Commission suggests elevating NASA to Cabinet status

A presidential commission studying ways to implement U.S. space policy has proposed a major overhaul of NASA that would include turning the agency's 10 field installations into federally funded research and development centers.

In a report released June 16, the President's Commission on Moon, Mars and Beyond also proposes elevating management of the nation's space exploration enterprise to the Cabinet level.

The 60-page document, "A Journey to Inspire, Innovate and Discover," offers 15 recommendations for carrying out President Bush's vision of a sustained and affordable series of robotic and human expeditions. They would begin at the moon, reach deeper into the solar system, and span a period of at least 40 years.

Half the advice addresses the possibility of radical change at the space agency. "NASA's organizational chart is not wired for success," the commissioners wrote in a critique that that said the agency's mission-focused enterprises are too numerous and its mission support functions too diffuse. "The new NASA will be more frugal and more nimble" and more reliant on private industry, they wrote. "It will be driven by an overarching imperative to do only those things that are inherently governmental."

The organizational structure and business culture that NASA inherited from the Apollo program no longer serve the agency well, says commission chairman Edward "Pete" Aldridge, a former astronaut and undersecretary of defense. "We've got a very different mission plan now," he told a gathering of NASA employees in Washington. "We've got to get better integrated. We cannot separate human missions and robotic missions any more."

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe sought to allay employees' concerns about the changes ahead. "Let's keep an open mind and figure out how we can make it happen," he said.

The report recommends that NASA begin its transformation by consolidating its work into three key enterprises -- science, exploration systems and aeronautics. Next, the report says, NASA should turn over management of its 10 field centers to universities or not-for-profit organizations through a competitive process. "The operation of [federally funded research and development centers] permits more flexible personnel systems and compensation," Aldridge told a news conference. NASA already has one such FFRDC, its Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

The report also calls on President Bush to establish a permanent Space Exploration Steering Council, and empower it to set policy and coordinate the work of federal agencies contributing to the exploration initiative. The council would report to the president, be chaired by the vice president or another senior White House official, and include representatives from all the agencies involved, including the Defense Department.

The report recommends that NASA adopt personnel and management reforms consistent with the best practices of large, complex organizations. It also urges NASA to work with the administration and Congress to establish three new independent organizations for technical advice, cost estimating and technological research and development.

In the report, commissioners acknowledge that NASA has gotten "an excellent start" on the road to cultural and organizational change, especially in the 16 months since the space shuttle Columbia disaster claimed the lives of seven astronauts. But they admonish the agency that "more must be done, and soon."

"If this vision is serious, which we believe it is, then the recommendations of this report are critical in the successful implementation of that vision," Aldridge told reporters. "Will it be successful without the recommendations? Maybe. But it is more likely to be successful if these recommendations are implemented, than otherwise."

The commission was chartered in January, several days after President Bush laid out the new space policy in a speech at NASA headquarters. The commission had 120 days to do its job. Most of its deliberations occurred in five televised public hearings in cities scattered from coast to coast. It heard formal statements from 96 witnesses, took informal statements from 38 citizens attending the hearings, and considered more than 6,000 suggestions from the public submitted through the Internet.