NASA Staff Meeting Minutes 13 May 1996
Minutes of Senior Staff and Center Director’s Meeting May 13, 1996
The following documents the discussions addressed at the Senior Staff and Center Director’s Meeting on May 13, 1996. Mr. Goldin was in attendance. Action assignments are bolded.
1. AA Reports
B/Peterson: Code B is working to support the Administrator’s testimony for the May 16, 1996, Appropriations Committee Hearing. Additionally, as part of receiving the FY 1996 appropriations, Code B will be releasing the remaining 1996 funds on form 506’s this week. Mr. Peterson reminded the AA’s that Mr. Goldin will be provided with a copy of the Agency’s Operations Plan on the afternoon of May 13, 1996, and requested additional comments to be provided prior to close of business.
H/Lee: Ms. Lee attended the Procurement Officers Conference in Williamsberg, Virginia, from May 6 to 10, 1996. The main issue discussed during the conference involved the challenge of drafting performance based contracts. Ms. Lee will be working with Codes B and F to develop a solid training plan to support this effort.
G/Frankle: Mr. Frankle reminded everyone that May 15, 1996, is the deadline for submitting form 78. This submission is required for all employees at GS-15 or above paygrades. There is a mandatory $200 fine for all late entries. Next week, the majority of senior Code G staff will participate in the Counselors Conference to be held at LeRC, May 20-24, 1996.
AS/Cordova: Dr. Cordova will be giving the commencement address at the University of Texas at El Paso on May 18, 1996. Dr. Cordova announced that she has accepted the position as the Vice Chancellor of Research at the University of California at Santa Barbara and will begin her new position August 1, 1996.
Y/Norton: Due specifically to the release of the new movie “Twister”, NASA has received a great deal of interest from the press concerning NASA’s Optical Transient Device (OTD). Sixteen television stations in tornado-prone areas conducted live interviews via NASA late last week with Drs. Hugh Christian and Tim Miller of the Global Hydrology and Climate Center regarding results from the OTD. Additionally, NASA Headquarters provided footage and interviews for the Associated Press TV worldwide affiliates, as well as the Discovery Channel in Canada, and the Weather Channel. Also, some 100 daily newspapers and 50 radio stations were provided information pertinent to their state about OTD’s role in lightning research.
S/Huntress: Dr. Huntress was in Hawaii for the May 8, 1996, dedication ceremony of the W. M. Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea. The Keck Observatory is an impressive facility and will be the site from which much of the groundwork for NASA’s Origins program will be conducted. NASA is a 1/6th investor in the facility.
P/Vincent: Mr. Vincent addressed the news coverage of the OTD in greater detail and announced that there would be further live coverage this week. On May 13, 1996, a press conference will be conducted at 2 p.m. to discuss the series of DC-XA test flights. Dr. Lucid will be interviewed on May 16, 1996, by a German TV network. This type of international coverage is a bit unusual for NASA missions, but the broadcast will be seen by an estimated 5 million European viewers.
I/Schumacher: Discussions between NASA and the Russian Space Agency (RSA) concerning the details of the International Space Station Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) continues in Moscow this week. The MOU negotiating team will continue their discussions with RSA in Houston the week of May 20, 1996.
L/Lawrence: On May 16, 1996, a hearing will be held on the FY 1997 NASA Budget Request before Chairman Bond (R-MO) of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on VA-HUD and Independent Agencies. A vote on the International Space Station program funding is anticipated during the week of May 20, 1996.
R/Whitehead: The Boeing 777 was awarded the Collier Trophy on May 8, 1996. Boeing will flew the 777 to LaRC on May 10, 1996, to recognize NASA’s assistance in developing the technologies that made the aircraft a reality. Dr. Whitehead thanked General Dailey and Dr. Holloway for their participation in the event. This week, Dr. Whitehead will meet with representatives of the FAA and DOD in the first of a series of meetings to coordinate the strategy to combine and dovetail the efforts of all three agencies. Roy Harris will oversee the review of the blade crack test at the National Full Scale Areodynamics Complex at ARC.
