Minutes of Senior Staff and Center Directors’ Meeting 25 September 2000

The following documents the discussions addressed at the Senior Staff and
Center Directors’ Meeting on September 25, 2000. Mr. Goldin attended the
meeting. Action assignments have been placed in brackets [ ] for easy
identification.

1. AA Reports

B/Holz: Mr. Holz reported that he received the Sole Source Evaluation
Board’s evaluation on September 20 and that NASA selected SAP.com to be the
core financial software for NASA’s Integrated Financial Management (IFM)
Program.

G/Frankle: Mr. Frankle reported that for the last few years, we have been
working to ensure that the NASA patent program was focusing on commercially
valuable inventions. As a result, we have been seeing the amount of
royalties that NASA receives rise. For the first time in history, NASA’s
royalty income in a single fiscal year has exceeded $1 million.
Specifically, for FY 2000, and as of September 21, royalty income received
equaled $1,085,752. Special congratulations go to LaRC which accounted for
over $414,000 of the total. Also to be congratulated are JSC, which
received almost $200,000, and the NASA Management Office at JPL, and KSC,
each of which received royalties in excess of $100,000. ARC was just
behind this pace with $96,500. The amount of royalty income represents a
growth of almost 700 percent since FY 1993, when a total of $158,000 was
received. Congratulations to all those involved, particularly the NASA
inventors, the staff of the commercial technology offices, and the staff of
the Patent
Counsel offices.

F/Novak: Ms. Novak reported on the following: 1) She will be submitting
NASA’s disability hiring plan to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
today. Late last week, we (and many other agencies) were advised that our
goal of hiring 246 disabled employees over the next 5 years was too low.
Instead, NASA has been given a goal of 800; the Administration is taking a
strong stance on this. She is working with the Institutional Program
Offices (IPO) to rework NASA’s plans, knowing that this will be a
tremendous challenge. She plans to tell OPM that NASA may not be able to
meet this goal and that we will need to reassess it in 1 year, since in the
past, we have found it particularly difficult in recruiting disabled
employees for science and engineering positions. She will be in touch with
the Center Directors, IPO’s, and the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs
to work on trying to achieve this very challenging goal. 2) Ms. Novak will
be working with the Center Directors and IPO’s in the next few weeks on a
plan for the expanded use of the NASA Excepted authority, primarily for
other than permanent hiring. 3) Ms. Novak is gathering information from
the Center Human Resources Directors, other agencies, and industry on
existing dress codes, and she will be asking for IPO and Center Director
input on options in the near term.

Y/Luther: Mr. Luther reported on the success of NOAA-L which was launched
from Vandenberg Air Force Base. It is now on orbit and has been designated
NOAA-16. He offered congratulations to GSFC and KSC.

H/Luedtke: Mr. Luedtke congratulated the IFM team and the MSFC team that
led the software selection for the IFM system.

W/Gross: Ms. Gross reported on the following: 1) On September 11, an
individual from Oregon was sentenced to 6 months’ home detention, ordered
to wear an electronic monitoring device, and given 5 years’ supervised
probation. The individual was also ordered to pay $10,744 in restitution
to the victims of his hacking exploits, which included NASA JPL in
Pasadena, California. The judge further ordered that over the next 5
years, the hacker shall not have Internet access without consent of his
probation officer and the court. Special Agents of the NASA Inspector
General’s Office of Criminal Investigations conducted this investigation.
2) On September 21, a 16-year-old from Miami, Florida, pleaded guilty and
has been sentenced to 6 months in a detention facility for two acts of
juvenile delinquency. Under adult statutes, those acts would have been
violations of Federal wiretap and computer abuse laws for intercepting
electronic communications on military computer networks and for illegally
obtaining information from NASA computer networks. This case marks the
first time a juvenile has been sentenced to serve time. The juvenile
admitted to illegally accessing a total of 13 NASA computers located at
MSFC. As part of the illegal access, the juvenile obtained and downloaded
proprietary software from NASA, valued at approximately $1.7 million. The
software supported the International Space Station’s physical environment,
including control of the temperature and humidity of the living space. The
juvenile’s intrusion into NASA computer systems required that the systems
be shut down, which caused delivery delays of the program software. This
resulted in additional costs of $41,000 in contractor labor and computer
equipment replacement costs. The juvenile also was responsible for
computer intrusions into a Department of Defense computer network. He
illegally obtained more than 3,300 electronic messages and 19 user names
and passwords. Special Agents of the NASA Inspector General’s Office of
Criminal Investigations Computer Crime Division and the Defense Criminal
Investigative Service conducted this investigation.

I/Schumacher: Mr. Schumacher reported speaking with the Hungarian minister
for space regarding a Memorandum of Understanding. He thanked Dr. Mulville
for doing such a good job when he was in Hungary last week.

S/Weiler: Dr. Weiler reported that the Sun, our star, is very active.
Whether it is at its maximum peak, we cannot really say yet. Right now
it seems to be in a mode where one side has very few sunspots, while the
other side (the one facing us now) has one of the largest spots seen in the
last 40 to 50 years. The spot is 10 times the size of Earth and has the
potential for producing major flares.

AM/Nicogossian: Dr. Nicogossian reported that the Web site for NASA health
activities had been taken down due to hackers. Work is now in progress to
protect the site from future intrusions.

M/Starkey: Mr. Starkey reported on the following: 1) We are on track to
launch STS-92 for October 5. (Note: STS-92 launched successfully on
October __.) 2) The Space Flight Advisory Committee, chaired by Thomas
Young, is tentatively scheduled to meet at KSC on November 6 and 7.

