I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I just heard that the staffing numbers at KSC on the ISS program are about to be cut by 50%.
The plan seems to be budget driven - to save NASA a planned $50m.
It is about to be announced internally, and later publicly.
I don't know about whether this affects any other centers.
-Ross.
What are/were the staff at KSC responsible for on the ISS?
nacnud - 3/11/2005 7:50 PM
What are/were the staff at KSC responsible for on the ISS?
SSPF Space Station Processing Facility is the meat of KSC's ISS facilities and staff.
kraisee - 3/11/2005 8:25 PM
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I just heard that the staffing numbers at KSC on the ISS program are about to be cut by 50%.
The plan seems to be budget driven - to save NASA a planned $50m.
It is about to be announced internally, and later publicly.
I don't know about whether this affects any other centers.
-Ross.
Too bad they need to save 50 mil, but a month back they gave away 100 plus mil for some 10 year grant....
Guess there is no kickback from staff... this sucks..
Makes you think about these hair brained science projects NASA loves to throw billions at, especially the ones that have zero benefit towards spaceflight when this happens.
James Lowe - 3/11/2005 10:12 PM
Makes you think about these hair brained science projects NASA loves to throw billions at, especially the ones that have zero benefit towards spaceflight when this happens.
I happen to agree and is 50m really going to make a major impact when NASA gives 200m contracts out to what a lot of people see as low priority? I can only take this as a sign that decisions have been made to end ISS element assembly and intergration asap.
Very sad for the people that are affected. Will they be relocated at KSC or simply lose their jobs?
tommy - 4/11/2005 3:32 AM
Very sad for the people that are affected. Will they be relocated at KSC or simply lose their jobs?
I don't have any information about that yet. I suspect not, because otherwise NASA won't be saving the money, and I can't think of any related projects they could move to either.
A Lunar Base Program and a Mars Spacecraft Program would have allowed them to transfer internally, but there's nothing happening on either of those yet.
And yes, it is very sad. I know people involved there who don't know if they'll have a job by the end of the month or not.
Ross.
To me this seems very important that they do get relocated to another program of relevance as it is a very dangerous issue to lose staff of importance by way of experience during a cull of a specific program.
David AF - 5/11/2005 8:02 PM
To me this seems very important that they do get relocated to another program of relevance as it is a very dangerous issue to lose staff of importance by way of experience during a cull of a specific program.
I agree totally.
The problem is NASA's budget is so tight because of the huge expense involved in the STS and ISS construction programs. CEV development is being squeezed in to the budget now too, so I'm sure the order has gone out to every department and project to trim any and all costs (staff) that aren't absolutely vital. I think this reduction in ISS staff is just the tip of the iceberg.
Things like this, and the delays to projects like JIMO are the result of constricted budget we're having to accept if this is the plan. If you continue to fly Shuttle, you will have to accept this happening and just live with it.
You could retain all the staff by stopping flying of STS and putting all staff to use in expediting the development of the Magnum SDLV instead. Do that and you get more of ISS and go to the moon much faster.
Ross.