Florida Today reports this morning that the White House will name the members of economic development task force on Monday charged with developing a plan to help the Space Coast region of the state. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke will co-chair the task force, whose members will include the Secretaries of Defense, Labor, Transportation, Education, and HUD, as well as the Director of National Intelligence and several other key administration officials. Locke will manage the day-to-day work of the committee, according to the report. In his April 15th speech at the Kennedy Space Center, President Obama announced he would create a “high-level team” that would be charged with developing a plan for regional economic growth and job creation, backed by $40 million. That plan is due to the president by August 15.
Meanwhile, within NASA there are some personnel changes coming within headquarters. According to an agency memo late Friday George Whitesides, the chief of staff to Bolden, will be leaving, and will be replaced by David Radzanowski. Whitesides had been part of the NASA transition team for the incoming Obama administration, later becoming Bolden’s chief of staff. Radzanowski had been the deputy associate administrator in the Space Operations Mission Directorate; he takes over as chief of staff next Monday. In addition, James Stofan was named acting associate administrator for education, replacing Joyce Winterton, who will be a special advisor in the Suborbital and Special Orbital Projects Directorate.
Speaking Friday on The Space Show, Alan Ladwig said that NASA is planning an industry day (actually two days) in late May to discuss some of the ongoing studies the agency has been performing on the new exploration plan. The event will be May 25-26 in Galveston, Texas, at the Moody Gardens Hotel. Registration will open on May 6th on the ESMD web site, with attendance limited to 400 people (a space limitation of the meeting site, he said.) The event will include summaries from the current ESMD study teams, he said, including heavy lift, flagship and other technology development programs, participatory exploration, human research, commercial crew, and others.
And if he doesn’t have enough already to worry about, Bolden is being criticized for planning a “generous” benefits plan for former astronauts, in part because Bolden himself would benefit, according to the Wall Street Journal. The article claims that the effort to provide medical coverage to former astronauts and their dependents “has become one of the agency’s top legislative priorities”. NASA officials say the effort is designed to encourage better participation by former astronauts in medical studies to better understand the long-term effects of spaceflight on humans, and that the Office of General Counsel had found no conflict of interest for Bolden.
“According to an agency memo late Friday George Whitesides, the chief of staff to Bolden, will be leaving, and will be replaced by David Radzanowski. ”
When Bolden first ran out the 2011 budget and held the first press confrence, didn’t he say that Whitesides is the guy who said he should do it differently? Bolden said he was his right hand man on all this?
Bolden is getting beat up for the request to extend medical coverage to astronauts after their NASA experience. It’s really unfair and a mis-reading of what NASA is after. The Chief Medical Officer has wanted this kind of authority for years in order to improve his data set over the long-term effects of human spaceflight. It’s unfortunate that it looks like another astronaut perk, since that’s not the agency’s intention. Point is that there is a legitimate substantive reason for the request and it has nothing to do with benefitting Bolden.
I have not seen this year’s legislative proposal, but in years past, folks have had to work through several issues: 1) Cost. Simply put, providing health care costs money and it’s reasonable to ask whether the taxpayers should continue to foot medical bills for former civil servants. 2) Privacy. What expectations does an astronaut have about how his data will be used? If it remains private and unavailable for public research purposes, then where is the benefit to the taxpayers? 3) Research utility: closely tied to privacy. How useful is such data to the scientific enterprise? The sample of astronauts is relatively small. Can you produce statistically significant conclusions based on the sample set? (Seems to me this problem will decline with time as the number of astroanuts continues to increase….assuming it does.) 4) Appearances. To be sure, it has the appearance of favoritism and looks unfair to many who don’t get health similar health care as a result of their jobs. Many public employee unions exempted, of course. 5) Alternatives. Why can’t astronauts, who likely have some form of post-NASA healthcare, simply voluntarily submit that data to the agency? It may not be as uniform as researchers would prefer, but it may well be cheaper, appear to be more fair, and address conflicts between astronaut privacy interests and the public’s interest in them as research subjects.
In any event, it seems unlikely that Bolden–who has decent healthcare as a former Marine and current government employee–would pursue this for self-interested reasons.
It does strike me as odd, though, to hear this described as a top legislative priority given the very real and substantial disagreement between Congress and the Exec branch about the future of the space program. Someone doesn’t have his/her priorities right.
Personnel:
I don’t know George Whitesides very well, but Radzanowski is a dedicated public servant and will make an excellent chief of staff. He has seen the agency from a variety of perspectives, which will come in very handy to the A suite.
I have no insight into the moves in education, but Winterton was doing a great job of figuring out how to leverage NASA’s limited resources against much broader STEM education goals. Sorry to see her move to a new gig, although she may enjoy it more. Stofan is an excellent guy to replace her. Another creative and dedicated civil servant and the directorate would be well served by removing the “acting” from his title. Two very talented people.