F/Armstrong: Last week, OPM proposed buyout legislation to the Hill. NASA had been asked to review the proposed legislation and comment. The legislation proposes a multiyear buyout beginning in 1996 with $25,000 specified for FY 1996 and 1997, with an annual decrease of $5,000 for the following 4 years. The Agency concurred with the proposed legislation and recommended that the legislation become effective in September 1996, in order to take advantage of the 1996 budget. General Armstrong stated that this legislation requires the Agency to fund 15 percent of each departing employee’s previous year’s salary to offset the costs of the buyout.
O/Lundy: Dr. Lundy will meet with Mr. O’Neil this week in Houston.
2. AD/Dailey
All of the HQ “go-to” plans are being reviewed this week. Individual meetings have been scheduled between each code’s AA, General Dailey, Mr. Mott, and Mr. Christensen for this week.
The Agency Honor Awards Ceremony will be conducted on May 14, 1996, in the Health and Human Services Auditorium, in Washington, DC. The next quarterly Program Management Council will be conducted on May 21, 1996.
The Senior Management Meeting, that had originally been planned for June 1996 is being rescheduled. A Strategic Management Meeting will be scheduled during July. 3. Center Director Reports
ARC/McDonald: On May 7, 1996, Dr. McDonald met with representatives from the FAA, including George Donahue and Guy Gardner. The representatives seemed impressed with the Center’s ongoing human factors research.
DFRC/Szalai: The final report on the TSSR-1 investigation will be forwarded to Mr. Trafton this week. Mr. Szalai thanked JSC, KSC, and MSFC for their outstanding support in this effort.
GSFC/Rothenberg: Mr. Rothenberg thanked LaRC for hosting a series of working meetings with GSFC representatives. There will be a Pegasus launch on May 15, 1996. The Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) is being shipped to Vandenberg AFB this week in support of its upcoming launch. There will be an International Space Station meeting with JSC representatives to discuss space and Earth science opportunities aboard the Station.
JPL/Stone: JPL is still receiving 20,000 signature post cards per week for the Cassini Saturn probe mission. In October 1997, the probe will launch with digitized signatures stored on CD-ROM and mounted to the exterior of the space craft. The signature submission deadline is January 1, 1997.
JSC/Abbey: Everything is looking well for the May 19, 1996, launch of STS-77. The flight crew has been quarantined. Dr. Lucid is doing fine aboard Mir, and the Mother’s Day events went well.
KSC/Honeycutt: KSC is ready for the launch of STS-77.
LaRC/Holloway: Dr. Holloway amplified on Mr. Rothenberg’s remarks concerning the GSFC/LaRC meetings last week. The May 10, 1996, events surrounding the Collier award winning Boeing 777 went very well. Dr. Holloway thanked General Dailey for visiting the Center last week.
LeRC/Campbell: On May 8, 1996, the Center kicked off its reorganization effort. During the summer, LeRC and Philips Lab will review power and propulsion efforts as part of DOD’s efforts to develop a space architecture plan. During the summer of 1998, LeRC will host the International Space University. Additionally, Dr. Sandra Magnus, who was associated with the Center during her graduate research, has just been selected as part of the Astronaut class of 1996.
MSFC/Griner: Dr. Littles hosted Congressmen Cramer (D-AL) and Sensenbrenner (R-WI) during their Center visit on May 13, 1996. The focus of their visit was a town meeting with the employees and contractors. Ms. Griner discussed the weld strike on the Super Light Weight Tank’s (SLWT) test article and its ongoing investigation and the failure of the thermal protection shield’s trail test for the SLWT.
SSC/Roth: Last week, Mr. West visited the Center for the CIO’s initial review. Additionally, an ASAP task team will review SSME status.
3. Mr. Goldin
Mr. Goldin congratulated all of the NASA employees for the continued success of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Mr. Goldin expressed his desire to ensure that the February 1997 servicing mission would receive all of the attention necessary for its success.
Mr. Goldin challenged NASA Senior Management to speed up the timetable for the Shuttle upgrades and to reduce their cost, while stressing that safety remains a number one priority to the Agency.
NOTE: ACTION ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE TRANSMITTED UNDER SEPARATE COVER AND TRACKED BY THE HEADQUARTERS CORRESPONDENCE OFFICE. SPECIFIC QUESTIONS MAY BE ADDUCED TO LORIE PESONEN AT 358-45254.
