From: yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin's address to NASA employees [Transcript] (Forwarded)
Apparently-To: sci-space-news@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Followup-To: sci.space
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 19:27:48 GMT

DANIEL S. GOLDIN
NASA ADMINISTRATOR
  ADDRESS TO EMPLOYEES 
 
APRIL 1, 1992




     Thank you.  I hope I will be able to earn that applause about a 
year from now.  Good afternoon.  Less than 30 minutes ago I met with 
the President and he congratulated me on my confirmation to be the 
9th administrator of NASA.  I can't tell you what an honor this is 
for me and how happy I am to come back home to NASA.  Over 30 years 
ago I sat down with my father and we filled out an application for 
the Lewis Research Center that started my career in civil space, the 
civil space program and my membership on the NASA team.  Never did I 
think then that some day the President of the United States would 
bestow upon me the honor of being his nominee to lead the National 
Aeronautics and Space Administration, the world's number one leader 
in space technology.  Today, that boyhood dream is now a reality and 
I'm just trying to soak it all in.  It's just an unbelievable 
feeling.  And the first thing that I wanted to do as the new 
administrator, I had to concentrate on the confirmation process, and 
I was told don't take your eye off confirmation, but the very first 
minute I could, I asked Aaron to set this assemblage up and to 
electronically hook us all together so I could talk to you, the men 
and women of NASA who really make the institution what it is.  It's 
not a set of buildings, it's not a set of facilities, it's the human 
beings, the brilliance, the genius, the drive that make NASA what it 
is.
  
	Thirty years ago I responded to John Kennedy's call for human 
space exploration and I dedicated my life to the space business.  I 
have had the honor of designing and building, developing, testing and 
launching some of the most complex space systems, including space 
science, spacecraft, space communication and military space systems.  
And not surprisingly, as a space cadet, I enthusiastically responded 
to the President's call to lead our nation's exploration into space.  
I believe in America and I strongly and deeply believe in the 
commitment to public service.  My whole professional life has been 
dedicated to building and expanding America's technology base in 
order to improve the quality of life, enhance the competitive posture 
of America, explore the unknown, and defend our nation.  To be asked 
by the President to lead NASA and return to the NASA family is a 
great honor.  
 
    Today, as the new zenith of my career, but I'm convinced that 
even better things are going to happen, because NASA has been 
constantly improving our quality of life and understanding of the 
planet we live on and the universe we inhabit since NASA's inception 
only 34 years ago.  We've only just begun.  

     For those of you who had an opportunity to see the Senate 
confirmation hearing last week, you know I told, I hold NASA and the 
NASA team in unbelievably high esteem.  To me NASA is the standard by 
which all other nations of the world measure their space programs.  
With your help I intend to work with you to raise out standard even 
higher.  And with your help I know that we can do that thanks to the 
great foundation that has been put in place by people like Jim Webb, 
Bob Frosch, Jim Beggs, 
Jim Fletcher, and especially, Admiral Richard Truly.  

     To me Dick Truly is an American hero.  Not just because he was a 
Space Shuttle astronaut who flew two very successful missions, but 
because he was willing to come back to the agency and the people that 
he loved so dearly when they were down in the aftermath of the 
Challenger disaster.  Dick Truly helped rebuild the morale of NASA, 
the management team, the space shuttle program and the public's 
perception of NASA.  He initiated a continuous improvement program, 
an aggressive educational outreach program and an equal opportunity 
program and I wish him God speed in his new endeavors. 
 
     A lot has happened within NASA and outside NASA in recent years 
which has greatly increased our challenges.  As I stand here talking 
to you today the Space Shuttle Atlantis crew is bringing their 
successful mission, the first human expedition to planet earth in 
space to a successful conclusion.  Another challenge has been met.  
As a matter of fact, after talking with you this afternoon, I will be 
flying down to Kennedy Space Center with Aaron Cohen and a number of 
others to greet the crew as they land at the shuttle landing facility 
tomorrow morning.  I'm going to give them and Oscar for a job well 
done.  

       Meanwhile, in DC there's another challenge.  Up on Capitol 
Hill the House Authorization subcommittee is marking up the fiscal 
year 93 NASA authorization bill this afternoon.  The first of several 
pieces of legislation that will determine just where the space 
program is headed in the decade of the 90's and beyond.  As Admiral 
Truly noted in his address to you yesterday, these are tough times 
and I'm going to need your support, and, yes, you can count on mine 
because I believe in team work and I believe in participative 
management.

