National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

NASA's Mobile Workforce

IT Talk

July - September 2020 Volume 10 • Issue 3
IT Talk

Jul - Sep 2020 Volume 10 • Issue 3

Office of the CIO

NASA Headquarters

300 E Street, SW

Washington, D.C. 20546

Chief Information Officer

Jeff Seaton (Acting)

Editor & Publication Manager

Eldora Valentine

Graphic & Web Designer

Michael Porterfield

Copy Editor

Meredith Isaacs

IT Talk is an official publication of the 

Office of the Chief Information Officer 

of the National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration, Headquarters, 

Washington, D.C. It is published 

by the OCIO office for all NASA 

employees and external audiences.

For distribution questions or to 

suggest a story idea, email:

eldora.valentine-1@nasa.gov

To read IT Talk online visit:

www.nasa.gov/offices/ocio/ittalk

For more info on the OCIO:

v www.nasa.gov/offices/ocio

v inside.nasa.gov/ocio

 (Internal NASA network only)

v www.nasa.gov/open/

www.facebook.com/NASAcio

3

6

9

5

10

Message From 

the NASA CIO

Protecting NASA’s Mission 

During the COVID-19 

Pandemic

Return to Work

Outlook

Teams Product

Updates

CONNECT: Continually 

Enhancing the VPN Service 

to Keep NASA Teleworking

In this Issue
It is no secret that these past few months have been challenging for NASA and our 

employees, who are dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. NASA is leading the 

way in the Federal Government for telework during this period. Since mid-March 

2020, more than 90 percent of our workforce has been teleworking—and doing so 

very effectively. NASA’s success in this remote work environment is largely due to 

the ongoing efforts of team members in the Office of the Chief Information Officer. 

We have been able to provide our customers with secure, effective, and reliable IT 

capabilities. Those who are working from home have found tools and strategies to 

boost collaboration and work satisfaction.

In this issue, we will explore how NASA has been successfully keeping science and 

exploration missions going strong. None of this would be possible without our communication infrastructure, including our virtual private network (VPN), which creates 

a secure tunnel to connect each of us to the NASA network and our onsite systems 

and applications.

We will also look at how our IT security efforts are keeping NASA 

safe from cybercriminals. An arsenal of effective processes and 

automated tools is in place to protect NASA’s data and systems. 

In this remote work environment, many Federal agencies and 

companies are seeing an uptick in cyber-attacks. NASA is no different. Hackers are trying their best to gain access to our systems 

and networks; but having solid policies in place around login 

practices, approved software, mobile devices, and much more 

has helped to combat these attacks. 

And finally, we will show you how NASA’s can-do spirit helped in 

the creation of 3D-print respirators to help protect people from 

COVID-19 infections. The team used inexpensive and widely 

available materials and 3D printers so that people across the 

world could print their own respirators to avoid COVID-19 contamination.

This issue is filled with many inspiring stories that highlight the 

great work being done in our IT community at NASA. I want to 

extend my sincerest thanks to the OCIO team for its continued 

support and commitment to working together and caring for one 

another while making the NASA IT environment even stronger and 

keeping the Agency going during these challenging times.

With gratitude,

Jeff Seaton

NASA Chief Information Officer (Acting)

Getting to Know Jeff Seaton

1. What does Jeff like to do in his spare time?

Jeff likes to spend free time outdoors—hiking, 

kayaking, orienteering, and adventure racing. Last 

year, he spent 5 days with his son hiking from the 

Grand Canyon South Rim to the North Rim and back 

again.

2. Who does Jeff like to hang out with daily? Jeff 

has two dogs who are his hiking buddies—a 13-yearold rescue named Jill and a 1-year-old rescue named 

Watson. 

3. What is Jeff’s favorite thing to do to mellow 

out? Jeff enjoys playing the guitar (although not 

very well!) and just about any acoustic music.

4. What is Jeff’s favorite attire while working 

from home during COVID-19? Jeans and a 

T-shirt.

5. What keeps Jeff up at night? Nothing—because 

he is too exhausted at the end of every workday. 

