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NASA Staff Meeting Minutes 28 March 1996

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
March 28, 1996
Filed under ,

Subject: Minutes of the Senior Staff Date: Thursday, March 28, 1996 3:14PM
Minutes of Senior Staff and Center Directors’ Meeting March 25, 1996
The following documents the discussions addressed at the Senior Staff and Center Directors’ Meeting on March 25, 1996. Mr. Goldin was not in attendance. Action assignments are bolded.

1. AA Reports
B/Holz: The Full-Cost Working Group met at GSFC on March 20 and 21, 1996, and developed a preliminary full-cost accounting model, full-cost budgeting model, and a full-cost management model. Additionally, the Group developed an initial list of accounting, budgeting, and management issues and made assignments for the development of proposed solutions. An initial draft of the full-cost rules and guidelines were developed. An agenda was outlined for the first meeting of the Full- cost Policy Group, to be held April 2, 1996, in MIC 6, and presentation responsibilities were assigned. A March 11, 1996, memorandum asked the Center Directors and Officials-in-Charge of HQ Offices to designate senior staff members to serve on the Full-cost Policy Group. The Full-Cost Policy Group is intended to support the implementation of full-cost budgeting and accounting by developing policy recommendations for subsequent approval, reviewing plans and procedures developed by the Full-Cost Working Group, monitoring the prototype and NASA-wide tests phases of the full-cost implementation project, providing technical assistance, and accomplishing specific implementation tasks. Request that individuals be identified as soon as possible to Steven Varholy or Kenneth Winter.
R/Reeves: The X-36, a remotely piloted tailless research aircraft, was displayed for the first time on March 19, 1996, in St. Louis, MO. The TU-144 rollout was held in Moscow on March 17 to an audience that included 150 members of the press. The first flight of the TU-144 will be at the end of April. Raymond Morgan and Robert Curtain will receive the Aviation Week and Space Technology Laurel for Aeronautics/ Propulsion in April 1996.
E/Hall: Code E is currently working with the Equal Opportunity Officers and Council in preparation for a meeting at SSC on April 11 and 12, 1996. Mr. Westbrooks is at JSC this week.
X/Mansfield: The rollout of the DC-XA went very well. The craft has been transported to White Sands Proving Ground in preparation for its first flight in May 1996.
Y/Kennel: The MTPE Strategic Plan will be issued March 25, 1996, for distribution to Congress to support the Administrator’s testimony. The MTPE Education Strategy was presented to GSFC’s Special Assistant for Outreach, who was pleased to hear of our progress and indicated that she will be working with Code 170 to raise awareness of the established MTPE education program at the GSFC project office level. The next phase of the strategy is to have the project staff at all MTPE centers knowledgeable about the program, as initiatives continue to be implemented and expanded. GSFC is taking the lead on this phase. Code Y will be meeting with Mr. Rothenberg in the near future to brief the program and GSFC’s lead role. The TOPEX/Poseidon NRA was released online on March 18, 1996. NASA mailed out several thousand postcards announcing the release. Letters of Intent are due April 1, 1996, and proposals will be due on June 17. The draft Earth Systems Science Pathfinder Announcement of Opportunity (AO) was released electronically on March 20, 1996. Comments on the draft are due on April 4, 1996. The current plan is to release the final version of the AO by the end of May. The Advanced Earth Observation Satellite (ADEOS) spacecraft arrived at the Tanegashima launch site. The NSCAT Stand-alone Test has been successfully completed, and the NSCAT antennas are being installed on the spacecraft.
G/Stevens: A memo concerning the annual filing of the financial disclosure statements, SF 278, has been released. The statements are due on May 15, 1996. There is a mandatory fine of up $200 for late filings. Please see Code G if there is any problem in meeting the May deadline or if an extension is required. Extensions may be granted through June 15.
L/Lawrence: Mr. Goldin will be the lead witness before the Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space hearing on the FY 97 budget for NASA and recent developments in the International Space Station program on March 26, 1996. On March 28, 1996, a hearing will be held before the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics concerning the FY-97 Budget.
U/Holloway: The mission’s experiments are going very well. The payloads continue to be exchanged with the Mir. Thanks to KSC, MSFC, JSC, and the crew for their outstanding support despite the mission’s demanding logistics and operational tasks.
