Minutes of Senior Staff and Center Directors’ Meeting 8 May 2000

The following documents the discussions addressed at the Senior Staff and
Center Directors’ Meeting on May 8, 2000. Mr. Goldin attended the meeting.
Action assignments have been placed in brackets [ ] for easy identification.

1. AA Reports

I/Schumacher: Mr. Schumacher thanked everyone for supporting a very busy
week of international activities. These included the Administrator’s May
2, 2000, meeting with Mr. Nakasone, the Japanese Minister of Science and
Technology and the Minister’s visits to GSFC and ARC; GSFC hosting the
U.S.-Japanese Joint High Level Commission meeting on behalf of the
President’s Science Advisor; the Administrator’s trip to the GNSS2000
satellite navigation conference in Scotland to announce President Clinton’s
decision to cease the selective availability function on Global Positioning
Satellites (GPS); and Administrator/Associate Administrator (AA ) meetings
with the President of the French Space Agency (CNES).

Y/Luther: Mr. Luther reported on the successful launch of The
Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-L) at approximately
3:07 a.m. on May 3, 2000. The second of a series of orbit burns, required
to raise the spacecraft from geostationary transfer orbit to operational
geostationary orbit, was successfully executed yesterday. He congratulated
and thanked both GSFC and KSC for their contributions to the effort on GOES.

AO/Holcomb: Mr. Holcomb reported on the effects of the “ILOVEYOU” Virus
on NASA. First reports that the virus had hit NASA came about 7 a.m.,
Thursday, May 4. By noon, it was clear that several Centers had been
impacted. JSC, KSC, and MSFC went off the Internet and closed their mail
gateway. GSFC mail slowed significantly due to the load of defensive mail
filtering. Communication among Centers, assisted by the NASA Incident
Response Center (NASIRC), helped to minimize damage and speed recovery. By
Friday afternoon, all Centers, but JSC, were back on the Net. JSC had
restored internal mail service and plans to fully restore external mail
connections by noon today. JSC believes the virus has destroyed several
thousand files. Most of these should be recoverable from backup, but very
recent files may be lost. NASA’s Information Technoloy (IT) security team
will draw “lessons learned” at their workshop, being hosted by ARC, this
week. They will look for ways to more effectively defend against such
viruses in the future.

K/Thomas: Mr. Thomas reported that May is Asian Pacific-American Heritage
Month. NASA is to receive an award this Saturday.

L/Heffernan: Mr. Heffernan reported that the House Science Committee will
hold a hearing regarding the Mars Polar Lander (MPL) and the Mars
Climate Orbiter (MCO) on May 11. (The Administrator’s May 11 testimony has
been postponed.) The House Transportation Subcommittee on Aviation will
hold a hearing on NASA’s aerospace work on May 16.

Z/Garver: Ms. Garver thanked JSC for supporting last week’s visit from
and briefing of Dr. Neal Lane, the President’s Science Advisor.

2. Center Reports

ARC/McDonald: Dr. McDonald reported that the NASA IT Security Team will
meet at ARC on May 11, 2000.

GRC/Earls: Dr. Earls reported on the Loop Heat Pipe Ice Protection System
Testing, a new ice protection technology developed under the GRC Small
Business Innovative Research (SBIR) funding, which has recently been tested
at the BFGoodrich icing wind tunnel. The test article was the inlet for
the planned Predator-B Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that has recently been
selected as the vehicle for the NASA Environmental Research Aircraft &
Sensor Technology (ERAST) program. The ice protection system makes use of
loop heat pipes which will transport waste heat from the aircraft engine to
the inlet, thus protecting the surface from ice and eliminating the need
for drag-inducing engine coolers. This NASA-funded technology is the first
truly unique form of ice protection that has been developed in the last 10
years. It shows the promise of providing ice protection and engine heat
removal with little or no power losses.

GSFC/Diaz: Mr. Diaz reported on the following: 1) He thanked KSC for
supporting the GOES launch (which had been delayed for 1 year due to Atlas
Centaur problems.) They did a terrific job in recovery. The clients are
pleased. 2) On Friday, Mr. Diaz received an award from Bowie State
University in appreciation for GSFC’s efforts to share its resources with a
diverse array of America’s citizenry. This is the first time this award
has been given to an organization and not an individual. 3) The Hubble
Space Telescope image will appear on the sides of U-Haul trucks.

JSC/Abbey: Mr. Abbey reported on the following: 1) The STS-101 crew came
to the Cape on Sunday. They are in quarantine this week. 2) Mir and Zarya
are doing well except for a problem on battery number three that is being
investigated.

KSC/Bridges: Mr. Bridges thanked all the AA’s at NASA Headquarters for
approving the KSC reorganization. Additionally, Mr. Bridges stated that
the GOES launch was a great team effort.

MSFC/Griner: Ms. Griner reported that MSFC was hit by the “ILOVEYOU”
Virus, but by midnight on Thursday, MSFC was back in business. The NASA
Integrated Action Team (NIAT), chartered by Brian Keegan, is meeting at
MSFC this week.

3. Goldin

Mr. Goldin began by congratulating the GOES launch team. The satellites
are important for hurricane season. He is also proud of Joe Rothenberg for
his courageous decision to reschedule the Shuttle launch date since the
weather satellite can help more people.

Mr. Goldin said that the Red Team review process appears to be working.
He encouraged the team to take their time to determine what needs to be
done. If additional resources are necessary, work with the Comptroller’s
Office. We will train and develop professionals to do the right thing.

Mr. Goldin then discussed the Administrator’s Weekly Topic #17 entitled,
“Integrated Systems Testing.” He explained that thorough testing is
essential to ensuring that system performance meets design requirements and
that adequate margins are demonstrated to enhance the probability of
mission success. He noted a previous discussion concerning testing at the
component level, through the NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging Program.
This week, he addresses the other end of the development process,
integrated system testing. This topic, in its entirety, may be located at
http://www.nasa.gov/bios/health_messages.html on the Administrator’s Weekly
Topics web site.

Regarding new testing techniques, Mr. Goldin tasked each Center Director
to personally understand new test techniques, their limitations, and to
personally educate their workforce, review, and then verify that proper
maintenance techniques are integrated.

[Regarding soft computing, Mr. Goldin directed Code R, the Chief Engineer,
and the Chief Information Officer to develop a plan in the next 2 months to
improve how software is integrated Agencywide. It is not clear where the
Agency is going. The plan should include options, timelines, and
technology areas on which to focus.]

Mr. Goldin concluded by stating that when Centers develop techniques for
testing, it is important that these techniques to developed in the same
manner as techniques for missions. NASA should be viewed as a leader in
Technology.

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.

Officials-in-Charge of NASA Headquarters Offices:

AI/Dr. Mulville

AB/Ms. Tagg

AC/Gen. Armstrong

AE/Mr. Keegan

AJ/Mr. Tam

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. Roberts

AB/Ms. Saldana

AE/Ms. Moore

AI/Ms. Shaeffer

AI/Ms. Bloxon

AI/Ms. Soper

AO/Ms. Wissinger

AS/Ms. Simms

AC/Ms. Landrus

CIC/Ms. Grimes

CIC/Ms. Hoover

CIC/Ms. Coates

CIC/Ms. Fenner

CIC/Ms. Maynor