NASA Chief: "More Discussion" Needed on Future of Centers NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe expressed reservations about a presidential commission’s recommendation to convert the space agency’s field centers into contractor-operated research and development facilities. At a June 24 briefing to announce a reorganization of NASA headquarters, O’Keefe said the future of the field centers “needs more discussion,” the New York Times reported. He pointed out that some of the centers are more involved in operations than in R&D; for example, the Johnson Space Center in Houston runs manned space flights and the Kennedy center at Cape Canaveral, FL, handles launch operations. “This isn’t one size that fits all,” O’Keefe said. The President’s Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy released recommendations June 16 on how NASA should be reorganized to pursue President Bush’s goal of exploring the moon and Mars. It said the field centers should become federally funded research and development centers modeled after NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Energy Department’s national laboratories. Those facilities are run by universities or corporations under long-term contracts. (SAA, 6/25) O’Keefe generally followed the commission’s recommendation in restructuring headquarters operations into four mission directorates, replacing six directorates. For details on the reorganization, go to www.nasa.gov/news/agency/index.html.