Status Report

Minutes of Senior Staff and Center Directors’ Meeting 11 Dec 2000

By SpaceRef Editor
December 11, 2000
Filed under ,

The following documents the discussions addressed at the Senior Staff and
Center Directors’ Meeting on December 11, 2000. Mr. Goldin attended the
meeting. Action assignments have been placed in brackets [ ] for easy
identification.

1. AA Reports

Dr. Mulville briefly introduced Dr. Baruch Blumberg.

M/Rothenberg: Mr. Rothenberg thanked everyone for their hard work on
helping to make STS-97 a successful mission.

P/Wilhide: Ms. Wilhide reported on the following: 1) There will be a
memorial service on Thursday, December 14, in the auditorium for Brian
Welch. 2) President Clinton was interviewed by the Discovery Channel, and
when asked what he considered to be one of his major accomplishments, he
responded, “The Space Program.”

I/Condes: Mr. Condes reported that Mr. Schumacher’s wife is doing much
better.

AO/Nelson: Dr. Nelson acknowledged an external award recently received by
GSFC, specifically by the NASA Incident Response Center (NASIRC) which
coordinates our response to hacker attacks and other Information Technology
security incidents. GSFC management has worked hard over the last 2 years
to strengthen NASIRC, and several Centers have praised NASIRC’s good
work. The award is the General Services Administration’s Crystal Eagle
Award, which is for NASIRC’s work with the national-level Federal Computer
Incident Response Center (FedCIRC). The citation praises NASIRC for 1)
Representing a model of how all Federal agency incident-handling teams
should be working with FedCIRC, 2) Allowing FedCIRC to better perform its
Governmentwide function at the national level, and 3) Being very
professional and highly helpful/cooperative with FedCIRC.

2. AI/Dr. Mulville

Dr. Mulville reported on the following: 1) He welcomed Dr. Blumberg,
Senior Advisor to the Administrator for Biology, to NASA Headquarters. 2)
For the next few days, the following Independent Annual Reviews will be
presented to the Program Management Council: Monday, December 11, 1 to 3
p.m., Gravity Probe-B; Wednesday, December 13, 1 to 4 p.m., Earth Observing
System; Monday, December 18, 1 to 3 p.m., Ultra Efficient Engine Technology
Program. 3) This Thursday, December 14 at 10 a.m., a Memorial Service for
Brian Welch will be held in the Headquarters Auditorium. 4) The Senior
Staff Telecon for the week of December 25 is cancelled. During this week,
we are encouraging Code A employees to use their annual leave, due to the
fact that renovation work is scheduled in the Code A suite. We will have a
skeleton staff onsite, but they will be located in Code L’s front
office. Our telephone lines will be transferred to Code L. We ask that
each of you and your staff members be patient if you have trouble
contacting us.

3. Center Reports

ARC/McDonald: Dr. McDonald reported that the Center is very pleased and
excited that today they would announce to the public the creation of the
High Dependability Computing Consortium which will be lead by Carnegie
Mellon University (CMU) with NASA support. To date, 11 leading industrial
software developers have joined the consortium, and they anticipate more
joining. They also expect participation of a number of leading
universities, and this will be the centerpiece of CMU’s activities in the
NASA Research Park.

GRC/Campbell: Mr. Campbell reported that preliminary results from an
advanced fan design being tested in the 9 x 15 Wind Tunnel indicate
significant noise reduction for supersonic fan tip speeds. A 5-6 EPNdB
(Effective Perceived Noise Decibel) fan noise reduction is being observed
over a major portion of the supersonic fan tip speed range, relative to a
baseline fan that was also tested. Flow and acoustic diagnostic tests will
continue to help confirm the expected noise-reduction mechanism.

JSC/Abbey: Mr. Abbey reported on the following: 1) They are preparing for
the landing of STS-97, with the weather improving. They have called
Edwards AFB as a possible backup. Note: The landing was successful at KSC
on schedule. 2) The Space Station is doing well in orbit. The crew is in
great shape. 3) They are preparing for STS-98. Rollout will probably be
Monday, December 18, of next week. 4) There was an anomaly on STS-97.

MSFC/Kennedy: Mr. Kennedy reported on the following: 1) Mr. Stephenson is
at JSC. Ms. Griner is on leave. 2) They are aggresively working the
anomaly on STS-97. The Orbiter has been cleared, and they will continue
studying the problem. 3) Mr. Saucier is undergoing cancer treatment again.

SSC/Craig: Mr. Craig reported that as a follow-on to an earlier visit with
Louisiana Governor Mike Foster and participation in the first
NASA/Louisiana-sponsored Louisiana Research and Technology Summit, which
Mr. Goldin attended, the Center hosted a visit by Louisiana State
University Chancellor Mark Emmert to discuss matters of mutual academic
interest.

4. Mr. Goldin

Mr. Goldin discussed NASA’s loss of Brian Welch and said he was privileged
to attend the memorial service in Kentucky. A number of NASA employees
spoke, and it was obvious that Brian loved the space program and had been a
fan since childhood. Mr. Goldin reiterated NASA’s loss of an important
person to the Agency.

Mr. Goldin discussed the Senior Management Meeting held on Friday, December
8. The objective was to review Center strategic planning of personnel and
facilities based on technology, science, mission, and business core
competencies. At the meeting, he advised each Enterprise Associate
Administrator, Functional Associate Administrator, and Center Director to
focus on priority functions, so we can have adequate resources to perform
our tasks. By taking on too many tasks, we risk placing a burden on the
system and overcommitting personnel and facilities. We need to achieve the
proper balance to meet our mission objectives. A follow-on Senior
Management Meeting will be held on December 19 to complete the review.

Mr. Goldin then more formally introduced Dr. Blumberg as his Senior Advisor
who will help connect NASA more with the research community and Congress.

SpaceRef staff editor.