Leadership problem at NASA is growing.

[PB666]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/12/science/robert-lightfoot-nasa-retirement.html

Quote

NASA has been without a permanent leader for more than a year. Now the agency’s temporary leader is leaving, too. In an email to the space agency’s employees on Monday, Robert M. Lightfoot Jr., the acting administrator, announced that he would retire on April 30.

 

[wumpus]

I suspect "leadership" only applies in the sense of "don't step in the leadership".  Government appointed positions tend to act as pigeon management: fly in, make a lot of noise, fly out.

The real problem is lack of someone with the ear of Congress to protect the budget.  We may be looking at a NASA that does nothing but spend money on SLS.

[tater]

They need to just confirm the appointment already. Who the administrator is makes little difference.

[NSEP]

Let me be the leader.

I will cancel SLS and i will spend $10 billion on convincing people the Earth is not Flat.

[tater]

No one cancelling SLS gets confirmed, lol.

[adsii1970]

Why not appoint a former astronaut or even Elin Musk as the head of NASA... At this point, couldn't hurt to have a visionary.

[tater]

13 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

Why not appoint a former astronaut or even Elin Musk as the head of NASA... At this point, couldn't hurt to have a visionary.

Musk has other things to do, and being an astronaut has little do do with the skill sets to run an organization, or deal with the politics of same. My wife is a surgeon, should she be hospital CEO (I'd love the extra 3M$/yr, don't get me wrong, but she'd be the first to say she'd have no idea what she was doing)?

How about they just confirm Bridensteine with the caveat that he ride one of the commercial crew flights into space, then he will be an astronaut, and somehow magically fit for the job.

(if you can't tell, I don't care who has the job, I don't think it matters much)

[PB666]

Well that's a huge vote of support for NASA.

If anyone can be head of NASA lets get someone who does cool spacey stuff. How about Kobe Bryant here he is making a sub-orbital trajectory over an Aston Martin.

 

 

 

[adsii1970]

1 hour ago, tater said:

Musk has other things to do, and being an astronaut has little do do with the skill sets to run an organization, or deal with the politics of same. My wife is a surgeon, should she be hospital CEO (I'd love the extra 3M$/yr, don't get me wrong, but she'd be the first to say she'd have no idea what she was doing)?

How about they just confirm Bridensteine with the caveat that he ride one of the commercial crew flights into space, then he will be an astronaut, and somehow magically fit for the job.

(if you can't tell, I don't care who has the job, I don't think it matters much)

Oh, I know. But I am tired of people in NASA without any vision. It seems that there is not a lot of vision within the upper ranks.

• And on further thought, Elon Musk is right where he needs to be - in the development of commercial space flight. But he does have a vision for spaceflight...
• An astronaut, on the other side, may not have organizational skills, but has a love of space.

I just want someone in the spot who will be willing to walk up to the members of Congress and the American public why manned spaceflight and exploration is essential. Right now, at least since the mid-1970s, I think NASA has lacked folks who could successfully share the grand vision.

[Cheif Operations Director]

55 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

Oh, I know. But I am tired of people in NASA without any vision. It seems that there is not a lot of vision within the upper ranks.

• And on further thought, Elon Musk is right where he needs to be - in the development of commercial space flight. But he does have a vision for spaceflight...
• An astronaut, on the other side, may not have organizational skills, but has a love of space.

I just want someone in the spot who will be willing to walk up to the members of Congress and the American public why manned spaceflight and exploration is essential. Right now, at least since the mid-1970s, I think NASA has lacked folks who could successfully share the grand vision.

I want back Werhner! 

In all seriousness I agree with you someone who cares I don't care if they are a genius or not I just need a good ADMINISTRATOR 

We haven't Ben back to the moon for almost 50 years. It's a disgrace 

[tater]

Bridenstine is not that bad in terms of vision, he's all in for commercial spaceflight, and recognizes that Mars is simply impossible (budget, sorry Mars fans, it ain't gonna happen).

It's not a matter of vision, people at NASA are space geeks, they want to do awesome stuff, but the budget will not increase, the only way to do really cool things is to leverage the budget they have.

[Cassel]

4 hours ago, wumpus said:

 

The real problem is lack of someone with the ear of Congress to protect the budget.  We may be looking at a NASA that does nothing but spend money on SLS.

Problem is lack of idea of what to do. Why would you need SLS when Falcon Heavy works? Using SLS instead of cheaper rocket would be crime against US citizens.

[PB666]

1 hour ago, tater said:

Bridenstine is not that bad in terms of vision, he's all in for commercial spaceflight, and recognizes that Mars is simply impossible (budget, sorry Mars fans, it ain't gonna happen).

