NASA Chief Administrator Daniel Goldin to Announce Resignation Today

Space.com ^ | October 17, 2001 | uncredited

[Cincinatus' Wife]

He isn't even waiting for Odyssy's insertion around Mars on the 23rd.
White-Knuckle Waiting: Hobbled Odyssey Nears Mars as it's swallowed by a massive dust storm.

Storm of the century for Mars Associated Press/NASA
Images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope show two phases of a large dust-raising event
that occurred during the biggest global dust storm seen on Mars in several decades.
The image at left was taken June 26 and the one at right on Sept. 4.
The storm, larger by far than any seen on Earth, raised a cloud of dust that engulfed
the entire planet from June well into September, obscuring all surface features.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Daniel Goldin Proud of NASA Tenure (TEXT Below)

WASHINGTON - NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin said today he will depart Nov. 17 satisfied and proud that the U.S. space agency launched so many spacecraft during his tenure.

"NASA is alive!" Goldin, the agency's longest-serving administrator, said in a telephone interview. He noted that NASA had 60 spacecraft launched and planned during his tenure and said his proudest moment was the in-orbit repair of the Hubble Space Telescope. "We opened up the universe," he said.

Goldin also praised the agency's work to assemble the international space station. "It is a technical achievement that is nothing short of brilliant. It could not have been executed in a better fashion," he said.

While acknowledging the budget problems that have plagued the space station program, Goldin said: "I make no apologies. I am convinced that we delivered the station at the lowest cost we possibly could have given the conditions and challenges we had to deal with. I think we have identified the operational cost problem and we have fixed it … We will be back on track. Could we have done better? Maybe, but we had to stress technical excellence. It is a very difficult balancing act."

Goldin said his biggest disappointment is not going to Mars. "My life will be complete when an astronaut sets foot on Mars," Goldin said. "I want to be associated with it in some way."

For now though, Goldin, 61, said it is time for a break. "I need some decompression time. It's hard to explain the amount of intellectual investment you put into this job. I feel very satisfied. It was a long task. I feel good."

Goldin said he plans to remain very active in his remaining month at the agency and will help the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush find his replacement. He said he would be on board to receive the report from the commission headed by former Martin Marietta Chairman Tom Young.

That commission, the International Space Station Management and Cost Evaluation Task Force, is evaluating NASA's predictions for how long it will take to complete the space station and how much it will cost. The task force is due to report its findings to the NASA Advisory Council Nov. 1.

Goldin noted that he served nine months and 20 days under former U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush and will have served nine months and 27 days under the current President Bush, the former president's son. "I think that makes for a nice pair of bookends," he said.

In between, Goldin served for eight years under former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

While he ponders his future, Goldin will take a position as a senior fellow at the Council on Competitiveness, a Washington-based non-profit organization.

According to its World Wide Web site, the Council on Competitiveness was created in 1986 to foster technological innovation and workforce development, and to benchmark U.S. economic performance against other countries.

The organization is guided by a 30-member Executive Committee and has a staff of 16 people who provide research and operational support. "Chief executives from 50 of the country's most prominent nonprofit research organizations, professional societies and trade associations contribute their expertise as national affiliates of the Council," according to the Web site.

Goldin has been NASA's administrator since April 1992 and is credited with pushing the agency to streamline its operations with an approach that became known as "faster, better, cheaper."

[r9etb]

The Council on Competitiveness has received a $2.3 million grant to support the establishment of BEST, a new nonprofit organization designed to turn around the critical shortage of women and minorities in the high technology workforce

If I were single, it would be permissible to agree that there is a critical shortage of women -- especially good-looking women -- in the high-tech workforce.

I believe a crash program is in order. Here is a suggested prototype....

[Cicero]

Good news. According to a friend of mine who does contract work for NASA, all the scientists he knows in the organization think that Goldin is a complete incompetent.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

According to a friend of mine who does contract work for NASA, all the scientists he knows in the organization think that Goldin is a complete incompetent.

That's because he is.

[Cincinatus]

Goldin noted that he served nine months and 20 days under former U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush and will have served nine months and 27 days under the current President Bush, the former president's son. "I think that makes for a nice pair of bookends," he said.

So would that make the eight years of Clintonista rule the "books"?

Goldin's legacy: He kept his job through the change of administrations in 1993. That's his proudest achievement. It's alos the only thing he did that he didn't screw up.

[Moonman62]

Fron Spaceflight Now:

NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin, who forced the agency to adopt a "faster, better, cheaper" approach to deep space exploration and oversaw initial assembly of the international space station, is stepping down amid space station cost overruns that threaten the future of the agency's showcase space program.

Sources said Goldin will announce his resignation, effective Nov. 17, at 2 p.m. today in an agency wide address on NASA television. It is not yet known who will replace him, but insiders say Courtney A. Stadd, NASA's chief of staff and a Bush administration appointee, likely will take over day-to-day operations.

Goldin's resignation comes one day after NASA's associate administrator for space flight, Joseph Rothenberg, announced his retirement, effective Dec. 15. Again, no replacement has been named. But the "AA for spaceflight" is responsible for all space shuttle and space station operations at NASA headquarters.

The departures come amid a mounting crisis at NASA over space station funding and accountability that threaten the project's very survival.

Earlier this summer, NASA managers said the station program was expected to suffer a $5 billion overrun over the next four to five years. With little support from the Bush administration or Congress to provide additional funding, NASA managers decided to forego building a crew habitation module and an emergency return vehicle capable of seating six to seven astronauts.

