Hopes To Reconcile Agency's Current Needs With Future Plans

Spurred by the hope that NASA can find a way to balance its present needs in space with the agency's vision for the future, two former Apollo astronauts and a former space shuttle astronaut joined 22 other experts Tuesday in the first meeting of the newly restructured NASA Advisory Council, a group of eminent US citizens organized to provide guidance and policy advice to the administrator of America's space agency.
 
Chaired by former Senator and Apollo astronaut Harrison H. "Jack" Schmitt, the NASA Advisory Council also includes former Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong. Other experts include Gen. Lester L. Lyles, USAF (Ret.), former commander, Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and Dr. Charles F. Kennel, director, Scripps Institute of Oceanography.

"I am looking forward to working closely with NASA Administrator Michael Griffin and NASA senior management as they address the exciting challenges facing the agency as it prepares for its next 50 years," Schmitt said. "These challenges include returning the space shuttle safely to flight, completing the International Space Station, developing a new crew exploration vehicle and returning humans to the surface of the moon and then on to Mars."

The NASA Advisory Council was restructured to meet agency needs as it implements the Vision for Space Exploration, outlined by President Bush two years ago to take astronauts back to the moon and on to Mars and other destinations in the solar system. A number of previously-chartered standing committees are incorporated into the restructured council.

According to NASA, the full membership of the council includes:

• Lt. Gen. James A. Abrahamson, USAF (Ret.) Aerospace Consultant
• Dr. Juan J. Alonso, Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics Stanford University
• Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 Astronaut
• Dr. Raymond S. Colladay, Chair Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, National Research Council
• Dr. Lennard A. Fisk, Chair Space Studies Board, National Research Council
• Robert M. Hanisee, Trust Company of the West
• Capt. Frederick H. Hauck, USN (Ret.), Former Space Shuttle Astronaut
• Dr. Wesley T. Huntress, Jr., Director Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington
• Hon. Kay Coles James, Consultant Former Director, Office of Personnel Management
• Dr. Stephen I. Katz, Director National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases National Institutes of Health
• Dr. Charles F. Kennel, Director Scripps Institute of Oceanography
• Dr. Gerald L. Kulcinski, Associate Dean, Research University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Dr. Eugene H. Levy, Professor of Physics & Astronomy Rice University
• Dr. John M. Logsdon, Director Space Policy Institute, George Washington University
• Dr. David Longnecker, Chair Committee on Aerospace Medicine and the Medicine of Extreme Environments, Institute of Medicine
• Gen. Lester L. Lyles, USAF (Ret.), The Lyles Group, Former Commander, Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio
• Wendell Maddox, President and Chief Executive Officer ION Corporation
• Hon. Edward R. McPherson, Under Secretary of Education
• Dr. R. James Milgram, Professor Department of Mathematics, Stanford University
• Hon. Michael Montelongo, Senior Vice President, Strategic Marketing Sodexho Inc.
• Dr. Mark S. Robinson, Research Associate Professor Department of Geological Sciences, Northwestern University
• Howard J. Stanislawski, Attorney Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood, LLP
• Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson Frederick P. Rose, Director, Hayden Planetarium American Museum of Natural History

The council will include subject matter experts in five key areas: exploration, science, aeronautics, human capital, and audit and finance. It also includes three ex-officio members from the National Research Council's Space Studies Board, Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, and the Institute of Medicine.

FMI: www.nasa.gov