Like the waiting list at your favorite restaurant, several names are written on a particular piece of paper on D Street. Many are crossed out now. No one, it seems, wants to assume the throne.
The challenges are many. A stick that won't fly. A capsule too heavy to fly on the stick that won't fly. A lander too wobbly to meet the capsule that is too heavy to fly on the stick that won't fly. A rocket too heavy to craw to the pad to carry a lander too wobbly to meet the capsule that is too heavy to fly on the stick that won't fly.
At least the stork is still able to fly to ISS.
Who would want this job? Who, indeed?
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14 comments:
Oh God, I just had an awful thought:
I really hope somebody has "The Right Stuff" to take the job on.
Lets make sure we don't end up with The Emperor being invited back because nobody else wants the job.
This sure shows how frakked-up the agency has become under his 'guidance'.
If the next guy has a fully operational brain he should look like a hero within 6 months. Killing the stick is easy and obvious. Kill the Orion service module. Design an ECLSS module for ISS operations and launch the CM with a low-end EELV. Stop placing all your bets on long shots and hire a proven launch supplier for at least some ISS cargo missions.
The rest of the ESAS is so limited, so ill-conceived it should not be hard to do better. But I would recommend approaching people who design things on a regular basis and reduce them to metal as opposed to hiring pony-tailed academics who imagine they could. Just a thought. You will have to make the quality of the design a priority as opposed to maintaining existing suppliers in a state of happiness.
Rocket Man, this is truly a piece de resistance. I was very lucky not to inhale a whole mouthful of hot coffee when I first read it.
You have a very subtle way of dealing with scandal. Stork, indeed.
#2: ATK is a proven launch supplier?
i would be happy to take the job. The first thing that I would do is instigate a new rule, if you lie about the progress of your project, you lose your job.
Next thing I would do is build a moon project that could be assembled in orbit and launched on Delta 4, Atlas 5, Falcon 9, or whatever Orbital comes up with.
I would continue to fund the stick etc. only as long as necessary to protect jobs in places where new jobs are not available. Then I would transition whoever in Nasa that loses their job and who is qualified into jobs in the alternative energy department.
Finally I would allow everyone at NASA to speak freely about their jobs, their projects and their politics. (as long as they don't tell terrorists how to build ballistic missiles or nuclear bombs)
Something better happen fast! They are busily buying parts with flawed requirements.
They could always Hire Dan Goldin back.
That would be a gas.
Anonymous #2:
Who, precisely, are these "pony-tailed academics" you refer to? Can you clarify?
Remember the saying "Be careful what you wish for"
pony-tail = ESAS guru (or about as much as one as Mike Meyers is) Doug Stanley
DIRECT.
Now is the time... Plain and simple.
The emperor is gone and in his wake he left a vacuum that begged to be filled. The Space Coast Senator begged for Emperor-II but he who lights up the hill decided otherwise. Now we can get on with business while a replacement emperor is carefully selected over time. The interim leadership is, unlike the departed, competent.
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Subject: Obama Administration Names Interim NASA Leadership
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:53:41 -0600
Point of Contact: Bob Jacobs, Office of Public Affairs, 202-358-1600
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Obama Administration Names Interim NASA Leadership
The Obama Administration has announced several interim leadership changes for NASA, which are effective immediately.
Christopher Scolese, NASA's associate administrator, will serve as acting administrator until a successor to Michael Griffin has been nominated by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Ronald Spoehel, NASA's chief financial officer and a political appointee from the previous Administration, has been asked to continue in his present position.
Several other posts usually held by political appointees will have acting leaders until the positions are filled by the Administration.
Mary D. Kerwin, deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs, will serve as acting chief of the Office of Strategic Communications and the acting assistant administrator for the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs.
Robert Jacobs, deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Public Affairs, will serve as the office's acting assistant administrator.
Kristen Erickson, deputy director of the Communications Planning Division of the Office of Strategic Communications, will serve as the acting division director.
Thank you for an excellent Blog
There was something about this post that sparked a memory that quite escaped me until this moment.
The following is a very ruff idea and I leave it to your good self to get it past PDR cos IANARS:
"There was an old man who sketched out a Stick.
I don't know why he sketched out a Stick - perhaps it will fly.
There was an old man who who plonked on an Onion
That shrank and shrunk until it weighed less than a trunnion
He shrank the Onion to to save the Stick;
I don't know why he sketched out a Stick perhaps it will fly.
There was an old man who tacked on a XXXX
How absurd to tack on a XXXX
Please feel free to delete this post as I have said it is a work in progress
http://www.rhymes.org.uk/there_was_an_old_lady.htm
Yours Vacuum.Head
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