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jul - Sep 2020 3

Message from the NASA CIO 
NASA Communications and Collaboration 

Services During COVID-19 Teleworking

By Daniel Horton, End User Services Program Office (EUSO), and Sylvester Placid, 

Communications Program (CP), Marshall Space Flight Center

With the unprecedented increase in 

telework and remote collaboration 

during the global COVID-19 pandemic, 

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and 

cellular network providers are experiencing a surge in network utilization 

from users working from home.

NASA employees may experience poor 

internet or cell phone performance due 

to this significant increase in network 

traffic. This may result in audio delays, 

choppy video, or dropped calls when 

attempting to join audio or video meetings using NASA-authorized tools.

Here are tips for using NASA communications and collaboration services while 

teleworking: 

• Microsoft Teams: Use the computer audio calling capability in 

Microsoft Teams with or without a 

headset. More tips for using Teams 

are available on EUSO’s Working 

Remotely Guide and Teams Resources page.

• Office 365: This set of tools has everything you need to work anytime, 

anywhere, on any PIV-enabled device. Read more on how to collaborate with colleagues using Office 

365 at EUSO’s Resource Page.

• Instant Meeting: Telephone 

conference lines continue to be 

available to the NASA community. 

If you receive a busy signal while 

attempting to dial in to a teleconference using the Instant Meeting tollfree number (1-844-467-6272), use 

the toll number (720-259-6462) and 

enter the same meeting passcode.

• Webex: Use the “call me” function in 

Webex Meeting Center if your meeting will be held within Webex. This 

function will call any phone number 

you choose, allowing you to join 

your meeting’s audio without tying 

up NASA’s conference lines or incurring any additional cost to NASA—

so it is strongly recommended.

• Jabber: If your Center has authorized the use of Jabber, use this 

service in place of your home or 

cell phone to make and receive 

calls and to listen to your NASA 

voicemail.

If you continue to experience issues, 

here are some tips for improving your 

performance at home:

• Direct Connection: For desktop 

computers and laptops with a 

docking station or built-in ethernet 

port, connect your NASA computer 

directly to the ethernet port on your 

router instead of utilizing Wi-Fi. 

Direct, wired connections can be 

more reliable and faster than wireless networks.

• Wireless Router Location: Ensure 

that your wireless router is placed 

in a central location in your home 

and that your home office is located within proximity to your router.

• Modem/Router Software: Check 

the software on your modem or 

wireless router to ensure that it is 

up to date. An update could be 

available that can resolve any networking issues.

• Bandwidth Usage: Try to coordinate internet use among your family 

members during work hours. Heavy 

network utilization from video 

streaming services (Netflix, Hulu, 

etc.) and gaming services (PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, etc.) can 

degrade the performance of your 

network and affect your audio and 

video calls.

• Large File Downloads: Many 

modern devices like video game 

consoles or TV-connected devices 

can download games, movies, or 

software while they are in a rest or 

sleep mode. Check your settings to 

ensure that they are not using your 

bandwidth during work hours.

• Hard Drive Space: Did you know 

that an emptier hard drive can run 

faster? A nearly full hard drive will 

have much slower write operations 

and will slow your computer down 

significantly. Keeping your hard 

drive relatively empty with fewer 

files will allow your machine to access information much faster. Read 

more on EUSO’s Tech Tips article.

If you experience persistent issues with 

NASA communications and collaboration services, please contact the Enterprise Service Desk (ESD):

https://esd.nasa.gov/esdportal

1-877-677-2123 (1-877-NSSC123), 

Option 2

4 www.nasa.gov
’s New Cloud Backup Service Makes 

Securing Your Files Easier Than Ever

By Daniel Horton, Communications Strategist, End User Services Program Office, Marshall Space Flight Center

Every day, we are working on critical 

files stored locally on our machines. 

From documents to drawings, videos, 

and more, many of us have gigabytes 

of important work stored locally that we 

must constantly access. Backing these 

files up should be a consistent part of 

our daily routines to ensure we always 

have access to the information we need.

