[ad_1]
WASHINGTON – NASA announced on September 21 that it is splitting the mission leadership responsible for human spaceflight into two organizations, one responsible for the development of exploration systems and the other for space operations, canceling the merger of two similar organizations ten years ago.
At a town hall, NASA management announced that the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) would be divided into two organizations. One, the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, will be responsible for developing programs for the agency’s Artemis lunar exploration initiative and future exploration of Mars. The other, the Space Operations Mission Directorate, will deal with the commercialization efforts of the International Space Station and low Earth orbit.
Kathy Lueders, associate administrator in charge of HEOMD since June 2020, will lead the space operations department, while NASA has appointed Jim Free to lead the development of exploration systems. Free is a former director of the Glenn Research Center who then served as Deputy Associate Administrator at HEOMD before leaving the agency in 2017. He recently worked as a professional leader and consultant, and also chaired the committee. Technology and Innovation Advisory Board of NASA.
“This reorganization is about the future of space exploration,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said at the town hall meeting. “It’s about preparing NASA for success. The creation of two separate mission directions ensures that these critical areas have focused oversight. “
When asked what issues the agency was seeking to address with this change, Nelson suggested that HEOMD had grown too big. “The existing or previous HEO is almost half of NASA’s budget,” he said on a call with reporters after the town hall meeting. “You have to have the capacity of two brilliant people to take on the respective responsibilities. ”
NASA’s human spaceflight programs, split between space exploration and operations budget accounts, represent 45% of NASA’s FY2021 budget. However, this percentage has remained stable over the past decade, varying between 44% and 47% during this period.
What has changed, however, is the balance of spending between exploration and space operations. Exploration spending has risen sharply over the past five years, from just over $ 4 billion in fiscal 2016 to over $ 6.5 billion in 2021, as NASA increases spending on new Artemis programs such as the Lunar Gateway and the Human Landing System. Spending on space operations, however, fell from just over $ 5 billion in 2016 to just under $ 4 billion in 2021, as spending on commercial crew development declined.
“The restructuring of the NASA Exploration and Human Operations Mission Directorate will help to safely and effectively manage this growth in scope,” NASA Assistant Administrator Pam Melroy said during the town hall meeting. “We have the opportunity to better align our organizational structure with increasing LEO activity and the development exploration architecture, and ensure that the workforce has a focused monitoring team.” to ensure the success of the mission. “
While Nelson and Melroy made a number of references to “targeted surveillance” as part of the reorganization, they did not elaborate on this, or whether they felt that the surveillance of manned space flight programs was lacking. not sufficient in the context of HEOMD.
Some inside and outside the agency have questioned whether the reorganization was, in fact, a demotion for Lueders, possibly due to the ongoing HLS pricing controversy that led to a protest. and now to trial. Nelson denied that was the case. “Kathy did such an amazing job,” he said, reverting to his previous argument that HEOMD was half of NASA’s budget. “That’s a lot to swallow.”
He added that the proposal to split HEOMD predated the HLS controversy and emerged from the transition team of the new Biden administration. “The transition made a very strong recommendation that we do what we announced today,” he said.
The announcement effectively cancels the merger of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate and the Space Operations Mission Directorate announced in August 2011, creating HEOMD. “With the cancellation of Constellation and the lack of an immediate program for the people there, it made sense at the time to absorb that into the direction of operations,” recalled Bob Cabana, the former director. of the Kennedy Space Center who became Associate Administrator of NASA in May.
“Now that we have built, as the administrator said, this high performing organization which represents half of our budget, it is absolutely the right time to focus on the exploration side separately from the operational side”, a- he declared.
As the HEOMD split takes effect immediately, agency leaders have said it will take 90 to 120 days to fully implement the organizational changes. “It’s very, very important that we take it step by step and don’t drop the ball anywhere along the way,” said Melroy.
At the town hall meeting, Free and Lueders said they looked forward to working together. “The other day someone said, ‘This is going to be awesome. You are the dynamic duo, ”said Lueders. “I don’t know which of us is Batman and which is Robin. I have a feeling that from time to time we will go back and forth. “
[ad_2]
Source link