Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: NASA Chief To Resign

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 12-14-2004, 07:35 AM:

I've wished for this ever since he was given the job. I've always felt this guy was nothing but a pencil pusher and number cruncher and not good for the space program in any way. Perhaps now that he is leaving the space program can get back on track and things could kick off by doing a Hubble Repair Mission. I knew the Science Board would find his policy wrong on not sending a shuttle to repair it.

NASA really needs to find another Werner Von Braun to return the space program to a stature of greatness again!!

Mark

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Article

Sources: NASA chief to resign
O'Keefe to become chancellor of LSU
Monday, December 13, 2004 Posted: 1:56 AM EST (0656 GMT)

(CNN) -- NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe will announce his resignation Monday, CNN has learned.

Sources inside NASA told CNN on Sunday that O'Keefe will accept an offer from Louisiana State University to be its chancellor.

O'Keefe's decision, the sources said, was made for personal and financial reasons -- the LSU job pays significantly more money than the NASA job. O'Keefe's eldest daughter will soon head to college.

The sources did not detail a time frame for O'Keefe's departure. He had previously worked at the Office of Management and Budget and as a professor of business and public policy at Syracuse University.

O'Keefe, a Louisiana native, moved to NASA in December 2001 and was expected to be a transitional figure, in place for the short term to repair budget strains created by work on the international space station.

Just over a year later, however, the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry, and O'Keefe was thrust into a long-term investigation and reorganization of NASA operations.

The shuttle fleet has been grounded since the Columbia disaster. (Special Report)

In August 2003, the independent Columbia Accident Investigation Board concluded that insulating foam flew off the shuttle's external fuel tank during liftoff, striking and cracking a panel on the orbiter's wing.

The Columbia report, seven months in the making, described an agency bureaucracy compromised by lax safety standards, slipshod management and dwindling funds as significant factors in the disaster.

"NASA's organizational culture had as much to do with this accident as foam did," the report said.

O'Keefe said at the time that the board's report would "serve as NASA's blueprint. We have accepted the findings and will comply with the recommendations to the best of our ability."

O'Keefe recently announced that the next space shuttle flight to the space station is scheduled for May.

Last week, NASA issued an interim report on its "return-to-flight" implementation plan, with managers saying progress continues but that there is still much work to be done before the shuttle Discovery's scheduled mission. (Full story)

In January, President Bush unveiled an ambitious plan to return Americans to the moon by 2020 and use the mission as a stepping stone for future manned trips to Mars and beyond.

Bush proposed spending $12 billion over the next five years on the effort. But some in Congress questioned whether the funding would be enough to achieve the president's goals. (Full story)

In June, NASA's aim to explore the moon and Mars moved forward, with O'Keefe announcing a restructuring effort to make NASA "sustainable and affordable." (Full story)

Last week, a much-anticipated report on the future of the Hubble Space Telescope recommended that NASA dispatch a space shuttle mission to service it soon after the shuttle fleet is safely returned to flight.

The conclusions contradicted O'Keefe's stated position, which is that the space agency will no longer conduct Hubble missions due to safety concerns. (Full story)

O'Keefe has indicated that all shuttles must dock with the international space station, which would provide a haven to the astronauts for up to two months in the event of damage to the shuttle.

That policy precludes any shuttle missions to Hubble, which orbits in a different path from the station. O'Keefe's decision was essentially a death sentence for the telescope, which, without servicing, will likely fall into disrepair within a couple of years.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 12-14-2004, 07:47 AM:

quote: CNN article posted by Mark
O'Keefe's decision, the sources said, was made for personal and financial reasons -- the LSU job pays significantly more money than the NASA job. O'Keefe's eldest daughter will soon head to college.

Oh, come on! I know that tuition fees at US universities are high, but I cannot for one moment believe that the chief of NASA doesn't earn enough to put his daughter through higher education.

This sounds similar to a British tradition whereby when a senior politician resigns under a cloud or jumps shortly before (s)he would have been pushed, the reason given in public is to 'spend more time with my family'. That tradition was once spectacularly broken when a minister, who was also a self-made millionaire, resigned 'to spend more time with my money', but even so the same principle applies.

Posted by Thomas King (Member # 2745) on 12-14-2004, 08:22 AM:

"Vonce rockets go up, who cares vhere they come down? Zat's not my department" says Werner Von Braun.

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 12-14-2004, 10:04 AM:

We need someone who will level with us about Extra Terrestrials.

Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 12-14-2004, 12:54 PM:

Lets talk dollars and cents . . .