It's not a matter of vision, people at NASA are space geeks, they want to do awesome stuff, but the budget will not increase, the only way to do really cool things is to leverage the budget they have.

What we need is an administrator that increases performance and can make the case to the people why NASA's budget should be increased, but . . . . . .

[DerekL1963]

2 hours ago, tater said:

It's not a matter of vision, people at NASA are space geeks, they want to do awesome stuff, but the budget will not increase, the only way to do really cool things is to leverage the budget they have.

 With the caveat that their ability to leverage the budget is sharply limited by various governmental rules.  And even within those rules, Congress can take notice and summon the individual or his boss to testify before them (read: harangued and harrrased by them) on all but the thinnest pretext.

The real problem isn't NASA.  The real problem is that space fandoms (among it's many other blind spots) doesn't grasp that NASA isn't Disney.  NASA doesn't exist to entertain you.  NASA is a government agency whose purpose is defined by the policies of the Executive Branch.  In theory.  In practice, over the last twenty years the Executive has largely let that role fall to Congress by default.  (To the point where Congress has been several times recently been emboldened enough to try and convert that de facto control into de jure control.)  Or, to put it another way, we didn't go to the Moon because NASA had vision.  We went to the Moon because Kennedy and LBJ (mostly LBJ) made it a policy of their administration and a national priority.  Congress, for a couple of years anyway, agreed and funded NASA at national priority levels.

If you want to go back to the moon, you need to convince the Administration and Congress that it's worth funding.

[YNM]

4 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

Elon Musk is right where he needs to be - in the development of commercial space flight. But he does have a vision for spaceflight...

Given Le Prèsident likes putting corporates on the helm nowadays, why this hasn't happened ?

Edited March 14, 2018 by YNM

[DAL59]

Obvious and long overdue choice: Robert Zubrin.  He'd get them to Mars in a few years.

[Bill Phil]

3 minutes ago, DAL59 said:

Obvious and long overdue choice: Robert Zubrin.  He'd get them to Mars in a few years.

No. No he wouldn't. NASA is only allowed to do certain things. They're not given a huge lump of cash and told to go to space, they're given programs, each with their own budgets and concerns. All of these small budgets add up to the total budget, but where that money is spent is not NASA's choice. Even with Zubrin at the top, he'd need Congressional approval, not to mention necessitating potentially cutting other programs.

We just need someone competent and good at the job, whoever that is.

[PB666]

6 minutes ago, DAL59 said:

Obvious and long overdue choice: Robert Zubrin.  He'd get them to Mars in a few years.

Well if you are going to go that direction . . . . .

[YNM]

31 minutes ago, DAL59 said:

Obvious and long overdue choice: Robert Zubrin.  He'd get them to Mars in a few years.

Won't be able to give 21 billion straight through though.

Edited March 15, 2018 by YNM

[Racescort666]

My vote is Alan Mulally he's kinda old at 72 but the dude jumped from Boeing to Ford and turned the place around. According to the "word around town" people actually cheered when the Ford signs went back up on the corporate buildings. It seems like he's got a good management style and despite being a government agency, Mulally could probably make something awesome of NASA. 

[YNM]

2 hours ago, DerekL1963 said:

If you want to go back to the moon, you need to convince the Administration and Congress that it's worth funding.

Or put some visionary rich philantropic man in.

[kerbiloid]

Spoiler

Does this job provide with a greencard?

 

Edited March 15, 2018 by kerbiloid

[James Kerman]

 

8 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

Does this job provide with a greencard?

There is a precedent:

[Bill Phil]

52 minutes ago, James Kerman said:

 

There is a precedent:

I'm pretty sure he was a citizen at that point. 

I also don't think he was NASA administrator. MSFC director, I think. Not the entirety of NASA.

[tater]

11 hours ago, DAL59 said:

Obvious and long overdue choice: Robert Zubrin.  He'd get them to Mars in a few years.

LOL, no.

He's about to push a "Moon Direct" using FH later this month. His idea for the lunar surface fast is not impossible, but it's unlikely. He's proposing something like Mars direct. Send hab, send cargo (rovers, solar, etc), then send some sort of minimalistic lander that is a crew compartment sorta like the LEM, and it has the dv to go LEO--->lunarsurface--->LEO (propulsive capture). Crew is delivered to LEO via commercial crew vehicle, and returns to Earth by meeting up with it upon return from the Moon. Note that the idea is for a sort of outpost that gets restaffed on the Moon, hence sending hab ahead, those parts get reused, and if you can refill the lander, so can the lander. Problem is that NASA won't do that. There is no redundancy on the lander. Free return gets you nothing, as the lander cannot get the astronauts home with engine failure, and they usually like to have some abort modes.