Minutes of Senior Staff and Center Directors’ Meeting 4 Dec 2000

The following documents the discussions addressed at the
Senior Staff and Center Directors’ Meeting on December 4, 2000. Mr.
Goldin attended the meeting. Action assignments have been placed in
brackets [ ] for easy identification.

1. AA Reports

I/Cline: Ms. Cline passed on John Schumacher’s words of thanks and
appreciation for the flowers sent to his wife who was hit by a car
recently. Mrs. Schumacher is doing fine and is expected to be released
from the hospital this week.

K/Green: Mr. Green reported that the Minority Business Resource Advisory
Committee will meet on December 5 and 6.

Y/Luther: Mr. Luther reported that the Earth Observing (EO)-1 satellite
instruments are performing beyond our expectations.

S/Weiler: Dr. Weiler reported that the news about ancient lakes being
found on Mars has leaked out before NASA’s scheduled press conference on
December 7.

P/Wilhide: Ms. Wilhide reported on the following: 1) There was a
Expedition One message shown at the Army/Navy game. 2) A memorial
service is planned for Brian Welch on December 14 at HQ. The television
program, “The West Wing,” had a storyline about NASA.

Z/McCormick: Ms. McCormick thanked KSC for hosting the NASA Advisory
Council (NAC) meeting.

B/Peterson: Mr. Peterson reported that there would be a resource
management standdown day at HQ tomorrow, December 5, 2000.

U/Swain: Ms. Swain reported that the National Research Council completed
a review of the biotechnology program in January and had a large number
of recommendations. The biotechnology program was reevaluated by NASA.
The new plans for a x-ray crystallography facility were reviewed by an
independent committee of outside experts. They agreed with the changes
and are enthusiastic that this facility will make a large contribution to
structural biology.

AM/Angotti: Ms. Angotti thanked Jeff Sutton for allowing all of the
Office of the Chief Health and Medical Officer (Code AM) directives to be
placed in the NODIS Directives System this month.

2. AI/Dr. Mulville

Dr. Mulville reported on the following: 1) The Capital Investment
Council will meet this Thursday, December 7, from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m., to
discuss the Office of Management and Budget’s Proposal on Program/Project
Management, Performance Plan Achievements, and New Initiative Strategies.
(The agenda was distributed on November 22.) The Senior Management
Council (SMC) will meet this Friday, December 8, at HQ, from 9:30 a.m. to
4 p.m. The agenda is being revised to incorporate a Discovery Channel
screening, from 8 to 9:30 a.m., prior to the SMC meeting. This will
allow us to end the meeting at 4 p.m. A revised agenda will be
distributed today. 3) The Independent Annual Review for Gravity Probe-B
will be presented at the next Program Management Council Meeting
scheduled for December 11, from 1 to 3 p.m. 4) Dr. Mulville thanked KSC
for hosting the NAC last week.

3. Center Reports

ARC/McDonald: Dr. McDonald reported that ARC was pleased to host the
Joint Aeronautics Commanders Group for discussions of cooperative use of
NASA facilities and in recognition of the joint Army/NASA rotorcraft
program.

GRC/Mr. Barna: Mr. Barna reported on the following: 1) GRC is playing a
key role in the effort being led by the Department of Energy (DOE) to
develop a Stirling Radioisotope Power System (SRPS). The SRPS is
intended to be the future high-efficiency radioisotope power system for
NASA’s deep space and planetary science missions. 2) The Aero-SAPIENT
project demonstrated full duplex satellite communications with the DFRC
Airborne Science Laboratory DC-8 in flight. During the test on board the
DC-8 traveling at 40,000 feet at 360 knots, an e-mail was sent, the web
was browsed, real-time winds aloft data were delivered to the crew and
some of the other science experimenters via the web, and Voice over
Internet Protocol (VoIP) phones were used extensively for voice
communications between GRC personnel on board the DC-8 and the GRC team
running the network experiment and satellite communications.

GSFC/Diaz: Mr. Diaz reported on the following items: 1) The Washington
Post published a nice article on the GSFC Chief Technologist, Dennis
Andrucyk. 2) A memorial service for Dr. Gerald Soffen will be held on
Thursday, December 7, at 4 p.m., in the Building 8 auditorium.

JSC/Abbey: Mr. Abbey reported on the following items: 1) The
extravehicular activity was successfully completed. 2) The second solar
array will be deployed this afternoon.

M/Rothenberg (from JSC): Mr. Rothenberg thanked the Center Directors for
a successful launch.

MSFC/Saucier: Mr. Saucier thanked Congressman Bud Kramer (D-AL) and Mr.
Goldin for coming to MSFC for the Space Launch Initiative.

4. Mr. Goldin

Mr. Goldin stated that the STS-97 Space Shuttle launch on November 30,
2000, was “spectacular” and everyone should be congratulated on a
successful mission to the International Space Station (ISS). He stated
how proud he is of NASA’s performance installing the set of solar arrays
that will generate power for the U.S. segments of the ISS.

Mr. Goldin clarified what he requested in a memo for the SMC meeting on
December 8. He wants Center and Headquarters leadership to perform a
top-down strategic planning analysis. Centers must align their facility
and human resource requirements with the strategic mission of the Center
and the Agency as a whole. He expects quality work to be submitted to
him by the deadline, and for the Centers to be prepared to discuss their
strategy in detail at the meeting.

NOTE: ACTION ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE TRANSMITTED UNDER SEPARATE COVER AND
TRACKED BY THE HEADQUARTERS CORRESPONDENCE MANA0GEMENT OFFICE. SPECIFIC
QUESTIONS MAY BE ADDRESSED TO BRIDGET FENNER AT (202) 358-0909.