Status Report

Minutes of Senior Staff and Center Directors’ Meeting 22 May 2000

By SpaceRef Editor
May 22, 2000
Filed under

The following documents the discussions addressed at the Senior Staff and
Center Directors’ Meeting on May 15, 2000. Mr. Goldin did not attend the
meeting. Action assignments have been placed in brackets [ ] for easy
identification.

1. AA Reports

B/Holz: Mr. Holz reported that he had an excellent meeting with the KSC
Chief Financial Officer, Nap Carroll, and his staff last week. He was able
to see the launch, which was a spectacular experience, and he thanked KSC
for the hospitality.

S/Weiler: Dr. Weiler reported that Galileo made a successful pass around
Ganymede.

M/Rothenberg: Mr. Rothenberg thanked everyone involved for the successful
launch of STS-101. The ExtraVehicular Activities (EVA) began last night.

R/Reck: Mr. Reck reported on the following: 1) He thanked MSFC for
hosting the “Turning Goals into Reality” conference which had over 400
attendees. He congratulated MSFC for its sponsorship, citing the great
audio-visual presentations. He congratulated the award winners and
especially thanked ARC for the trophies. 2) Mr. Reck extended Code R’s
sympathy for the tragedy that occurred at LaRC last week.

F/Novak: Ms. Novak reported on the following: 1) The Administrator is
hosting the 1999 Presidential Rank Awards Luncheon on Thursday, June 15, at
11:30 at Headquarters. Personal invitations will be sent to each awardee
and the respective Center Director or Associate Administrator (AA).
Immediately following the Presidential Rank Awards luncheon, the Agency
Honor Awards Ceremony will be held in the James E. Webb Auditorium at 1:30
p.m. All Center Directors and AA’s who have employees receiving awards
need to ensure that their employees attend the awards ceremony. Also,
attendance is required for each Center Director or AA who has an employee
receiving an honor award. 2) Documentation for Senior Executive Service
(SES), Science and Technical, Senior Level, and NASA Excepted performance
appraisals and bonus recommendations are due by COB July 24, 2000. Dr.
Mulville just sent out the call letter to Officials in Charge (OIC). Also
included in the package this year is the SES Recertification form.
Recertification is required every 3 years. 3) A memorandum outlining the
performance appraisal planning and assessment schedule and documentation
requirements for OIC’s was distributed last Thursday, May 18. We are
following the same process and schedule as last year. Please note that new
draft performance plans for the July 1, 2000, to June 30, 2001, rating
period are due to Code FPE by June 1.

P/Wilhide: Ms. Wilhide reported on the following: 1) The Mars Global
Surveyor has 20,000 images going online this week. 2) Thanks to Code M for
providing a picture-perfect Space Shuttle launch. It was picked up by many
newspapers and TV stations.

J/Sutton: Mr. Sutton thanked MSFC for hosting the Agency’s Contractor
Industrial Relations conference.

L/Kerwin: Ms. Kerwin reported that this week the House Appropriations
Subcommittee will be marking up the FY 2001 budget request.

Z/Garver: Ms. Garver reported that today Code Z is welcoming its new
Deputy Associate Administrator, Beth McCormick.

C/Christensen: Mr. Christensen reported that a letter will be sent to all
Headquarters employees by the end of this week on the appropriate use of
Information Technology resources. This information is from Chief
Information Officers Governmentwide.

2. AI/Dr. Mulville

Dr. Mulville reported on the following: 1) He congratulated all of NASA
Headquarters on the completion of the ISO audit last week. Our Registrar,
Det Norske Vertitas, informed Headquarters Management on Friday, May 19,
that they are recommending NASA for ISO 9001 Certification. This is a
result of the hard work and dedication of the entire Headquarters team.
Congratulations! 2) Due to the upcoming Memorial Day holiday, the next
Senior Staff Telecon will be held on Tuesday, May 30. 3) The next softball
point-of-contact meeting is scheduled for May 23 from 4 to 5 p.m. in ACR-2.
4) At any given time, there are about 200 open Code A actions in the
Headquarters Action Tracking System. Every Monday, each AA gets their
individual code’s report. This past week, we experienced a milestone, in
that we had the fewest percentage of overdue Code A actions since Dr.
Mulville began this job. When he began, about 30 percent of the actions
were overdue; now it is about 20 percent. He would like to thank everyone
for their hard work and responsiveness since he came onboard, but we can do
better. We try to judiciously issue Code A actions, which has reduced the
number in the system, but he needs your help in responding. Next week, we
are going to begin providing a summary sheet each Monday, along with your
Code’s Action Report. He is setting as a goal for the overall overdue
action percentage to fall to 10 percent by the end of the summer.

3. Center Reports

DFRC/Petersen: Mr. Petersen reported on the following: 1) Last week, the
X-40A vehicle arrived. 2) The X-34 A-1A taxi tow tests were initiated. 3)
The Proteus aircraft accomplished its Government Performance Results Act
milestone for FY 2000, an over-the-horizon, autonomous communications
demonstration.

