NASA's Human Spaceflight Chief Resigns a Week Before Historic SpaceX Launch (arstechnica.com) 47
FallOutBoyTonto shares a report from Ars Technica: On Tuesday, NASA announced that its chief of human spaceflight had resigned from the space agency. The timing of Doug Loverro's departure is terrible, with NASA's first launch of humans in nearly nine years due to occur in just eight days. The space agency offered a bland statement regarding Loverro's resignation as Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) at NASA.
"Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Doug Loverro has resigned from his position effective Monday, May 18," the statement said. "Loverro hit the ground running this year and has made significant progress in his time at NASA. His leadership of HEO has moved us closer to accomplishing our goal of landing the first woman and the next man on the Moon in 2024. Loverro has dedicated more than four decades of his life in service to our country, and we thank him for his service and contributions to the agency." Loverro's resignation set off a firestorm of speculation after it was announced. He was due to chair a Flight Readiness Review meeting on Thursday to officially clear SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft for the first flight of humans to the International Space Station. The final go or no-go decision for that mission was to be his. That launch is presently scheduled for May 27.
"Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Doug Loverro has resigned from his position effective Monday, May 18," the statement said. "Loverro hit the ground running this year and has made significant progress in his time at NASA. His leadership of HEO has moved us closer to accomplishing our goal of landing the first woman and the next man on the Moon in 2024. Loverro has dedicated more than four decades of his life in service to our country, and we thank him for his service and contributions to the agency." Loverro's resignation set off a firestorm of speculation after it was announced. He was due to chair a Flight Readiness Review meeting on Thursday to officially clear SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft for the first flight of humans to the International Space Station. The final go or no-go decision for that mission was to be his. That launch is presently scheduled for May 27.
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imagine being so ignorant of your own political agenda that you think it's LEBERALS who want to privatize everything.
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If Soros bought the election for Hillary, then he definitely needs to ask for his money back!
Stop picking on Soros, why has he become the whipping boy for the far right is beyond me. Just more nonsense conspiracy theories, you gotta find someone rich who is not firmly on the right and then start blaming major problems on that person. Soros, Gates, Buffet, ...
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Such pithy wit.
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Don't be ridiculous idiot. Remember Hilliary, Obama. Again, you are fucking dumb it is insulting single-cell organisms.
I find it very surprising that you can remember President Hillary. Sane people can't.
Prudent (Score:2)
He deftly avoiding being on the wrong side of both halves of "Whence to you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?"
You know, multi-millennia retirement implications.
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Er, "Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?"
No need for a typo to introduce a lack of clarity.
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What, no "-1, Impossible"?
Nobody quits on the cusp of glory... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: Nobody quits on the cusp of glory... (Score:5, Informative)
He said the resignation was related to Artemis (most likely the moon lander competition) not Commercial Crew.
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"He said the resignation was related to Artemis "
Yeah, those Daughters of Artemis are tough.
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He knows that private space will be successful. He was on the other side, I think.
Jim Bridenstine, director of NASA, really wants us back in space, instead of NASA being a pure pork barrel that never achieves anything. That is not a popular view among congresscritters or some NASA admins. Bridenstine has very cleverly set up current NASA manned spaceflight programs as a competition of sorts between private space companies ("new space") and pork barrel projects like SLS. There's no official plan to aband
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NASA never achieves anything? All the technology that has come out of NASA and you claim they've never achieved anything? How about volunteering to be the first guinea pig on the commercial flight to the moon. Should be a piece of cake as long as they refuse to accept any of the background provided by NASA for ... uh... doing it first. Get yer ass out there, your country's industry is depending upon your sacrifice!!
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All the technology that has come out of NASA and you claim they've never achieved anything?
NASA sure was great 50 years ago! They hasn't launched a rocket in 10 years. Their contracts are "cost plus", so corporation rake in profits until they deliver. So, no rush.
Bridenstine is awesome because he's as tired of we are of this BS. If "new space" can leave the pork barrel contractors in the dust, let them. Nothing wrong with finding out.
How about volunteering to be the first guinea pig on the commercial flight to the moon.
I believe those seats sold for $20 million a head, to that Japanese billionaire who bought them all. Sorry, that's a bit beyond my budget. I am saving up, tho
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The decisions to insist on expensive contracts to Big Aerospace etc are always pushed by certain members of Congress and not NASA management, who are obligated to obey the law.
NASA when it has its choices prefers to concentrate on unique scientific capabilities (e.g. JPL) and not sending the money to be burned for "shareholder value" creation at Boeing, Lockheed and other associated feeders thereof.
Somebody seems to know something (Score:1)
And is smart enough to get out before it hits the fan and probably has no trouble finding another job.
Re: Somebody seems to know something (Score:2)
Well, at least the astronauts have *plenty* to talk about while munching on the in-flight peanu--oh, my bad; they don't have them either.
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Given the extent to which people _ruin_ the projects they were grought in and failed to lead, it's not always the ability to detect the project failure. It can be a form of the "Pewter Principle", to step out while still riding the good will with which they were brought on board and before the staff leave en masse.
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Peter Principle?
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There was a book titled "The Peter Principle"in the 1960's. People get promoted for their success, until they start failing too often, and they stop being promoted. The result have been analyzed in depth for decades, and there are many published analyses and corollaries of the rule. There are also much more colorful ways of expressing it.
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There was a book titled "The Peter Principle"in the 1960's.
He was correcting your spelling, not asking about the principle.
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Oh. Thank you to them, yes. I'm working with a smaller screen and font than usual, I have had more spelling errors working at home.
Can't handle the heat (Score:1)
Get out of the kitchen. NASA has been incapable of human spaceflight for almost a decade now, I wonder why they even have this position.
Washington Post has more details (Score:5, Informative)
It's not related to the upcoming flight.
It seems he did something wrong to do with the Lunar competition and he now admits it was a mistake.
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]
Two people with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the personnel matter said his resignation was spurred when Loverro broke a rule during NASA’s recent procurement of a spacecraft capable of landing humans on the moon.
In an email he wrote to top NASA officials that was obtained by The Washington Post, Loverro wrote that NASA’s mission “is certainly not easy, nor for the faint of heart, and risk-taking is part of the job description.”
He wrote that he took “a risk earlier in the year because I judged it necessary to fulfill our mission. Now, over the balance of time, it is clear that I made a mistake in that choice for which I alone must bear the consequences.”
In an interview, Loverro declined to discuss the exact details of why he resigned.
“It had nothing to do with commercial crew,” he said. “It had to do with moving fast on Artemis, and I don’t want to characterize it in any more detail than that.” Artemis is NASA’s program to return people to the moon.
If he thought the SLS was a good idea - bye! (Score:1)
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Hunch (Score:5, Interesting)
My hunch here is that Boeing threw a fit when they didn't get any funding from the human lander contract for the moon. They got dumped pretty hard. I'm guessing Boeing wanted another shot but Loverro pushed along with the program just to get the selection done so progress could be made and in that broke a rule somewhere.
I wouldn't take that to the bank though. It's just speculation. Eventually we'll know what happened here I think. Congress has questions already.
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Ah but see? That's the rule he broke. You aren't allowed to run a program without giving Boeing its congressionaly mandated pork.
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Yup, the big lolly scramble / spend doesn't go to the usual suspects... who strangely fund parties... and so the circle of life goes...
of course (Score:1)
Probably still left people wondering who might therefore be in charge of "manned spaceflight"
Odd timing but makes sense (Score:2)