Tuesday, July 10, 2012
7/10/12 news
Hope you can join us this Thursday at Hibachi Grill, between Highway 3 and I45 on Bay Area Blvd, for our monthly Retirees luncheon.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1. Tune in to ISS Update This Week
2. Starport is Turning 50 -- Help Us Celebrate
3. Starport's 50th Classic Car Show
4. Today: 'Investigations on In-Suit Shoulder Injuries'
5. Environmental Brown Bag -- Living Buildings
6. Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Today
7. Caregivers Resource Group
8. Innovation Speaker Forum - 'Mastering the Technology Evolution' - Tomorrow
9. Entrepreneurship: Its Implication in Transforming a Community
10. Resources for Entrepreneurs
11. JSC Career Path Development Course -- Register Today
12. Russian Phase One Language Course -- For Beginners
________________________________________ QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ One is taught by experience to put a premium on those few people who can appreciate you for what you are. ”
-- Gail Godwin
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1. Tune in to ISS Update This Week
Tune in this week to the International Space Station Update at 10 a.m. on NASA TV for interviews involving the upcoming Soyuz launch on Saturday night, July 14.
Today on ISS Update, NASA ADCO Flight Controller Ann Esbeck will discuss the ground work being done to orient station for Soyuz rendezvous and docking activities.
On Wednesday, astronaut Mike Fossum joins us on console to speak about the upcoming Soyuz launch.
Thursday includes a Digital Learning Network event with guest commentator Richard Garodnick, also a flight controller.
Check the latest ISS Update programming at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/update/index.html
If you missed the ISS Updates from last week, tune in to REEL NASA at http://www.youtube.com/user/ReelNASA to get the full videos. Or, view the videos at NASA's video gallery: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html
For the latest NASA TV scheduling info, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Breaking.html
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111
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2. Starport is Turning 50 -- Help Us Celebrate
The JSC Exchange (Starport) was established July 24, 1962, to promote the welfare and morale of the JSC workforce. To commemorate turning 50, Starport will remember the past, promote our services of the present and look forward to exciting offerings of the future.
Join us!
July 18: Classic Car Show at Building 1 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
$1.62 hot dogs with vendor samples and door prizes in Building 3 café during lunch.
Get Fit '80s Style -- Break out those leg warmers and leotards and join us at the Gilruth Center for a fun aerobics class reminiscent of the Jane Fonda era of exercise.
July 19: Ice cream social from 2 to 3 p.m. in Building 3. Sundaes are $1.50, thanks to the support of the JSC Federal Credit Union.
July 24: Free cake at cafés and Gilruth Center and specialty spin ride.
July 26: Open house and social hour at the Gilruth Center, with a ribbon cutting of new mind-body studio.
Shelly Harlason x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
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3. Starport's 50th Classic Car Show
Starport is turning 50 on July 24! To commemorate this, we will be holding several events leading up to the big date to celebrate our past, present and future. Included in these celebrations is a Classic Car Show in front of Building 1 on July 18. Since this is also the week of the anniversary of the Apollo lunar landing, we want to showcase cars that were around during the Apollo era -- 1975 and older. We only have space for 40 cars (no trailers allowed), so if we have more than 40 entries, we will have a random drawing. Drivers must be badged to come on site. If you are interested in showcasing your classic car, please contact Chris Fowler at galen.c.fowler@nasa.gov or x45369 and provide your contact and vehicle information.
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
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4. Today: 'Investigations on In-Suit Shoulder Injuries'
For every one hour spent performing a spacewalk in space, astronauts spend approximately six to 10 hours training in the Extravehicular Mobility Unit spacesuit at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL). In 1997, NASA introduced the planar hard upper torso (HUT), which subsequently replaced the existing pivoted HUT. An extra joint in the pivoted shoulder allows increased mobility, but also increased complexity. Over the next decade, a number of astronauts developed shoulder problems requiring surgical intervention -- many of whom performed spacewalk training in the NBL. Join us as Flight Surgeon Dr. Richard Scheuring elaborates on a study that investigated whether changing HUT designs led to shoulder injuries requiring surgical repair.
When: Today - 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Location: Building 5 South, Room 3102 (corner of Gamma Link/5th Street/third floor)
SATERN registration is encouraged. Go to: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...
For additional information, contact any EC5 Spacesuit Knowledge Capture point of contact: Cinda
Chullen (x38384); Juniper Jairala (281-461-5794); or Rose Bitterly (281-461-5795).
Juniper Jairala 281-461-5794
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5. Environmental Brown Bag -- Living Buildings
What is the Living Building Challenge? It's the next generation of green building design using restorative principles. It's designing buildings that act more like living plants than collections of concrete, steel and wiring. It's a commitment to catalyzing a global transformation toward true sustainability. Join us at the environmental brown bag today in Building 45, Room 751, from noon to 1 p.m. as Amanda Tullos from the Living Building Institute describes some of Houston's newest and most exciting green buildings.
Michelle Fraser-Page x34237
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6. Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Today
"Live and let live" is the slogan Al-Anon members remember during the heat of the summer to keep our temperature cool. Our 12-step meeting is for co-workers, families and friends of those who live with the family disease of alcoholism. We meet today, July 10, from 11 to 11:50 a.m. in Building 32, Room 142. Visitors are welcome.
Lorraine Bennett x36130 http://sashare.jsc.nasa.gov/EAP/Pages/default.aspx
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7. Caregivers Resource Group
When you or a loved one's status changes, do you know what to do? Would you like more information on evaluating needs? What are the range of services that can help? Would you like tips on having difficult conversations with elders about their choices?
Join Gay Yarbrough, LCSW of the JSC Employee Assistance Program, for a presentation of "When a Loved One Needs More Help" today, July 10, at 12 noon in Building 32, Conference Room 146.
Employee Assistance Group x36130
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8. Innovation Speaker Forum - 'Mastering the Technology Evolution' - Tomorrow
The SAIC/Safety and Mission Assurance Innovation Speaker Forum will feature Ed Trevis, president/CEO of Corvalent; and Denise Manchester, vice president of Sales at Corvalent.
Topic: "Mastering the Technology Evolution - Consistency vs. Change - Longevity By Design"
Date: Tomorrow, July 11, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Location: Building 1, Room 966
- Ending revalidations due to technology change
- Consistency is critical in manufacturing and technology
- Quality components for long-term computer reliability
Corvalent's "Longevity by Design" delivers the lowest overall cost of ownership by providing the highest quality board-level designs, embedded computing systems and design consulting to equipment engineers and designers. Come hear their story!
Joyce Abbey 281-335-2041
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9. Entrepreneurship: Its Implication in Transforming a Community
The Houston Technology Center will host the first Tech Link meeting featuring Jim "Mack" McIngvale, owner of Gallery Furniture. Come learn about the innovative energy, life sciences, Information Technology and NASA/aerospace technology companies that are currently in the Houston Technology Center's Incubation and Acceleration Program.
This forum provides professionals with the opportunity to be involved with and influence the evolution of emerging technology.
Date: Friday, July 13
Time: 7:15 to 9 a.m.
Location: Aerospace Transition Center (16921 El Camino Real)
Register today at: http://houstontech.org/events/1025/
Steven Gonzalez x36314 http://houstontech.org/events/1025/
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10. Resources for Entrepreneurs
The Houston Technology Center will provide aspiring entrepreneurs with insights about the resources available to start your own business or commercialize your technology.
This workshop will provide an overview of resources available to support entrepreneurs in the 30-county southeast Texas region, including Houston and the NASA Johnson Space Center, including an overview of the Texas Emerging Technology Fund and the Houston Technology Center.
Date: Friday, July 13
Time: 9:15 to 10:15 a.m.
Location: Aerospace Transition Center (16921 El Camino Real)
Register today at: http://houstontech.org/events/1026/
Steven Gonzalez x36314 http://houstontech.org/events/1026/
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11. JSC Career Path Development Course -- Register Today
The JSC Career Path Development Course is designed to instill a sense of initiative and empowerment. The course connects you to resources, highlights your role in the iterative career development process and exposes you to the various development opportunities at NASA.
Objectives:
- To emphasize the value of career path development
- To provide an understanding of the key players and the individual roles they play in an employee's career-planning efforts
- To discuss the essentials of the career path development process
- To highlight and provide an overview of the career development tools and resources available
- To boost employee interest in career planning and enable one to make greater contributions to NASA
Course Details:
Date: Friday, July 20
Time: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m.
Location: Building 20, Room 304
For: Civil servant employees
Use this direct link to register in SATERN.
https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=REGISTRATI...
Nicole Kem x37894
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12. Russian Phase One Language Course -- For Beginners
Russian Phase One is an introductory course designed to acquaint the novice student with certain elementary aspects of the Russian language and provide a brief outline of Russian history and culture. Our goal is to introduce students to skills and strategies necessary for successful foreign language study that they can apply immediately in the classroom. The linguistic component of this class consists of learning the Cyrillic alphabet and a very limited number of simple words and phrases, which will serve as a foundation for further language study.
Who: All JSC-badged civil servants and contractors with a work-related justification.
Dates: July 30 to Aug. 24.
When: Monday through Friday, 1 to 2 p.m. or 4 to 5 p.m.
Where: Building 20, Room 133.
Please register through SATERN. The deadline for registration is July 24.
