“We do not do reductions in force voluntarily” mentality does not lend itself to change. When the Shuttle retired, were we supposed to keep tile inspectors in perpetuity? Good management works to size staffing to work needs. Since Aerospace professionals deserve high pay, it is important that they are used appropriately. I have yet to hear anything from Bolden regarding minimizing ISS operational cost, or center consolidation.
Bolden says: “you do not get something for nothing”, but dear me we sure can get quite a bit of nothing after spending a lot of money too.
NASA isn’t and shouldn’t ever be considered as a jobs program for engineers and bureaucrats, doing its mission in the most effective and streamlined manner should come before all other considerations.
Doesn’t sound like NASA or Congress can do that. The fact is that NASA and its military-industrial contractors are just that, jobs programs. None are interested in producing any lasting legacy ( individuals excepted). Cheers
I no longer think that the goal is to run the programs efficiently. How does it work?
NASA budget is set within a small range. Each program gets an allotted amount. A small percentage is ‘taxed’ out of the program budgets to support the NASA infrastructure, centers, facilities, functions that cross program lines.
Within the program budgets, a relatively very small amount goes to the civil servants and most goes to the prime contractors. They view contractors as expendable and vary the contractor workforce as budget requires (and to lesser extent as the job requires). They view civil servants as the source of continuity of expertise. Their plan is not entirely consistent with reality since there is a lot of political maneuvering on the local level in order to move friends and relatives into top positions regardless of expertise.
NASA could do the same job with half it’s work force. I’m not talking about the contractors, but the Civil Servants. At the end of the shuttle program, Thousands of contractors were laid off, but not a single civil servant. Now you see these civil servants wondering around the Kennedy Space center aimlessly. I’ve talked to a few of them and they’ll to you, they have no assignments, some say they haven’t done nothing in over 2 years. NASA has managed to hide as many as they can, they have assigned multiple servants to oversee contractors to the point they are disrupting the mission of the contractors, they assign some to go do useless inspections and audits over contractors and suppliers, again, to the point were they are hindering the contractors. Why is NASA doing this ?, because NASA knows they need to justify their existence. These civil servants make on average 6 figures a year, while the contractors have cut their salaries almost in half to be competitive. During the shuttle program I attending many meetings with NASA personnel and let me tell you, these people are clueless. If it wasn’t for United Space Alliance, the space shuttle would have never gotten off the ground. NASA would present ideas that were outright laughable. I’m not anti NASA by any means. But NASA needs to cut it’s work force in half if not more and let the contractors do what they are hired to do, SPACE FLIGHT
What we have here is a failure to communicate. Actually I’d like to know what they really talk about when not on camera.
“We do not do reductions in force voluntarily” mentality does not lend itself to change. When the Shuttle retired, were we supposed to keep tile inspectors in perpetuity? Good management works to size staffing to work needs. Since Aerospace professionals deserve high pay, it is important that they are used appropriately. I have yet to hear anything from Bolden regarding minimizing ISS operational cost, or center consolidation.
Bolden says: “you do not get something for nothing”, but dear me we sure can get quite a bit of nothing after spending a lot of money too.
NASA isn’t and shouldn’t ever be considered as a jobs program for engineers and bureaucrats, doing its mission in the most effective and streamlined manner should come before all other considerations.
Doesn’t sound like NASA or Congress can do that. The fact is that NASA and its military-industrial contractors are just that, jobs programs. None are interested in producing any lasting legacy ( individuals excepted).
Cheers
I no longer think that the goal is to run the programs efficiently. How does it work?
NASA budget is set within a small range. Each program gets an allotted amount. A small percentage is ‘taxed’ out of the program budgets to support the NASA infrastructure, centers, facilities, functions that cross program lines.
Within the program budgets, a relatively very small amount goes to the civil servants and most goes to the prime contractors. They view contractors as expendable and vary the contractor workforce as budget requires (and to lesser extent as the job requires). They view civil servants as the source of continuity of expertise. Their plan is not entirely consistent with reality since there is a lot of political maneuvering on the local level in order to move friends and relatives into top positions regardless of expertise.
NASA could do the same job with half it’s work force. I’m not talking about the contractors, but the Civil Servants. At the end of the shuttle program, Thousands of contractors were laid off, but not a single civil servant. Now you see these civil servants wondering around the Kennedy Space center aimlessly. I’ve talked to a few of them and they’ll to you, they have no assignments, some say they haven’t done nothing in over 2 years. NASA has managed to hide as many as they can, they have assigned multiple servants to oversee contractors to the point they are disrupting the mission of the contractors, they assign some to go do useless inspections and audits over contractors and suppliers, again, to the point were they are hindering the contractors. Why is NASA doing this ?, because NASA knows they need to justify their existence. These civil servants make on average 6 figures a year, while the contractors have cut their salaries almost in half to be competitive.
During the shuttle program I attending many meetings with NASA personnel and let me tell you, these people are clueless. If it wasn’t for United Space Alliance, the space shuttle would have never gotten off the ground. NASA would present ideas that were outright laughable.
I’m not anti NASA by any means. But NASA needs to cut it’s work force in half if not more and let the contractors do what they are hired to do, SPACE FLIGHT