Introducing Druva inSync

Over the past few months, the End 

User Services Program Office (EUSO) 

has been working to implement a new 

Cloud Backup Service. This solution 

utilizes Druva inSync, a new tool that 

will make backing up your important 

data as seamless and easy as possible. 

From the installation to the backup itself, 

the process is simple. The data on your 

machine will be backed up to a secure 

cloud, where it will remain available for 

you to access should there be a need.

How Cloud Backup Works

The Cloud Backup Service is currently 

rolling out on a Center-by-Center basis. 

When it is time to install the tool on 

your machine, you will receive an e-mail 

ahead of time letting you know. Look 

out for this message, as it will contain 

information about the date the tool will 

be installed as well as several resources to get you started. 

When the new backup tool is ready for 

your machine, the only action you will 

need to take is to make sure your computer is connected to the NASA VPN 

for the Druva client installation. After the 

client installation completes, VPN connection is not required to complete your 

backup. All of the data on your local 

hard drive will be uploaded to the cloud. 

This process could take up to 6 hours, 

depending on the size of your files and 

your local connection. You will still be 

able to use your machine as usual while 

this process occurs in the background.

Regular Backups to the Cloud

Following the first backup, the contents 

of your local hard drive will continue to 

be backed up to the cloud regularly. To 

make the process simpler and to save 

bandwidth, only new and changed files 

will be part of these routine backups. 

VPN is not required for these incremental backups.

It is important to note that only local 

hard drives will be backed up. Druva 

does not back up virtual or external 

drives. The user is responsible for 

backing up their virtual and external 

drives using their own tool; otherwise, 

they would need to move files to an 

internal drive to be backed up by 

Druva. It also does not back up a user’s 

OneDrive cloud files, which are already 

backed up in the Microsoft cloud.

Cloud Backup Tools and Resources

The Druva inSync tool offers a preference pane to check on the status of 

your current upload as well as your files 

stored in the cloud. For more information on how to use these tools, check 

the Cloud Backup Service Installation 

article on the EUSO website.

For more information on the features 

and functionality of the Cloud Backup 

Service, User Guides and FAQs are 

available now to help you get up to 

speed.

At EUSO, we understand that data is 

paramount to NASA’s mission, and we 

are providing this new cloud-based 

backup solution to improve upon existing backup capabilities and support 

mission success!

TEAMS Product Updates

By Shaina Strom, Communications Specialist, End User Services Program Office, Marshall Space Flight Center

Microsoft 365 is changing how we collaborate 

across NASA, and Teams functionality is 

growing. Designed to elevate work life, 

Teams works persistently to keep missioncritical conversations at your fingertips. 

NASA users can bookmark and check out 

the O365 Support Portal and EUSO News

for updates on features and functionality 

to stay ahead of changing technologies.

Teams Mobile App

• Delivers full desktop functionality 

to your phone.

• Allows users to join meetings, view shared 

screens, and track all notifications.

• Is currently available through NASA 

for iPhone and Android users.

Teams Audio

• Automatically adds a dial-in number and 

unique meeting code to Teams meetings. 

• Requires only the meeting organizer 

to have a license in order for all 

participants to use the functionality.

Enhancements

• Private Channels: Segment your team into 

smaller, more effective conversations.

• Background effects: Change your 

background so the focus stays on you.

• Hand raising: Raise your hand 

during Teams meetings to notify 

others that you have input.

• Read receipts: Notify senders when their 

messages have been read by recipients.

Coming Soon

• Attendance reporting: Never 

take roll call again with reports 

that document participants.

• Pop-out chats: Pull individual 

chats into their own windows.

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jul - Sep 2020 5
6 www.nasa.gov

Protecting NASA’s Mission by Staying Up to Date on 

Security Patching During the COVID-19 Pandemic 

By Jonathan Kaldani, IT Security Specialist, Ames Research Center

As you may have heard, there has been 

a significant increase in cyber-attacks 

against Government agencies, personnel, systems, and networks during the 

COVID-19 pandemic. These malicious 

cyber-attacks are coming from cybercriminals and Advanced Persistent 

Threats (APTs). Fortunately, there are 

some measures that can be taken to 

prevent successful malicious cyberattacks against Government networks, 

and one of the most important measures is staying up to date on security 

patching. 

