Minutes of Senior Staff and Center Directors’ Meeting 30 Apr 2001

The following documents the discussions addressed at the Senior Staff and
Center Directors’ Meeting on April 30, 2001. Action assignments have been
placed in brackets [ ] for easy identification.

1. AA Reports

S/Weiler: Dr. Weiler reported that the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) gyro
#5 failed over the weekend. The failure mode appears to be rotor seizure,
the same phenomena that has caused the failure of most of HST’s gyros over
the years. HST has five healthy gyros remaining and only three are
required for full science. A decision has not been made at this point as
to whether gyros will be replaced on the upcoming fall servicing mission.

P/Cleggett: 1) Ms. Cleggett noted that the STS-100 mission is getting good
coverage, particularly with the Soyuz docking and hatch opening. At 1 p.m.
today, there is a mission status briefing on NASA TV. 2) Yesterday’s
American Physical Society’s news conference on findings in the cosmic wave
background, featuring two teams funded by NASA (BOOMERANG and MAXIMA),
resulted in front page stories in today’s Washington Post and New York
Times. Stories are also in the L.A. Times and USA Today.

G/Frankle: Mr. Frankle thanked Goddard for hosting last week’s Legal
Conference.

AO/Nelson: Mr. Nelson reported that an administrative computer at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory was hacked over the weekend.

K/Thomas: Mr. Thomas notified the participants that next week is “National
Small Business Week” and the focus of activities will be at the Renaissance
Hotel in Washington, DC. There will be small business owners, small
business advocates, Government officials, and major corporation
representatives coming in from all over the country.

B/Varholy: Mr. Varholy thanked KSC for hosting last week’s successful
Chief Financial Officers meeting in Orlando, Florida.

E/Dalton: Mr. Reese is in Hampton, Virginia, for the Minority University
Research and Education Division Planning Meeting.

L/Bingham: An FY 2002 Posture Hearing is scheduled for May 2 before the
House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics (Chairman Rohrabacher (R-CA));
Committee on Science. An FY 2002 Appropriations Hearing is scheduled for
May 3 before the House Subcommittee on VA-HUD- Independent Agencies
(Chairman Walsh (R-NY)). Mr. Goldin will testify at both.

2. Dr. Mulville

1) Dr. Mulville reported that the Headquarters Quality Council will meet
on Friday, May 4. 2) The next Senior Management Council Meeting will be
held on Friday, June 22, at NASA Headquarters.

3. Center Directors

DFRC/Petersen: Mr. Petersen reported that the third drop flight of the
X-40A was completed on April 26, and the first Captive Carry Rehearsal
flight for the X-43A Hyper-X Vehicle was conducted on Saturday, April
28. Both flights were very successful.

GRC/Campbell: GRC has played a major role in the technology development
and design of ion thrusters which have been demonstrated as primary
propulsion devices for deep space missions with the recent successful
flight of NASA’s Solar Electric Propulsion Technology Application Readiness
mission. A second-generation low-power breadboard Power Processing Unit
(PPU) has been successfully developed at GRC. This PPU is capable of
operating a 100-500 watt ion thruster from a 28-volt unregulated input, at
a total efficiency of approximately 90 percent.

JPL/Dumas: JPL is investigating a computer break-in.

KSC/Bridges: 1) Mr. Bridges stated that KSC weather for the planned landing
of Space Shuttle STS-100 was not favorable with high cross winds as well as
rain in the forecast. 2) Mr. Bridges announced that the 38th Space
Congress would be commencing on May 1, 2001 (May 1-4).

SSC/Craig: Mr. Craig noted that the 2nd Block II engine, which will be
used on the Space Shuttle STS-108 mission in November, was delivered to KSC.

4. Goldin

Mr. Goldin emphasized that at least one Senior Manager should be available
in each Code to resolve issues that arise during work hours. Beepers shall
be used during nonduty hours. He commended the NASA leadership for keeping
safety as the number one priority of the Agency.

NOTE: ACTION ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE TRANSMITTED UNDER SEPARATE COVER AND
TRACKED BY THE HEADQUARTERS CORRESPONDENCE MANAGEMENT OFFICE. SPECIFIC
QUESTIONS MAY BE ADDRESSED TO VANESSA COATES @ (202) 358-0906.