September 1991
From The Space Library
Mark Washburn, a freelance science writer who covered NASA for 15 years, questioned whether NASA was needed, having become a huge, entrenched bureaucracy. He advocated the following: giving aeronautical functions to the Federal Aviation Administration; giving the Space Shuttle to the Pentagon; turning over weather satellites and other Earth-resource pay-loads to the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; putting planetary and astronomical missions under the National Science Foundation; granting independence to NASA centers such as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Ames Research Center, and Goddard Space Center; and replacing headquarters with a National Space Policy Commission, similar to the Federal Communications Commission. Washburn believed such measures were necessary to preserve America's future in space. (Sky and Telescope, Sep 1991)
In an article entitled "Freedom's Wobbly Flight," Mark L. Goldstein criticized NASA's large spending on the Space Station at the expense of other NASA programs. He gave a history of the Freedom program, its costs, and its relationship to Congress as well as the criticisms by the scientific community. (Government Executive, Sep 1991)
Steve Piacente, Washington correspondent for the Charleston Post-Courier, wrote "Weather Service Modernization: No Goes" describing problems of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA with launching new weather satellites. Lack of effective supervision of con-tractors and poor engineering workmanship were among the shortcomings. (Government Executive, Sep 1991)
Henry S.F. Cooper, Jr., in an 18-page article in the New Yorker entitled "Annals of Space-We Don't Have to Prove Ourselves," discussed NASA's programs primarily as seen from the work of two prominent NASA veterans, Maxime A. Faget, chairman of the board of Space Industries International, and Caldwell C. Johnson, the firm's chief designer. (New Yorker, Sep ?/91)
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