NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

We've Come a Long Way Since January

NASA Glenn has come a long way since last January. It's been a year of hard work and challenges, but there have been great rewards as well. Our ability to come together as a center and as a member of the NASA team has demonstrated our technical competence and our determination to support future mission requirements.

Image right: Center Director Dr. Woodrow Whitlow Jr. addressing employees during an All Hands meeting. Credit: NASA/Marvin Smith

Earlier this year, we participated in the successful Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) Smart Buyer study that involved an eight-week agencywide design study of the CEV. This was followed by the in-house development of full-scale mockups of Orion and Ares I Pathfinder space flight hardware. In June, we earned the role of leading the CEV Service Module and Spacecraft Adapter integration, as well as the development of the Crew Launch Vehicle upper stage systems. Glenn researchers played a significant role in defining the new aeronautics program as well. This helped to maintain a healthy balance of aeronautics research and space flight development.

Image left: Dr. Whitlow and Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones stop by the office of Duane Revilock, Research and Technology Directorate, during a tour of NASA Glenn. Credit: NASA/Marvin Smith

With the help of an independent organizational readiness assessment earlier this year, we concluded that Glenn needed to create a Space Flight Systems Directorate and add senior management staff members with space flight experience to our skill mix. We are looking forward to further developing the directorate this year.

Next we conducted a workforce analysis that identified our civil servant employees' education, skill and experience levels. This exercise assisted us in identifying where we should focus our retraining efforts. Ultimately, we were able to fully deploy our current workforce to avoid a Reduction In Force.

Image right: Center Director Dr. Woodrow Whitlow shakes hands with Angel Otero, Programs and Project Directorate. Credit: NASA/Marvin Smith

When I held my first All Hands meeting as your director last January, I asked for your help and support in defining a role for this center in the agency's future to make it a healthy entity. Your response made this goal a reality.

Thank you for a great effort, a great attitude and a great year. Although we continue to have a challenging journey ahead of us, I'm confident we'll handle each milestone with the same determination that got us to where we are today. Let's keep going strong in 2007!

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