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Bridenstine and Loverro Answered All The Tough Questions

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
December 3, 2019
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Full video
“NASA held an Agency-wide Town Hall with Administrator Bridenstine and Douglas Loverro, NASA’s new Associate Administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, on Tuesday, Dec. 3, at noon EST. During the Town Hall, the Administrator introduced Douglas Loverro, and they answered questions from the agency’s workforce.”

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

7 responses to “Bridenstine and Loverro Answered All The Tough Questions”

  1. Bill Housley says:
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    All valid questions…but here are less snarky ways to ask them. 😉

    Also, some of them might be more for Congress than for NASA. Government agencies play the hand they are dealt by lawmakers sometimes.

  2. Michael Spencer says:
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    Wow. Tough crowd.

    • Zathras1 says:
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      Indeed. But asking the tough questions that need real answers and not just management/political platitudes.

  3. Nick K says:
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    I wish them and especially Mr. Lovarro luck. He will need it to turn around 15 years of retreat. Columbia really set the program back because the non-leadership decided they would fix everything by going in a new direction (which was not really a new direction, they were just trying to set up a new Apollo). I heard some positive things. We would look at what needs to be maintained and what can be discarded or replaced. And perhaps we ought to look to the military for some new leadership, like in Apollo. The idea of all astronauts all the time, followed by all flight directors, followed by anyone out of flight crew and or mission operations; it was disconcerting and it could have been funny if it wasn’t serious when you’ve spent most of your career in a particular function and you go to a seminar on what it will take to do the job in the future and all the people speaking are ex-flight directors or ex-astronauts, none of whom have any experience in the function in which you’ve spent your career, and they tell the gathered specialists “I am now the executive in charge of this function”. None of the real specialists could ever get a GS-15, let alone an SES while flight and mission ops promoted people just in order to take over. A lot of people are now in place who never had any pertinent knowledge or experience. Now trying to figure out a process for replacing them-and what to do with them all, will be a task. Maybe we can trade them with the military.

  4. jamesmuncy says:
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    I thought the questions were fantastic, and gave me hope for NASA’s workforce. The answers…

  5. Skinny_Lu says:
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    Good job, gentlemen. “SLS is the only vehicle specifically designed to get us back to the Moon” and “it is essential for NASA’s mission.” I guess that may be technically true. Blue Origin and SX large rockets may have other destinations in mind, but they certainly will be able to fly to the Moon…. and will be able to do even more than SLS for a fraction of the cost and most likely in a reusable system. Oh well. It will become increasingly more difficult to keep a straight face as people make these claims. Best of Luck with that story.

    • Brian_M2525 says:
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      If the SX super rocket is successful then within a short time NASA’s ability to field a rocket or spacecraft becomes irrelevant. Musk will be colonizing the Moon and NASA will be trying to repeat Apollo. Its a bit like the China Clippers of the 1930s establishing air transportation versus Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic one more time-fun but whats the point?