      Let me take a moment to tell you briefly my personal view of 
NASA.  To me NASA is a symbol of America's competitive economic 
spirit, a world technological leadership by desire to explore and 
discover and our pursuit of excellence.  NASA is an investment in 
America's future and I underline the word investment.  When 
questioned by the Senators in the confirmation hearing they talked 
about why does the budget cost so much, and I said to them, as a 
response,  NASA is not an expenditure, we have many expenditures in 
the Federal Government, NASA is an investment in the future.  And for 
one percent of the Federal budget it's one of the few things we're 
doing as a society to worry about what's going to happen to our 
great, great grandchildren, our children's children's children, and 
instead of taking, NASA is really putting in.  And we ought to be 
able to have a program that will grab into those hearts of the 
Americans and not get into a situation where we have to justify an 
expenditure, but we ought to have then patting us on the back for the 
investment we're making in America.
  
     The American Taxpayers have made a significant investment in 
NASA and they expect value for their investment.  We have given them 
a high return on their investment but in this competitive 
environment, this global competition, when Federal dollars are 
getting harder and harder to obtain, it is necessary for us to work 
together as a team to give them more value and an even better return 
on their investment.  The American taxpayers expect it.  We need to 
do a better job of clearly depicting the relationship of the space 
program to the American's everyday lives, to what they do, along with 
how they do it and why they do it and why we do it - in the 
workplace, the classroom, the home and the market places of today and 
tomorrow.  We must communicate how NASA will improve the American 
taxpayer's quality of life.  It's a real challenge but I believe we 
can meet it.  

     NASA today stands ready to address some of the key challenges 
that face the America of tomorrow.  Our cutting edge technology 
programs will increase our future competitiveness.  Our science 
programs will help us better understand the universe we live in and 
the origin of life.  The mission to planet earth will help us better 
understand and care for our fragile planet.  Our life sciences and 
microgravity research programs could lead to even greater 
contributions to medical technology, and our aeronautics program will 
help the nation to push the edge of technology and maintain one of 
the strongest export markets that we have.  And our technological 
programs, meanwhile, could be the deciding factor in whether or not 
the U.S. is competitive in the high technology market place of 
tomorrow and could have a real impact on the first Martians.  Those 
young children sitting in America's classrooms today will be the 
astronauts and explorers of tomorrow.  

     If we are to respond to the challenges of today and if we are to 
successfully implement our programs, it will take teamwork and it 
will take extra effort.  Today I would like to ask all of you, every 
employee in NASA, especially me, I'm an employee of NASA as of 3:10 
today, in addition to our contractor team, to set clear goals for 
ourselves.  Goals that go beyond the norm, not goals that are beyond 
what is achievable but goals that will cause you to stretch, to reach 
a little further and a little higher than you have in the past.  I'm 
convinced with your help, NASA will be recognized as the standard for 
quality, innovation and management techniques.  NASA will be 
recognized as the type of organization that the American public will 
look to and support as we strive to break down the barriers to space 
exploration, understanding the universe, understanding the planet 
Earth, and as we compete in the market place of high technology. 

      Will it be a challenge?  Yes it will.  But it could be fun and 
it could be rewarding.  Yes, because I believe NASA has the most 
talented men and women in the federal government and in the U.S. 
marketplace.  

     For the last 30 years I've dealt closely with NASA and members 
of the NASA team, and I cannot begin to tell you what an exceptional 
knowledge and skill base this agency has.  I do not see my challenge 
as a new administrator to get good people, we already have them.  My 
challenge is to convince you that you can do more, do it a little 
better, do it for less, if we use more innovative management 
techniques, and if we fully utilize the individual capabilities of 
each and every NASA employee.  My job is not to tell you what to do, 
not to direct control, you know what to do.  My goal is to empower 
all of you to do it.  

     Therefore, for the next few months I intend to do a lot of 
listening and not talking.  To listen to the people at NASA 
headquarters and the people in all the centers, the managers and the 
employees, to find out what your aspirations are for NASA, what your 
concerns are, what are your suggestions you have as to how we can do 
our jobs even better.  As I meet with you, I will be interested in 
hearing your personal views and in trying to get a better 
appreciation for what we should start doing at NASA, what we should 
stop doing at NASA, and what we should continue doing at NASA.  I 
will listen, and as we go along I will give you feedback to tell you 
what the general temperature and sense of the NASA system is, what's 
the sense of our culture.

