[FPSPACE] Augustine backgrounder

[E.P. Grondine]

My guess: EELVs and Direct (the NLS). 

Augustine has always supported heavy lift, and Dan Goldin wanted to convert the shuttle to heavy lift around 2000.

A few backgroung points. Examine this excellent summary by Dwayne Day on Bush Snr's ISE:
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/106/2
though I do have a few minor quibbles with this on Russian
entry into ISS.

Augustine 1995, reaction to Newt's "Contract on America":
Space Studies Board Annual Report 1995: 

For NASA, the big budget news during the first quarter of 1995 was the additional $5 billion of out-year reductions mandated in mid-January by the White House to pay for proposed tax cuts. In a very dramatic budget press conference on February 6, Administrator Daniel Goldin stated: “Make no mistake. When this is over, NASA will be profoundly different. We’re going to restructure the Agency.” Mr. Goldin made clear that his preferred solution was to reduce NASA’s infrastructure and work force, rather than delete programs. Nonetheless he admitted, “This will be painful. It means NASA employees will lose their jobs. Contractors working at NASA and at their own offices will lose their jobs.” That this was not empty rhetoric became increasingly apparent. 

In mid-March, Mr. Norman Augustine, president of the new aerospace behemoth Lockheed Martin, announced the beginning of a company consolidation process projected to lead to elimination of 25,000 to 40,000 of its 170,000 jobs."

1996
EELVs with Goldin and DoD came next, and then X-33.
While Augustine was a leading figure in X33 (solid Democrat connections there, but also defense work), 
X33 failed due to Thiokol's failure with the composite fuel tank.

2001
For Augustine and impact (NSF/NASA), which is THE ISSUE, particularly as concerns China and CAPS:

COMMITTEE ON ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF RESEARCH IN ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS The Committee on Organization and Management of Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics (COMRAA), supported jointly by the SSB and the Board on Physics and Astronomy, was approved and appointed during the second quarter. The committee of 12 experts, including the chair, Norman Augustine, is charged with the following task: Assess the organizational effectiveness of federal support of astronomical sciences. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of transferring NSF’s astronomy responsibilities to NASA. Consider other options for addressing the management and organizational issues identified by the committee and by recent NRC reports. 

An organizational meeting of the committee was held by telephone conference call on May 18. The committee met in Washington, D.C., June 13-14, and heard presentations from senior officials at NASA and NSF about their management philosophy and organizational arrangements for astronomy and astrophysics research programs. The committee also heard presentations from a broad array of astronomical organizations focused on concerns about past, present, and future arrangements and prospects for managing and funding research in astronomy and astrophysics. The committee outlined its study and plans for future meetings. The committee met July 12-13 in Palo Alto, California, and July 31-August 1 in Washington, D.C., to complete the report. During the third quarter, the committee delivered its report, U.S. Astronomy and Astrophysics: Managing an Integrated Program.

Findings:

"The shared responsibility between NASA and the NSF that we recommend is also endorsed by the more general findings last year of the NRC's Committee on the Organization and Management of Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics (COMRAA), chaired by Norman Augustine. COMRAA's report recommended that NASA continue to "support critical ground-based facilities and scientifically enabling precursor and follow-up observations that are essential to the success of space missions." COMRAA also noted that in 1980 the NSF provided most of the research grants in astronomy and astrophysics, but today NASA is the major supporter of such research."

My own reportage from 2001:
http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/ccc/cc050201.html

E.P. Grondine
Man and Impact in the Americas
(While Augustine appears oblivious to the severity of the impact hazard, note also Augustine's interest in history.)




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