Natalia Rostova 281-851-3745
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JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. To see an archive of previous JSC Today announcements, go to http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/news/jsctoday/archives.
NASA TV: 1 pm Central (2 EDT) – Video File of the Expedition 32/33 Crew Activities in Baikonur
Human Spaceflight News
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
HEADLINES AND LEADS
NASA’s past considers its future
Jeff Foust - The Space Review
NASA may have had its issues over the years, from strained budgets to programs running behind schedule and over budget, but one thing it has never suffered from is a lack of advice. While the space agency has its own sounding boards, in the form of the NASA Advisory Council and the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, there have been plenty of external reviews of the agency’s aims and efforts, often created at the behest of the White House or Congress. The result has been a steady stream of reports offering insights and recommendations—although that advice often remains trapped on the pages of those reports, never to be implemented by NASA or its overseers on either end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Commercial crew providers aplenty (part 1)
Anthony Young - The Space Review
(Young is the author of The Saturn V F-1 Engine: Powering Apollo Into History)
The historic rendezvous and docking of the SpaceX capsule Dragon with the International Space Station on May 25 ushered in a new era of commercial spaceflight services. This flight was part of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, established to foster private sector involvement in providing services to NASA to support the ISS. SpaceX is one of several companies proposing launch vehicles and capsules to provide crew transportation services to the space agency. While NASA will have invested $800 million in the COTS program from 2006 through 2012 in SpaceX and Orbital Sciences for cargo delivery, it plans to spend several times that developing a crew capability, with several companies, both large and small, competing with SpaceX for awards. One company, though, is able to leverage work done on a now-canceled NASA program to support its bid to win funding for a commercial crew transportation system.
Goldman will try to help Aerojet develop rocket business in Huntsville and Southeast
Lee Roop - Huntsville Times
Four months after he was promoted to the job, Acting Marshall Space Flight Center Director Gene Goldman surprised Huntsville's aerospace community Monday by announcing his retirement. Goldman, 58, said he will leave NASA Aug. 3 to lead Aerojet's southeast regional operations. Taking over at least temporarily is current Marshall Associate Director Robin Henderson. Aerojet and Teledyne Brown Engineering unveiled a new rocket engine in June that they will build in Huntsville and market to NASA and the Air Force. Goldman's experience with rocket engines and NASA makes him valuable to that effort.
MSFC Director Goldman Leaving NASA for Aerojet
Dan Leone - Space News
Arthur “Gene” Goldman is leaving his post as director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Ala., to become head of Southeast Space Operations for Aerojet effective Aug. 6, the Sacramento, Calif., rocket-engine maker said. Aerojet announced Goldman’s hiring in a July 9 press release. A NASA press release said Goldman will leave the agency Aug. 3. Robin Henderson, Marshall’s associate director, will succeed Goldman as director, NASA said in its release. Goldman had been with NASA since 1990. He joined the agency as a project engineer in Marshall’s space shuttle project integration office.
SpaceX flight carries Maryland student project, but it never activates
Sent up aboard the spaceship Dragon, 16-year-old Paul Warren's science project never got off the ground
Jonathan Pitts - Baltimore Sun
Whatever goes up must come down - just not always in the condition one hoped. That's the lesson Paul Warren, the 16-year-old from Maryland whose science experiment was launched into space in May, learned Friday when the materials of his project - test tubes, packing liquids and roundworms by the thousand - returned after having spent nearly seven weeks aboard the International Space Station. The experiment, he learned, had never been activated.
Stillwater electronics firm wins award for space station technology
Frontier Electronics Systems Corp. in Stillwater keeps a low profile, but its technology is lauded within the industry
Don Mecoy - The Oklahoman (NewsOK.com)
A Stillwater electronics company has been recognized by Boeing as a top avionics supplier for the fourth time. “We're the first company to have that honor,” said Brenda Rolls, president of Frontier Electronics Systems Corp., which was among 14 companies and two universities chosen from Boeing's 28,000 suppliers for the 2011 award. Frontier Electronics was honored for its design and production of an interface that helps manage power for a system that controls solar panels on the International Space Station.
Aerospace company to bring jobs to Space Coast
Greg Pallone - Central Florida News 13
An aerospace company set to make a major job announcement could mean a boon for the Space Coast with the possibility of getting displaced shuttle workers back to work. It's called "Project Speed," and jobs could not come quick enough for the thousands of displaced shuttle workers. The expanding company's name has been kept under wraps, but the numbers are significant with 1,347 jobs expected over the next four years. Potentially, another 900 jobs could be created in spinoff, or related work. Combined over four years, according to the EDC, it amounts to nearly $96 million in payroll. The contract requires Titusville and the county to invest $32 million to build a 400,000 square foot facility. The official announcement will take place Tuesday at 2 p.m. at the Space Coast Regional Airport.
T+ 1 year and counting
NASA's final space shuttle mission — where are they now?
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
One year (and one day) after launching on NASA's final space shuttle mission, the orbiter Atlantis is parked today just a few miles from the launch pad where it lifted off on July 8, 2011. No longer flight-worthy — its main engines replaced with replicas and its hazardous fuel lines removed — Atlantis is waiting inside a high bay in the Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building to complete its transformation into a museum-safe display later this year. Like Atlantis and some of its parts, so too has dispersed the team that led STS-135, the final flight of NASA's 30-year shuttle program. A year since working together to fly one last mission to the International Space Station, the astronauts, Mission Control directors, and managers have since moved on to other missions, programs, and in some cases, other organizations.
LAX officials detail plans for space shuttle Endeavour's arrival
Art Marroquin - LA Daily Breeze
Transporting a space shuttle through Los Angeles International Airport won't be a small endeavor. The Endeavour - NASA's youngest orbiter - is scheduled to ride piggyback on a Boeing 747 jetliner from Cape Canaveral in Florida to LAX in late September, where it will be kept for nearly two weeks before embarking on a painstakingly slow journey to the California Science Center, airport officials said Monday.
CicLAvia Makes Way for the Space Shuttle
The arrival of Endeavour inspires a route change
Alysia Gray Painter - KNBC TV (Los Angeles)
Your trusty bike and a space shuttle? They're two forms of transportation that normally don't hold court in the same breath, much less the same article. But their fates are now improbably connected in Los Angeles, a city built on improbable connections. That's because CicLAvia, the popular street-cycling event that happens a few times a year, graciously changed its October route to make way for Endeavour.
Midland, Texas ideal destinations for aviation industry, officials say
Kathleen Petty - Midland Reporter-Telegram
The approval Monday of a $10 million economic development deal with XCOR Aerospace Inc. will bring to the Permian Basin what state and local leaders described as a new generation of innovation. The Midland City Council and Midland Development Corp. unanimously approved on Monday lease agreements and a $10 million incentive package for XCOR Aerospace. The company will locate its headquarters and research and development operations at the former AMI Hangar near Midland International Airport and also will create an eventual payroll of $12 million at its Tall City offices, according to the contract.
Private Space Plane Builders Pick Texas for New Test Site
Denise Chow - Space.com
A private rocket-building company that is designing a suborbital space plane for future paid trips to the edge of space will open a new test facility in Texas, company officials announced Monday. The Mojave, Calif.-based XCOR Aerospace and the Midland Development Corporation unveiled plans today for XCOR's new Commercial Space Research and Development Center Headquarters in Midland, Texas. The research facility will be used to test XCOR's Lynx space plane, a reusable, winged spaceship that is designed to carry two passengers and science experiments to the edge of space. The company also plans to eventually develop and test components for an orbital version of the Lynx vehicle in Midland, company officials said.
Brooklyn spacesuit designers have high hopes
Eli Rosenberg - Brooklyn Daily
A theatrical costume designer and a former Russian space program employee are aiming for the stars by building low-cost spacesuits that they hope will best NASA’s current design. Ted Southern and Nikolay Moiseev have constructed two prototype spacesuits in their Gowanus studio and they’re currently working on a third that’s ready to go into orbit — but before they can blast off, they need your help. In search of funding, the duo has cast aside the secrecy of the space race-era by using a more contemporary approach to fund-raising: www.Kickstarter.com
Q&A: Ex-astronaut Stephen Robinson ready for new UC Davis challenge
Jing Cao - Sacramento Bee
Sacramento native Stephen Robinson, an astronaut since 1994, has hung up his spacesuit to become a mechanical and aerospace engineering professor at UC Davis. He will also head the new Center for Human-Vehicle Integration and Performance, which will research how humans and machines can interact efficiently. Robinson is returning to his alma mater, where he got a dual bachelor's of science in mechanical and aeronautical engineering. He got his master's degree and doctorate at Stanford.
The power of ‘active followers,’ from Mission Control to mountain climbing
Time
Jeffrey S. Ashby is a former NASA space shuttle commander and ex-Top Gun former Navy pilot who has been through combat missions in the Middle East and three Space Shuttle missions. John Kanengieter is cut from that same cloth, but more earth-bound. He is director of leadership at the National Outdoor Leadership School — climbing mountains, leading expeditions, following the adventure path. Stephen Girsky is vice chairman of GM with overall responsibility for corporate strategy, business alliances, new business development and other areas, and also holds the title of chairman of the Adam Opel AG Supervisory Board.
