Houston, we have a problem.
More
than two months into his presidency, Barack Obama has yet to name a
replacement for former NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin, leaving
the 18,000-man space agency flying without a navigator.
As
NASA faces burgeoning budget problems and prepares to retire its aging
fleet of space shuttles, 3,500 jobs are at risk in the years preceding
the launch of the shuttle's replacement.
That's got NASA employees and members of Congress itching under the collar.
"Our
nation cannot afford to be without a NASA administrator at this time,"
said Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., whose district in Florida's "Space Coast"
would be hard-hit by job losses. "This is a critical juncture in the
manned spaceflight effort, and now it's up to President Obama to lead
the way."
Posey joined 13 other
representatives from the House Action Team on NASA in writing to Obama
last month, imploring the president to shore up support for the agency
and to quickly appoint a permanent administrator.
"We believe it is imperative
for NASA to have a leader who understands the implications of a
five-year or longer hiatus in America's independent access to space,"
they wrote, addressing the urgency of the expected gap in U.S.
spaceflight capability when the 30-year-old shuttle program ends next
year.
NASA is facing yet another vacancy
at the top after its longtime inspector general, Robert "Moose" Cobb,
resigned his post April 2 under increased pressure from both houses of
Congress, which for years have charged him with misconduct and failures
in oversight of the agency.
Government
inquiries have accused Cobb of stifling investigations, retaliating
against whistleblowers and using abusive conduct and vulgar language
with his staff. A Government Accountability Office report also found
that his office was inefficient, saving only a fraction of the money
other inspectors have saved their agencies.
Obama made human space exploration and
research a major part of his science platform, but the economy and the
challenges of shoring up other top advisers have diverted his attention
from NASA, which had expected special consideration from the new
administration.
"I will soon be appointing
a new NASA director," Obama told reporters in March, noting that "it's
important for the long-term vibrancy of our space program to think
through what NASA's core mission is, and what the next great adventures
and discoveries are under the NASA banner."
Four
weeks later, NASA is still without a permanent chief, and its normal
leading triumvirate remains an army of one ― Chris Scolese, the former
No. 3 who has been acting administrator since Jan. 20.
"It's
not a very good situation," said James Logsdon, a former member of the
NASA advisory council who helped craft Obama's space policy during the
presidential campaign.
Logsdon said
Scolese is hamstrung by not having deputies to help handle the triple
tasks of management, engineering and politics that make up the
administrator's job.
The delay is not for
lack of effort on Obama's part. The administration floated potential
nominees even before the inauguration, but they wilted under the
withering glare of the Senate, which must approve the president's
selection.
Retired Maj. Gen. Scott
Gration, who campaigned for Obama and advised him on military issues,
was being pushed for the post until Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a key
voice on space issues, sought a candidate with more experience at the
agency.
The Swahili-spaeking Gration, who
was raised by missionaries in Africa, was named instead on March 18 to
be Obama's special envoy to Sudan.
Former
NASA official Steve Isakowitz was also considered for the post but
ended up as chief financial officer of the Department of Energy. He was
likely hurt by a report that shined a negative light on his budget work
at the space agency.
Those setbacks mean NASA continues to wait in limbo.
Its
uncertain future and lack of direction is "driving folks crazy," said
Michael Coats, director of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
"I
know Chris Scolese, the acting administrator, is reluctant to make
anything that might be perceived as policy decisions, and yet it's very
hard when you're running an agency to make a decision that isn't
perceived as policy in some way," Coats said, according to a report
from Space News. "So Chris is kind of in a tough spot. He's doing a
great job ... but he needs some help over there."
Not all experts are troubled about the agency's fate in the interim.
Former
NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe, who preceded Griffin, told FOXNews.com
that Scolese is an "extraordinarily competent guy" who has a deep
knowledge of engineering and of the "pulse and the rhythm of the
agency."
"He's got it ― he's going to be in fine shape," said O'Keefe. "It's not like the wheels are going to come off the cart."
A
spokesman for NASA said the Obama administration already has three
appointees at the agency and that Scolese has plenty of guidelines for
action from Congress and the previous administration.
"This
is not the first time that the agency has operated for a period of time
without politically appointed leadership," said NASA spokesman Bob
Jacobs. "That has happened in our past, and the organizational
structure of our agency provides for continuity of operations just in
this situation."
But for NASA and for
Obama, who lamented in March that "there's been a sense of drift to our
space program over the last several years," the coming challenges
remain clear and stark.
The next
administrator will have to manage not only the shuttle's retirement,
but the hastening of the Constellation program meant to replace it.
He
or she will also have to manage and rein in a budget the Government
Accountability Office and taxpayer watchdogs say has been spiraling out
of control.
The top team of three
appointees at NASA ― administrator, deputy administrator and associate
administrator ― will have to combine technical skills, managerial
skills and political connections, said Scott Pace, director of the
Space Policy Institute at George Washington University.
Those
three leaders will have to head up an agency that is "relearning how to
fly again," he said, as it sets its sights on the moon and Mars for the
coming decades.
Though Obama has delayed
his appointment, and the Senate is wrangling for a leader with the
scientific background to head up NASA, Logsdon pointed out that the
next administrator doesn't necessarily have to be a lifelong engineer.
"In
general, people think of the man that ran NASA [in the 1960s] during
Apollo, Jim Webb, as the most successful administrator," said Logsdon,
"and he was a lawyer."
