Nov 25 2009
From The Space Library
Richard E. Halpern, a senior NASA official who had served as Science Manager on Spacelab, the ISS, and other human spaceflight and robotic NASA projects, died of heart ailments at the age of 78. Halpern had served in the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s and had held a fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 1968 and 1969. Before joining NASA in 1963, he had worked at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory. After joining NASA, Halpern had become Director of its High Energy Astrophysics Program during the early planning stages for the ISS. In the late 1970s, he had served as Program Manager for three launches of the High Energy Astronomy Observatory. He had served as Director of the ISS utilities and operations division from 1986 until his retirement in 1989. NASA had awarded Halpern its Exceptional Service Medal in 1978 and its highest award, the Distinguished Service Medal, in 1980.
Matt Schudel, “Obituaries: Richard E. Halpern NASA Official,” Washington Post, 7 December 2009.
Pursuant to a 2008 congressional mandate, NASA was required to provide a research management plan for the ISS National Laboratory. The GAO report, “International Space Station: Significant Challenges May Limit Onboard Research,” evaluated how NASA was currently using the ISS for research and how NASA expected to use the ISS once it was completed. The report also identified challenges to maximizing ISS research, as well as examining common management practices at other national laboratories and large science programs, practices that could apply to the management of the ISS.
U.S. Government Accountability Office, “International Space Station: Significant Challenges May Limit Onboard Research” (report no. GAO-10-9, Washington, DC, November 2009), http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d109.pdf (accessed 21 December 2011).
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