Sep 30 2008
From The Space Library
NASA announced that William W. Parsons would be resigning as Director of NASA’s KSC to pursue opportunities in the private sector. Parsons had begun his career with NASA in 1990. He had served in numerous positions, including Director of NASA’s Stennis Space Center (SSC), Launch Site Support Manager, Manager of the Space Station Hardware Integration Office, Chief of Operations of the Propulsion Test Directorate, SSP Manager, and Deputy Director of NASA’s JSC. NASA had selected former astronaut Robert D. Cabana as the new Director of NASA’S KSC . Cabana, who had completed his astronaut training in 1986, had flown on four Space Shuttle missions: STS-41 in October 1990, STS-53 in December 1992, STS-65 in July 1994, and STS-88 in December 1988. Additionally, he had served as Director of NASA’s SSC, Deputy Director of NASA’s JSC, Chief of NASA’s Astronaut Office, Manager of International Operations of the ISS Program, Director of NASA’s Human Spaceflight Program in Russia, Deputy Director of the ISS Program, and Director of Flight Crew Operations.
NASA, “Cabana To Succeed Parsons as Kennedy Space Center Director,” news release 08-249, 30 September 2008, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/sep/HQ_08-249_Parsons_leaves.html (accessed 25 July 2011).
President George W. Bush signed into law Pub. L. No. 110-329, the Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance and Continuing Appropriations Act for 2009, which included language renewing through July 2016 NASA’s waiver from the Iran-North Korea-Syria Nonproliferation Act (INKSNA). The terms of INKSNA, as enacted in 2000, barred U.S.government agencies from making “extraordinary payments” to Russia, unless the President of the United States had certified that Russia was not exporting missile and nuclear technologies to Iran. Under these terms, NASA would be unable to purchase transport on Soyuz spacecraft. In 2005 Congress had enacted legislation granting NASA a waiver from INKSNA through January 2012, allowing NASA to negotiate a US$700 million contract for occasional flights to the ISS aboard the Russian Soyuz and Progress vehicles. However, that contract would expire in 2011, and Congress needed to renew the waiver before NASA could begin negotiating a new contract. NASA would need to purchase Soyuz vehicles to transport American, Canadian, European and Japanese astronauts to the ISS during the period between the retirement of the Space Shuttle Program (SSP), scheduled for 2010, and the first flights of the Constellation Program, scheduled for 2015.
Brian Berger, “Bush Signs NASA Budget, Soyuz Waiver into Law,” Space.com, 5 October 2008, http://www.space.com/5929-bush-signs-nasa-budget-soyuz-waiver-law.html (accessed 16 August 2011).
GAO released a report assessing NASA’s challenges in defining the scope and costs of Space Shuttle transition and retirement. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 (Pub. L. No. 110-161), had directed GAO to evaluate NASA’s plans and progress in transitioning and retiring the SSP’s equipment and facilities. From February 2008 to August 2008, GAO had examined the challenges NASA had faced in defining the scope and costs of retiring the SSP. GAO had noted whether NASA had reflected these costs in its budget requests. The report noted some specific challenges in ascertaining costs, including NASA’s need to determine which SSP equipment would be retained for the Constellation Program; the cost of making artifacts from the SSP safe for public display, and how to offset many costs through the exchange or sale of property. The report determined that NASA’s 2010 budget request had not accurately reflected the costs of SSP retirement, partly because NASA had not yet assessed those costs, and partly because NASA had not reflected some of the SSP’s indirect costs in the SSP budget line. The report directed NASA to include in its budget requests for FY 2010, and for future years, its best estimates of total direct and indirect costs of transition and retirement of the SSP. NASA concurred with GAO’s recommendation.
U.S. Government Accountability Office, “NASA: Agency Faces Challenges Defining Scope and Costs of Space Shuttle Transition and Retirement” (report no. GAO-08-1096, Washington, DC, September 2008), http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d081096.pdf (accessed 3 August 2011).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