L/Heffernan: Mr. Heffernan reported on the following: 1) The VA-HUD
appropriations bill is on the Senate floor this week. They are not sure if
it will be a stand-alone or part of the Continuing Resolution. 2) The
authorization bill will likely be for Senate floor action this week. 3)
Congressmen Souder (R-IN) and Weldon (R-FL) introduced the “Apollo
Exploration Award Act” to provide an award and a soil sample of the Moon.
We are working to remove the “soil sample” language from the bill, since
lunar samples are required for research. 4) A Small Business Innovation
Research (SBIR) bill was introduced that keeps the level of funding for
SBIR the same. 5) If there are any grant announcements, please coordinate
with the Offices of Public Affairs and Legislative Affairs to properly
allow for information dissemination.

K/Thomas: Mr. Thomas reported on the following: 1) Tuesday, September 26,
the Minority Business and Advocates Awards Ceremony will be held at 2:30
p.m. in the Headquarters Auditorium, recognizing businesses and employees
who have gone the extra mile in their work. The Administrator will give
the “State of Small Business at NASA” address. There will also be other
related activities around town this week. 2) Mr. Thomas was in Finland
last week for a conference held at the Helsinki University of Technology.
There were also two briefings from two large businesses on how they utilize
small businesses.

AO/Holcomb: Mr. Holcomb reported on the following: 1) On Friday,
September 22, President Clinton launched the Federal Government’s first
one-stop portal to the World Wide Web where people can do anything from
tracking their Social Security benefits to downloading tax forms with the
convenience of a few mouse clicks. Visitors to www.firstgov.gov can use a
powerful, privately developed search engine to tap 20,000 U.S. Government
Internet sites and 27 million pages of data. 2) NASA needs to ensure that
its sites have no links to inappropriate material. 3) NASA must also be
prepared to respond to an increased volume of questions from citizens.

J/Sutton: Mr. Sutton reported that on October 12, the Department of Energy
(DOE) will hold its annual Federal Energy and Water Management awards
banquet. NASA has fared quite well in this competition for the last few
years, and this year continues that impressive trend. Of the five award
nominations submitted by the Centers this year, two were selected by DOE to
receive an award. The winners are Dennis Klekar of JSC and Laszlo Zala of
GRC. Mr. Klekar will receive an Alternative Financing award in recognition
of his efforts in implementing a comprehensive Energy Saving Performance
Contract (ESPC) project at JSC. ESPC is an important tool for improving
the energy efficiency of facilities and meeting the President’s
energy-reduction goals with no up-front capital investment by NASA. The
JSC project is NASA’s largest ESPC to date and represents a $20-million
capital investment in 147 buildings, using other people’s money. Mr. Zala
will receive an Exceptional Service Award in recognition of his numerous
accomplishments over the past 10 years in support of the energy
conservation program at GRC. Mr. Zala initiated GRC’s first ESPC project
that was awarded last year, negotiated sizable reductions in the cost of
electricity service with the local utility company, and installed an
extensive electricity-monitoring system throughout the Center.

Z/Garver: Ms. Garver reported that the Strategic Plan is on its way to the
Administrator for his review and approval.

C/Christensen: Mr. Christensen reminded the Associate Administrators that
Wednesday, September 27, at 10 a.m., will be the Combined Federal Campaign
award ceremony and kickoff for this year.

P/Wilhide: Ms. Wilhide reported that the STS-106 crew greeted the Olympic
athletes.

2. AI/Dr. Mulville

Dr. Mulville reported on the following: 1) He thanked Dr. McDonald at ARC
for hosting the NASA Advisory Council on September 12 and 13. He also
thanked Al Diaz and GSFC for hosting and supporting the Senior Management
Council meeting on September 15. 2) The Capital Investment Council meeting
that was scheduled for September 26 has been canceled and will be
rescheduled in October. 3) Independent Annual Reviews for Hubble Space
Telescope and High-Performance Computing and Communications are the topics
of the Program Management Council meeting scheduled for Friday, September
29. 4) Dr. Mulville reminded everyone about providing Denise Stewart the
information for the Administrator’s Briefing Book 2 days prior to the
activity.

3. Center Reports

ARC/McDonald: Dr. McDonald reported that the Deputy Secretary of
Transportation Morton Downey will discuss and tour the Future Flight Central.

JSC/Abbey: Mr. Abbey reported on the following: 1) The Flight Readiness
Review for the upcoming flight, STS-92, is scheduled for Thursday,
September 28. 2) There will be a Space Station Development and Operations
meeting at KSC on Friday, September 29. 3) International Space Station
activities are going well.

MSFC/Stephenson: Mr. Stephenson reported on the following: 1) MSFC
celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the Center. 2) MSFC is pleased with the
high school outreach program on STS-106. Six hundred students from four
different states participated. He appreciated the Office of Space
Science’s support.

4. Mr. Goldin:

Mr. Goldin watched the Olympic events on Sunday evening, September 24, and
was impressed with the positive attitude of the U.S. swimmer, Laura
Wilkinson. Through great adversity, due to having some broken bones in her
foot, prior to each dive, she always smiled. Everyone could learn
something from this positive attitude.

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 AT (202) 358-0905.

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. Olsen (Acting)

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. Stewart

AB/Ms. Saldana

AC/Ms. Landrus

AE/Ms. Moore

AI/Ms. Shaeffer

Ms. Soper

AJ/Ms. Bloxon

AO/Ms. Wissinger

AM/Ms. Barnes

AS/Ms. Simms

CIC/Ms. Grimes

CIC/Ms. Hoover

CIC/Ms. Coates

CIC/Ms. Fenner

CIC/Ms. Maynor