News: AP - NASA Has Too Many Astronauts for Flights

NASA Has Too Many Astronauts for Flights

NASA's Inspector General's Office: Too Many Astronauts, Not Enough
Spaceflights

The Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. July 10 —
NASA has too many astronauts waiting around for their chance to fly in
space and needs to do a better job of matching the size of the corps
to the number of missions, the agency's inspector general said
Thursday.

In a report that should have been released in February but was delayed
because of the Columbia disaster, the inspector general's office
concluded the space agency was "overly optimistic" in predicting
future shuttle flight rates and hired too many astronauts in recent
years.

The report said that because of an engineer shortage at Johnson Space
Center in Houston, high-priced astronauts have been used to fill
engineering positions. That practice may have been used, in turn, to
justify the large size of the astronaut corps.

"We found that some astronauts worked in technical assignments that
did not require astronauts and could have been performed by less
expensive engineers," the report said.

NASA has 144 astronauts on its payroll, about a third of whom have yet
to fly into space. With the remaining three shuttles grounded in the
wake of the Columbia accident, the rookies will have to wait much,
much longer for a rocket ride.

The inspector general's office did not call for any astronaut layoffs,
suggesting only that NASA hire more judiciously.

NASA's top spaceflight official has already concurred with the
recommendations, and the space agency has agreed to better manage the
size of its astronaut corps and establish formal criteria for giving
technical assignments to astronauts.

The inspector general's office said that Johnson Space Center could
not determine the full cost of its astronaut corps in 2002, but noted:
"Astronauts clearly cost more than other civil servants" because of
their extensive training.

A Johnson spokeswoman said Thursday she was unable to provide a cost
estimate.

Even before Columbia shattered over Texas during re-entry Feb. 1 and
seven were killed, NASA's astronaut selection office had planned for
the class of 2004 to be one of the smallest in shuttle history. Only
about 12 new astronauts will be selected at the beginning of next year
out of the thousands of applicants, and they probably will not fly
until 2009, said Duane Ross, who is in charge of the office.

Ross said when the 1996 and 1998 astronaut classes were being filled,
with 35 and 25 people respectively, NASA was projecting seven or eight
shuttle flights a year and anticipated a full crew of six or seven
aboard the international space station. As it turns out, shuttles flew
just five or so times a year and the station has yet to house more
than three astronauts at a time.

The space station crew has shrunk to two, in fact, because of the
indefinite grounding of the shuttle fleet and the hold on U.S.
deliveries.

NASA's most recent astronaut class, in 2000, had 17 members. No new
astronauts were chosen in 2001, 2002 or 2003, and it is possible the
2004 class may be canceled, Ross said.

If it stays on track, the next class will include a few
schoolteachers. NASA's only other in-flight disaster the 1986
Challenger accident had a schoolteacher on board, Christa McAuliffe.

The inspector general's office said that in light of the Columbia
tragedy, the release of the report was put off "until a more
appropriate time."


http://abcnews.go.com/wire/SciTech/ap20030710_1257.html

"Rusty B" wrote in message
om...
NASA Has Too Many Astronauts for Flights

NASA's Inspector General's Office: Too Many Astronauts, Not Enough
Spaceflights

Interesting. I did not know about this report. The pressure to keep the
crew of seven is worse than I thought.

Daniel

And how many Cosmonauts are there then???

Brian

--
Brian Gaff....
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:
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Charleston wrote:

"Rusty B" wrote in message
om...

NASA Has Too Many Astronauts for Flights

NASA's Inspector General's Office: Too Many Astronauts, Not Enough
Spaceflights


Interesting. I did not know about this report. The pressure to keep the
crew of seven is worse than I thought.


Where did you come up with this "pressure" to retain a specific crew
size? It seems pretty simple to me. The goal of each flight is to
maximize productive time on orbit. The goal is NOT to minimize risk.
If risk minimization was the goal then there would be no flights at all.
You maximize productive time on orbit with more crew members. For
what the thing costs per mission, I would view a smaller crew size as a
waste of resources.

You are getting hung up on the notion that if we fly smaller crews then
fewer people will get killed if something goes wrong. Well, that's true
as far as that goes, but I suggest that's not a good way to set crew
sizes when you're looking to maximize the utilization of a very scarce
and expensive resource.

--
bp
Proud Member of the Human O-Ring Society.

Where did you come up with this "pressure" to retain a specific crew
size? It seems pretty simple to me. The goal of each flight is to
maximize productive time on orbit. The goal is NOT to minimize risk.
If risk minimization was the goal then there would be no flights at all.
You maximize productive time on orbit with more crew members. For
what the thing costs per mission, I would view a smaller crew size as a
waste of resources.

Actually there has been "pressure" to retain large crews for a long time.
Before the shuttle even started flying NASA selected two large astronaut
classes (35 in 1978, 20 in 1980...selected because the number of flights
per-year was expected to be quite high) and additionally there were some 20
astronauts who has been waiting for spaceflights since the 60's...you need to
fly these people some point. I don't think NASA really needed to have 7 people
flying around on a satelite deployment mission but they needed to fly these
people at some point.

Also, astronauts currently have to wait some two or three years between each
spaceflight. A reduced astronaut corps doesn't mean that people won't be
available...it will mean more people will get to fly more often.

-A.L.