CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Senior NASA and White House officials said Tuesday that they intend to forge ahead with efforts to corral soaring International Space Station costs while continuing a review that could lead to the closure of agency field centers.
In what amounted to the first public peek at an agency in transition, NASA Acting Administrator Daniel Mulville said the Bush Administration plans to press ahead with reforms initiated by former chief Daniel Goldin.
"The White House has made it crystal clear that we are responsible and accountable for fulfilling our obligations with respect to the ongoing Strategic Resources Review and implementing the recommendations of the Tom Young Panel," Mulville told agency employees in an all-hands meeting broadcast on NASA TV.
White House Science Advisor John Marburger affirmed that notion, particularly with respect to the recently released recommendations an independent ISS cost control task force headed by former Martin Marietta president Thomas Young.
"Im extremely impressed with the quality of the exercise thats just been completed, that Tom Young chaired," Marburger, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, told employees at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Calling the so-called Young Report "a quality document," Marburger said it includes "strong recommendations that seem to me to be exactly right for the next steps in this magnificent transition that NASA undergoing right now."
A blue ribbon panel created by Goldin to study ISS program management, the Young Task Force criticized NASA for its inability to estimate how much money will be needed to complete the station project, which is facing a $4.8 billion cost overrun.
The task force recommended a slowdown in station construction and a reduction in shuttle missions to the outpost, which is now being assembled 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth.
Also ordered by Goldin: The Strategic Resources Review, which is an agency-wide push aimed at cutting duplicative programs and uncovering other potential money-saving moves at NASA headquarters and the agencys 10 field centers.
During his final days as NASA Administrator, Goldin said stagnant budgets likely would force NASA to consider consolidating some of its field centers.
In an interview with Space News, Goldin said preliminary results of the ongoing review made it clear to him that U.S. policy makers will have to consider three options: consolidate or realign agency field centers, increase the agencys budget or cut missions.
He also said that if Congress balks at closing NASA field centers, then lawmakers should give the agency a budget increase that would provide meaningful work for employees at each center, "not make-work."
Goldin resigned from the agency last Saturday after nearly 10 years as NASA Administrator. Sean OKeefe, deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, was nominated by President Bush last week to fill the post.
A critic of station cost overruns, OKeefe got a ringing endorsement from Marburger.
"I am really quite taken with the notion that Sean OKeefe will be the next administrator. Hes a wonderful person. He cares. He has lots of experience thats relevant to what needs to be done," Marburger told NASA employees. "But hes going to need your help."
Mulville, a former NASA chief engineer who served as deputy associate administrator under Goldin, will serve as the agencys interim administrator until OKeefe goes through Senate confirmation hearings. Those hearings have yet to be scheduled.
advertisement
