Minutes of Senior Staff and Center Directors’ Meeting 2 Apr 2001

The following documents the discussions addressed at the Senior Staff and
Center Directors’ Meeting on April 2, 2001. Mr. Goldin attended the
meeting. Action assignments have been placed in brackets [ ] for easy
identification.

1. AA Reports

L/Kerwin: 1) NASA will testify before the House Science Committee
concerning the International Space Station (ISS) on April 14. 2) The FY
2000 budget resolution will be considered by the Senate this week.

W/Gross: 1) The NASA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued an
information outreach alert about identity theft and how to guard against
it. This alert is available on the OIG web site and is being circulated
at NASA Headquarters in a cooperative initiative with the Office of
Headquarters Operations. 2) An OIG administrative investigation team
recently completed a security review of a NASA Center child care
facility.

P/Cleggett: 1) Today, STS-98 astronauts, Tom Jones and Robert Curbeam,
will throw out the first pitch at Camden Yards as the Baltimore Orioles
open the baseball season by playing Toronto. 2) Also, today, the most
distant supernova found by the Hubble Space Telescope will be the subject
of a space science update here at HQ. 3) On Friday, April 6, at 1 p.m.,
we will have a Mars Odyssey L-1 Countdown Status Briefing, followed by a
Mars Odyssey L-1 Mission Briefing, from KSC. On Saturday, April 7, at
9:30 a.m., the Mars Odyssey live launch coverage and commentary begins at
Cape Canaveral, with the launch set for 11:02 a.m.

U/Erickson: Dr. Olsen and members of the Office of Biological and
Physical Research team will be briefing the National Research Council’s
Task Group on Research on the ISS this week. This task group will be
reviewing ISS Research in conjunction with the National Academy of Public
Administration in accordance with the FY 2001 Authorization language.
The study is due to Congress October 27, 2001.

Q/Gregory: The Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) conducted a
prelaunch review of the 2001 Mars Odyssey vehicle and equipment and found
no safety issues.

B/Varholy: NASA’s FY 2000 Performance Report has been completed and
distributed.

2. AI/Dr. Mulville

The Senior Management Council (SMC) meeting scheduled for Friday, April
27, is cancelled. The SMC schedule is being revised; a new schedule will
be distributed at a later date.

3. Center Directors

GRC/Campbell: Two more Circuit Isolation Devices (CID’s) were activated
on the recent STS-102/ISS Assembly Flight 5A.1 mission to the
International Space Station. These two CID’s (#1 and #4) are providing
power to on-orbit spares hardware stored on the exterior of the Destiny
Lab. CID’s #2 and #3 continue to channel primary power to the Destiny
module since they were activated on 5A. The remaining on-orbit CID’s, #5
and #6, will channel power to the S0 truss (the central, main truss of
the ISS structure) when it is launched early next year on STS-110/ISS
Assembly Flight 8A. These two CID’s also help provide cross-channel
power strapping capability in the event of a single power channel failure
of the U.S. power system. The last of the CID’s (#7 and #8) are slated
for launch on STS-108/ISS Utilization Flight 1 (UF-1) in November. They
will be installed via extravehicular activity inside the S0 truss on
8A.

JPL/Stone: We are looking forward to the 2001 Mars Odyssey launch on
Saturday. The mission is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a
long-term effort of robotic exploration of the red planet.

JSC/Estess: The Flight Readiness Review for Space Shuttle Mission
STS-100 will be held on April 5. The launch is currently scheduled for
April 19.

KSC/Bridges: Roy Bridges and several of his staff attended Florida Space
Day 2001 at the State Capitol in Tallahassee. Space Day is an annual
event for the space industry, to inform the State’s leaders of space
issues that affect Florida.

LaRC/Creedon: 1) On March 23, 2001, Robert B. Lee III was recognized
with the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education
(NAFEO) “2001 Distinguished Alumni” Leadership Medal at the 26th Annual
NAFEO Conference Leadership Awards Banquet in Washington, DC. Mr. Lee
was cited for his contributions to his technical field and for his
community involvement. NAFEO consists of 118 affiliated Historically
Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). 2) Dr. Qamar A. Shams and Dr.
Arild Bertelrud visited the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel,
Maryland, to discuss possible collaboration regarding an expendable small
instrument system for birds. During the last 20 years, the Patuxent
Wildlife Research Center has developed means to implant radio-tracking
systems on different birds for providing detailed information about their
migration pattern. We are looking for implantation of six MEMS sensors
and a memory device on sand hill cranes to study flight conditions. 3)
Steven X. S. Bauer was named American Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics Engineer of the Year for his work on porous wing
technology.

SSC/Craig: SSC is hosting the Gateway 2/Earth Conference this week.

4. Mr. Goldin

1) Mr. Goldin reemphasized the importance of diet and exercise. Personal
health and safety should be everyone’s number one priority.

2) Mr. Goldin requested that senior managers reflect on the issues
discussed at the last
SMC meeting. He requested that the Center Directors take the initiative
and prioritize resources to support their mission areas. We have to make
serious decisions to ensure our highest priorities are adequately
funded.

NOTE: ACTION ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE TRANSMITTED UNDER SEPARATE COVER AND
TRACKED BY THE HEADQUARTERS CORRESPONDENCE MANAGEMENT OFFICE. SPECIFIC
QUESTIONS MAY BE ADDRESSED TO BRIDGET FENNER AT (202) 358-0909.