According to the November 19, 2004, Section B, page 3 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education, the highest paid leader of a public American university is Mark A. Emmert, President of the University of Washington. His combine compensation package is reported at $762,000. The highest paid leader of a private American university is William R. Brody, President of Johns Hopkins University with a compensation package reported to be just under $900,000.

William L. Jenkins is the current President of the Louisiana State University Systems and the interim President of Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge. A table on page 8 of the above source reports his combine compensation at $406,143. He also receives a car provided by the state and a $30,000 housing stipend figured into his overall salary.

Interestingly, a chart on page 14 notes that in 1996, only one post-secondary education institutional leader had a compensation package valued at greater than $500,000. Just one! For fiscal year 2003, forty-two presidents earned more than a half million dollars. Moreover, a chart on page 15 shows that of all the colleges and universities in America, the President of Hamiton College in New York, Eugene Tobin, saw a 229% increase in his salary in just one year! The highest raise reported in academia in 2003. By comparison, tenured Hamiton professors only received a 3.3% raise during the same contractual period.

OK, so what does this all mean? . . .

Well, I think O'Keefe is doing the right thing. Leadership in academia seems like the place to be for the time being - and yes - he probably will make more money back in Louisiana than he did at NASA. In addition, O'Keefe probably believes he is not bringing his full potential to the job since the Columbia disaster. Mark said in the first post that the Hubble repair mission should be the paramount concern for this agency. Sorry Mark, but shuttle flights are all the "pencil pushers" in Washington are concerned about. With the fleet grounded, I'm sure there are a few Senators that want some heads to role. Perhaps O'Keefe's is one of them and he smells the stink in the wind. Hell, I think its a lot easier to explain a student athlete sex scandal than it is to tell the nation they lost a multi-billion dollar piece of equipment and, what six or seven lives.

I'd take LSU any day.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 12-14-2004, 07:02 PM:

quote: Aaron Mehocic
I'm sure there are a few Senators that want some heads to role. Perhaps O'Keefe's is one of them and he smells the stink in the wind.

I think the main reason he is leaving is that he hasn't a clue on how to lead us back to the moon and beyond... ir how to lead Bush's new space endeavors and in part because the Science Board has spoken the truth that there is but a very small additional danger of going to fix Hunbble, which is the exact opposite that O'Keefe has been speaking. The real danger lay in lift off and re-entry as we all now know. Aaron, With that bozo out of the way I'll bet you ten bucks that we now go to fix the Hubble in person........ [Big Grin]

. There is easily enough pull for this to be done in Washington alone. It was one of the Senators that had the investigation into why we are not going in the first place although I do0n't remember which one it was.....

As I said in my first post its time for a real Space expert to lead NASA... O'Keefe doesn't have the technical wisdom to lead us back to the moon, that must come from the top person.
Mark

Posted by Jeff Stricker (Member # 224) on 12-15-2004, 06:18 AM:

Yup, good riddance to the guy...Mark, I agree he was just a management mouthpiece/pencil pushing/bean counter. He couldn't even see the benefits of keeping the Hubble telescope healthy, etc...

I attended a lecture given by Werner Von Braun when I was going to college (I think in 1966 - several years before Armstrong's memorable landing). He presented a program on how the Apollo moon flights were going to work --- complete with slides, models, you name it! About 2,000 in attendance and you could hear a pin drop. Alas, I'm afraid those heady days of space flight may be forever gone.

Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 12-15-2004, 11:22 AM:

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
As I said in my first post its time for a real Space expert to lead NASA...

I did a Yahoo search for some biography information on O'Keefe, but found only dead links back to NASA's websight. Seems as if Houston has a problem [Big Grin]

. From what I read in a news blurb he was originally appointed in 2002 and was the tenth director to hold the post since NASA was created.

quote: Jeff Stricker
Alas, I'm afraid those heady days of space flight may be forever gone.

We all know that back in 1957 or '58 Sputnik put egg on America's face, so we needed to one-up the Soviets by getting a man on the moon. People like Yaeger, Von Braun, Armstrong, Ride, and all the rest of them stepped up in their time, but have since retired and gone quietly into the sunset. We knowingly don't have replacements for them and I don't think it bothers the majority of Americans one bit.

NASA will sleep while China and the European Union get their programs up and running. We will not awake until its too late. Bush's call for a maned mission to Mars was his desire to look Kennedy-esque in the wake of Columbia - nothing more. He had to say something and it all fit perfect into Amerca's can-do spirit in the face of a mega challange above the clouds. Nobody - Democrat or Republican - wants to go back to the days of the Space Race they only tell you that they do . . .