Security patches address vulnerabilities in the software that cybercriminals 

might use to gain unauthorized access 

to your device and your data.1 A prime, 

well-known example of malware that 

shows the need to keep your system 

patching current is WannaCry. This 

2017 ransomware attack affected 

hundreds of thousands of computer 

systems across hundreds of countries 

throughout the world. All users had to 

do to prevent system compromise was 

to patch their computers. Two months 

before the WannaCry attack started, 

Microsoft released a patch that fixed 

the vulnerability. This attack should not 

have affected any users. However, because users did not apply the security 

patches addressing the vulnerabilities, 

they were susceptible to the attack. 

It is critical to always consider the 

impact that information security has on 

NASA’s operations and its mission. We 

at NASA are doing amazing work advancing science, space exploration, and 

quality of life here on Earth. We must always protect the research we do within 

the Agency by implementing proper 

security measures such as patching. For 

example, consider this situation: Imagine you did not keep current with security patches, and a malicious attacker, 

through your unpatched system, was 

able to compromise a system on NASA’s 

network. From there, they would be able 

to move laterally across the network and 

cause damage in various ways.

Another reason to apply appropriate 

security patches during this time of COVID-19 is due to the increase of telework 

across the Agency. An attack on the 

availability of NASA’s IT systems could 

cause a serious disruption of work. In 

another scenario to consider, if a malicious attacker were to successfully gain 

unauthorized access on NASA’s network, they could steal scientific research 

and proprietary data. Years of work 

could be stolen and used to save significant research cycles and money for 

a nation in competition with American 

aerospace interests. Another possibility 

is taking our good research and ruining 

its integrity; changing one digit in the 

findings would be all it would take to 

damage NASA’s mission, the safety of 

its people, and our international reputation. Imagine a scientist or engineer 

performing years of hard work only to 

have it be stolen by an APT or to have 

the data tampered with, destroying its 

integrity and wasting years of hard work. 

It would be devastating to our scientific 

community and to NASA.

At NASA, we are all passionate about 

the work we do. We are at a historic 

time as the Agency begins the Artemis 

program, which aims to land the first 

woman and next man on the Moon by 

2024. Then we will use what we learn 

on and around the Moon to take the 

next giant leap—sending astronauts 

to Mars! It is a very exciting time at the 

Agency, with many nations and nefarious actors wanting to leapfrog us and 

ruin our significant programs. To protect NASA’s Artemis mission, we must 

all do our part to safeguard and ensure 

the security of NASA’s IT systems. 

Security does not slow down or block 

NASA’s research; rather, it is a business 

enabler. It ensures the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of NASA’s 

data. It enables us to continue doing 

the great work that we do across the 

Agency in a secure manner. To do this, 

we can work with our IT and Information Security personnel in a timely manner, ensuring that appropriate security 

patches are applied and other security 

measures are taken—because NASA’s 

mission is depending on it! 

1 Source: https://www.blackstratus.com/what-is-a-security-patch
NASA OCIO IT Talk Jul - Sep 2020 7

JSC Telework Success Stories 

By Nathan Cranford, HRP Communications Specialist, Johnson Space Center 

On March 18, Johnson Space Center (JSC) employees and contractors 

began mandatory telework due to the 

COVID-19 pandemic. The Agency had 

instructed workers to telework in the 

past due to other emergencies, but 

COVID-19 has been an unprecedented 

situation. Here are a few success 

stories about how the Information 

Resources Directorate (IRD) has been 

helping the JSC workforce make a successful transition from working onsite 

to working at home. 

Office 365 

Office 365 tools like Microsoft Teams 

have been pivotal to continuing business operations at JSC. “We actually 

started using Microsoft Teams right 

before this all went down,” said Victoria Govreau, IRD customer support 

analyst. “It was a blessing because we 

weren’t going in blind.”

