Goldin doesn't accept the argument that you have to sacrifice reliability or quality to cut the cost of space hardware. Goldin said Peer Review ought to dominate the Science community. Goldin turned to International missions. He said NASA is doing an OK job at structuring International cooperation on major efforts. He cautioned against wholesale tech transfer but suggested cooperative efforts were very desirable.
International participation is a terrific multiplier of resources.
He complimented Boeing for their methods of building teams overseas on 777 to protect the high value-added, system level work, while helping sell more product by placing hardware builds strategically to take advantage of foreign subsidies. These type of programs are more difficult but the US cannot afford to do major missions alone anymore. Goldin said he is ready to support more cooperative missions. Feels DoE offers unique capability in the high energy research arena. Goldin wants the SSAC to really stretch when building the Strategic Plan.