National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Four-Year Reinvention Plan

1997-2001

Updated August 18, 2000

NASA is an investment in America’s future. As explorers, pioneers, and innovators, we boldly expand frontiers in air and space to inspire and serve America and to benefit the quality of life on Earth.

• To advance and communicate scientific knowledge and understanding of the Earth, the solar system, and the universe and use the environment of space for research;
• To explore, use, and enable the development of space for human enterprise; and
• To research, develop, verify, and transfer advanced aeronautics, space, and related technologies.

Goal #1: NASA’s Earth Science (formerly Mission to Planet Earth) Enterprise will expand and disseminate information about the Earth system to enable productive use of Earth science and technology in public and private sectors.

Status:

1. The Earth Science Enterprise is fulfilling its commitment to make its Earth observation data widely available for research and education.

• Almost 1,300,000 distinct users obtained 5.2 million data products during FY 1999.
• The Enterprise achieved its goal of increasing the EOSDIS archived data volume by ten percent.
• The Enterprise achieved its goal of increasing the number of distinct customers by 20% compared to 1997.
• The Enterprise achieved its goal of increasing products delivered from the Distributed Active Archive Centers by 10%.
• The Enterprise exceeded its goal of conducting 300 workshops by sponsoring 350 workshops to train more than 11,000 teachers in the use of Earth science concepts and teaching tools.
• The Enterprise increased the number of schools participating in GLOBE by 29% (against a goal of 35%). The Enterprise increased the number of participating countries from 70 in 1998 to 84 in 1999, far exceeding its goal of increasing to 72.
• The Enterprise awarded 50 new graduate student/education research grants and 20 early career post-doctoral fellowships in Earth Science to maintain annual support for 150 graduate students at U.S. universities
• The dissemination of Earth science information through EOSDIS has been improved and new methods have been developed to place data in the hands of Enterprise customers in a timely manner. The Enterprise met its goal of putting data into the hands of users within five days of receipt or production of the requested data. EOSDIS is now poised and ready to support Terra, Aqua, and other Earth science missions.

1. The Earth Science Enterprise is making sure its data and associated information and knowledge lead to practical solutions for business and local government. For example, the Enterprise established 29 partnerships of various types to develop applications of Earth remote-sensing data for agriculture, natural resources management, urban and regional planning, and disaster mitigation.

Status:

1. In FY 1999, the Enterprise set 17 performance targets to address eight specific objectives. The Enterprise fully met or achieved 12 of these by the end of FY 1999 and 14 by the end of CY 1999. The remaining three will be fully achieved in FY 2000.
2. The Enterprise established Aeronautics Education Laboratory sites in eight new cities (against a goal of three).
3. The Enterprise transferred 12 new technologies (against a goal of 10) to industry and other government agencies.
4. The Enterprise completed its Triennial Customer Satisfaction Survey, measuring a range of customers that include the aviation and related industries, the academic community, non-aviation industries, and other government agencies, such as DOD and FAA. The survey uses a 10-point scale, and the Enterprise met its goal of increasing the number of responses rated "8" and above from 30 to 35%. Ninety percent of the respondents rated the Enterprise at "5" or above on all measures.
5. With its partners, the Enterprise made significant advances in air transportation systems safety and environmental concerns. The goals for FY 1999 focused primarily on safety and air quality, but progress also was made in the areas of community noise reduction, airport capacity improvements, and technology to reduce the weight and cost of future aircraft.

Goal #3: NASA’s Space Science Enterprise will contribute to achieving the science, math, and technology education goals of our nation by enhancing the public’s understanding of science by the end of FY 2000.

Status:

The Enterprise’s space science missions and research missions continued to make unique contributions to education and the public understanding of science by providing a steady return of discoveries and new knowledge to scientists and the public.

• The most recent Science News statistics available show that five percent of the top 150 science stories in FY 1999 were based on space science (against an Enterprise goal of four percent).
• The Enterprise published a 24-page supplement to the college textbook.
• Each mission initiated in FY 1999 had a funded education and outreach program, and the Enterprise outreach network is now in place. A representative activity of the program was the electronic field trip, "Live from the Sun," which reached up to two million teachers and students.

Goal #4: NASA’s Human Exploration and Development of Space Enterprise, in cooperation with other NASA Enterprises, will expand the commercial development of space by facilitating access to space for commercial researchers and by sharing knowledge, capabilities, and assets that will benefit all.

Status:

1. The U.S. and our international partners made significant progress in FY 1999 in deploying and operationalizing the International Space Station (ISS) for research, engineering, and exploration activities. Targets achieved included:

• Deploying and activating the Russian-built Functional Cargo Block as the early propulsion and control module.
• Deploying and activating the first U.S.-built element, Unity (Node 1), to provide docking locations and attach ports.
• Initiating full-scale Multi-Element Integration Testing (MEIT) for elements in the first four launch packages.

1. Non-NASA investments ion space research increased from $35 million in FY 1996 to $51.2 million in FY 1999, a 40% increase.
2. The Enterprise established the Food Technology Commercial Space Center, awarded to Iowa State University. Commercial partners include Kraft Foods, Maytag, and Pioneer.
3. The Enterprise sponsored a variety of initiatives in support of NASA’s Education Plan to improve math and science literacy. These included:

• EarthKam and the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment: programs to involve students in Shuttle flights;
• Space Team Online: a project that focuses on the people behind the scenes who make the Shuttle fly; and
• Window on the Universe: a national network of 15 under-served communities committed to sustainable community-wide science, math, and technology education.

1. The Enterprise sponsored two demonstrations of the Telemedicine Instrumentation Pack, one in Montana and one in Corpus Christi, Texas. The performance was optimal in both cases.
2. The Enterprise sponsored two talks, and published two papers demonstrating the application of laser light scattering technology for the early detection of eye-tissue damage from diabetes.

Goal #5: NASA’s Aerospace Technology Enterprise will complete R&D to enable U.S. industry to reduce the cost of launches to low Earth orbit.

1. Although testing of the first development of the Aerospike Engine for the X-33 began in FY 1999, the second and third engines — the flight engines for X-33 — were not tested on schedule due to a problem with the liquid hydrogen tank.
2. Progress toward the first flight of the X-34 continued, although slowed by hardware delivery problems and the resolution of environmental concerns at the White Sands Test Facility.