• Forum
• SITREP
• Military
• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security

• Space

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Public Eye

Return to Flight, Space Station Are Priorities, Says NASA Chief

29 June 2005

New space agency regime aligns budget, top programs

By Cheryl Pellerin
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- In his first appearance before the House Committee on Science as NASA administrator, Michael Griffin fielded a range of questions June 28 on topics that included the space shuttle’s return to flight, completion of the International Space Station and plans for the NASA workforce and field centers.

Griffin told committee members that he met June 28 with the Stafford-Covey Return To Flight Task Group, a panel formed in 2003 to monitor the agency after the Columbia shuttle accident.

They met to discuss a June 27 report issued by the group that criticized NASA for implementing only 12 of 15 shuttle safety recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.

“The members of the panel that I met with were very emphatic in their view that the shuttle is NOT unsafe to fly. We will use their findings in discussions over the next two days as part of our Flight Readiness Review,” Griffin said.

“We need these complex issues to be discussed openly and accurately,” he added, “and they will be.”

After a safe return to flight of the shuttle, Griffin told the committee, NASA will focus on completion of the International Space Station (ISS) and retirement of the space shuttle by 2010.

A team of NASA experts are investigating a range of realistic ISS configuration and shuttle manifest options before the shuttle is retired. Griffin said he would present NASA’s proposed plan for the ISS configuration and shuttle manifest to the committee and NASA’s international partners later in summer 2005.

To close the gap between the 2010 shuttle retirement and the launch of the new crew exploration vehicle (CEV) in 2014, and to reduce the reliance of the U.S. space program on other nations, Griffin said NASA must accelerate CEV development.

The spacecraft, whose design is undetermined, will be capable of ferrying astronauts to and from the Space Station and conducting voyages to the Moon and Mars.

“We have a team of some of the best engineers and managers drawn from across the agency looking at ways to accelerate the development of the Crew Exploration Vehicle,” Griffin said, “and we hope to soon share with the Congress our plans for the overall space exploration architecture, the CEV and the transportation system needed to launch it.”

To accelerate the CEV, Griffin said NASA would defer development of other space exploration-related technologies, ISS research and space nuclear systems that will be needed only after the CEV goes online after 2010.

One barrier to completing the ISS and to working with Russia to develop potential crew rescue support involves the Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000 (INA), enacted to stop foreign transfers to Iran of weapons of mass destruction, missile technology and advanced conventional weapons technology, particularly from Russia.

According to the Congressional Research Service, Section 6 of the INA bans U.S. payments to Russia in connection with the ISS unless President Bush determines that Russia is taking steps to prevent such proliferation.

In the meantime, beginning in April 2006, NASA will need to pay Russia for previously negotiated ISS crew-rescue services using the Russian Soyuz vehicle. Griffin said NASA is proposing an amendment to the INA that gives NASA flexibility but maintains U.S. nonproliferation objectives.

“If a solution is not found,” Griffin told the committee, “we believe that U.S. astronauts will need to cease maintaining a permanent presence aboard the space station in April 2006.”

In that case, astronauts could only stay aboard the ISS while the shuttle is docked at the station – for a “couple of weeks” at a time, Griffin said.

The administration expects to deliver this proposed legislative solution to Congress in the very near future, he added.

Griffin said he has begun implementing a massive reorganization of NASA’s workforce and 10 field centers “to carry out the agency’s exploration, aeronautics, and science missions.” The agency is conducting an assessment to organize workforce needs.

“More authority should be delegated to program managers at these centers, while NASA headquarters should focus on policy, budget, and program executive functions,” he said adding “NASA headquarters staffing has grown too large over the last several years.”

NASA, he said, “cannot afford everything on its plate today.”

At several field centers,” Griffin said, “NASA has a gross mismatch between the work to be done, the size of the civil service workforce and the budget available. We are working through these issues and trying to consult everyone as much as possible, but difficult decisions will be required.”

In the Science Mission Directorate, Griffin added, NASA is seeking a better balance in setting Earth and space science mission priorities. Some missions will be deferred, he said, and some extended.

“One of the missions we hope to extend is the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM),” he said, “a research satellite which has exceeded our expectations in being used operationally with hurricane forecasts.”

NASA is working closely with NOAA, the Japanese government, and others in the interagency process to determine the legal liabilities and safety measures necessary to extend the mission.

The text of Griffin’s prepared statement and transcript of the House Science Committee’s hearing is available on NASA’s Web site.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)