      Over the past five years in my prior job, I've become a true 
believer in he value of total quality management to the success and 
efficient operation of an organization.  Total quality management has 
to start at the very top, and that's with me now, and I am personally 
and totally committed to that philosophy.  I believe deeply if you 
can't measure it you can't manage it, and I intend to bring this 
philosophy to NASA and to further develop and refine our continuous 
improvement activities, to establish clearly defined goals and 
objectives and to empower the employees to meet these goals, while at 
the same time holding myself to every goal I have, and each employee 
for every goal and objective that they have, personally accountable 
with the empowerment and the responsibilities and the authority that 
you have.  

     I intend to reaccess the long term vision that has been 
developed, and with your direct input, formulate a vision with input 
also from our stake holders too.  In keeping with this philosophy, I 
asked every associate administrator and center director in NASA to 
make remarks on the words that I'm giving you today, and I've 
incorporated all the comments that they've sent in.  I believe in 
participatory management and I plead and beg each of you to 
participate.   

     And let me just digress from the written words here and say, 
when you have a concern feel free that NASA is an open system to 
express those concerns.  If you have an idea, before you go take that 
idea forward, why don't you test it, do some peer review, five of 
your peers.  Peer review is probably the most severe thing you could 
do.  It's much more difficult than a review by the boss.  If you make 
it through that peer review, and a concensus builds, take it forward 
and don't let anybody in the organization stop you, go to your boss, 
talk about it, see if there's some concensus there, take it as high 
in the organization as it has to go, and if it has to come to my 
office, I'll stay night and day, I'll stay weekends but I plan to 
listen.  And I fully expect each of your bosses to encourage you to 
take it forward and not to stop you.  NASA is an open book and I 
deeply and firmly believe it from the bottom of my heart and I 
believe that each of you believes that, so I really, truly want you 
to participate.

     After as a collective unit, we've reaccessed our vision and 
we've reaccessed that vision not just with NASA but with the 
contractors, the taxpayers, people in the universities, our 
international partners, everybody involved, I intend to work with you 
and get feedback to formulate a strategic plan with clearly defined 
milestones, clearly defined budgets, clearly defined human resource 
needs, clearly defined facilities and make an integrated package that 
we understand, that we can live with and get away from the start and 
stop.  I intend to get the Congress to buy in as all of us work 
together so they understand it, and OMB and everybody else in the 
system.  So once again, NASA is a team that moves forward with 
tremendous speed and really does great things for the nation.  

     I intend to measure our performance.  I hope each of you want's 
to measure your own performance as well as that of our contractors 
and their subcontractors.  And we will do this on an annual basis to 
establish how well we're addressing continuous improvement.  Will 
each of you, why don't you go home tonight and write down five areas 
where you think you could measure how well you're doing.  It makes no 
difference what it is, but it will get you started in the process of 
measuring how well you're doing.  I believe that the successful 
implementation of this integrated planning process will help justify 
our programs to the Congress.  It will also help enlist the public, 
contractor, international, university support and lift the spirit and 
pride of America in the NASA team.  

     As I told you from the outset, these are challenging times in 
Washington, D.C., on Capitol Hill, in America, and around the world.  
But let's not forget the old adage, success has a thousand fathers 
and mothers and with your help I think we can have the types of 
success that will broaden our basis of support and give us a thousand 
fathers and mothers in the American public and the U.S. Congress not 
just at NASA.  

     I have nothing but the highest regard for each and every 
individual that I've been associated with in NASA.  Along that line, 
I have asked Aaron Cohen of the Johnson Space Center and Roy Estes of 
the Stennis Space Center to stay on at headquarters to assist in the 
transition.  Aaron and Roy are extremely knowledgeable about NASA and 
I am confident their prudent guidance will help us meet our existing 
commitments as we explore new opportunities.  In addition to which, 
there is a tremendous personal stress on these two gentlemen as their 
families are back home and they have to commute back and forth and it 
is stressful, they have responsibilities to go home when they get 
done, when we can relieve them, but I think we all ought to get behind
them and tell then we really want them to stay and help make the transition 
and I twisted Aaron's arm last night and he said "Ok, I'll do it."
  
