Not Many Surprises... But One Big One

NASA made its decision this week on which groups will work on getting America back to the moon... and by and large, the jobs are going where you would expect.

All of NASA's 10 top research facilities will be sharing the moon pie. Florida's Kennedy Space Center will remain the agency's launch operations center, and will oversee landings of NASA's Apollo-style Crew Exploration Vehicle. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California will take the lead in coordinating the systems developed for all components of the "Constellation" program -- the official designation for the next-generation space initiative announced by President Bush two years ago -- as well as numerous other smaller roles.

Up the freeway a bit, NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View will develop a fleet of small robotic spacecraft to orbit the moon, and take samples of its surface before astronauts again land there around 2020. Virginia's Langley Center will work on the launch abort system for the CEV, and the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland will work on the service module for the CEV, that will power and propel the capsule once it is in orbit.

But wait... "the Glenn Research Center," you say? Wasn't that facility derided by NASA earlier this year for, among other things, not having enough experienced managers to handle ANY moon work? And what about the massive layoffs that have plagued Glenn in the past three years, as NASA's focus has shifted from aeronautical research to lunar expeditions?

Well... either by design, or by necessity, Glenn is back in the fold -- and is going to be playing a big role in the Constellation program.

"It gives us a stability and enduring role in the long-term future of where the agency is headed," said Woodrow Whitlow Jr., director of NASA Glenn, to the Associated Press. "We are now a major part of the agency's future."

In addition to the service module, researchers in Cleveland will also lead work on the adapter that connects the CEV to its rocket booster... portions of which will also be designed at NASA Glenn.

But the added workload will NOT necessarily mean more jobs at Glenn, as NASA is telling all of its facilities they must now do more... with less.

"We pretty much have a flat budget in real dollars, and therefore with all this development we want to do, we can't continue doing it as we do today," said Scott Horowitz, NASA's Associate Administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in Washington, DC.

FMI: www.nasa.gov