|
|
 |
 |  |
 |
|
 |
 advertisement
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Goldin's Resignation Draws Mixed Reaction Around NASA
By Todd Halvorson
Cape Canaveral Bureau Chief
posted: 10:25 am ET
18 October 2001
|
Acting Johnson Space Center Director Roy Estess credited Goldin with prompting innovative changes that have enabled NASA to reduce costs while increasing reliability, efficiency and safety within the agency’s human space flight programs.
"Dan Goldin challenged this agency and its employees to work creatively, intelligently and safely in expanding a human presence in space," said Estess.
"We have continued to safely fly the space shuttle, the most complex and imaginative vehicle ever to carry humans into space. We have entered an era of unprecedented human cooperation in space with the International Space Station, and we have maintained our commitment to the safety of all the people living and working in space."
The Goldin years at NASA, though, have not come and gone without serious budget problems, chiefly within the International Space Station program, which is the agency’s cornerstone project for the early 21st century.
When Goldin departs next month, NASA still will be facing an anticipated $5 billion cost overrun within the station program, one which has prompted the agency to stop work on U.S. crew quarters and an American crew rescue vehicle for the outpost.
Those components are critical to expanding station staffing from three now to six or seven. And the ramp up in staffing is deemed key to carrying out a robust science research program at the orbiting complex.
Chief among the challenges for Goldin’s yet-to-be-named successor, consequently, will be controlling project costs "while restoring it to a capability that honors commitments to the science community and our international partners," said John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
And while it’s unclear exactly how NASA will go about reining in its space station cost problems, Goldin’s departure will be a clear demarcation point for space historians to ponder well into the future.
"It’s the end of an era," Logsdon said. "I think it will take some time yet to get a full evaluation of his impact."
At the same time, though, the challenges facing NASA and its space station project are not deemed to be insurmountable.
"The one thing Dan has done is left the agency better prepared to face the future than any of his predecessors," said Logsdon, a space policy veteran who has known every NASA chief since the agency was established in 1958.
"NASA is a better place than it was before Goldin came on board in April 1992." | | | |