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COMPLETE STORIES
NASA’s past considers its future
Jeff Foust - The Space Review
NASA may have had its issues over the years, from strained budgets to programs running behind schedule and over budget, but one thing it has never suffered from is a lack of advice. While the space agency has its own sounding boards, in the form of the NASA Advisory Council and the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, there have been plenty of external reviews of the agency’s aims and efforts, often created at the behest of the White House or Congress. The result has been a steady stream of reports offering insights and recommendations—although that advice often remains trapped on the pages of those reports, never to be implemented by NASA or its overseers on either end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Another exercise in studying NASA’s present situation and offering advice for the agency is underway. The fiscal year 2012 appropriations bill that funded NASA included report language directing the agency to undertake an independent assessment of its strategic direction. That study, the report mandated, would “evaluate whether NASA’s overall strategic direction remains viable and whether agency management is optimized to support that direction.”
NASA brought in the National Research Council to perform the “NASA’s Strategic Direction” study, which is currently underway. The committee has held a pair of public meetings, including one in late June that included presentations by a number of current NASA officials, including administrator Charles Bolden. The June meeting also featured three of Bolden’s predecessors: Richard Truly, James Beggs, and Sean O’Keefe. The perspectives of those former administrators in particular provided some interesting insights into both the agency’s past and its future.
“I am utterly confused”
Some former administrators, in their comments to the committee, raised concern about the future direction of NASA—or, more accurately, a perception that the agency lacks direction. “I can’t tell you how many times in the last few years I have been asked, ‘What do you think of NASA’s new direction?’” recalled Truly. “And I can’t answer that question. I am utterly confused.”
Truly, who served as NASA administrator from 1989 to 1992, left the space field behind after leaving NASA, eventually taking a position as director of the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado. He described himself to the committee today as “a citizen who lives way out there in the country” who watches NASA’s activities from afar.
Truly said that after President George W. Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration, whose elements included the retirement of the Space Shuttle, he got comfortable with the idea of ending the shuttle program to help fund the future exploration systems. “But I never dreamed that the president then would not make another speech about the Vision” after his January 2004 address at NASA Headquarters, Truly said, and the program was not properly funded. He sounded disappointed that, when the Obama Administration decided to cancel the Constellation program in 2010, it did not decide to keep the shuttle going.
The confusion he said he experiences about NASA’s direction should be a concern, he warned. “But if I’m confused, and you multiply me by the millions of citizens who may also be confused, this is a dangerous situation for NASA. And that’s the reason that makes this study so important.”
Beggs, who was NASA administrator from mid-1981 through 1985, also expressed concern about NASA’s direction in his comments to the committee later the same day. He noted NASA’s 2011 strategic plan includes six specific goals, from “extend and sustain human activities across the solar system” to public outreach and fostering innovation.
“They are important in the sense that they do encompass that vision” laid out in the original Space Act that created the agency in 1958, he said. “Unfortunately, at this time, these goals have not been elucidated in such a way that they provide a clear framework and clear guidance to everyone in the agency.”
“There’s a lot of uncertainty out there,” he continued. “The uncertainty is such that the folks who work in NASA and have been with NASA over the long term are not yet convinced that we have an appropriate plan.” Later, he said, “I still think we need a unifying mission. I am not satisfied with what they’re planning now is truly unified.” He suggested that a permanent base on the Moon should be that mission, citing interest in such missions from Russia and China.
Current administrator Bolden, who spoke to the committee the next day, rejected the suggestions from Beggs and Truly that NASA didn’t have a firm vision. “We are not adrift,” he said. “I think you heard some of my predecessors talk about they don’t know where we’re going. That’s their problem, not mine. I know where the agency is going. I know where I want it to go.”
More institution than program, more program than budget
Another part of the testimony by NASA’s current and former leaders focused on the size and structure of the agency itself. That interest appeared to be triggered by one item in the project scope for the study: “Examine NASA’s organizational structure and identify changes that could improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Agency’s mission activities.” To some, that sounded like code words for either closing centers or converting some into federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) run by other organizations. An example is JPL, which is funded by NASA but managed by Caltech.
Truly called out that that element of the project scope in his comments. “I hope you will stick to bigger stuff than that,” he cautioned, saying that the committee’s work should be at a higher level than reshaping organizational charts. “But if this is code for should we have this number of NASA centers going forward or not, fine.”
He warned that, based on his experience running an FFRDC for the Department of Energy, converting NASA centers to that structure may not be an ideal solution. While calling JPL one of the best examples of an FFRDC anywhere in the federal government, “I don’t think you want to trade the current NASA centers, that organization,” into FFRDCs. “I don’t think that’s a very good idea. And even if it was a good idea, I don’t understand what problem there is that this is the answer to.” He said that it would be a “nightmare” to transition centers to FFRDCs, and would be difficult to get them to work together once transitioned, citing the lack of cooperation among the Energy Department’s national labs.
Beggs also said he didn’t see a need to convert NASA centers into FFRDCs. “I’m a firm believer in the old slogan, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’” he said. “And I think the organizational structure of the agency is well-designed, well-structured, and it works. And I don’t see any reason to change it.”
One recent time that the idea of converting NASA centers into FFRDCs came up was in 2004 by the President’s Commission on the Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy, or more commonly known as the Aldridge Commission after its chairman, Pete Aldridge. Its final report recommended a restructuring of NASA that would convert many of its centers into FFRDCs.
“FFRDCs provide a tested, proven management structure in which many of the federal government’s most successful and innovative research, laboratory, technical support, and engineering institutions thrive,” the report concluded. “The value of FFRDCs is rooted in their technical competence, flexibility, independence, and objectivity in support of a given federal agency’s technical projects.” It did recommend that centers involved with “specific governmental functions” like launch and flight operations not be transitioned into FFRDCs.
The NASA administrator at the time of the Aldridge Commission report, Sean O’Keefe, told the NRC committee he was open to that concept. “How do you rationalize ten different centers around the country?” he asked, suggesting that FFRDCs was one idea he pursued during his tenure and still worth consideration today.
“I was pleasantly surprised to find out how much enthusiasm there was for that [FFRDC approach] within the centers as well as within some of the universities” that might be asked to manage them. “We could have, I think easily would have, seen that conversion occur a few years back had there been just a little more time.” That was an apparent allusion to O’Keefe’s departure from NASA at the end of 2004 to become chancellor of Louisiana State University. He was replaced by Mike Griffin, who showed no particular interest in FFRDCs. O’Keefe said that the FFRDC conversion plan “became almost a victim of transitions.”
Even though who didn’t embrace the FFRDC concept acknowledged that NASA today has infrastructure that includes some relics of past programs no longer needed. “I would be less than honest if I told you we need everything we have,” Bolden admitted. “We don’t. There’s some stuff we don’t do anymore, and yet we have facilities that are capable of handling that if someone gave it to us. But in today’s budget environment, you really can’t honestly hope to maintain all that stuff, hoping that someday it will return when we know it won’t.”
“There is too much institution for the program,” Beggs concluded, “and there is too much program for the budget.”
Budget and leadership
Beggs’ solution to that conundrum was simple: increase NASA’s budget by $4–5 billion per year, which would give it enough money to carry out all its programs as well as future ones, like the lunar base he advocated for. “I really don’t understand how this great nation” can’t afford to spend more money on overall research and development, he said, on the order of two to three percent of the nation’s GNP. “Where is the leadership that we used to have?”
Such funding doesn’t appear to be forthcoming in today’s fiscal environment, where government officials regularly repeat the mantra “flat is the new up” regarding budgets. But NASA’s budget falling short of the desires of its advocates is nothing new.
“I never once encountered anybody who said, ‘We’ve got all the resources we need, thank you very much,’” O’Keefe recalled, going back to his time both at NASA and the Defense Department. “Instead, the bigger challenge is trying to figure out how to establish a range of priorities necessary in order to fit within what has been determined to be an appropriate investment level to do.” He said that while he would have appreciated a bigger budget while at NASA, “everything that was a priority, I never had a problem gaining the endorsement of the administration.”
“NASA’s program are so big and so expensive that presidential leadership and White House followup to give clear support to NASA as they carry them out is essential,” Truly said, along with key supporters in Congress. Public support is also key, he said. “NASA is lost if you allow confusion in what it’s doing among the citizens.”
What impact that testimony will have on the NRC’s final report, and what effect the report will have on the White House and Congress, will take months, if not years, to ascertain. But Bolden agreed that the NASA is at a rare point in its history. “We’re at a turning point in the agency today, as we were when I joined in 1980,” he said. He even suggested that the committee give its final report to Congress in a public session that “provokes public dialogue. If it doesn’t then the Congress has wasted your time.”
Commercial crew providers aplenty (part 1)
Anthony Young - The Space Review
(Young is the author of The Saturn V F-1 Engine: Powering Apollo Into History)
The historic rendezvous and docking of the SpaceX capsule Dragon with the International Space Station on May 25 ushered in a new era of commercial spaceflight services. This flight was part of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, established to foster private sector involvement in providing services to NASA to support the ISS.
This mission, a development and demonstration flight, was all the more impressive because, from start to finish, there was hardly a glitch during this first attempt. This speaks volumes about the caliber of people working at SpaceX. There were several delays in launching the Falcon 9 rocket, but those delays were needed to ensure the launch vehicle was in perfect shape to get the Dragon capsule to its intended orbit. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was beside himself in admiration for the men and women who made it possible.