IRD made training programs like 

Teams 101 available to teach employees how to use the software. They 

also added a Telework Ready channel to a Microsoft Team, where users 

can discuss and develop solutions for 

issues they experience while working 

remotely. 

Wiki Entries 

IRD wiki entries that explain how to 

perform various tasks remotely have 

been beneficial during the COVID-19 

pandemic as well. “Some people like 

to do things on their own,” Govreau 

said. “The wikis provide instructions 

for where to get things [and] how to 

get things as well as NASA rules and 

regulations.”

Knowledge articles, provided by the 

End User Services Program Office 

(EUSO), offer additional self-service 

tools to be leveraged by the mobile 

workforce in quarantine. Subject matter 

experts, including the IRD team, keep 

the articles up to date and cover various IT-related topics.

Gilruth Center 

While IRD has been assisting customers who are working remotely, the 

Gilruth Center opened its doors for 

technical issues that are best dealt with 

in person by appointment. 

“IRD worked closely with the organization that manages the logistics of the 

Gilruth Center to secure a safe space 

for our NASA End-user Services and 

Technologies, or NEST, contractors and 

JSC employees,” said Kelly Foote, IRD 

customer relationship manager. “They 

were able to get support and equipment to continue our NASA business.”

Laptops

JSC’s embracement of laptops with 

remote access made it easier for many 

employees to work from home too. 

“Over time, it has become evident that 

the laptops are a better fit functionally 

for teleworking...[and] current laptop 

models can support...more technically 

challenging projects,” Foote said. 

For employees who had been using a 

desktop onsite, the Agency provided 

them with loaner laptops or allowed 

them to bring their desktops home. 

IRD also enabled many internships to 

continue by assisting with the shipment 

of JSC laptops and other equipment to 

interns across the country.

For more information about IRD services and support, visit https://ird.jsc.

nasa.gov/.

Jaumarro Cuffee, IRD communications 

strategist, using Microsoft Teams to 

discuss a technical issue with customer 

relationship managers and configuration management leads. 

(Photo credit: Jaumarro Cuffee, IRD 

communications strategist)

Destiny Ballroom of the Gilruth Center 

being set up to accommodate IT support by appointment for JSC during 

NASA Stage 3 mandatory telework. 

(Photo credit: Michael Nevills, JSC 

program principal and subject matter 

expert for End User Services Program 

Office)
8 www.nasa.gov

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Team Released 

COVID-19 Respirators and AI into Open Source

By Tom Soderstrom, IT Chief Innovation Officer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

Randi Levin, JPL’s CIO, called me on a 

Thursday night wondering if it was possible to 3D-print respirators to help protect people from COVID-19 infections.

The next morning, I spun up a small 

team of design/3D-printing engineers 

and Chris Mattmann from IT, and we 

quickly gathered inexpensive 3D printers and official test equipment from JPL 

and brought them to our homes. We 

then began designing, printing, assembling, and scientifically testing prototype designs. We also recruited volunteer medical professionals to make 

recommendations on the designs.

We realized that there would be a perilous lack of commercial respirators and 

filters. Therefore, we decided to use 

inexpensive and widely available materials and 3D printers, so that people 

across the world could print their own 

respirators to avoid COVID-19 contamination. For example, we built HEPA 

filters from inexpensive vacuum bags. 

Working like a startup, within 5 weeks 

and after more than 30 rapid development cycles, we released three 3Dprintable respirator designs into Open 

Source. We provided several options 

with instructions, print files, videos, and 

test results for each respirator, and we 

described the tradeoffs of comfort vs. 

filtration.

The feedback so far has been tremendous from the press, the medical 

support personnel, the Department of 

Defense (DOD), the National Institutes 

of Health (NIH), and the State of California’s Governor’s Office of Emergency 

Services. We hope everyone takes a 

look and provides feedback to evolve 

the designs—or, even better, we hope 

you will 3D-print a respirator for yourself or someone else. We are especially 

enthusiastic about building sensors of 

all kinds into the respirators. We used 

the $750 Prusa MK3 printers, and the 

parts list came out to about $3 per respirator, but your own 3D printer should 

work just fine.