I posted a link to Bolden’s latest outrage this morning in the previous thread. You cannot claim to be prudent with the tax payer’s money, and then bribe the astronauts to ‘go quietly’ with a blatantly corrupt payout. Not the inspiring space program we all want. Prosecution for Bolden? In a just nation.
Had anyone noticed most of the Cabinet is forming the Economic Development Task Force? Sure I am no Obama fan, but this seems like a ludicrously over qualified group to form a task force for a single part of the US. Sure, the actual Cabinet secretaries will only have an oversight role – but why claim that the Secretaries themselves would be on the task force, instead of asking them to name people?
And no weaseling out of this from our “Obama Is Always Correct” crowd, the statement does say that the Secretaries would be on the panel.
Will the Cabinet also form a panel that will look at the Clear Lake area? How about other regions of the country that are experiencing concern – such as those folks working on the F-22 in Fort Worth? Or those building F-15s in Saint Louis? Or those who worked in plants building recreational vehicles?
Why does Florida get these super high powered people??? Possibly since the Governor’s race there could split the Republicans and give the seat to a Democrat? Possibly to help out Florida Democrats in the mid-term election??
Sure, the actual Cabinet secretaries will only have an oversight role – but why claim that the Secretaries themselves would be on the task force, instead of asking them to name people?
To make it look like they’re Taking This Seriously, to those who don’t know any better.
“To make it look like they’re Taking This Seriously, to those who don’t know any better.”
Yeah, he’s decided that overkill might get the point across. He may be right, as understatement seems to be lost on most of the media outlets.
Dare I comment, so soon, on additional replies? Certainly the Obama Administration wants to make it look like they take Florida seriously. That alone worries me – they play too much (Republicans and Independents are not innocent here!!) to the press instead of doing the right thing for the tax payers. We don’t need a phony Cabinet meeting to talk about the economy of a three county area – they should address the mayhem being done to the rest of the country. Mostly by the trillion dollar deficit. Too bad that they are responsible for that obscene deficit.
“charged with developing a plan to help the Space Coast region of the state”
I am sure it is a relief to the high tech workers at the Cape to know that Obama’s central planners are hard at work. How about manufacturing windmills? A $40 million dollar plan, wow! But, hey, they run the money printing presses.
Certainly the Obama Administration wants to make it look like they take Florida seriously. That alone worries me – they play too much (Republicans and Independents are not innocent here!!) to the press instead of doing the right thing for the tax payers.
I didn’t say I approved. I was just providing an explanation.
“Too bad that they are responsible for that obscene deficit.”
Ha! I agree, it’s really criminal how the Obama administration took a budget surplus and blew it all in 18 months, including the economy. What’s with that?
Alan Ladwig said many interesting things during his interview on The Space Show, I recommend everyone take the time to listen to it.
One of the interesting things he said was that no civil servants are being laid off. Zero. So all the hubbub we’ve been hearing about the MSFC is just political spin. If politicians want to bemoan job losses, they should be looking at the contractors.
One of the interesting things he said was that no civil servants are being laid off.
That’s generally the case. NASA rarely does RIFs. At worst, people might get reassigned to a different center. It’s always the contractors that take it in the shorts.
Why do you need to pay for the health care for astronauts families in order to persuade astronauts to provide medical data?
I don’t get it.
Astronauts sign up to provide a service to the American public, yet they appear to need to be bribed to complete the service.
What gives?
– Al
It is all like NASA is forced into a little in-place, style tap dance that imparts a lot of motion and very little progress. This promises long term stifling of the STEM goals that the White House espouses because the encouragement for young people to strive to enter the sciences seems flacid and without a goal. Space exploration is the needed and vital stimulus.
The worlds future rests upon the broad scientific breakthroughs that would accompany an active exploration of deep space. Most critically, this cannot depend upon some momentous political awakening. If we do not start now, we may never start and will join the legions of other intergalactic civilizations that expired from lack of vision and determination.
“If we do not start now, we may never start and will join the legions of other intergalactic civilizations that expired from lack of vision and determination”
ahh, so this is the answer on the “Fermis Paradox”.
