Foster Task Force Report on NASA Laboratories

During his presentation to PCAST members last week, NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin gave his strong endorsement to the just-released report of the NASA Federal Laboratory Review Task Force. Twenty-six people participated in this task force, chaired by Dr. John S. Foster.

Foster’s cover letter accompanying this 95-page report summarizes the task force’s findings: “In view of the austere budget realities, it is even more important that an aggressive effort must be undertaken to create a lean organization from top to bottom. We propose that Headquarters define its expectations of the Centers so that it can reduce its staff, delegate performance to the Centers, and cease detailed management. Center missions should be narrowed to focus on those fundamental areas of expertise which are critically necessary for NASA’s future. Duplicative capabilities that permit each Center to function independently of the others should be deleted.”

Research and development programs at ten NASA Centers were reviewed in the context of the agency’s five Strategic Enterprises: Aeronautics, Human Exploration and Development of Space, Mission to Planet Earth, Scientific Research, and Space Technology. The task force does not recommend that any center should be closed, although it acknowledges “perhaps some will be closed.” The task force instead focuses on preservation of NASA’s critical programs, and reducing costs by quickly downsizing.

The report provides brief descriptions of current conditions across the centers, as well as for each of the Strategic Enterprises. Over-all recommendations are made, in areas such as narrowing the breadth of Center missions, reducing redundant capabilities, developing metrics, strengthening technology transfer, privatizing as appropriate, and reducing audits.

Other sections cover specific findings and recommendations for each of the five Strategic Enterprises. The section on scientific research is six pages long (life and microgravity sciences are included in another enterprise; Mission to Planet Earth is a separate enterprise.) The task force found fragmentation of scientific research within NASA. It recommends continued work on astrophysics, space physics, and fundamental earth science at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Goddard Space Flight Center. Research at other NASA Centers should be evaluated for transfer or closure. A total of eleven recommendations are made in this section, most of which are administrative or managerial.

Goldin’s PCAST presentation left little doubt that he supports the general findings of the report. He acknowledges that to implement these changes he must traverse some “thin ice” by convincing people that NASA’s vitality should not be measured by the size of its budget or number of its employees.

This report is not available over the Internet. To obtain a free printed copy, write to NASA Headquarters; Washington, D.C. 20546; Attn: News Room.