     As we end the first hundred years of powered flight and the 
first 35 years of space flight, America must prepare for a new 
century in which aeronautics and space will play an even greater role 
in our national and world economy.  NASA must continue it's 
leadership in the mastery of both air and space.  NASA must push the 
limits to go to the edges of technology to enable a successful 
execution of our missions and NASA must continue to transfer these 
technologies into the private sector, not hold it to the chest, but 
really reach out to ensure that America is competitive in the world 
marketplace.  

     I believe that we have four core program areas at NASA.  First, 
we look inward to our own planet the better to understand the 
delicate workings of our fragile Earth.  Next, NASA looks outward to 
the heavens to explore our own solar system and beyond to better 
understand our place in the universe and the origins of life.  Third, 
space exploration takes the nation to the leading edge of technology 
and hopefully will find new opportunity for future generations, just 
as the Europeans set out to the new world by going west in silly 
little ships.  They invested some faction of their gross national 
product to go into the unknown and no one had to make a big budget 
request and list 75 different guaranteed solutions that they're going 
to get.  They went into those ships, they didn't know what they were 
going to see.  What they did know, is what they didn't know and they 
were happy to go off to what they guaranteed didn't know because 
that's where the opportunity was and we got to get that spirit back 
in NASA.
  
     We have to get ready for this great journey and we must 
understand, most importantly, the prolonged interaction of human stays
in the hostile space environment, and, out of necessity, that's going
to demand permanent human presence in space by the end of the decade.
And finally, we have to perform world class aeronautics research.  Not
leave it on the back burners, not enjoy all the fun we're having
writing TRs and TNs but what we have is an obligation for America.  The
American aeronautics industry is counting on us and lets ask ourselves,
have we really lived up to the expectations of American aeronautics?  I
really think we ought to think about that and I've asked the people
that are working both in space and aeronautics to ask that question.
Not to be defensive, not to say why we developed all these things, why
didn't they use it, and it's on airbus, but to say how do we roll up
our sleeves, (did I hit a tender note?)  but to really ask ourselves,
we're not in a competition with anyone, America needs to uplift it's
place in the technological world and NASA is the place where it's going
to happen if we resurface our thinking, refocus our thinking and commit
ourselves to what the need is.  The need is not to compete with other
agencies to get money.  The need is not to write technical reports.
The need is not to just go play in the laboratory, but the need is to
help take the American aeronautics industry and lift it to new heights
so that America is supreme in that field.

     These four core programs are NASA's heritage, it's our 
challenge, and anytime you have a challenge, the challenge is one 
human being's problem, one organization's problem, and another 
organization's opportunity.  For NASA I view these challenges as an 
opportunity.  

     These are programs that challenge our young people to master 
math and science and to foster better relations between Americans and 
other peoples who inhabit this small planet.  As the new leader at 
NASA I am committed to working with you to make NASA the world 
standard in each of these areas.  I'm committed to working with you 
to meet the President's goal of deploying Space Station Freedom and 
Mission to Planet Earth by the end of this decade, to maintain and 
improve the reliability and quality and efficiency of the Space 
Shuttle as long as we need it to support human space activities and 
to maintain our world class status in space and aeronautics 
technologies.  

     Right now we're spending two percent of our budget on 
technologies.  Any society that continues without planting the seed 
corns and nourishing them and nurturing them and aligning them with 
the vision of the future is a technical society that withers and 
dies.  So we really have to search inward and say is two percent 
enough in our technological investments.  Having referenced the Space 
Shuttle, let me indicate that the Space Shuttle will continue to be 
the nation's principal vehicle for human space travel at least for 
the next decade or two.  I am deeply committed to do everything 
within our power to maintain and improve the safety and reliability 
of this vehicle.  We can't go after the next widgit, we can't go 
after the next nice thing to do and forget about a commitment we've 
already made to the American public.  We cannot steal money from the 
Space Shuttle to go do other things we want to do.  What we have to 
do is figure out how we get the Space Shuttle as reliable as 
possible, as safe as possible, as efficient as possible, and then and 
only then, do we think about where we're going to go with other 
things.  

