WASHINGTON – NASA is wrestling with a new type of space age.
The space agency is now more than four decades old, and the number of its employees 60 years old and older far exceeds those under 30 years of age. The average age: 45.
"It’s very serious," NASA Administrator Dan Goldin told the NASA Advisory Council on Thursday. "It’s getting worse, not better," he said, noting that the agency is in dire need for more than a few good, youthful men and women.
NASA's civil servant workforce is not only growing older. It also is slipping away steadily due to budget cuts. The number of employees at NASA today is 17,717 -- the fewest the agency has had since 1962 when John Glenn became the first American in orbit.
Goldin said it has become difficult to attract young professionals to the space agency these days because of the explosion in internet companies and other high-tech industries.
"We’re finally breaking out of the operations mode and getting much more into the cutting-edge research and development," he said. But even that is not enough to attract young talent.
One reason for that, Goldin said, could be that there are 65 new millionaires created every day in Silicon Valley, near San Francisco – the epicenter of U.S. computer and internet prowess.
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Too often, students coming out of high school are being drawn to the prospects of rapid wealth, rather than taking up a career in the space program or aerospace industry.
"NASA has no credibility with the young people," Goldin said.
The culprit: ups and downs in the space agency’s budget over the years that deters young professionals from considering a NASA career. Roller coaster budgets, "given the kind of hiring and retention problems we have, really exacerbates the problem," he said.
Undeterred, Goldin told the advisory group he is considering a plan to attract young talent.
"Instead of going out and hiring permanent long-term civil servants, we need to get people to come here on a term basis, such as two to three years." With that approach, young talent could be paid a little bit more.
NASA is now planning a range of exciting endeavors, such as technology miniaturization, and a range of biological research tasks. After two or three years, NASA could then see which individuals are the best and brightest and bring them into the organization, he said.
"We could tell these kids: ‘Hey, look…come to NASA. Try us on for size," Goldin said.
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