Since the JPL respirator designs are in 

Open Source, we have been contacted 

by hobbyists from across the world who 

are printing their own respirators in the 

locations where they are needed—no 

shipping required. The benefits will persist well beyond the current pandemic.

JPL IT also helped us to understand the 

COVID-19 pandemic through data. Responding to the White House’s call to 

action to develop new text- and datamining techniques that could help the 

science community answer COVID-19 

questions, JPL IT personnel, led by 

Chris Mattmann, used artificial intelligence and natural language technologies to extract medical diagnoses and 

conditions, as well as drug and disease 

information, from a database of more 

than 25,000 publications. The information helps shed light on what is known 

about transmission, incubation, and 

environmental stability; what has been 

published about medical care; what we 

know about COVID-19 risk factors; and 

what we know about nonpharmaceutical interventions. The data was made 

available to the research community on 

March 23.
Return to Work Outlook

By Claire Little, Technical Writer, Technology & Data Division, NASA Headquarters 

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread 

across the country earlier this year, we 

witnessed NASA’s workforce showing 

its capability of working successfully 

from any location. NASA is a highly 

collaborative agency, spread across 

various Centers and facilities across the 

country, around the globe, and on-orbit. 

The Office of the Chief Information 

Officer demonstrated its ongoing 

commitment to ensuring that we all have 

access to the tools we need to do our 

jobs effectively. While there is always 

room to improve, NASA’s ability to be a 

productive virtual workplace has been 

proven, as has the need to be ready at 

any time to pivot to a virtual workstyle.

As the likelihood of mandatory telework 

increased, the OCIO performed several 

single-day VPN load tests to confirm that 

the Agency would be able to continue 

its mission uninterrupted. Reinforcing 

the findings of those tests, this extended 

telework experience has proven the 

Agency’s VPN load capabilities in a 

real-world, long-term scenario and has 

shown that our infrastructure can step up 

to the plate when faced with a challenge. 

Virtual collaboration tools, already important to NASA’s diffused workforce, 

became a critical component of the 

Agency’s ability to transition quickly 

and seamlessly from onsite work to 

remote work. Microsoft Teams, rolled 

out Agency-wide late last year, has 

been the standout. Replacing Skype as 

the Agency’s preferred virtual meeting 

tool, it also provides a central hub for 

organizing and collaborating on documents, connecting with colleagues via 

chat, and creating workgroups. Usage of Teams has almost tripled since 

mid-March, with an average of 35,000 

unique users on a typical weekday.

As workers prepare to return to onsite 

work after the COVID-19 pandemic, two 

central questions are being asked of 

NASA and the OCIO: How are we taking 

care of our people, and how are we taking care of our systems? Unlike previous examples of atypical work postures, 

such as Government shutdowns, this 

period has seen little to no interruption 

in help desk support and rolling out 

patches and updates to remote users. 

This means we will not have to play 

catch-up when returning to onsite work.

In addition to IT system considerations, 

we also need to think about how to 

keep hardware in shared spaces clean 

and safely usable. The moist cleaning wipes many of us are familiar with 

can damage electronics; special “tech 

wipes,” designed specifically to safely 

clean and sanitize electronics and other 

technology-related equipment without damaging them, should be used 

instead. Tech wipes will be available 

in conference rooms and other shared 

spaces throughout Centers and facilities that contain electronic equipment; 

additional wipes can be requested via 

your Center or facility’s Logistics Office.

NASA’s IT leadership spent years 

preparing for a mobile and responsive 

workforce, and the success of those 

efforts became clear when the Agency 

was faced with the task of quickly 

pivoting to almost 100 percent remote 

work. Learning from our successes during this unusual time, IT leadership will 

continue to prioritize IT investments that 

further capitalize on a strong, mobile 

workforce, including supporting potential long-term changes that NASA may 

decide to continue post-pandemic.

