Space Commission Says NASA Centers' Mission, Structure Should Change A presidential commission recommends that NASA convert its 10 field centers into contractor-operated research and development facilities. The President’s Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy released a series of recommendations on how NASA should be reorganized to pursue President Bush’s goal of exploring the moon and Mars. The commission chairman is Pete Aldridge, recently undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics and a former astronaut. In its June 16 report, the panel said the NASA centers should become federally funded research and development centers modeled after NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, and the Energy Department’s national laboratories. JPL, which is currently controlling the robotic Mars rovers, is managed by Cal Tech; most of the energy labs are run by universities under long-term contracts. Such centers “provide a tested, proven management structure in which many of the federal government’s most successful and innovative research, laboratory, technical support, and engineering institutions,” the commission said. However, the centers – stretching from Maryland to California – are considered political plums and have powerful supporters in Congress. NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe said, “”The recommendations released today by the commission will influence our work for years to come and will help guide us through a transformation of NASA.” He promised “foundational changes in our organization and the way we do business.” The commission said contractors should play a larger role, including assuming responsibility for unmanned flights in low-earth orbit. “In NASA decisions, the preferred choice for operational activities must be competitively awarded contracts with private and non-profit organizations and NASA’s role must be limited to only those areas where there is irrefutable demonstration that only government can perform the proposed activity,” the report says. Paradoxically, the board that investigated the destruction of the space shuttle Columbia declared that NASA’s heavy reliance on contractors in the shuttle program was “a mistake.” (SAA, 9/5/03) The current commission said NASA should continue to operate the shuttle and other manned flights. The panel said NASA should work not only with the aerospace industry but should foster the growth of a new space industry. “This should include efforts specifically tailored to small, entrepreneurial firms, as well as established larger firms,” the report says. It says NASA should “be driven by an overarching imperative to do only those things that are inherently governmental, thus not competing with, but encouraging the entrepreneurs who will build a new and robust space industry to support the vision.” In carrying out the president’s exploration goals, the commission said, it “strongly advises that NASA build implementation around what may be, over time, a series of lead systems integrator contracts that will deliver major portions of the work that must be done. These procurements must be managed to attract non-aerospace businesses to the exploration endeavor, both large and small firms that are well established and inventors with precious few assets but their genius and drive.” Among other recommendations, the commission also proposed a reorganization of NASA headquarters. “Currently, NASA’s organization chart is not wired for success,” it said.