May 3 1985
From The Space Library
Effective today Lockheed Corp. reassigned six officers of its Lockheed Space Operations Co. at Kennedy Space Center after a six-month corporate investigation of the management practices and work procedures used to process the Space Shuttle for launch, Aviation Week reported. E. Douglas Sargent replaced A.R. Schroter as president of Lockheed Space Operations Co. and became program manager of the Space Shuttle processing contract, David Owen replaced W. John Denson as deputy program manager and became executive vice president of the space operations company, and David Dickenson replaced Ronald Petersen as vice president and director of Kennedy Space Center operations.
Although the replaced Lockheed managers had previously received unfavorable management evaluations, the management realignment came as NASA completed a report on its investigation of a March 8 incident in which a work platform fell in the Orbiter Processing Facility, damaging the orbiter Discovery and injuring a workman [see Space Transportation System, Launch Schedules, Mar. 8]. The report would assign a large part of the responsibility for the accident to Lockheed safety and quality control procedures.
However, a NASA official said the platform incident did not precipitate the realignment. He said a Lockheed Corp. investigating team, which had analyzed Lockheed's performance at KSC since the previous October, had made detailed recommendations on how to streamline and improve performance. Also, after receiving a grade of excellent in the award fee evaluation during the transition period when Lockheed took over Space Shuttle processing work previously done by 15 separate contractors, NASA gave Lockheed a low score in the next evaluation period of April 1 to September 30, 1984.
Lockheed's basic space processing contract with NASA ran through September 30, 1986, and there was a priced option period for three more wars.
The two priced contracts were worth $2.5 billion; three additional unpriced three-year options could bring the contract life to 15 years and value to more than $6 billion. NASA said it had no plans to recompete the Space Shuttle processing contract. (Av Wk, May 13/85, 14)
NASA announced that the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) had that day named 114 elementary and secondary school teacher nominees in the NASA Teacher in Space Project. Selection followed the review of more than 10,000 applications [see Space Transportation System/ Civilian in Space Program, Feb. 21).
Dr. William Pierce, CCSSO executive director, said after announcing the names that "It is a great pleasure for the Council to be involved in this historic project. The calibre of the applications from teachers throughout the country has been truly impressive. If their applications are any indication, we can be proud of the quality of teaching that occurs in the classrooms of the elementary and secondary school teachers who applied for this unique educational opportunity." NASA would host the 114 nominees at a national workshop, June 22-27, in Washington, D.C., during which NASA would discuss current developments in the space program and provide information and training on NASA educational materials available for the classroom. At the workshop a national review panel would interview the applicants to determine the 10 semifinalists. (NASA Release 85-67)
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