     And the same holds for every other commitment we have.  We can't 
go  away from today's commitment and say well, we have this program 
and that program but it's more fun to go here or go there.  The most 
effective way that NASA could be gaining credibility with the 
American taxpayer is to perform on what we said we were going to do, 
when we said we were going to do it, and how we said we were going to 
do it and for how much we said we were going to do it.  And it 
applies to the Shuttle and it applies to the other things that we are 
doing.  So coming back to the Shuttle, when the astronaut crew climbs 
into the orbiter, I hope and want them to feel confident that safety 
and reliability are job one at NASA and will never, never be 
compromised.
  
     As important as the programmatic initiatives, I am  committed to 
a work force that reflects the cultural diversity of America, and I 
am determined NASA's programs that inspire young people to pursue 
careers in mathematics, science and engineering and mature members of 
the work force to broaden their skills so they are equipped for the 
competitive job market of tomorrow.  We could do it.  

     Meanwhile, I personally have to get acclimated.  I would like 
each of you to start stretching today by asking yourselves and being 
prepared to interact with me, what steps you should take on the 
following issues, what steps we should take together to make sure our 
facilities, design tools and analytical tools are world class and we 
are equipped for the challenges of tomorrow.  What steps should we 
take to develop world class management techniques to help us get more 
value for less money? What steps should we take to further improve 
employee training and recognition programs so as to better reward and 
inspire our people?  What steps should we take to make NASA the world 
wide leader and standard for total quality management?  What steps 
should we take to better inspire our kids to pursue courses in math 
and science in elementary school, in junior high school and to better 
inspire the mature members of our work force to not just sit at home 
and be afraid that there is not future for them, but to pull them out 
and help them get new training so we could retool? What steps should 
we take to get our stakeholders, the American public, the Congress, 
the contractors, our international partners and the university 
community much more involved in the overall direction of the 
nation's space program, and to help make the space program even more 
attractive and relevant to a broader segment of our society?  What 
steps should we take to help our high schools and universities train 
our next generation of scientists and engineers?  What steps should 
we take to better determine what world class feats we should 
undertake to lift the spirit of the American people, push the edge of 
technology to help make us more competitive?  

     To do all this an more what steps should we take to have fun, to 
share the sense of pride and accomplishment, to be part of the NASA 
team?  These are challenging times, these are tough times, but I know 
the NASA team is well conditioned and ready to respond to these 
challenges and continue our journey where no human or robot has gone 
before.  Are you ready to take this challenge?
  
     As I get ready to visit with employees at headquarters and the 
centers, I would ask each element of NASA and our contractor teams to 
access your current programs and to see what each one of us, each one 
of you can do to reduce costs.  We cannot have a cycle where we 
continually have cost growth on programs.  We have to volunteer on 
each and every program we have as to how they're going to come down 
in costs.  We can't have people playing games saying my program is 
more important than the other program and if I hold pat we will get 
this other program cancelled.  We have to, as a collective team, 
decide what we ought to do and what we should not do, and to get to 
that point each of us has to make some sacrifices, but never, never, 
never give up the quality and reliability of the systems we have. 

     Take a challenge from the Space Shuttle team and see if you can 
find better, more efficient ways to do your job.  They've signed up, 
the Shuttle teams plan to achieve, at least the operational teams, 
efficiency, efficiencies of three percent a year for each of the next 
five years.  What are you willing to do?  Are you willing to go 
better, higher?  I'm not going to dictate a number but I ask each of 
you to search you souls, sit down with your contractors, let them 
search their souls, think it through and see what you're ready to 
sign up to.  Because you determine your goals, you measure your goals 
and you know what you're doing.  

     In closing let me say that becoming the new administrator of 
NASA is a moment of great personal pride.  To be a member of the NASA 
team is a great distinction and one that I will wear with honor and 
pride.  I might say that I had a pin called NASA excellence which I 
put on this blue suit about a year ago and the cleaners lost it.  So 
I need another one.  And I wore that every moment I wore the suit and 
blue is my favorite color so I wore the suit a lot.  I cannot begin 
to tell you how happy I am to be here and how much I look forward to 
working with you to turn the dreams of today into the realities of 
tomorrow.  I look forward to meeting with each and every one of you 
individually and turning the challenges of today into new 
opportunities for NASA, the NASA family, the American public and the 
peoples of the world.  I've gone on a long time, I would like to 
thank you for your attention, I would like to, in advance, thank you 
for your support and I want to encourage you "carpe diem" seize the 
day.

     Thank you.  
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