The Dragon capsule carried some cargo supplies for the ISS, and also used to return a variety of non-descript cargo back to Earth. However, the goal of SpaceX is to also provide NASA the capability of transporting astronauts to and from the ISS in the future.
SpaceX is one of several companies proposing launch vehicles and capsules to provide crew transportation services to the space agency. While NASA will have invested $800 million in the COTS program from 2006 through 2012 in SpaceX and Orbital Sciences for cargo delivery, it plans to spend several times that developing a crew capability, with several companies, both large and small, competing with SpaceX for awards. One company, though, is able to leverage work done on a now-canceled NASA program to support its bid to win funding for a commercial crew transportation system.
ATK, Ares I, and Liberty
As part of the Constellation program, NASA planned the development of two new launch vehicles. The Ares I was developed and based on reusable solid rocket motor (RSRM) boosters similar to those used for the Space Shuttle, built by Alliant Techsystems (ATK). The other launch vehicle was the Ares V, designed to boost heavy payloads beyond low Earth orbit and also making use of ATK’s solid rocket motors. In October 2009, the Ares I-X launched successfully on the first—and only—development test flight of the program. The Ares I was conceived to be the crew launch vehicle as part of the initial phase of the Constellation program.
However, the Obama Administration announced in February 2010 that the Constellation program could not possibly achieve its stated goals within its operating and projected budget and would have to be cancelled. Apart from the political ramifications over budget, momentum for further development by NASA of the Ares I launch vehicle was effectively lost. NASA and ATK had invested heavily in the development of this new launch vehicle, and interesting developments to save it in some form began to take shape, with impetus from the 2010 National Space Policy and its emphasis on commercialization. Internally, ATK initiated the Liberty Launch System program that year, utilizing the five-segment solid rocket motor originally planned for the Ares I. The company entered into negotiations with European aerospace firm EADS Astrium to supply the core stage of the Ariane 5 rocket , powered by the Vulcain 2 engine, to be the Liberty’s upper stage.
In February 2011, ATK and Astrium announced the Liberty Launch Initiative in response to NASA’s Commercial Crew Development-2 procurement. The ATK five-segment RSRM with the Astrium upper stage would be capable of delivering over 20,000 kilograms (44,500 pounds) to the orbit of the ISS. Liberty would be launched from Complex 39 and from its dedicated launch platform, with a Launch Umbilical Tower designed specifically to supply it.
While ATK did not win a funded Space Act Agreement from NASA as part of the second round of the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev-2) program in the spring of 2011, NASA and ATK signed an unfunded Space Act Agreement (SAA) in September that permitted the exchange of information to support development the Liberty Launch System. That agreement also covered the development of a crew capsule to go atop the Liberty launch vehicle. Kent Rominger, ATK vice-president and program manager for Liberty, stated at the time, “This SAA enables us to exchange information with NASA and receive valuable insight as we develop our fixed-price commercial crew vehicle and prepare it for test flight as early as 2014.” ATK was also looking for Liberty to serve various commercial markets, including crew, cargo, and government satellite markets. Being unfunded by NASA, ATK would bear the cost of this phase of Liberty’s development, and “…would look to other funding sources to further speed the development of Liberty.”
In January of this year, ATK held its Launch System Initial Systems Design Review, which completed the third of five milestones of the SAA with NASA for the Commercial Crew Development Program. In May, the company unveiled the design for its overall commercial crew launch vehicle concept, which now included the capsule and abort system. Liberty’s partners now include Lockheed Martin, who would provide design and development support for the crew spacecraft. Perhaps the most innovative element of the design is the Composite Crew Module, to be fabricated and assembled at ATK’s Iuka, Mississippi, facility and tested at NASA’s Langley Research Center. The updated launch schedule includes test launches in 2014 with the first possible crewed mission set for 2015, provided Liberty wins funding from NASA this summer in the latest round of the CCDev program, called Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap).
In viewing the company’s promotional videos for the Liberty launch vehicle on its corporate website, the disparity in the ages of personnel at ATK and those at SpaceX could not be more apparent. Most of the men in the videos are veterans of ATK in senior positions, with most likely decades of experience they are contributing to the Liberty program. One female engineer shown is far younger. There is much to be said for such deep work experience in the development of Liberty. On the other hand, SpaceX, which is arguably the youngest launch vehicle and space capsule manufacturer in America, succeeded in getting the Dragon capsule to dock with the ISS on the very first attempt.
These two concepts—SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Dragon, and ATK’s Liberty—demonstrate the wide range of not just technical approaches to commercial crew transportation, but the companies and corporate cultures involved. These two companies are not the only ones, though, interested in commercial crew. Part 2 will examine yet another competitor for these services.
Goldman will try to help Aerojet develop rocket business in Huntsville and Southeast
Lee Roop - Huntsville Times
Four months after he was promoted to the job, Acting Marshall Space Flight Center Director Gene Goldman surprised Huntsville's aerospace community Monday by announcing his retirement.
Goldman, 58, said he will leave NASA Aug. 3 to lead Aerojet's southeast regional operations. Taking over at least temporarily is current Marshall Associate Director Robin Henderson.
Aerojet and Teledyne Brown Engineering unveiled a new rocket engine in June that they will build in Huntsville and market to NASA and the Air Force. Goldman's experience with rocket engines and NASA makes him valuable to that effort.
"I am very pleased that Gene will have an initial focus in (Aerojet's) Space and Launch Systems area," division Vice President Julie Van Kleeck said in a statement, "continuing our efforts on bringing propulsion design and manufacturing to the Huntsville and the southeast regions."
Goldman is a former director of NASA's engine testing facility, the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, and a former space shuttle main engine project manager as well as former Marshall director and assistant director.
"At my age, this is an opportunity to remain in Huntsville with a major aerospace company and to do work in this region and in this community," Goldman said in an interview, "and I'm very excited about that opportunity."
Goldman came to Marshall in 2010 from Stennis to become assistant to then-Marshall director Robert Lightfoot. When Lightfoot was promoted in March to acting NASA associate administrator, the space agency's top civil service post, Goldman was in place for a smooth transition. He said then he wanted the job permanently.
In April, Lightfoot told Huntsville leaders visiting Washington on a lobbying trip that he will remain "acting" associate administrator until early next year. That decision, based on the possibility of a new president after November's elections and a subsequent change at the top of NASA, meant Goldman would also have to wait and might even be replaced by a returning Lightfoot.
"I'm not planning on coming back," Lightfoot said. "I don't want anybody thinking I'm soft on that, but if something changes and they no longer want me in that position, I'll at least have a place back home."
But Goldman said Monday this was simply an opportunity he didn't want to pass up. He said everything is "in excellent shape" at Marshall, which is developing NASA's new heavy-lift rocket.
"This is a personal decision," Goldman said. He has talked to Lightfoot and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr. "as this has evolved," Goldman said, "and they are working together on how they will name a successor.
"I will be here another month," Goldman said. "If they've not named one by the time I leave, Robin Henderson, our current associate director will be the acting director. We've got great faith in Robin. She does a great job. She is a longtime employee of the center."
Goldman told employees of his retirement at an all-hands meeting Monday morning. One local aerospace executive said later it was a surprise. Mayor Tommy Battle issued a statement congratulating Aerojet and Goldman.
"Gene will be very successful in his new career at Aerojet," Battle said, "and we are very happy that such a talented individual will remain a part of our community."
MSFC Director Goldman Leaving NASA for Aerojet
Dan Leone - Space News
Arthur “Gene” Goldman is leaving his post as director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Ala., to become head of Southeast Space Operations for Aerojet effective Aug. 6, the Sacramento, Calif., rocket-engine maker said.
Aerojet announced Goldman’s hiring in a July 9 press release. A NASA press release said Goldman will leave the agency Aug. 3.
Robin Henderson, Marshall’s associate director, will succeed Goldman as director, NASA said in its release. Goldman had been with NASA since 1990. He joined the agency as a project engineer in Marshall’s space shuttle project integration office.
Goldman has been running Marshall since early March when then-director Robert Lightfoot left Huntsville for Washington to become NASA’s associate administrator, the agency’s highest ranking civil servant position.
The Marshall Space Flight Center has had a leading role in NASA rocket development since the beginning of the U.S. space program. It is currently managing design and development of the Space Launch System (SLS), the congressionally mandated heavy-lift rocket NASA plans to use for launching astronauts beyond Earth orbit.
Aerojet has been pushing for a bigger role in the SLS program. Last year, the company announced it was partnering with Huntsville-based Teledyne Brown to build liquid-rocket engines for customers including NASA.
NASA has so far announced two SLS flights, one in 2017 and one in 2021. In these missions, SLS will send the Lockheed Martin-built Orion capsule around the Moon and back. Only the second flight will be crewed. The SLS variant that will fly these missions will use existing hardware: five-segment solid boosters developed by Alliant Techsystems for the canceled Constellation program and leftover space shuttle main engines made by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.
Subsequent SLS configurations will require new boosters and more space shuttle main engines — SLS will not reuse its core engines. Julie Van Kleeck, Aerojet's vice president of space and launch systems, has said that Aerojet wants to provide both of these propulsion systems.
