challenges each one faces?
Craig:
There is clearly a lack of understanding of the demands and impediments on both sides, HQ staff rarely fully comprehend the issues facing center people, and especially researchers in academia and industry. The same is true the other way. Few outside of HQ understand the pressure cooker that is HQ and the often silly constraints that are on HQ staff, particularly at the lower levels.
That being said, there was an overall quality to the HQ staff twenty to thirty years ago in terms of technical competence that is simply no longer there.