During Apollo and STS NASA had some seriously talented "folks" to oversee some of the contractors.Bill Tindell was sent to MIT and lit a fire under their a** for software and hardware issues with the CM/LM flight (guidance) computers.Sam Phillips roasted (see Sam Phillips Report) North American for not only the Apollo 1 fire but also the presumed ball-dropping of the Saturn second stage with regard to manufacturing and design.Joe Shea and Rocco Patrone took turns virtually bullying Grumman over issues with the LM.According to the book "Rocketdyne: Powering Humans Into Space", Rocco Petrone forced manangement "changes" (head rolling) at Rocketdyne several times during the development of the SSME.As a side note Petrone's man-handling of the contractors during STS development *may* have played a role in the lack of transparency of the NASA safety culture that eventually led to January of 1986..... While I agree that NASA oversight has it's place, the historical pattern listed above does not imply "going native" on the part of the NASA personell with regard to the contractor.Have things changed so much since the Cold War space days that these historical references have no current relevance?Given how long we flew STS these historical references are actually the closest thing we have to compare with NASA/HSF/LV development, as STS and Saturn represent the last two vehicles we flew with crew.Does NASA oversight really mean "oversight" or does it mean busting-balls?If it is literally oversight, I could see the going-native complacency issue. But if oversight means busting-balls (like Saturn and STS) there will be no going-native on the part of the NASA overseer.
I can only assume that NASA has the same concerns over fraternizing with "oldspace" contractors like LockMart and Boeing... Right?
Anyways, this is a big to do about nothing. NASA and the DOD have resident offices at most of their contractors.
Quote from: Jim on 09/27/2011 02:37 pmAnyways, this is a big to do about nothing. NASA and the DOD have resident offices at most of their contractors.I think the fuss was about rotating the NASA people and doing so only for CCP, and not for SLS + MPCV.
If this condition continues commercial will have complete vehicles before NASA figures out what it wants ... making a good deal of the HSF Certification Requirements more of a like-to-have than a must-have.
would it actually be a problem to rotate someone who may have just got a very good hold on how they are doing, only for a new guy to join mid-stream.
LSP has presence at Decatur, Denver, Hawthorne, Dulles, Chandler, and VAFB.In the late 90's/early 00's, ISS, STS, X-37, and LSP had resident offices in Huntington Beach.JSC has an Orion resident office in Denver. Back in Apollo days, NASA had resident offices in Canoga Park, Downey, Bethpage, Seal Beach, Michoud, Huntington Beach, etc