SpaceX flight carries Maryland student project, but it never activates
Sent up aboard the spaceship Dragon, 16-year-old Paul Warren's science project never got off the ground
Jonathan Pitts - Baltimore Sun
Whatever goes up must come down - just not always in the condition one hoped.
That's the lesson Paul Warren, the 16-year-old from Maryland whose science experiment was launched into space in May, learned Friday when the materials of his project - test tubes, packing liquids and roundworms by the thousand - returned after having spent nearly seven weeks aboard the International Space Station.
The experiment, he learned, had never been activated.
"I don't know if I've ever been this frustrated," he said shortly after opening the box he had been waiting for since it landed in Kazakhstan on Sunday. "It might have been some kind of mechanical malfunction. I don't know if there's anyone to be blamed. But this is still hard."
The son of an astrophysicist in Charles County, Warren earned the right to have his project flown into space on a rocket built by SpaceX, a commercial aeronautics firm. A panel of scientists named it one of the 15 best in the country in a competition sponsored by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, a nonprofit that gives students a chance to conduct research as professionals do.
In Warren's experiment - formally known as "Physiological effects of microgravity and increased levels of radiation on wild type and genetically engineered Caenorhabditis elegans" - he had hoped to study the behavior of the quickly-reproducing roundworms in space as a way of glimpsing how space travel might affect human beings in the future.
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health, at the University of Nottingham in England, and at two research centers in Japan helped Warren design his project, which was launched aboard the first commercially made spacecraft ever to deliver a payload to the station.
Per instructions from NanoRacks, the Houston company that works with NASA to integrate such deliveries, Warren packed his worms, or C. elegans, into a glass ampule, or tube, then packed that tube into a larger one containing a liquid "growth medium" for the worms. An astronaut aboard the space station was to crack the outer ampule in a way that would release the worms into the surrounding liquid.
It never happened.
"We don't have enough data yet to know what went wrong," said NCESSE director Jeff Goldstein, who developed the nationwide competition with NASA scientists and educators across the country. "We've sent emails to all the parties involved, but we can't say yet. I can tell you we're taking this every bit as seriously as we would if Paul were a professional scientist."
It was unclear whether the other 14 experiments on board had similar difficulties. Goldstein said room aboard the next SpaceX launch to the space station, Mission 2, is already taken, but that he's "confident" Warren will get a chance to try again aboard Mission 3 next spring.
"That would still be a great opportunity, but this has to be tough for Paul," he said.
Despite his disappointment, Warren, a rising senior at Henry E. Lackey High School in Indian Head, was already trying to put the setback in perspective.
Conducting experiments on a spacecraft is hard, he said, owing to lack of space, loud noise and many other factors. And NanoRacks heat-seals two bags to the outside of all experimental tubes, adding a layer of protection he guesses might have made the package harder to handle than expected.
If he sounded like a young man trying to suppress some initial bitterness, Warren, who is also the president of his school's Key Club, a community service organization, was already taking note of one lesson.
"This is one of those things I have to learn, and I'm sure I'll look back on it the rest of my life," he said. "Things don't always go according to plan."
Stillwater electronics firm wins award for space station technology
Frontier Electronics Systems Corp. in Stillwater keeps a low profile, but its technology is lauded within the industry
Don Mecoy - The Oklahoman (NewsOK.com)
A Stillwater electronics company has been recognized by Boeing as a top avionics supplier for the fourth time.
“We're the first company to have that honor,” said Brenda Rolls, president of Frontier Electronics Systems Corp., which was among 14 companies and two universities chosen from Boeing's 28,000 suppliers for the 2011 award.
Frontier Electronics was honored for its design and production of an interface that helps manage power for a system that controls solar panels on the International Space Station.
The device, which had to fit in the same small space as the system it replaced, is the third project Frontier Electronics has produced for the space station, Rolls said.
The Stillwater firm earlier manufactured a control panel that spacewalking astronauts used to communicate with crew members inside the space station, and made test equipment that supports computer systems in the station, Rolls said.
“It's pretty sophisticated stuff,” she said.
While the company's latest space station production involved just five devices, Frontier Electronics recently manufactured its 1,000th engine fuel display unit for the U.S. Navy's F-18 Super Hornet fighter jets.
That ability to produce technically sophisticated devices in Stillwater fulfills the wishes of company founders (and Rolls' parents) Ed and Peggy Shreve. Ed Shreve was disappointed with the number of engineering graduates who were trained in Stillwater and took jobs elsewhere.
Many of the company's 120 employees come from Oklahoma universities, including some engineers who left the state and have returned for the quality of life, Rolls said. Among Frontier Electronic's employees are several who have worked there more than a decade, and a couple who have been in Stillwater more than 30 years.
Recently, Frontier Electronics — working with the University of Tulsa — won cash awards from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) to develop lithium ion nano-batteries.
The microscopic power sources could produce “significant improvements” over the current designs, Rolls said. One client has expressed interest in using the tiny batteries in missiles, she said.
Battery technology has not advanced as quickly as other forms of technology, Rolls said. The current work could hold “dramatic potential” for advancements in battery safety and performance, she said.
Once the product is ready for production, Frontier Electronics could launch a second business based in Stillwater that might eventually require a second manufacturing facility.
Connecting to quality
Meanwhile, OCAST officials introduced Frontier Electronics to another client, Oklahoma City-based VADovations Inc., which is developing a miniature blood pump that could benefit from such a small power source.
“They each had something the other needed to develop a viable product,” said Dan Luton, OCAST director of programs.
Frontier Electronics is based in an 86,000-square-foot former hotel in Stillwater.
“If you happen to be an engineer and you're on the west side of the building, you have your own private restroom,” Rolls said.
The company maintains a fairly low profile because the projects it works, while not top secret, often are sensitive, Rolls said.
“It's a great company,” she said. “We have a very good culture — a lot of dedicated, really smart people. You don't win four supplier awards if you only perform well for a short time.”
Aerospace company to bring jobs to Space Coast
Greg Pallone - Central Florida News 13
An aerospace company set to make a major job announcement could mean a boon for the Space Coast with the possibility of getting displaced shuttle workers back to work.
It's called "Project Speed," and jobs could not come quick enough for the thousands of displaced shuttle workers.
“The most significant aspect of Brevard County was the skilled workforce,” said Paul Hansen, incoming chair for the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast.
Hansen said it took a year of negotiating and turning down other choices, but now an aerospace company is coming to Titusville and a plot of land near the city's Space Coast Regional Airport.
And who will be some of the new employees?
Many who once worked on the space shuttle program.
“They certainly have a lot of skills for the aerospace industry. So I think they would have an excellent opportunity,” said Hansen.
The expanding company's name has been kept under wraps, but the numbers are significant with 1,347 jobs expected over the next four years.
Potentially, another 900 jobs could be created in spinoff, or related work.
Combined over four years, according to the EDC, it amounts to nearly $96 million in payroll.
The contract requires Titusville and the county to invest $32 million to build a 400,000 square foot facility.
The estimated annual economic impact to the county is $48 million.
“We are starting to get some momentum. Businesses around the country are starting to take notice, Brevard County is a great place to be if you are an aerospace company,” said Hansen.
The official announcement will take place Tuesday at 2 p.m. at the Space Coast Regional Airport.
T+ 1 year and counting
NASA's final space shuttle mission — where are they now?
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
One year (and one day) after launching on NASA's final space shuttle mission, the orbiter Atlantis is parked today just a few miles from the launch pad where it lifted off on July 8, 2011.
No longer flight-worthy — its main engines replaced with replicas and its hazardous fuel lines removed — Atlantis is waiting inside a high bay in the Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building to complete its transformation into a museum-safe display later this year.
This November, NASA plans to roll Atlantis, the last of its space-flown shuttles, down the road to the center's visitor complex, where a $100 million exhibition hall for Atlantis will open to tourists next summer.
Like Atlantis and some of its parts, so too has dispersed the team that led STS-135, the final flight of NASA's 30-year shuttle program. A year since working together to fly one last mission to the International Space Station, the astronauts, Mission Control directors, and managers have since moved on to other missions, programs, and in some cases, other organizations.
The final four
Atlantis' four astronauts — commander Chris Ferguson, pilot Doug Hurley and mission specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim — stayed together as a crew for four months after flying the 13-day STS-135 mission from July 8 to July 21, 2011.
They toured NASA centers, spoke to the public about their mission, visited with President Obama in the White House and then finally, on Nov. 2, posed for photos together with the crew of the first space shuttle mission, STS-1 astronauts John Young and Bob Crippen. [NASA's Last Shuttle Mission in Pictures]
"We're done," Ferguson said that day, following the photo shoot. "Everyone goes their separate ways right now."
For Ferguson, that meant separating from NASA. On Dec. 9, Ferguson announced he was leaving the space agency. He accepted a position with Boeing, overseeing the design and development of the crew systems for their potential shuttle replacement, a capsule the company is calling the Commercial Space Transportation, or CST, 100.
Boeing's CST-100 is among a small group of commercial spacecraft competing for a NASA contract to fly astronauts to and from the space station. NASA is expected to reveal its choices of vehicles this summer.
Among the astronauts who could someday fly aboard the CST-100, if Boeing is selected, are Ferguson's STS-135 crewmates, who are still with NASA. In the interim, they too are working to advance future spacecraft and missions from within the space agency.
