NASA's Right Stuff era ends, when will it begin again?

William Atkins
Thursday, 13 September 2007 23:43

Opinion and Analysis

A NASA engineer states that “NASA officially ended the ‘right stuff era’ with the launch of STS-5”.  I don’t think this engineer is criticizing NASA but, instead, is writing about ways to improve NASA in the future. Will NASA accept his good-intentioned comments?

After working at the Johnson Space Center for twelve years (1983 to 1994), I believe I know what NASA engineer Paul Torrance is talking about in his article “STS-5 and the impact of Apollo-era decision-making”. The September 10, 2007 article by NASA engineer Paul Torrance appears at The Space Review website: http://www.thespacereview.com/article/950/1.

Safety, in any business, is an ongoing process that doesn’t stop--ever. And, just because there is a sign that states “Safety is Job One” or “We are dedicated to the values of safety”, doesn’t necessarily mean it is practiced on the job.

Safety must be an important, dare I say essential, part of all aspects of any organization, not just for the final product. The final product—the shuttles in the case of the NASA Space Transportation System—are only as safe as their initial design and construction, but also are only as safe as the training, paperwork, and all of the other regular, everyday aspects that occur when running an organization like NASA, or any other organization in the world.

NASA gets its share of criticisms for the mistakes it has made in the past-some of it fair, some of it not. However, NASA is no different than any other company or organization in the United States or, for that matter, in the world. When Enron made headlines in the United States, it did so from actions it intentionally made. Criticisms were harsh and continuous for many months. Its employees paid the price. Its leader didn’t survive to learn his final fate.

I believe Paul Torrance is saying in his article that NASA needs to build safety into its products, not to correct for it after they are built. And, I don't think Torrance is criticizing NASA, but trying to suggest some realistic improvements into the NASA culture.

NASA, like any large organization, needs to incorporate safety into all of its processes and back it up with standards that all will follow.

A company is only as good as its employees. All employees must abide by the rules of a company in order to assure that safety is maximized. By employees I mean ALL persons throughout the organization—all the way up to the leaders of NASA and their contractor companies. In fact--even higher--the term employee must reach to the leaders of the U.S. federal government, especially those who are on space-related committees deciding the fate of NASA’s programs. For, in reality, they are employees of each and every citizen of the United States.

Safety cannot be guaranteed, but it can be maximized by learning from the past, working efficiently in the present, and planning consistently for the future.

NASA has the same problems as most companies in the United States. Employees don’t always tell their employer what is going on because they are afraid to speak up about problems. Whistleblowers don’t make Employee of the Month!

Middle managers don’t tell their upper management because they don’t want to be the ones harboring bad news. Good news gets more brownie points!

All employees don’t want to be fired, and they don’t want to get tagged as someone who criticizes. For most employees, it is easier to go along with the Team Effort, rather than buck a system that is knowingly flawed by all the employees.

Unfortunately, we have a work culture, not just in NASA but all throughout the U.S.work environment (in my opinion), that says publicizing bad things is bad. Most bad things are hushed up under the table and prayed they will eventually go away. They usually don’t!

Employees and employers need to work together—without the threat of job punishment or termination —in order to meet and exceed the goals of the company—one of them being safety.

It has been an idea of mine to see parallel management eventually incorporated into the work place. Parallel management is the concept I’ve thought up where employees are given partial control over their jobs. They tell their immediate boss what they need in order to do the most efficient job possible. And their supervisor goes off and makes it happen for his/her group of employees. The supervisor coordinates and directs his/her group, but does not dictate outside of his/her realm of leadership.

That supervisor also works on jobs directed from his/her immediate level of management above. Each manager has so much leadership, even the lowest person on the rung of the ladder is a manager of himself/herself. But, someone ALWAYS has the right to oversee work from above—so no one is allowed to do something against the rules of the company, not even the CEO of the company. Employees also provide evaluations of their supervisors and of the company in general.

Each manager makes sure his/her employees are given all the direction and materials needed to do the best job possible. The manager supports his/her group of employees—praising good work and punishing poor work in a fair and equitable way.

Employees do the same—they work honestly, fairly, and equitably. Remembering all the time: the company is providing eight hours of pay for eight hours of work.

This all seems pretty obvious, but it doesn’t always seem that obvious in work organizations. Managing is a difficult task. No one is ever happy with what you do. However, good managers don’t play favors—they deal with each employee on a professional, honest, and level playing field. They allow employees enough leeway to do a good job but not enough leeway to allow a bad job to continue.

Will NASA ever learn its lessons? Will U.S. businesses and organizations ever learn their lessons? All of them—NASA; U.S. businesses and organizations; local, state, and federal governments—are just groups of people working for common causes—sometimes efficiently and honestly, sometimes not.

[Science journalist William Atkins spent 12 years at NASA's Johnson Space Center, in Clear Lake City, Texas, as a Mission Control Center flight controller for launch, orbit, rendezvous, and de-orbit phases of flight (four years) and as a Design Engineer/Organizational Engineer (eight years), all for the NASA Space Shuttle program.]