NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe is scheduled to appear before the full House Science Committee on Thursday at 10 am to discuss “the President’s proposed space exploration initiative, including its goals and potential price tag, and the impact it may have on other NASA programs.” The reference to other NASA programs will almost certainly include a discussion of NASA’s decision to cancel the SM4 Hubble servicing mission. The New York Times reported Saturday that Congressional staffers said the topic would come up in the wake of new, anonymous documents that indicate that a shuttle mission to Hubble would be no less safe than one to ISS. (The article now includes links to the two documents mentioned in the piece, and SpaceRef.com also has HTML versions of the documents.) NASA is already fighting back, with agency officials telling SPACE.com that the report “over simplifies these complicated interrelated issues.”
I just hope the business of the new space initiative isn’t lost in the glare of the controversy over the Hubble Space Telescope. I fear that the Hubble controversy is causing such a distraction that NASA will have a difficult time focusing on the new initiative.
It appears that Mr. William Readdy who responded to the unknown Word document regarding how safe a shuttle mission would (or would not) be to Hubble vs. the Space Station simply does not want “the pressure”. Perhaps it is he and Mr. O’Keefe (among others in NASA) who need to be “pulled from orbit.”
Regardless of the project, NASA needs leaders who will address problems and solve them… not run and hide from tough issues because there might be pressure. With logic such as that of Mr. O’Keefe and Readdy, the world would still be planted firmly on earth, gazing through the haze of an earth-bound telescope.
NASA needs leaders… not managers. There is a job to be done to continue the Hubble work. If they cannot lead the work then get out of the way for someone who can. NASA is no place for someone who runs scared for their job.