Hurley is currently the assistant director for new programs under NASA's Flight Crew Operations Directorate (FCOD) at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Walheim is the Astronaut Office's main liaison to the Orion program and is providing input from an astronaut's perspective into the design and testing of the NASA crew capsule being built to go out to an asteroid, the moon and ultimately, Mars.
Magnus, who prior to flying on Atlantis' final mission spent 134 days on the International Space Station, is supporting the station program and its on-going expeditions.
Atlantis, Mission Control
The STS-135 crew members were not the only astronauts involved with the final space shuttle mission. In addition to the crew's counterparts on board the space station, there were other astronauts heard each and every day of the shuttle flight — live from Mission Control.
Since the first U.S. human spaceflight more than 50 years ago, astronauts have served as "capcom," or the capsule communicator — traditionally, the only person in Mission Control to talk to the crew in space. For STS-135, the four shuttle Capcoms were Shannon Lucid, Megan McArthur, Stephen Robinson and Barry "Butch" Wilmore.
Lucid, who woke the STS-135 crew during their mission with a resounding "Good morning, Atlantis!," retired from NASA in January. A member of the first astronaut class to include women — as well as the first candidates chosen specifically to fly on the shuttle, Lucid flew five times to space herself, including a record-setting stay on board the Russian space station Mir.
Robinson, who served as the STS-135 lead capcom, recently left NASA on June 30 to become a faculty member at the University of California, Davis. In addition to serving as a professor, Robinson will lead in establishing the Center for Human-Vehicle Integration and Performance at UC Davis, intended to be a center of expertise for machine-enhanced human performance in hazardous environments, including during spaceflight.
McArthur and Wilmore are still in NASA's astronaut corps. McArthur (now Behnken) continues to serve as a capcom, recently coordinating with the space station's crew as they captured and berthed SpaceX's Dragon capsule, the first commercial spacecraft to ever visit the orbiting laboratory. Wilmore is in training to join a crew aboard the station.
The Capcoms were responsible for conveying instructions from the mission's flight directors — STS-135 lead director Kwatsi Alibaruho, "Orbit 2" director Rick LaBrode, planning director Paul Dye, ascent director Richard Jones, (re)entry director Tony Ceccacci and "Team 4's" Gary Horlacher.
Alibaruho left NASA a month after Atlantis landed to become an executive director for systems engineering at Hamilton Sundstrand, an aerospace contractor. LaBrode is now coordinating NASA's future exploration plans within the Mission Operations Directorate. Jones is preparing for NASA's first Orion test spaceflight in 2014. And Ceccacci, Dye, and Horlacher are still leading Mission Control, now as space station flight directors.
Mission managers
One other flight controller had responsibility over Atlantis up until the shuttle "cleared the tower." Launch director Michael Leinbach led the Launch Control Center (LCC) at Kennedy Space Center, the Florida equivalent to Mission Control in Houston.
"On behalf of the greatest team in the world, good luck to you and your crew on the final flight of this true American icon," Leinbach radioed to Ferguson just as the countdown to the last shuttle mission entered its final minutes.
Leinbach's own departure from NASA came Nov. 30. Soon after, he joined United Launch Alliance (ULA), and is now leading the company's development of human spaceflight capabilities for their Atlas and Delta rockets.
Mike Moses, who oversaw Atlantis' assembly for STS-135 as the launch integration manager, is also now leading the oversight for a commercial launch vehicle. He was named Virgin Galactic's vice president of operations last October.
Founded by billionaire Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic is working toward flying privately-funded astronauts ("space tourists") and scientists on suborbital flights on board the Scaled Composites-designed SpaceShipTwo.
A year ago, Moses was also co-chairing Atlantis' Mission Management Team (MMT) with LeRoy Cain, then shuttle program deputy manager, who is now chairing the review team for Orion and NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket operations at the Kennedy Space Center.
A month after Atlantis landed, shuttle program manager John Shannon signed a letter that effectively brought the shuttle program to its end. He is now leading a review of where NASA will send its astronauts next, developing the potential missions that will take crews beyond where the shuttle was ever capable of flying.
LAX officials detail plans for space shuttle Endeavour's arrival
Art Marroquin - LA Daily Breeze
Transporting a space shuttle through Los Angeles International Airport won't be a small endeavor.
The Endeavour - NASA's youngest orbiter - is scheduled to ride piggyback on a Boeing 747 jetliner from Cape Canaveral in Florida to LAX in late September, where it will be kept for nearly two weeks before embarking on a painstakingly slow journey to the California Science Center, airport officials said Monday.
While other local airports were considered to avoid air traffic disruptions, LAX was ultimately selected because it has the longest runways in the region and is in relatively close proximity to the Exposition Park museum, said Michael Feldman, deputy executive director for facilities management at LAX.
"It's nice to actually win something in L.A., and this was a big one," Jeffrey Rudolph, president and CEO of the California Science Center, told the Board of Airport Commissioners.
The Endeavour is set to arrive on LAX's southernmost runway and will be housed for two weeks in a hangar provided by United Airlines, where crews will prepare the shuttle for the haul through Los Angeles.
During an early morning in mid-October, the shuttle will emerge from the hangar and move through LAX's north airfield, leading to a temporary halt in aircraft operations, Feldman said.
"This piece of it seems easy compared to the 12-plus miles of L.A. we have to get through," Rudolph said.
The orbiter, with a wing span of nearly 80 feet, will travel at about 2 mph through the streets of Los Angeles, carefully maneuvering past traffic signals, structures and trees.
Endeavour flew 25 missions during a career that spanned from May 1992 to May 2011 and will end its trek inside a new aircraft hangar at the California Science Center, where it will be available for public viewing.
Museum officials plan to eventually build a new Air and Space Center, with the decommissioned shuttle serving as the centerpiece.
"I'm just sorry we couldn't have any role in moving the (Los Angeles County Museum of Art's) rock," quipped Airport Commissioner Boyd Hight, referring to the massive Levitated Mass exhibit that took 12 days to transport from Riverside County earlier this year.
CicLAvia Makes Way for the Space Shuttle
The arrival of Endeavour inspires a route change
Alysia Gray Painter - KNBC TV (Los Angeles)
Your trusty bike and a space shuttle? They're two forms of transportation that normally don't hold court in the same breath, much less the same article.
But their fates are now improbably connected in Los Angeles, a city built on improbable connections. That's because CicLAvia, the popular street-cycling event that happens a few times a year, graciously changed its October route to make way for Endeavour.
Perhaps you heard that we're getting a space shuttle for permanent display at the California Science Center? Levitated Mass, we don't mean to rock your world but you've got a brand-new, very large museum-bound neighbor rolling into town.
Yeah, we said "rock" your world there.
So all the happy cyclists don't meet Endeavour nose-to-nose the CicLAvia route is getting a reboot. The updated map says that more of Figueroa will be incorporated, as well as some other fresh streets. Oh, and the date? That got a nudge, too. It had previously been Oct. 14 but the new date is Sunday, Oct. 7.
As always, CicLAvia is free and open to anyone with a bike or scooter or non-motorized wheels. It's as much about community and savoring the day as it is getting from Point A to Point B.
And as for Endeavour? The shuttle's arrival date is said to be "mid-month" in October. No open date is listed on the California Science Center site yet, but bet it'll get the fanfare weeks ahead of time. And as well as letting Levitated Mass know it has a new huge neighbor in town, has anyone told Air Force One, up at the Reagan Library? The shuttle and the presidential plane seem like a good twofer for aviation lovers (yep, it is a long way from Exposition Park to Simi Valley, but bet fans'll make the drive).
Now we're wondering what movie producer is dreaming up a big scene where thousands of cyclists surround and welcome the space shuttle on the streets of downtown Los Angeles. Since this won't happen in real life, maybe someone could write it into a scene? We want to see it. Thank you.
Midland, Texas ideal destinations for aviation industry, officials say
Kathleen Petty - Midland Reporter-Telegram
The approval Monday of a $10 million economic development deal with XCOR Aerospace Inc. will bring to the Permian Basin what state and local leaders described as a new generation of innovation.
The Midland City Council and Midland Development Corp. unanimously approved on Monday lease agreements and a $10 million incentive package for XCOR Aerospace. The company will locate its headquarters and research and development operations at the former AMI Hangar near Midland International Airport and also will create an eventual payroll of $12 million at its Tall City offices, according to the contract.
It's a move company leaders and state and local officials said was possible, in large part, because of the business-friendly climate in Texas and the growing economy in Midland and statewide. The company's operations -- which include the creation and production of reusable launch vehicles, rocket engines and related rocket propulsion technology -- currently are based in Mojave, Calif.
"It's a great day for Midland and a huge step for the state of Texas," said Gov. Rick Perry, speaking to the about 100 people in attendance at an 11 a.m. announcement and welcome event for XCOR at its new headquarters.
"Visionary companies, like XCOR, continue to choose Texas because they know that innovation is what fuels their business and innovation is fueled by freedom," Perry said. "Whether on the cutting edge of biotech, communications, commerce or privatized efforts to serve the needs of the next generation of space explorers, you can find Texas at the forefront of the movement."
Laura Roman, chairwoman of the MDC, said Monday was the culmination of months of work and that MDC was excited about the deal. The XCOR will receive $10 million in incentives over 10 years, including $2 million for the creation of a headquarters, $3 million toward lease payments and improvements at the hangar and $5 million in performance incentives.