GRC/Earls: Dr. Earls reported the following: 1) Dr. Elod Both, Director
of the Hungarian Space Office, visited GRC on Friday, May 19. Dr. Both met
with the Center’s Senior Staff, toured facilities, and gave a presentation
on Hungarian space-related activities. 2) The Robert L. Pinckney Award was
awarded to the Split-Torque Transmission Team, consisting of Boeing-Mesa,
Derlan Aerospace Canada, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the
U.S. Army Research Laboratory, and NASA/GRC, by the Vertical Flight Society
of the American Helicopter Society International on May 3, 2000. The award
is given in recognition of notable achievement in manufacturing research
and development for rotorcraft or its components brought to fruition in
recent years. 3) GRC was recently featured in WebMD Medical News for work
done by Dr. Rafat Ansari, which was presented at the Annual Meeting of the
Association for Vision and Opthalmology.

GSFC/Townsend: Mr. Townsend reported on the following: 1) The GOES-11 has
achieved its final orbit; the next significant event is deployment of the
cooler doors on June 10, 2000; handover to the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration will be August 16, 2000. 2) The Compton Gamma
Ray Observatory reentry sequence begins this weekend with a test burn on
Sunday afternoon, May 28, 2000; this will be followed by four burns, the
first and second occurring Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, May 30-31, 2000,
and the last two on Saturday evening, June 3, 2000.

JSC/Abbey: Mr. Abbey reported on the following: 1) The mission is going
well with a successful EVA. This evening they will ingress the ISS with a
landing projection of early morning on Memorial Day. 2) Preparation for
the service module is going well. 3) Next week there will be a crew
meeting in Kazakhstan.

LaRC/Creedon: Dr. Creedon reported on the tragedy that occurred at LaRC
last week regarding the death of a 9-month-old child. A worker at LaRC
accidently left his son in his vehicle while he was at work. Counseling
for the parents and for employees is being provided. An investigation is
being handled by the Hampton police and the FBI.

MSFC/Stephenson: Mr. Stephenson reported on the following: 1) MSFC also
enjoyed the launch. There were no anomalies with the propulsion system.
2) He appreciates all the “thanks” from everyone on the conferences that
were held at the Center last week, and he especially appreciated the
support of Code R’s Centers with Sam Venneri’s and Mr. Goldin’s
participation. 3) The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel was at MSFC and
received briefings on the Center’s programs, projects, facilities, and
security. He believes that they were pleased with what they saw and heard.
4) On Saturday, May 20, the Center held an Open House. He estimates
30,000 to 35,000 attended from four States.

SSC/Craig: Mr. Craig reported on the following: 1) The Center completed
testing of the X-33 aerospike engine. 2) This week will be the grand
opening ceremony of the upgraded and expanded Visitors Center that includes
updated information on the ISS, human space flight, and a simulator.

NOTE: ACTION ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE TRANSMITTED UNDER SEPARATE COVER AND
TRACKED BY THE HEADQUARTERS CORRESPONDENCE MANAGEMENT OFFICE. SPECIFIC
QUESTIONS MAY BE ADDRESSED TO JILL HOOVER @ (202) 358-0905.

Distribution

Officials-in-Charge of NASA Headquarters Offices:


AA/Mr. Heffernan
AI/Dr. Mulville
AB/Ms. Tagg
AC/Gen. Armstrong
AE/Mr. Keegan
AJ/Mr. Tam
AM/Dr. Nicogossian
AO/Mr. Holcomb
AS/Dr. Olsen
B/Mr. Holz
C/Mr. Christensen
E/Mr. Reese
F/Ms. Novak
G/Mr. Frankle
H/Mr. Luedtke
I/Mr. Schumacher
J/Mr. Sutton
K/Mr. Thomas
L/Mr. Heffernan
M/Mr. Rothenberg
P/Ms. Wilhide
Q/Mr. Gregory
R/Mr. Venneri
S/Dr. Weiler
U/Dr. Nicogossian
W/Ms. Gross
Y/Dr. Asrar
Z/Ms. Garver

Directors, NASA Centers:


ARC/Dr. McDonald
DFRC/Mr. Petersen
GRC/Mr. Campbell
GSFC/Mr. Diaz
JSC/Mr. Abbey
KSC/Mr. Bridges
LaRC/Dr. Creedon
MSFC/Mr. Stephenson
SSC/Mr. Estess

Director, Jet Propulsion Laboratory:


Dr. Stone
cc:
A/Ms. M. Roberts
A/Ms. S. Roberts
AB/Ms. Saldana
AC/Ms. Landrus
AE/Ms. Moore
AI/Ms. Bloxon
AI/Ms. Shaeffer
AI/Ms. Soper
AO/Ms. Wissinger
AS/Ms. Simms
CIC/Analysts

SpaceRef staff editor.