Keith’s Note: If you read the NASA press release regarding former NASA Chief of Staff Brian Hughes’ return to NASA It says “Reporting to NASA Headquarters in Washington, Hughes will have direct responsibility for launch operations at NASA Kennedy, as well as the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. He will work across government, industry, and local leadership to strengthen coordination among stakeholders supporting NASA’s spaceports, enable increased launch cadence, and support execution of the President’s National Space Policy to ensure continued American leadership in space.” As such, the decades-long management by NASA Goddard of NASA Wallops – a launch facility in Virginia (a blue state) will now be run out of Florida (a red state) – thus continuing the deliberate shrinkage of NASA Goddard. And while NASA HQ is not being moved out of Washington DC, some of its major functions will be moving to Florida. Stay tuned as other aspects of the long-anticipated “Red Wedding“ unfold at NASA. Update: NASA Administrator Isaacman and I had a Twitter exchange about this. Full exchange below.
Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member... More by Keith Cowing
While there’s no doubt there are significant management changes going on at NASA under this administration, inserting ‘red’ state/’blue’ state politicization into the rationale seems to be a bit of a stretch , and probably more reflects political biases of some. More likely, the continuing shrinkage of Goddard’s responsibilities reflects this administration’s de-emphasizing (and defunding) of Goddard’s traditional areas of expertise.
So it’s about defunding GSFC, not politics? Is that serious?
Is it Goddard Science Center now? When did they change it from Goddard Space Flight Center?
It hasn’t, but that is a good idea. Maybe it should be changed now.
Not many tears being shed at WFF about this change.
Soooo…this is a case of not seeing what is launched where and why. Moving too fast here…
The launching at Wallops is for the science. The science folks assist and support significantly in launch ops.
KSC has limited (no?) expertise in balloons and sounding rockets.
The Venn Diagram btwn science and Wallops launches overlap. I don’t use X-Twitter. If someone wants to post this and own it as their own to explain this to administration, please do.
There are zero balloon launches from Wallops and pretty much only a couple of student sounding rocket launches a year. They might have an occasional technology or science mission from Wallops but those are pretty rare. Almost all the launches from Wallops are for the Department of Defense or commercial.
As an article on SpaceNews points out, most launches from Florida take place from launch pads at neighboring Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (and not controlled by NASA) and most of the orbital launch facility at Wallops is owned by the Virginia Spaceport Authority (which leases the facilities from NASA), so to say this move is to better manage unprecedented demand for launch capability is a bit disingenuous (like much of what Isaacman says, often with a smirk). And combine this action with the unprecedented (and thoroughly disorganized) contraction of the GSFC campus that was done over the course of 6 months rather than over the decade plus time frame delineated in the Goddard site plan, it looks like part of a concerted effort to damage GSFC.