"Absolutely, we could not have asked for a better community addition than XCOR," Roman said.
State Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland, said for decades Midland has "more or less" been an oil and gas community. Those who don't work directly for an oil company typically are employed by a business that is tied in to the movement of the oil and gas sector.
Now, there will be a whole new industry, he said.
"This is a great day for Midland," he said. "It's a new era, I would say, for West Texas, all of West Texas and I would say the state of Texas."
Perry said when Craddick was mentoring him 25 years ago, neither imagined Midland would become a place for space travel.
Still, Texas, through NASA's Johnson Space Center, has long played a vital role in the world's space race, he said.
Before XCOR, other companies have started operations in Texas, including Armadillo Aerospace, which is in Heath, near Dallas-Fort Worth, and Blue Origin, which has a launch complex near Van Horn.
The state also is among those working to complete a deal with SpaceX.
"Texas and our nation's earliest space explorers shared that pioneering spirit, a spirit that lives on today," Perry said. "Once again, Texas is a perfect fit for anyone seeking to achieve the unachievable."
Perry said when the state participates in ventures, leaders aren't targeting any particular sector. The state did not participate in the MDC deal but has in others.
The creation and growth of an aerospace industry in Texas is fueled by aerospace leaders who see the advantages of doing business in the Lone Star state, Perry said.
"We don't pick and choose which industries we want to be in the state," he said. "They choose us."
Texas and Midland have become places that companies look to because of the tax structure, regulatory climate and trained workforce, he said.
Andrew Nelson, chief operating officer at XCOR, said while some of the staff at Midland's research and development facility will consist of existing employees, XCOR also will post ads within the next few weeks for jobs such as machinists and technicians.
"We will be hiring in the community," he said, adding the industrial base already established in Midland has created a workforce that will provide great options for XCOR.
He and Jeff Greason, president and CEO of XCOR, said they were in serious discussions with other communities but selected Midland because of the airport, the climate and the area leadership. The AMI Hangar also is on a lot that will allow for additions and is near a bunker that will be ideal for testing, which Greason said was a key factor.
"Mojave has been a good home for us, but it's time for us to prepare for the next phase," Greason said.
"You've got this incredible runway, wide open spaces," Nelson said. "You have a pioneering culture. You have an incredible industrial base. The people are really, of course, what sells the community."
Starting full operations of its research and development facility will require the Federal Aviation Administration to designate Midland International Airport as a spaceport.
It's anticipated that process will take about 18 months, during which time XCOR will renovate the former AMI hangar and gradually move its key leaders to Midland.
Several, already have begun looking for housing, Greason said.
And while Midland's in a drought, it's greener in the Permian Basin than in Mojave, Calif., he said.
Robert Rendall, MDC board secretary, who worked closely with the project, said the MDC expects XCOR will play a role in Midland's economy for decades to come.
"This company and their founders are pioneers, they're entrepreneurs, they have a solid business plan. Most of all, they have passion. We believe they are a perfect fit for our community," Rendall said. "We're going to have a long, long history together."
Private Space Plane Builders Pick Texas for New Test Site
Denise Chow - Space.com
A private rocket-building company that is designing a suborbital space plane for future paid trips to the edge of space will open a new test facility in Texas, company officials announced Monday.
The Mojave, Calif.-based XCOR Aerospace and the Midland Development Corporation unveiled plans today for XCOR's new Commercial Space Research and Development Center Headquarters in Midland, Texas. The research facility will be used to test XCOR's Lynx space plane, a reusable, winged spaceship that is designed to carry two passengers and science experiments to the edge of space.
The company also plans to eventually develop and test components for an orbital version of the Lynx vehicle in Midland, company officials said.
"We are pleased to be establishing our R&D Center in Midland, Texas, where the weather, surrounding landscape, the airport, and the local & state government environment are ideally situated for the future growth and the ultimate realization of a fully reusable orbital system," Andrew Nelson, chief operating officer of XCOR Aerospace, said in a statement. "With future suborbital operational sites on the East and West Coasts of the United States and around the world, plus a manufacturing and test facility geographically separate from our R&D facility, Midland will truly be at the heart of XCOR’s innovation engine."
Local government officials applauded XCOR's decision to establish an aerospace foothold in the state.
"This is a great day for Midland and a huge step forward for the state of Texas," Texas governor Rick Perry said in a statement. "Visionary companies, like XCOR, continue to choose Texas because they know that innovation is fueled by freedom. Whether on the cutting edge of biotech, communications, commerce or privatized efforts to serve the needs of the next generation of space explorers, you can find Texas at the forefront of the movement."
The new R&D headquarters will be established in a newly renovated 60,000-square-foot hangar at the Midland International Airport (MAF). Construction of the office space and test facility will begin early next year, company officials said, and is expected to be complete by late autumn in 2013.
"XCOR will be upgrading an existing hangar at Midland International Airport," Marv Esterly, director of airports at MAF, said in a statement. "This new R&D facility has the potential to open the door to even more economic development at our airport and for our community."
The city of Midland is also applying to the Federal Aviation Administration for Midland International Airport to be certified as a commercial space launch site, representatives from the Midland Development Corporation said.
The application process will likely last 12 to 18 months, but once licenses have been approved, and the airport hangar is fully renovated, XCOR is expected to boost its activities in Texas.
XCOR recently announced it is aiming to begin operational Lynx flights from California's Mojave Spaceport in 2013, and flights from the tiny Caribbean island of Curacao the following year.
XCOR is not the only private rocket company that has expressed interest in building new facilities in Texas. California-based SpaceX, the private aerospace firm that successfully launched the first commercially built, unmanned spacecraft to the International Space Station, has proposed building a launch facility in Cameron County in southern Texas for orbital and suborbital vehicles.
Brooklyn spacesuit designers have high hopes
Eli Rosenberg - Brooklyn Daily
A theatrical costume designer and a former Russian space program employee are aiming for the stars by building low-cost spacesuits that they hope will best NASA’s current design.
Ted Southern and Nikolay Moiseev have constructed two prototype spacesuits in their Gowanus studio and they’re currently working on a third that’s ready to go into orbit — but before they can blast off, they need your help.
In search of funding, the duo has cast aside the secrecy of the space race-era by using a more contemporary approach to fund-raising: www.Kickstarter.com
“Not that many people are making spacesuits — and those who are, are very secretive about it,” said Southern, a Park Slope resident with a background as a costume engineer for Broadway productions like “The Little Mermaid” and “Equus.” “They’re worried about people stealing ideas. Kickstarter is open-sourced, but that’s a risk we’re taking — we wanted to be a part of the community and not hide.”
Southern, who won $100,000 from NASA in 2009 for designing an astronaut glove, and Moiseev, who worked for the Russian Federal Space Agency for about two decades and recently relocated from Moscow, are perfecting a form of outerspace garb called an intra-vehicular activity suit.
Dubbed IVA suits (one must love acronyms to love space), the orange getups are what astronauts wear while inside the shuttle.
The safety suits, which were adopted after the Challenger disaster, can be pressurized in the event of an emergency — but the current design is in need of a makeover, according to Southern.
“The old NASA suits are heavy and expensive and don’t work that well,” he said. “We see an opportunity in this field.”
NASA’s IVA suits cost around $250,000. The duo, who are working under the name Final Frontier Designs, hope theirs will go for about a fifth of that figure.
And the savings won’t stop there, Southern claims.
“Our suit weighs under 15 pounds, while the current NASA suit is about 30 pounds — which in a flight of a bunch of people could add up to over $500,000 savings in terms of fuel,” he said.
The Final Frontier Designs suit will be suitable for travel into the upper limits of the low Earth orbit, somewhere around 1,200 miles into the heavens.
Southern and Moiseev are banking on an anticipated boom in the next few years in the commercial spaceflight industry, where such suits will be mandated.
Eager outer space explorers can donate to their fund-raising campaign through July 15 — and those willing to shell out more than $10,000 can take home their own custom-built spacesuit.
Southern admits that it might make more sense to design spacesuits in Cape Canaveral or the Silicon Valley — but he says there’s no place he’d rather be than Brooklyn.
“When I tell people I make spacesuits they think I’m lying,” said Southern. “New York in general doesn’t have a very big aerospace industry, so we end up going to Houston and Palo Alto and Florida. But it is the center of the world, so it’s hard to beat being here.”
Even in Gowanus, where creative craftsmen are making everything from cutting edge art to homemade beer, the locals are surprised that space engineers are toiling in the lofts around them.
“That’s probably at the more extreme end of people doing stuff down here, but that’s awesome,” said Scott Albrecht, a woodworker and painter who was burning wood planks near the building that houses Final Frontier Designs. “Then again for Gowanus that kind of makes sense.”
Q&A: Ex-astronaut Stephen Robinson ready for new UC Davis challenge
Jing Cao - Sacramento Bee
Sacramento native Stephen Robinson, an astronaut since 1994, has hung up his spacesuit to become a mechanical and aerospace engineering professor at UC Davis.
He will also head the new Center for Human-Vehicle Integration and Performance, which will research how humans and machines can interact efficiently. Robinson is returning to his alma mater, where he got a dual bachelor's of science in mechanical and aeronautical engineering. He got his master's degree and doctorate at Stanford.
