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JSC Today Headlines 1. Joint Leadership Team Web Poll 12. June is LGBT Pride Month 13. Weight Watchers at Work - Note Room Change ________________________________________ 1. Joint Leadership Team Web Poll Nearly 70 percent of respondents last week recognized "Deep Space" as the bogus Mission Directorate. Sounded pretty real though. You clearly believe that the head of BP is having the most difficult time with his public image by far. It may take a long while for that to be fixed. This week the question is about the recent SpaceX launch. Did they perform better than you expected? Just like...

The South Korean Navy fired warning shots Saturday night after two North Korean patrol boats crossed into South Korean waters, state media said. The two North Korean patrol boats separately crossed a maritime border in the Yellow Sea. One retreated after receiving a warning communication from the South Korean Navy, and the other retreated after two rounds of warning shots were fired, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff told the state-run Yonhap news agency. Tensions between the two nations have run high since the mysterious sinking of a South Korean warship in the border area on March 26. Fifty-eight men escaped...

For the first time since man set foot on the moon four decades ago, a president has ordered a wholesale review of the space program’s future and whether the U.S. can afford to — or even wants to — return to the moon or send humans hurtling toward Mars. With new leadership poised to take command of NASA, the next few months could be pivotal to the jobs of thousands of space program employees and contractors who depend on NASA for their livelihoods. As the shuttle prepares for its future as a museum exhibit and cost projections for a new...

A NASA employee has been suspended for soliciting donations and writing politically partisan blog posts and sending e-mail messages while at work, violations of the Hatch Act. Office of the Special Counsel officials said a Johnson Space Center employee promoted local and state political candidates in 2006 and 2007 through his Internet writings. The officials also found the employee solicited small campaign donations two times in 2006 through blogs. The employee has been suspended for 180 days without pay. The suspension started March 30. Special Counsel Scott Bloch said the suspension is part of an effort to crack down on...

His e-mail cites a conflict over his support of those who questioned flight preparation The Johnson Space Center's director of engineering said Monday that NASA has removed him from the management team for the space shuttle flight scheduled for Saturday after he expressed support for workers who questioned preparations for the flight. Charles Camarda, 54, a former shuttle astronaut and veteran aerospace engineer, said in an e-mail to colleagues that his removal from involvement in the scheduled launch of Discovery, on which he flew last year, was against his will. The e-mail was distributed to others, including reporters. "I refused...

End of Howell's reign is part of a shuffle designed to focus NASA on space exploration NASA's Johnson Space Center Director Jefferson Howell Jr. announced Monday that he will leave the high-level post for a space agency liaison assignment with the University of Texas at Austin. The retired U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant general will remain as director of the 15,000-person installation in Houston's Clear Lake area until NASA Administrator Michael Griffin names a successor, probably by late November. Howell's departure is one of nearly 20 high-level personnel changes throughout the space agency since Griffin became administrator in mid-April. Griffin was...

DeLay, Griffin Agree on Bold New Vision for Space Exploration Congressman Tom DeLay (R-Sugar Land) yesterday met with President Bush's nominee for NASA Administrator, Dr. Michael Griffin, to discuss the direction of the agency under Griffin's leadership. "The president gave NASA a new mission, the most challenging ever attempted by mankind," DeLay said. "With this daring comes great reward, and I am committed to continuing the fight to sell the president's vision to my colleagues in Congress. With Dr. Griffin joining that fight, we can accomplish great things for NASA." In yesterday's meeting, DeLay and Griffin both committed to supporting...

Editor's note: the following document was generated in 2003 for internal use at NASA Johnson Space Center. You can download the entire 100 page report (with appendices, charts, etc.) here (5.6 MB PDF). The first portion of the document describes how the Space and Life Sciences Division at NASA JSC is supposed to conduct business. The second part of this report (excerpts below) opens by saying "Despite the apparent order of the process described above, the reality of the current program tells a more chaotic story." The third section of this report "Recommendations" ends with "The issue is clear. Voodoo...

<p>NASA managers worry that the official report on the shuttle Columbia accident, to be published next month, will damage morale and distract staff from putting shuttles back into space.</p> <p>"The report will question us at all levels," warned William Readdy, a top NASA official and former astronaut, in a letter sent this month to staff helping to put the shuttle in space again. "Long forgotten will be the many, many scores of safely and successfully accomplished missions."</p>