Your editorial on NASA (Flight International, 6-12 April) points out the political nature of the agency. Politics is also prevalent at all levels of management at NASA. I worked at the agency from 1976-8 and 1998-2000; the difference in management ability in these two periods is enormous. In the earlier period almost all management had formidable intellect and this kept the quality of research very high. It also stimulated the researchers and engineers to greater goals.
Twenty years later it was clear that management was recruited for their political acumen to ensure that their centre would get its "fair" allocation of funding. There were few managerial oversights of research; indeed, many senior managers did not understand the overall thrust of the research and were incapable of enforcing quality control. Promotion was based on political considerations, leading to a loss in morale. Many world-class researchers remain in NASA, partly because of the lack of opportunities in the private sector, but with no real technical challenges.
In my view it is impossible to change NASA in the short or intermediate time scale and it is foolish to expect any real technical breakthroughs from the agency.
David Nixon
Los Altos, California, USA
Source: Flight International