Did you always want to be an astronaut?
I think so. I was fascinated with flying in space from the time when I was very young.
What was your favorite part about being an astronaut?
It was the people that I worked with. All the people involved with the space program are very passionate. You don't join because you're gonna make a lot of money.
Least favorite part?
The summers in Houston.
What's a flight like?
Being in space is the culmination of years of training. The launch is very exciting – pretty dynamic and a little bit violent. Lots of forces and vibration and noise and suddenly, it all stops and you're floating peacefully in orbit. And then comes a couple of weeks of the hardest work you've ever done, at least for a shuttle mission.
Why retire from NASA?
Well, I have been an astronaut for 17 years, and that's a tremendous privilege, but it's time to let other people fly in space.
How do you feel about being a professor?
I am so excited that I can't wait to start. It's my other lifetime dream to be a professor. It's the reason I got a Ph.D. in the first place. I feel like everything I've done up to now has been preparation for this.
What is the new center?
The idea is to give humans a chance to operate much more effectively and safely in a very hazardous environment. The idea is to do research to study engineering development and design, neuroscience, psy- chology – to bring these things together.
What do you hope to achieve there?
My goal is to provide a research environment to learn how to extend human capability. To do that you need machines and software; you need to understand how the brain works, behavior and learning, and how to operate as a team. We can extend our presence and do things we couldn't otherwise do, such as going to space, but also flying in the atmosphere, doing robotic surgery.
What's your new class, Introduction to Spacecraft, about?
The idea of that class is to provide undergraduates with a very broad view into everything humans throw into space: satellites, human-carrying spacecrafts, deeper space travel. Hopefully, get them interested enough to want to do grad work in this field.
What do you hope your students will learn?
Besides a good foundation of engineering principles, to be creative-problem solvers. And most importantly, to be creative problem-identifiers. In other words, question-askers. The hardest thing to do in the technical field is to try to ask the right question.
What advice would you give someone aspiring to be like you?
For whatever you're aspiring, don't allow other people to convince you to let go of that dream. People will try to give you advice about what's practical, and dreams by definition are not practical. You don't achieve dreams by giving up. If some- body wants to be an astronaut, get experience in as many different activities and fields as possible. The life of an astronaut changes every day, and you're often faced with something nobody's ever done before.
What are your current plans?
Pack up to move from Texas to California. I'll be coming home.
Do you ever want to return to space?
Absolutely. Tomorrow would be good.
The power of ‘active followers,’ from Mission Control to mountain climbing
Time
Jeffrey S. Ashby is a former NASA space shuttle commander and ex-Top Gun former Navy pilot who has been through combat missions in the Middle East and three Space Shuttle missions. John Kanengieter is cut from that same cloth, but more earth-bound. He is director of leadership at the National Outdoor Leadership School — climbing mountains, leading expeditions, following the adventure path. Stephen Girsky is vice chairman of GM with overall responsibility for corporate strategy, business alliances, new business development and other areas, and also holds the title of chairman of the Adam Opel AG Supervisory Board.
At a recent Wharton Leadership Conference, Ashby and Kanengieter offered leadership lessons that apply not only to their outsized adventure worlds, but also to the boardroom and conference tables of the more conventional business community. Essentially, Ashby and Kanengieter said, effective leadership comes down to preparation, a single-minded focus on the goal and a team of what they called “active followers.”
Each of the men made his points by talking about key moments in his respective career. In Ashby’s case, it was commanding an International Space Station docking-and-repair mission — number 112, on the Atlantis in October 2002. For Kanengieter, it was his part in an Indian/American attempt to scale Panwali Dwar — at 21,000-plus feet, one of the tallest and most difficult mountains to climb in the Indian portion of the Himalayas.
Cold Mountain
Ashby began his saga by noting that NASA puts together its most important crews — those who take on Space Shuttle missions — in a way that would seem unconventional in a normal corporate setting. Approximately nine months before Mission 112 was to take off, Ashby received an 11 p.m. call from NASA headquarters congratulating him on being named Mission commander. But headquarters also told him that it had already picked his crew — i.e., he would have no say in who would be on that crew, and yet he would be expected to make sure everyone worked well together and completed the mission successfully.
In the early days of NASA space missions, Ashby said, the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts were assumed to be leaders. “They were all military pilots, and all had military leadership training.” By the 1990s, the commanders were still military, but “it was a different kind of setting with the International Space Station.” Now, instead of all military people, there were scientists and other mission specialists who were important — and not necessarily motivated by military-type leadership. There needed to be a different way to mold the six or seven crew members — each one of them responsible for delicate and complex tasks — into a cohesive unit.
That is where Ashby said his path crossed with Kanengieter and the National Outdoor Leadership School. He decided to take his diverse crew — one woman, a Russian who spoke no English, his pilot and a medical doctor among them — to the Canyonlands of Utah for an 11-day wilderness trek, the same length as their future Space Shuttle mission.
Ashby intended to make it as arduous and challenging as possible. He knew that seven days together on a mission was just about the limit before breakdowns — arguments, resentments and the like — would occur. In addition, he took the crew to Utah’s mountains in November, just as it was getting cold and damp. Each day, he changed leaders — the mission was to traverse a set of canyons and mountains across the National Park — so everyone would get a chance to be at the head and also in the “active following” positions.
At one point, near a passage filled with cascading water, the group was strung out so that those in front could not see or hear those in back. One of those in the back suggested returning the way they had come and circling around — taking the longer, but safer, route. He was eventually overruled, and the group decided to slog through the rushing water to the more direct route.
What was key for Ashby, though, was that the overruled crew member — instead of sulking or arguing — volunteered to be the person who would lift and guide everyone through the most dangerous part of the rock wall where the water was rushing down. “He disagreed, and yet he gave his full commitment,” noted Ashby. ”I knew then that we would be a team and we would make it. Even [though there was] disagreement, it set the tone for the trip — and later the mission. The behavior was [defined by a sense of] respect and cooperation.”
According to Ashby, these qualities were especially important once the mission began. The most crucial part would be docking with the repair materials for the International Space Station. It is a two-day trek from take-off to docking — an almost incomprehensible piece of precision, hooking together 240 miles up at 18,000 miles per hour.
Everything was fine until about three miles away and three minutes out when it suddenly became apparent from computer readouts that a calculation was wrong. “You only get one shot at docking, because that is all the fuel you have in the thrusters,” said Ashby. It was not that they faced a death-defying situation, he added. Nevertheless, aborting a billion-dollar mission because of a miscalculation was not what leadership was about. For several minutes, Ashby went back and forth with his crew, trying to figure out what was wrong with the readout, the computers, the mission itself. Finally, the word came from Houston, with about a minute to go: “Do what you think is right.”
“What do you want from a leader then?” Ashby asked. Everything comes “down to a moment.” Right about then, he added, everything they had worked for — from that trek in the Canyonlands to the trust they had given each other — came to the fore. One crew member flashed through the readouts; another put his use of radar to the test, and all stated that they had confidence in Ashby’s decision-making. In the end, rather than depend on mere computers, Ashby led the pilot manually, to the point of looking out the window like a parent instructing his teenager to drive. The mission was saved.
Trapped by Avalanches
Kanengieter’s mountain climb was not a billion-dollar effort, but it would be high up on the mountaineering scale since only one team had ever scaled Panwali Dwar before. It had taken a month to establish three base camps at various altitudes. The team finally made it to the third camp at 18,000 feet.
Then a series of snowstorms, creating several avalanches, trapped the team for several days. There was only so much time they could spend in the rare air and freezing cold of 18,000 feet. But on the last possible day, a clearing came, and Kanengieter and the team leader set out to rappel the last leg of the journey.
Minutes after they were lined up by rope, about 150 feet up-and-down from one another, they heard a cracking sound. The snow that had come down from the avalanches was fissuring, caused by an air pocket below. About 15 feet ahead of the leader, the ice was starting to fracture. “My life was hanging by a thread, but which way should we go — up or down?” said Kanengieter. In this case, each of the people had significant knowledge about mountain climbing, but the point was to make a decision. The leader wanted to go on, but Kanengieter — intuiting that the fracture would, at best, thwart the route to the top and, at worst, cause an avalanche that would kill the men — overruled him.
“I was a follower there — an active follower — and my job was to figure out how to help support the leader to make a critical decision,” said Kanengieter, who noted that he could see better from below the real danger they were in. ”Our leadership model leverages the strength of active followers, which is highly effective during uncertainty and times of conflicting options.” Though the mission had to be aborted and the goal was never reached, the leader and the rest of the team members respected Kanengieter’s knowledge and former leadership skills.
As Ashby and Kanengieter noted, leadership is not one-dimensional and autocratic. Yes, the leader has to make the final decision, but not without real input, which cannot be given by team members unless they are empowered all along the way by the leader. It is this concept of the active follower that Ashby and Kanengieter claim is essential. They gain it by trust, a focus on the goal and proper communication, not just at the crisis moment, but from the first day of the team’s selection. Even if the goal, as in the mountain climb, has to be abandoned, the entire group buys in.
“It works in mountaineering, in space and in the business world,” said Ashby. “Everyone considers me to be a leader only after I give them the power to be active followers. They can challenge my decision, but they support my leadership once we make that decision, and then they support every member of the team enthusiastically.”
END
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