“…no civil servants are being laid off. Zero.” Seeing as how most people here just LOVE to quote the Augustine Report (or at least ONLY the parts that support THEIR view) may I refer you to passages from the EARLIER Augustine report that said the economic burden and mindset of NASA’s civil service workforce was a major detriment to NASA’s mission. ( And also possibly the answer to Fermis’ Paradox! Other civilzations were burried and bankrupted by “nondiscretionary spending” and were left with only enough economic output to consider their navels from the inside)
@AL
You’re not really bribing the astronauts. You want to get access to their medical records long after they leave NASA in order to continue studying the long-term effects of space flight (not the effects of long-term spaceflight, which we usually think of when it comes to biomedical research.) The best way to do that is some form of uniform procedure in place for collecting data. Annual physicals and hands-on medicine are the best way to do it. A little background: astronauts do NOT agree to become guinea pigs by becoming astronauts. Some astronauts agree to particpate in biomedical research and others continue to provide medical data to NASA long after they leave it in the interests of furthing science, but that’s voluntary. We don’t generally compel people to undergo medical procedures of any kind as a condition of employment, Doing so or establishing it as a precondition for flight, which you could argue is a reasonable thing to do in the case of people blessed with such a rare opportunity, would raise some serious conflict of interest and privacy issues.
In any event, I haven’t seen the specific proposal, which sounds like it’s still bottled up in OMB. My guess is they kill it now based on this single round of bad press, not to mention all of the other battles they will have to fight over the NASA budget.
BTW: I’m not endorsing the idea, merely trying to explain what the logic was last time I was in a room when the idea got pitched. In that context, I do not think it’s fair or reasonable to impugn Bolden’s motives in taking the proposal forward. No doubt he beleives it’s in the best interests of the space program. Whether it’s good public policy is another question, since NASA’s interests aren’t always in line with the nation’s.
My two cents worth.
“Aerojet and Florida Turbine Technologies (FTT) have announced that the companies have entered into a strategic partnership to compete for research, development and production on NASA’s new hydrocarbon engine and advanced upper stage engine.”
http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Aerojet_And_Florida_Turbine_Technologies_To_Develop_NASA_New_Rocket_Engines_999.html
Why bother with a new hydrocarbon engine when you have the RS-68 gathering dust? A new hydrogen upper stage engine to replace the RL-10? You mean like the J2-X? What a boondoggle! ‘Research and development’ is Obamaspeak for ‘will never fly’.
‘Research and development’ is Obamaspeak for ‘will never fly’.
statements like that I find entertaining, particularly from people who support the “program of record”.
No program in American space history has had the “run” Ares has had…consumed more money and gone nowhere.
But that it is a program is what makes its supporters all warm and fuzzy…and yet it has about as much chance to actually fly in any time period…as Venturestar did.
“10 billion dollars and all we got was this suborbital flight” is the T shirt that all Ares supporters should wear
Robert G. Oler
Why bother with a new hydrocarbon engine when you have the RS-68 gathering dust?
Er … because the RS-68 is not a hydrocarbon engine? Because the RS-68 isn’t gathering dust, it is flying regularly in single units and groups of three? Because the RS-68 has an ablative nozzle, poor Isp, is very heavy and has a poor thrust to weight ratio? Do you know anything about this subject at all?
The RS-68 is perfect for the vehicle it current flies on, flying it on anything else is basically a non-starter. It would behoove you to educate yourself.
Mighty wind…
Since you’re for the POR, why are you against the J2-X? That was the upper stage for both the Ares 1 and Ares 5.
As to the RL-10… it is a wonderful, venerable old engine. The problem with the Delta IV upper stage is it stretches the RL-10B to the limit… which is why the new Common Cryogenic Upper Stage (aka EELV evolution phase 1) makes so much sense. It immediately almost doubles Delta IV-H capacity to 45MT.
– Jim
“Why bother with a new hydrocarbon engine when you have the RS-68 gathering dust?”
The RS-68 is a hydrogen, not hydrocarbon, engine, genius.
For the umpteenth time, if you can’t get at least one fact right in your posts, then don’t waste your and other posters’ time posting here.
Lawdy…
The problem with the Delta IV upper stage is it stretches the RL-10B to the limit… which is why the new Common Cryogenic Upper Stage (aka EELV evolution phase 1) makes so much sense. It immediately almost doubles Delta IV-H capacity to 45MT.
Except that it provides a single-point failure for the EELVs, unless we retain the Centaur.
Breaking wind wrote:
“Why bother with a new hydrocarbon engine when you have the RS-68 gathering dust?”
Ah … what Robert, the Man, Jim Muncy, Major Tom, and Rand wrote.
NASA issued a RFI about new heavy lift options
NASA Heavy Lift Launch System and Propulsion Technology Request for Information
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=34019
So these are the technological breakthroughs the Obama junta prattles on about? They dust off the Shuttle C plans from 25 years ago. Problems? It is not manned. It throws away 3 $70 million SSME’s a pop. It is subject to debris strikes. Ares V was designed to address all of these short comings.
This crew leading NASA has lost all credibility. I am sure they have with the engineering rank and file. Congressional supporters of manned space need only run out the clock on this congress. The GOP will walk all over Obama next year.
This crew leading NASA has lost all credibility.
Indeed they have, which is why the adults on Obama’s science staff have given them a stern, straightforward, clear and unambiguous reality check.