P/Boeder: Last week was truly a remarkable week for press coverage with the rollout of the TU-144 and X-36. The launch of STS-76 and its docking with the Mir received saturation coverage by all of the major networks. This week, NASA hopes to take pictures of the comet Hyakutake from the Shuttle, and there will be live interviews conducted from HQ concerning the comet. Mr. Goldin will attend the landing of STS-76 on March 31, 1996, at 7:02 a.m. (Note as of 3/27, a change to the landing time is under consideration.)
S/Huntress: The comet Hyakutake is very noticeable in proximity to the Big Dipper. The best viewing will be March 25, 1996, and will be noticeable with a set of binoculars. Images of the comet Hyakutake will be taken from the Hubble Space Telescope. The fledgling Origins program received very favorable press in Sunday’s Washington Post.
I/Cline: Code I is currently working on funding issues with the International Space Station program.
K/Thomas: Mr. Thomas thanked KSC for hosting the Minority Business Resource Advisory Committee meeting last week.
2. AD/Dailey
The strategic planning retreat is scheduled for April 2, 8:30-5:30, and April 3rd, 8:30 – noon, in MIC 7. The next NASA Advisory Council Meeting is April 23 and 24, 1996.
Midterm evaluation interviews between the Enterprise AA’s and the Administrator are scheduled to begin this week.
3. Center Director Reports
ARC/Dean: The X-36 rollout went very well. The Aerospace Advisory Committee (AAC) held a successful meeting at ARC last week. A 3-day workshop on the Mars Surveyor is be held this week.
DRFC/Szalai: The TSS-1R Failure Investigation Board is making excellent progress. The flight tether and other hardware mechanisms were undergoing inspection and tests last weekend. The Board has had excellent support from MSFC, KSC, and the Italian Space Agency. The F-18 High Angle of Attack research aircraft returned to flight for its final phase of in-flight visualization of the vortex flow control system. Philip Brown of LaRC flew the aircraft last week. Additional guest pilots from the industry will be flying the aircraft. The F-18 HARV flight program will end April 15.
JPL/Dumas: Dr. Stone is visiting Australia. On March 20, JPL hosted members from Senator Cohen’s staff.
JSC/Abbey: On March 26 and 27, 1996, a meeting to update industry on the Crew Rescue Vehicle will take place. The mission is going very well. The crew’s next big event will be the EVA being conducted late evening of March 26. The International Space Station program is conducting its Incremental Design Review this week.
LaRC/Beach: LaRC conducted a series of integration and comprehensive testing on the TRMM spacecraft last week.
LeRC/Kress: Polaris Industries, makers of jet skis, has invited LeRC to discuss development goals for their jet-ski product lines. This worldwide market has $3.5B in annual sales and is growing at a rate of 30 percent per year. Recently, Polaris has begun to feel increased pressure from their foreign competitors. Polaris and NASA may soon enter into a Space Act Agreement that may have the following objectives: to transfer NASA LeRC turbomachinery design and flow analyses codes to Polaris in order to complement or replace their current pump blading design systems, Polaris design engineers would like to visit NASA LeRC for several weeks in order to obtain hands on experience running the turbomachinery codes, and Polaris would like to have assistance from NASA personnel during their pump design and development process in the near future. Through a cooperative agreement between LeRC, Lockheed Martin, and the USAF, high fidelity research and development testing was performed in the Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility (B-2) at Plum Brook to validate new upper stage engine chilldown methods for the Atlas Reliability Enhancement Program (AREP). The new chilldown method can reduce propellant usage, improve launch vehicle payload performance, and improve launch vehicle reliability. The potential payload improvement is worth over a $1/2 million dollars per launch for typical GTO missions and could be worth even more for some payload- critical launches, according to Lockheed Martin. The testing at Plum Brook was conducted on a full-cost recovery basis. Hydrogen sensor technology was the topic of a “Technology Dialogue Over Lunch,” sponsored by the Great Lakes Industrial Technology Center (GLITeC) and LeRC, on February 22. Representatives from 13 different companies, as well as LeRC, Case Western University, and the Cleveland Enterprise Group, met over lunch to discuss the commercialized hydrogen sensor technology and its possible applications.
NOTE: ACTION ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE TRANSMITTED UNDER SEPARATE COVER AND TRACKED BY THE HEADQUARTER’S CORRESPONDENCE OFFICE. SPECIFIC QUESTIONS MAY BE ADDRESSED TO LORIE PESONEN AT 358-4525.

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