The following documents the discussions addressed at the Senior Staff and
Center Directors’ Meeting on January 24, 2000. Mr. Goldin attended the
meeting. Action assignments have been placed in brackets

[ ] for easy
identification.

1. AA Reports

Y/Luther: Mr. Luther reported that the Office of Earth Science is looking
forward to the STS-99 mission next week and the launch of the Shuttle Radar
Topography Mission (SRTM).

Q/Gregory: Mr. Gregory reported on the following: 1) From a safety point
of view, we have no safety issues on STS-99, pending disposition of the
tile issue. 2) From a mission success standpoint, based on actions JPL has
taken and their defined minimum mission success criteria, there are no
mission constraints remaining.

AE/Hudkins: Mr. Hudkins reported that the Office of the Chief Engineer
will be holding a Systems Management meeting at JSC on January 26 and 27.

C/Daniels-Gibson: Ms. Daniels-Gibson reported that NASA Headquarters is
preparing for ODIN (Outsourcing Desktop Initiative for NASA), which will be
effective on February 28, 2000. For the first time, Headquarters will be
charged on a per “seat” (computer desktop) basis; therefore, she requests
your support in reducing to the absolute minimum, the number of
Headquarters desktop computers and local printers being used in the office
and at home. Code CI is currently working with each code to effect the
reductions and develop the final inventory of equipment to be covered under
ODIN.

B/Peterson: Mr. Peterson reported that there is a Budget Press Conference
countdown. He will be conducting briefings for the Center CFO’s. There
will be a letter coming out with more details.

P/Wilhide: Ms. Wilhide reported on the following: 1) There was a release
of two stunning photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope today. 2)
There will be an environmental conference of about 250 people at KSC on
Tuesday, January 25. 3) A national press release from JSC on the robotic
hand, developed for spacewalk support, is due out this week. 4)
Congratulations to GSFC on the 30 live shots on the lunar eclipse.

2. AI/Dr. Mulville

Dr. Mulville reported on the following: 1) As an ISO update, Dr. Mulville
encourages employees to take the ISO Web-based Training in preparation for
our preassessment audits, beginning the week of February 7. The training
is available through the SOLAR site and only covers our system as
implemented through Phase I. Once all the revised Headquarters Common
Processes are approved, the training will be updated to include the full
scope of Phase II and formally rolled out to all HQ employees. Please keep
in mind that the changes to the training, as a result of Phase II efforts,
will probably not be numerous and, thus, the existing training will be
95-percent accurate, even given our Phase II efforts. 2) Both Mr. Goldin
and Dr. Mulville will be attending the STS-99 launch on Monday, January 31.
3) The Senior Management Council meeting is scheduled for Friday, February
18. An agenda should be distributed by the end of this week. 4) Ten years
ago, on January 26, 1990, NASA granted a small Alexandria, VA, firm, Global
Outpost, the rights to find ways of using empty Space Shuttle fuel tanks as
a platform for military, civilian, and commercial experiments. The
agreement followed a June 1988 NASA announcement requesting commercial and
academic uses for expended tanks.

3. Center Reports

JPL/Dr. Stone: Dr. Stone reported that they are looking forward to the SRTM.

KSC/Morgan: Ms. Morgan reported that Mr. Bridges is in California.

MSFC/Griner: Ms. Griner reported that the Center is in the process of
working Voluntary Protection Program certification. Thanks to JSC and LaRC
for their assistance; Mr. Stephenson really appreciates their support.

SSC/Estess: Mr. Estess reported the following: 1) The X-33 testing was
going well with the Aerospike engine completing a 60-second test. 2)
Fastrac engine #3 is in the process of being installed in the Santa Susana
Alpha 1 test stand for testing next month.

4. Mr. Goldin

He is looking forward to the upcoming exciting mission of STS-99. He
thanked Commander Kevin Kregel for recognizing the safety issues early in
the process and the team’s response in a nondefensive manner.

He emphasized that the level of responsibility is on the Center Directors
to review their programs and processes and make sure that they understand
when it is safe to launch. Two missions have been put on hold-the HETE
(High Energy Transient Explorer)-2 spacecraft, and the IMAGE (Imager for
Magnetopause to Aurora Global Exploration). The HETE-2 example gets to the
core issue that safe, successful execution is the most important element of
mission success. We should not move forward until we can meet the minimum
threshold for scientific return. Safety, reliability, and quality
assurance is important, and we must “police” from within. The Associate
Administrators have a requirement to control the resources and processes.
Responsibility begins with this recognition. Thanks to Ed Weiler for
leadership in creating an environment for finding deficiencies on the two
spacecraft before it was too late.

NOTE: ACTION ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE TRANSMITTED UNDER SEPARATE COVER AND
TRACKED BY THE HEADQUARTERS CORRESPONDENCE MANAGEMENT OFFICE. SPECIFIC
QUESTIONS MAY BE ADDRESSED TO JILL HOOVER @ (202) 358-0905.

Distribution

Officials-in-Charge of NASA Headquarters Offices:

AI/Dr. Mulville
AB/Ms. Tagg
AE/Mr. Hudkins (Acting)
AF/Mr. Venneri
AJ/Mr. Tam
AO/Mr. Holcomb
AS/Dr. Olsen
B/Mr. Holz
C/Mr. Christensen
E/Mr. Reese
F/Ms. Novak
G/Mr. Frankle
H/Mr. Luedtke
I/Mr. Schumacher
J/Mr. Sutton
K/Mr. Thomas
L/Mr. Heffernan
M/Mr. Rothenberg
P/Ms. Wilhide
Q/Mr. Gregory
R/Gen. Armstrong
S/Dr. Weiler
U/Dr. Nicogossian
W/Ms. Gross
Y/Dr. Asrar
Z/Ms. Garver

Directors, NASA Centers:

ARC/Dr. McDonald
DFRC/Mr. Petersen
GRC/Mr. Campbell
GSFC/Mr. Diaz
JSC/Mr. Abbey
KSC/Mr. Bridges
LaRC/Dr. Creedon
MSFC/Mr. Stephenson
SSC/Mr. Estess

Director, Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

Dr. Stone
cc:
A/Ms. Roberts
A/Ms. Landrus
AB/Ms. Saldana
AE/Ms. Moore
AF/Ms. Eastman
AI/Ms. Bloxon
AI/Ms. Shaeffer
AO/Ms. Wissinger
AS/Ms. Simms
C-3/Ms. Soper

CIC/Analysts