Conference 7.286::space

775.0. "Crippen takes helm at Florida space center - 15%/5yr shuttle budget reduction in progress" by PRAGMA::GRIFFIN (Dave Griffin) Tue Jan 07 1992 18:20

From: [email protected] (WILLIAM HARWOOD, UPI Science Writer)
Newsgroups: clari.tw.space,clari.news.military,clari.news.aviation,clari.news.top
Subject: Crippen takes helm at Florida space center
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: 6 Jan 92 22:18:43 GMT


	CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (UPI) -- NASA managers, trying to chop $500
million from the shuttle budget, plan to eliminate some 5,000 jobs
across the nation by 1996, but an agency official said Monday safety
will be maintained despite the cuts and a higher launch rate.
	Former astronaut Robert Crippen, who took over Jan. 1 as the new
director of the Kennedy Space Center, told reporters that attrition
alone will not save enough money to meet the projected budget and that
an undetermined number of contractor layoffs will be required over the
next few years to make up the difference.
	``We're talking about cutting out of the shuttle program
approximately $500 million by the time we get to '96,'' he said. ``You
can translate that into approximately 5,000 jobs across the country.
We're going to be reducing, across the country, the number of people we
put on shuttle.''
	The goal, announced late last year, is to cut the shuttle budget by
15 percent, or about 3 percent per year, over the next five years. At
the same time, the space agency is attempting to increase the number of
shuttle flights conducted each year while maintaining strict safety
standards.
	Crippen agreed that it will not be easy. But he said NASA's post-
Challenger emphasis on flight safety will remain just as high in years
to come as it is at present.
	``There've been some insinuations that my arrival here at KSC was
going to put a different focus on safety,'' Crippen told spaceport
employees earlier Monday. ``Well, I'd like to borrow some words from the
president ... read my lips. Safety is our number one concern and it will
remain so.''
	Asked how he could maintain flight safety while implementing budget
cuts and increasing the flight rate, Crippen said ``we have redundancy
in several different areas. We believe there are some places in those
that we can eliminate some of that redundancy without compromising the
hardware or assuring that it's safe and ready to fly.''
	NASA launched six shuttle flights in 1991 while at least eight
missions are on tap in 1992. Crippen said eight to 10 flights likely
would be the maximum the agency would be able to support in a given
year.
	Crippen took the helm at the Florida shuttleport Jan. 1, replacing
retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Forrest McCartney, who was forced to step
down after five years on the job by William Lenoir, associate
administrator for manned space flight.
	Crippen's arrival in Florida coincides with the implementation of a
variety of proposed management changes in the shuttle program.
	The changes are the result of several outside studies that called for
moving shuttle program managers, now based at the Johnson Space Center
in Houston and the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., to
the Kennedy Space Center.
	Leonard Nicholson, a top manager at the Johnson Space Center,
recently was named to replace Crippen as shuttle program director.
	``We're going to move that job from Washington here to Kennedy,''
Crippen said. ``And during this upcoming year, we're going to be looking
across our management of the shuttle program to look at what other areas
of management we'd like to move to KSC, both government and contractor.
The who, what where and when of that has not been defined.''
	Critics have argued that the net effect of the plan will be to put
officials from Johnson and Marshall in charge of shuttle processing,
traditionally a Kennedy Space Center task. If so, critics say, channels
of communications will be blurred and more intra-center rivalry will
develop.
	Crippen disagreed Monday, saying: ``I believe that Kennedy is still
going to be in charge of processing the hardware.''
	``Our intent is that this is where all the shuttle hardware is,'' he
said. ``This is where it's at. Consequently, this is the proper place to
manage it instead of doing it long distance like I was doing from
Washington (as shuttle program director).''

From: [email protected] (WILLIAM HARWOOD, UPI Science Writer)
Newsgroups: clari.tw.space
Subject: NASA clarifies shuttle layoff figures
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: 8 Jan 92 22:25:19 GMT

	CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (UPI) -- NASA officials, clarifying the number of
jobs that might be lost due to proposed budget cuts, said Wednesday
about 4,000 contractor positions will be eliminated over the next five
years to save some $1.8 billion.
	Space agency officials also confirmed Wednesday that NASA
Administrator Richard Truly had approved a variety of recommendations
made last year by former Deputy Administrator J.R. Thompson to redefine
the roles of agency field centers.
	Thompson was asked to study ways to implement recommendations made by
the Advisory Committee on the Future of the U.S. Space Program. One of
those, recommendation No. 13, called for NASA to ``review the mission''
of each field center.
	Among the changes suggested by Thompson and approved by Truly in a
Dec. 30 memorandum is the consolidation of shuttle program management at
the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as opposed to stationing project
officials at KSC and other field centers across the nation.
	``Level one'' program management had been centered in Washington with
``level two'' officials based at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and
the Kennedy Space Center.
	The new plan, approved by Truly, calls for the two levels to be
consolidated under recently named shuttle program director Leonard
Nicholson, a top manager at the Johnson Space Center who will run the
project from Florida.
	Nicholson replaces former astronaut Robert Crippen, who took over as
director of the Kennedy Space Center Jan. 1.
	Along with revamping program management, agency officials are trying
to trim the shuttle budget by $1.8 billion over the next five years. The
savings will be plowed into other programs, such as NASA's embattled
space station project, that might otherwise lose money due to tighter
budgets.
	Crippen told reporters Monday that NASA planned to eliminate 5,000
jobs over the next five years, resulting in a savings in 1996 of about
$500 million.
	Officials clarified those numbers Wednesday, saying the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration hopes to cut the shuttle budget by
15 percent over the next five years. In fiscal 1991, officials said,
NASA plans to save about $100 million. By 1996, the figure is projected
to be $650 million.
	Overall, NASA hopes to save about $1.8 billion through 1996 by
reducing the shuttle contractor workforce by 15 percent, or about 4,000
jobs, not the 5,000 mentioned by Crippen on Monday.