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NASA’s New Strategic Plan is Neither Strategic Or A Plan

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
NASAWatch
March 10, 2023
Filed under
NASA’s New Strategic Plan is Neither Strategic Or A Plan
NASA 2022 Strategic Plan
NASAWatch

Keith’s note: Hooray the new NASA Strategic Plan is online! Alas, these NASA “Strategic Plans” are neither “Strategic” or a “Plan”. Yet NASA feels compelled to issue them – sometimes as a result of Congressional language – or perhaps to appease those who say that NASA does not have a strategic plan. In reality, what NASA does is look at all the things it is doing – whether they decided to do them – or Congress ordered them to do – or the White House told them do do – or things that have no precise origin or rationale – or just things that need to be kept alive to calm the worries of some stakeholder or big aerospace company. They then work backwards from that disorganized collection of things and come up with an outline – with officially-looking numbered sections – that makes it all look like this is the result of some centralized, logical, “strategic” thinking or “planning”. Alas, there is none of that going on. More below.

NASA also weaves in advisory report phrases, Decadal Plans, and anything else that has words that they can use to make their document sound like it is grounded in solid external support. They always avoid mention of anything that the GAO or NASA OIG publish wherein NASA planning and implementation often come up short. Then, to cap things off, they construct these strategic plans such that there is no follow-up to show stakeholders etc. how NASA is doing in the implementation of the Strategic Plan. The report just sits there until someone in PAO decides its time to put out a new PDF with “Strategic Plan” as the title.

As an example of just how detached from the title – or reality – this strategic plan is, go search the text for “SLS” (6 mentions) or Space Launch System (11 mentions). Given the multi year delays and billions in cost overruns – and the impact that at this has had on the Artemis program and the agency as a whole – you’d think that these challenges and how the agency repsonds would be part of a strategic plan. Apparently not. A SpaceX Starship is the agency’s strategic answer to lack of a NASA human lander and yet it is not even mentioned – nor is the procurement strategy worth billions.

Russia, NASA’s partner on the ISS for the past several decades – and perhaps a decade more – is mentioned exactly once. Given all of the uncertainty with that relationship due to Ukraine and other issues you’d think that some sort of strategic mention as to how to move ahead wouldbe mentioned. Guess again.

As an example, previous NASA Strategic Plans from 2018 and 2015 serve to illustrate just how fast these things become irrelevant. Does anyone refer to them 6 months after they are released? No -unless there is congressional testimony that needs some happy words to be included. Since there are multi-year gaps between the issuance of these Strategic Plans, one would assume that the plans are in effect until a new plan is release – and that the new plans would echo earlier plans and – and build upon them – and show how the agency has accomplished earlier goals and objectives. None of that is to be found. Why is that?

In fact these Strategic Plans are viewed as being so pointless that even within the NASA offices that have the greatest involvement with these reports and how they are used externally, the NASA International and Interagency Relations (OIIR) and the NASA Office of Legislative Affairs , there not even an effort to mention these things on their public-facing web pages. The National Space Council, and the Users’ Advisory Group are uninterested as well.

Meanwhile Relativity is 3D printing rocketships and SpaceX is making Starships as fast as you can make corn silos. No mention of how NASA helped that happen. NASA doesn’t even seem to notice what is actually happening inside itself or out in the real world.

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

One response to “NASA’s New Strategic Plan is Neither Strategic Or A Plan”

  1. Brian_M2525 says:
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    Not much strategy nd not much definition of long term visionary goals. If they had some reals goals and some real strategy then they might be able to explain why the path they are on now might be useful in the future. But apparently it checks the once every 4 year publication box.

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