As a result, the station can support just three full-time crew members - that's all the current Russian-built Soyuz lifeboats can accommodate. But three crew members cannot carry out the kind of world class research the lab is being built for. Instead, current three-man crews spend most of their time simply operating, outfitting and maintaining the station.

In the wake of the cost overrun revelations, Goldin appointed a committee of outside experts to review NASA's management and accounting. The Cost Evaluation Task Force is expected to release its findings in about a month. NASA managers who have been grilled by the task force in recent weeks expect the worst, saying the panel's final report will be devastating.

Asked if America's manned space program might be in real jeopardy, one senior manager said "absolutely. I don't think there's anybody who will defend us."

While NASA managers defend the agency's actions and point out that many of the station changes that drove up costs were mandated by Congress or the White House Office of Management and Budget, outsiders are quick to lay the blame squarely at NASA's feet.

"Many folks are still clinging to the hope they will get bailed out," a government official told the Florida Today newspaper. "The station, but also human spaceflight's future hangs in the balance - and the future of 'beyond Earth orbit' - unless this business is done differently. They won't have the credibility to be trusted with something like that from the administration or the Congress."

Against this backdrop, shuttle program manager Ronald Dittemore is quietly overseeing a wide-ranging effort to refine a plan to possibly turn over operation of NASA's fleet of four space shuttles to a private contractor.

The goal, sources say, is to develop a government-owned, contractor-operated system that could safely - and more efficiently - operate the shuttle for the next 15 to 20 years. The program's current government management and prime contractor structure is resulting in a steady erosion of NASA skill and experience in key positions. And that, supporters of privatization claim, is eroding flight safety.

Among the options being explored as part of the privatization effort are corporate astronauts, flight directors and even overall mission management. If implemented, such a shuttle privatization plan would mark a major shift in the way the nation's space program is carried out.

While shuttle privatization may or may not move forward, the station crisis is real and the departures of both the NASA administrator and the agency's associate administrator for space flight are clear signs that rough weather is ahead.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

world class

In honor of Daniel Goldin's retirement, can we all agree to retire this expression?

[537 Votes]

world class

In honor of Daniel Goldin's retirement, can we all agree to retire this expression?

I don't know . . . is Ross Perot still hiding in his Y2k bunker?

[RikaStrom]

Goldin has been NASA's administrator since April 1992 and is credited with pushing the agency to streamline its operations with an approach that became known as "better, faster, cheaper."

Good riddance, and it should be...."Politically Expensive, PC slowndown, Feel-Good moral killer"

[mountaineer]

Goldin also happily wastes our tax dollars on any idiotic political correct cause that crosses his desk.

They just loved him at Wheeling (W.Va.) Jesuit University. He funneled millions of dollars to the Challenger Learning Center (where school kids sit at consoles and pretend they're at Mission Control, while the bloated staff walks around in blue flightsuits) - one of several throughout the country. A monumental waste of taxpayers' money.

[RightWhale]

Goldin said his biggest disappointment is not going to Mars

But that is such a minor matter compared to being a bookend. So what if we didn't go back to the moon or made it impossible for private enterprise to get a foothold in space? NASA's emblem could be Gulliver tied down with 100,000 threadlike ropes, or a giant rocket permanently attached to ground by a giant anchor twice its size.

[RightWhale]

The way NASA is run, it doesn't need a Director. Congress funds it based on their expert opinions, and the White House has no interest at all. Several NASA management staffers are leaving now. Retiring, whatever. Changes are coming, and were already coming even without this run-up to war.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

But that is such a minor matter compared to being a bookend.

His ego is really inflated.

[RightWhale]

the Challenger Learning Center

They could reach a lot more kids and grownups as well if they wrote a space simulator like that Microsoft flight simulator, but involving flying to orbit, to the moon, to mars, landing on Mars, rendezvousing with asteroids, capturing asteroids and bringing them back to earth-moon lagrange points, managing life support systems on extended space missions, all that kind of stuff, and tie results to a nationwide Space Engineer In Training database.

10 . . .

9 . . .

8 . . .

7 . . .

6 . . .

5 . . .

4 . . .

3 . . .

2 . . .

1 . . .

We have ignition . . .

Congrats, kiddo, you just qualified for the Junior Astronaut Corps, here's a scholarship to MIT, etc.

[Cincinatus]

A monumental waste of taxpayers' money.

The Challenger Centers are non-profit public corporations that are mostly funded by private (corporate and individual) donations. They may have received NASA grant money to conduct some education program (as have most of the universities in the country), but in general, they are not taxpayer-funded.

[mountaineer]

If you say so. I only know WJU acknowledged Goldin as the source of their boondoggle.

[Explorer89]

"better, faster, cheaper"

choose two.....

[Cincinatus]

B

U

M

P!

[Cincinatus]

Rumor control

17 October 2001: Bush-appointed team polled for New NASA Adminstrator

Editor's note: word has it that an ad hoc committee assembled by the Bush Administration was asked to cast votes by noon today for their choice for the next NASA Administrator. General Moorman is among the finalists. President Bush himself will reportedly make the final decision. No word yet on how the voting went - or when an announcement date will be made. Given the fact that the Administration has been shy (up until now) about having Goldin depart without an heir apparent, it would be expected that the new Administrator would be announced well before Goldin's announced departure date. More to follow.

15 October 2001: New NASA Administrator Rumors

Editor's note: Once again rumors are circulating that the White House has found a candidate. One name that is making the rounds (again) is that of Retired Gen. Thomas Moorman. Moorman is former USAF Vice Chief of Staff, now working as a Vice President with Booz-Allen in McLean, VA. Some people refer to Moorman as "the father of the EELV".

from today's NASAWatch