For more information on NASA’s COVID-19 

response and return-to-work guidance, visit 

https://nasapeople.nasa.gov/coronavirus/coronavirus.htm.

Nasa Names 

Headquarters After 

‘Hidden Figure’ 

Mary W. Jackson

On June 24, NASA announced 

it was naming the NASA Headquarters building in Washington, 

D.C., after Mary W. Jackson, the 

first African American female 

engineer at the agency. The 

following is a quote from NASA 

Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

"Mary W. Jackson was part of a 

group of very important women 

who helped NASA succeed in 

getting American astronauts into 

space. Mary never accepted the 

status quo, she helped break 

barriers and open opportunities for African Americans and 

women in the field of engineering 

and technology,” said Bridenstine. “Today, we proudly announce the Mary W. Jackson 

NASA Headquarters building. 

It appropriately sits on ‘Hidden 

Figures Way,’ a reminder that 

Mary is one of many incredible 

and talented professionals in 

NASA’s history who contributed 

to this agency’s success. Hidden no more, we will continue 

to recognize the contributions of 

women, African Americans, and 

people of all backgrounds who 

have made NASA’s successful 

history of exploration possible.”

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jul - Sep 2020 9
CONNECT: Continually Enhancing the VPN Service 

to Keep NASA Teleworking

By Sylvester Placid, Communications Program Communications Strategist, Marshall Space Flight Center

As the NASA workforce continues 

to telework as part of the Agency’s 

response to the COVID-19 pandemic, 

the Communications Program’s (CP) 

Virtual Private Network (VPN) service 

has become even more vital for staying connected and productive. Nearly 

40,000 users connect to the VPN every 

day during the workweek.

The CP Communications Network Operations Center (CNOC) team at Marshall 

Space Flight Center (MSFC) continually 

monitors the health of the VPN service 

on a 24/7 basis. VPN appliances at 

four NASA Trusted Internet Connection 

(TIC) Center locations (Ames, Goddard, 

Johnson, and Marshall) are configured 

to “alarm” when there is a loss of connectivity or if the appliance experiences 

an abnormal state or failure. Each TIC 

has a primary and secondary VPN appliance, so if the primary experiences a 

failure, it will automatically “fail over” to 

the secondary. Any VPN connections 

that are dropped on the primary VPN will 

automatically attempt to reconnect to 

the secondary. You can find the listing of 

primary and secondary VPN appliances 

that support your Center here (site internal to NASA only).

CNOC technicians have access to all 

VPN appliances and can begin troubleshooting issues immediately when notified of an alarm. CNOC responds to VPN 

appliance incidents within 15 minutes, 

and most incident resolutions occur 

within 1 hour—and often much sooner.

CP is continuously modifying and upgrading VPN appliances at TIC locations with 

patches, “hot-fixes,” and changes recommended by the vendor. The Adaptative 

Security Appliances (ASAs) are constantly 

updated to provide VPN users with the 

latest applications, profiles, and updates.

As teleworking continues to be a normal part of Agency operations, CP is 

planning to upgrade the VPN architecture in order to provide improved load 

balancing and further enhance the VPN 

experience for NASA personnel.

ENABLE: Creating New Possibilities for 

Virtual Town Halls at NASA Centers

By Sylvester Placid, Communications Program Communications Strategist, Marshall Space Flight Center

As nearly every NASA Center operated under mandatory telework in April 

and May 2020, the Communications 

Program (CP) was tasked with quickly 

creating a new service to enable virtual 

town halls for Centers to communicate 

with their personnel. The service needed to be secure, but operate outside of 

a VPN connection in order to alleviate 

pressure on the VPN service. The service also required security controls to 

ensure information was not shared with 

unintended audiences.

In four weeks, CP created a new virtual 

town hall service with several innovations. In a first for the Agency, CP leveraged Launchpad to credential NASA 

users outside of the NASA corporate 

network and authorize them to view the 

video streams. CP collaborated with 

other programs across the NASA Office 

of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) 

to authorize and enable VPN connection drops for credentialed users of the 

video streams. In order to test the solution with a large audience, CP worked 

with Universal Pictures to provide free 

screenings of Apollo 13 to the entire 

Agency, and gained valuable feedback 

from users of the new service.

