NASA Goes Gray

NASA, like other federal agencies, has challenges ahead with a graying workforce, according to this piece in Wired News. Peter Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center, said the average age of civil servants he oversees is 49, and only nine are under 30. One of the agency's biggest contractors, Lockheed Martin, has launched a couple of mentoring programs to help move know-how from its senior people to the next generation of engineers. But a book distributed by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics to its student members might not be helping the situation: Advice to Rocket Scientists: How To Be Successful and Happy in a Career Where Science and Politics Often Clash.--Jenny Mandel