A shake-up of NASA's human spaceflight program will follow in the wake of Johnson Space Center director George Abbey's ouster, NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin told SPACE.com today.

George Abbey Re-Assigned

George Abbey, longtime Director of the Johnson Space Center (JSC) and one of the most powerful figures in the National Aeronautics and SpaceAdministration (NASA), was re-assigned as Senior Assistant for International Issues at NASA headquarters, the agency announced Friday. READ MORE .

Goldin said the goal is to retool the human spaceflight program. "We're not going to be firing people, laying off people," Goldin told SPACE.com . "We're going to be restructuring people to figure out how to get it done." NASA announced yesterday that Abbey has been reassigned as Senior Assistant for International Issues at NASA Headquarters.

"Our primary focus is going to be getting the station done and keeping the shuttle safer as we do it," Goldin said. According to Goldin this follows a request from President Bush. "During the campaign," Goldin said, "the President asked that we reform the human spaceflight program to make it safer and more efficient."

"We're going to be integrating projects both functionally and geographically," Goldin said. "If two or three groups [at different NASA centers] are doing the same thing but reporting up different stovepipes, we're going to integrate them."

The timing of the Abbey reassignment, Goldin said, was governed by last week's installation of the U.S. laboratory module Destiny on the International Space Station. "Now that we have Destiny up there, and the shuttle safer than it was, this is the opportune time to make a change. And sometimes the person who maintained it is not necessarily the person to make the change."

Many observers, including former JSC officials, have speculated that Abbey's overbearing and secretive management style was a factor in his removal.

"George is a complex man," Goldin said. "It's very difficult to communicate with George. At this point in time, we need someone who will make significant changes, and bring people along with him in the process. It's not a management role, but a consensus-building role. It's not anything bad about George. Everybody has good points and bad points."

The next phase of the space station efforts, at NASA, Goldin said, "calls for a leader who can work across the agency with others."

Some observers have wondered whether the shake-up sends a disconcerting signal about NASA's plans to go to Mars. On this subject Goldin said "As much as people want to go to Mars, and they wear these 'Mars or Bust' pins, we've got to demonstrate to the American people that we're going to do what we said we'd do with the station. Now that we have the critical hardware up there, we've had two years of experience. We need to look not at projections but at the reality."

With regard to his own future as NASA administrator, Goldin said he "has no idea" if he will be allowed to stay on in the new administration. "I am going to work with unbelievable intensity every day until the day I leave . When the President says, 'Dan, I have a successor,' I will make the transition."