February 27, 1995

TO: Dr. Bradford W. Parkinson, NASA Advisory Council Chair

The major reductions in NASA's outyear budgets starting in 1992 required a restructuring of NASA's plans and programs. In doing so, Mr. Goldin, NASA Administrator, set new objectives, strategies, policies, and programs. The Task Force supports those actions with the following observations.

Many of the changes have yet to be effective down through the organization to "where the rubber hits the road." For these actions to earn value, targets and schedules for completion must be developed and received priority management attention.

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. This new NASA will require increased cooperation, teamwork, and mutual dependence among Centers and with Department of Energy facilities should be explored for additional economies.

The Task Force found incomplete understanding with NASA of the purpose of NASA's Research and Development (R&D) and its policies regarding use of its Centers or academia/industry, and on the conduct of R&D for the short term versus long term.

NASA should rely more heavily on the universities for advice and performance of research and on industry for program implementation.

Dominant among the new need is the development of two wind tunnels primarily for future generations of commercial jet transports. We support plans to move forward aggressively to establish this vital new capability, backed up by the right research to make it effective.

The NASA Federal Laboratory Review Task Force strongly believes that the actions recommended in this report must be implemented urgently and prudently to preserve NASA as a national recourse preeminent in aeronautics and space.

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Dr. John S. Foster, Jr., Chair

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Author: Dick Kline
Curator: Tom Folkes
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