As of May 2020, the new virtual town 

hall service has hosted over a dozen 

events and streamed video to more 

than 3,000 users during a single event. 

The International Space Station (ISS) 

and Huntsville Operations Support 

Center (HOSC) mission teams are using 

the service to securely stream video to 

partners.

With this innovative, timely new service that was established and tested in 

record time, CP is enabling the NASA 

workforce to attend and participate in 

large virtual events from anywhere.

10 www.nasa.gov
TRANSFORM: Supporting Mission-Essential 

Communications for the SpaceX Demo-2 Launch

By Allysha Sneed, Project Support Specialist, NASA Communications System (NASCOM), Goddard Space Flight 

Center and Sylvester Placid, Communications Program Communications Strategist, Marshall Space Flight Center 

When the first launch of American astronauts from U.S. soil to the International Space Station (ISS) in 9 years 

went flawlessly on May 30, 2020, 

the Communications Program (CP) 

NASCOM team at Goddard Space 

Flight Center (GSFC) played an essential role in the mission.

NASCOM operates the Terrestrial 

Network that carried the command 

and telemetry data from ground 

stations to the ISS Mission Control 

Center and the SpaceX demarcation 

at Johnson Space Center (JSC). The 

SpaceX demarcation utilizes NASA’s 

point-to-point circuits for communication services. NASCOM also operates the mission-critical voice loops 

that are used to coordinate launch 

support. 

In addition to providing air-to-ground 

communications for crewed spacecraft, NASCOM has successfully supported more than nine recent launches, including the launch and docking 

of Expedition 62/63 to the ISS in September 2019 and April 2020 as well 

as the Atlas V/USSF-7 launch and the 

carrier dispatch for the JAXA HTV-9 

launch to the ISS, both in May 2020. 

(HTV-9 and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon 

DM-2 launched just 10 days apart!) 

NASCOM continues to build on the 

successful support of these missions 

by providing a customer-centric and 

continuously improving organization. NASCOM remains focused on 

customer support excellence with the 

Mission Customer Dashboard, transforming how customers receive project 

updates in real time, including status of 

high-level reviews and service delivery milestones. NASCOM and NASA 

Integrated Communication Services 

(NICS) Customer Service Representatives leverage this tool to proactively 

mitigate hindrances to service delivery 

and utilize the shared knowledge base 

to support customers.

Over the last two weeks, NASCOM 

shared the latest enhancements to the 

CP NASCOM Mission Network with 

mission customers and key stakeholders during the Mission Communications Working Group (MCWG). This 

annual F2F event was held completely virtually this year via Webex. 

NASCOM looks forward to continuing 

to provide exceptional service delivery 

for future launches and missions as 

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program

transforms human spaceflight.

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jul - Sep 2020 11
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Office of the Chief Information Officer

300 E Street, SW

Washington, DC 20546

www.nasa.gov

NASA

JPL Named to the “2020 

Best Places To Work in IT”

By Whitney Haggins, IT Communication Strategist,

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

On June 23, IDG's Insider Pro and 

Computerworld named JPL one of 

the “2020 Best Places To Work in IT” 

and ranked it number 23 among large 

organizations. The selection is JPL's 

eighth consecutive appearance on the 

“Best Places to Work in IT” list. JPL is 

one of the top 100 organizations that 

challenge their IT staff while providing great benefits and compensation. 

The list, which is compiled based on a 

comprehensive questionnaire regarding company offerings in categories 

such as benefits, career development, training, and retention, is now 

in its 27th year. Also, IDG conducts 

extensive surveys of IT workers, and 

their responses heavily influence the 

rankings.

JPL CIO Randi Levin had this to say 

about the honor: "I am excited that 

JPL continues to appear on this 

prestigious list with other innovative 

organizations that achieve excellence 

through investment in and support of 

their people.”

IT Talk