Bolden and Garver will have them whipped into shape in no time, trust me.
“Obama’s science staff”
Like John Holdren or Stephen Chu? LMAO! Holdren wants to transform NASA into a propaganda machine for global warming hysteria! His goal is to deconstruct technological preeminence and had it to the third world, for reasons that escape even liberals in congress. I implore all rand and file NASA engineers to mutiny against these madmen.
I implore all rand and file NASA engineers to mutiny against these madmen.
We must have the same brand of tin foil hat, because I also heard there is no oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, there is no flooding in Nashville, Ares I is on time and under budget with no serious technical issues and that Jesus is returning to the Earth in 2012 to rapture us faithful into another dimension.
It also told me global warming is a liberal conspiracy and that all scientists are commies. I just can’t wait until I get a bigger antenna for that thing.
@ Eric Sterner wrote @ May 3rd, 2010 at 8:57 pm
“astronauts do NOT agree to become guinea pigs by becoming astronauts. ”
Well yes and no. Astronauts do undergo medical “experiments”. Unfortunately I cannot find a link about it but I believe once an astronaut refused to do some kind of medical experiments and it spelled trouble for him, her? When you sign up for astronauts you do agree to a lot of things. A LOT.
@ The Man wrote @ May 4th, 2010 at 1:33 pm :
“Jesus is returning to the Earth in 2012″
Duh! Did you not see the movie? A glimpse into our near future. Nothing to do with Jesus, well okay maybe Jesus knows some one who can align planets but that’s about it.
Did you not see the movie?
Actually, no, I didn’t. I must have missed it, since I don’t watch movies at all. Maybe I was busy disassembling and reassembling engines and writing papers and getting a suntan and having fun and doing interesting stuff. Being an elitist socialist pig I did take a few moments to research the profound comments of amightywind at Slashdot and Digg. End of story.
I’m sure that MSFC Heavy Lift RFI has a hilarious story behind it as well. Keep up the good work here people, you just can’t make this stuff up.
Kudos all around.
@The Man wrote @ May 4th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
“the profound comments of amightywind”
I would not go to deep in the “profound” comments of a-mighty-wind… It could get hm smelly…
“I just can’t wait until I get a bigger antenna for that thing.”
You may want to use the SETI Arecibo antenna? Big enough?
STERNER: You’re not really bribing the astronauts. You want to get access to their medical records long after they leave NASA in order to continue studying the long-term effects of space flight (not the effects of long-term spaceflight, which we usually think of when it comes to biomedical research.) The best way to do that is some form of uniform procedure in place for collecting data.
Eric,
I think it makes sense to pay for astronaut’s medical care, if only to get ALL the data we want and in a uniform manner. In fact, I anticipate astronauts would be tested on many more issues than a standard run-of-the-mill physical, and that these extra tests will cost money. A lot of money over a lifetime. Again that part of the proposal makes sense.
What does not make sense to me is paying for the medical of “their dependents”, as reported above. We don’t need the medical data from “their dependents”. (Or do we?)
That is the part that smells funny to me.
FWIW,
– Al
The Man wrote @ May 4th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Dang, come back any time. That was the funniest thing I’ve read in days.
The Man wrote @ May 4th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
We must have the same brand of tin foil hat, because I also heard there is no oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, there is no flooding in Nashville, Ares I is on time and under budget with no serious technical issues and that Jesus is returning to the Earth in 2012 to rapture us faithful into another dimension….
Grabbing the Tambourine and trying to do my best Rev. Al Sharpton imitation from Boston Legal
“Thank God Almighty Thank God Almighty and one last one for Denny Crane Thank God Almighty”
Robert G. Oler
@Al:
My understanding is that family data is useful in longitudunal cancer risk studies. Since some of the suspected damage from space flight is genetic, that makes sense.
Still, it all seems like a stretch to me. Plenty of people in government take certain health risks in order to serve the public. The military and law enforcement are obvious ones, but how about folks in jobs that require them to be outside a fair amount, exposing them to the risks of skin cancer? What about drivers, who have to inhale a fair amount of fumes? etc. etc. etc. I don’t see that taking such risks should result in health care for life for the individual and his/her family. If yoy make an exception for astronauts, where do you draw the line?
@Eric Sterner wrote @ May 4th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
“If yoy make an exception for astronauts, where do you draw the line?”
Well, a very good point here. And I think it is similar to those who say that the military will take any kind of risks yet NASA cannot and/or will not, be it for health or for space systems (e.g. Launch Abort System).
I suppose you could coldly correlate the “value” of a human life to “education”, “achievements”, “usefulness to society”, etc… and come up with a system that tells you where to draw the line so to speak. A very scary thought if you ask me but it also is something that happens all the time, just that people won’t say it.
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Robert
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Robert