NASA Shakes Itself Up

Published: Jun 25, 2004
Source: www.wired.com



NASA will consolidate some of its programs, assign an executive to monitor safety in its space flights and streamline its operations, administrator Sean O'Keefe said on Thursday. The moves are part of an effort to focus the agency on putting humans back on the moon and eventually sending them to Mars.



As part of the change, NASA's head of safety and mission assurance, Bryan O'Connor, will be promoted to report directly to O'Keefe, a move designed to underscore NASA's emphasis on safety in the aftermath of the destruction of the space shuttle Columbia. NASA also will combine its six main areas of research into four departments: exploration systems, space operations, aeronautics research and science.continue..