Throughout America's story,
there are defining days, the days
when minds change, hearts fill
and imagination, soul
trains and visions transform the trajectory
of the American story, which is our story
doing what is hard and achieving what is great.
That is what stirs humankind.
That's what unites us
with inspiration and innovation.
No, Herculean effort is too large.
No moonshot is beyond our reach and lift off of heart
on this one.
A new generation.
The Artemis generation stands ready,
ready to return humanity to the moon.
And then to take us farther than ever before.
To Mars.
Let us continue the quest
to unfold this universe
and let us continue
to find unity in our discovery.
So together, let us continue to dream
the impossible dream that now becomes real.
Then let us traverse the untouched terrain of
the once unreachable stars.
Good afternoon, folks.
Thank you for being here.
Those videos get me pumped up as much as I can
with a sinus infection.
I'm sorry from little hoarse, but it's exciting
to see the accomplishments of
what we're doing as an agency and to see so many parts of that
that have
a martial fingerprint on it throughout those missions.
And if I can be self-indulgent, I can be proud of our team
for their contributions to what we're doing as an agency.
We're honored and delighted
to have the agency leadership with us today.
Administrator Nelson, Deputy Mr.
Melroy Associate Administrator Cabana and Deputy
Associate Administrator Swales, thank you for being here
and joining with our workforce there.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Our Marshall team is coming off the victory
lap from the Artemus One mission
and just a tremendous test flight
that has proven out our generational rocket.
That's a forefront,
that's a foundation for the Army's missions.
And the team is now laser focused on Artemus to
as we prepare to send humans back around the moon
for the first time in 50 plus years,
while we're also preparing with our industry partners,
the lander that's going to return
humans to the moon, the first woman,
the first person of color to the surface, and that work
along with many other activities being done by you guys,
this tremendous group of team members.
They're pulling together with our industry partners
and our other centers to accomplish some audacious
goals that we have as an agency and as a nation.
And I couldn't be prouder of the work
that you guys are doing each and every day to do that.
And so it's honored to have our leadership team here
to share with you some of the things
that are going on within the agency
and how Marshall fits into that.
Some things you've heard from us already
in the town hall around the ESA 2040,
what we're doing in Arnhem US to prepare to do science
as well as probably an update on what's going on
with the budget situation,
which we talked a little bit in our town hall
and you'll get to hear a little bit more.
From a leadership perspective,
we had a chance to
talk this morning and they reiterated ever again
about how important it is for Marshall
and the work we do to be a part of what the agency is doing.
And so I really appreciate you guys being here
and look forward to some time to hear from them.
And we also have Q&A at the end.
So be prepared with questions.
We're going to address some that came in on the town
hall tool
and then we'll take some from the audience
so you can be thinking about questions
as we go through with that.
I want to welcome the administrator to the podium.
60 years ago,
President Kennedy,
he had already gone to Congress in 1961,
and he made that astonishing statement.
We are going to the moon and return
a man safely
by the end of the decade.
He had done that
at the time of the Soviets,
had beat us into space,
first with Sputnik,
then with Gagarin.
I remember one day
when I was a young congressman, I was sitting on the floor
and the speaker, Tip O'Neill, came over and sat down beside me
and he knew
that I was maybe I had already flown.
But anyway,
he knew the connection, so he wanted to tell me his story.
And he said when I was a young congressman
from Boston,
he said I was down at the White House
seeing President Kennedy, and I had never seen him so nervous.
And he was just pacing back and forth like
a cat on a hot tin roof.
And he said, I called
over to his aides and I said, What's wrong with the president?
And they explained
that Gagarin had already gone in.
And we were attempting the first time in suborbital
with Alan Shepard
and then, of course, with Gus Grissom.
And in the meantime,
the Soviets launched Titov
into ten orbits.
By the way, one thing I did not know
until recently from a historian.
Both Gagarin
and Titov did not land,
and because it was the Soviet Union,
they were able to keep that secret.
They bailed out
because they did not have the capability of landing.
And yet it was as if it was a complete thing.
And they did that because they were trying to beat us.
Well, they beat us.
So that day that Alan Shepard
is getting ready to go, but Kennedy
made that speech.
It was so declarative and so aspirational.
But at first America
didn't rally to that.
And he waited another year
until after John Glenn had flown.
And of course,
that was really
where America came and saw that it could do it.
And so Kennedy goes to Houston
and he goes to Rice University
football Stadium and the stadiums packed,
and he makes one of his most memorable speeches.
He says, We go to the moon
not because it's easy,
but because it's hard.
And then he characterized it
since he was a cellular
and he used a lot of nautical references in his speeches.
He said the astronauts are going to be star sailors
and they're
going to sail on a cosmic sea
and they're going to discover far off
cosmic shores.
And that's what we did.
That's what you did.
That's what Marshall did.
That's what the nation did.
That's what Nasser did.
And now
we've done so much in between.
And now we're going back.
Only this time we're going back to the moon
to learn, to live, to create, to invent.
In order
for us to go to Mars and beyond,
to discover those far
distant cosmic shores.
And you are very much a part of this.
My first encounter at Marshall,
I was the chairman of the Space Subcommittee in the House.
I was a young congressman.
I came here for a briefing and a tour
and Jim Beggs, the administrator,
had already told me that he was going to
make it possible for me to fly
on the space shuttle, but it hadn't been announced.
And he had said, I want you to figure out
all the experiments that you're going to do.
And in that tour
and briefing here at Marshall,
they told me about
a medical experiment, the principal investigator
of which was at UAB Birmingham
Medical School,
and it was a cancer
research experiment.
I had just had a girl that was like a sister
to me, had died of breast cancer.
And I'm telling you, when they said that, the hairs
stood up on the back of my neck because they said, Congressman,
we need this experiment run on the space shuttle.
And we hadn't been able to get the crew time dedicated to it.
And I knew
right then that that was going to be my primary experiment.
And today
they're finally having some breakthroughs now
in protein crystal growth on the space station.
They're having some
major things that are coming out
about the cancer drug KEYTRUDA.
And they've they've learned in the way that they can
manipulate it in near zero G,
that they can then
back on earth,
grow that drug much more efficiently.
They're having a breakthrough on stem cells.
STEM cells takes millions
and millions of stem cells in stem cell therapy.
And there's a lot of promise there.
But the problem is you grow them on earth,
they all fall down in the bottom.
They all clump together and a lot of them die.
You take it to zero G
and they're suspended
and they can grow a lot more of them, bring them back to Earth.
And these are the breakthroughs
that are just getting ready
to be acknowledged
and recognized first.
And that's just one part of what we do.
What you do.
This is an exciting time.
It's an exciting time.
We've got a whole new generation.
We're backed up in science and goodness
gracious, look what's happening there.
The James Webb Space Telescope,
the planetary probes.
I mean, we could go on and on.
The Earth science,
it's all happening
and it's all happening because of you. All.
I often say that
Pam and and Bob and I are just privileged
to try to offer some little bit of leadership
to a group that's a bunch of wizards.
And that's what you are.
You make the impossible possible.
And so we wanted to come here
and and to tell you how much we appreciate you.
And we want you to know that
NASA's just getting started.
Look what's happened in the past.
Look what's happening in the near past.
Just in the year 2022 alone.
But look where we're going.
And so thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I'm looking forward to your questions.
You can ask me anything.
I don't care.
So let's get on with it.
Thank you, sir.
Can you imagine following that?
I just want to say thank you so much to Joseph Ray and Larry
and the leadership team here at Marshall for welcoming us.
And it is wonderful to be here.
I was thinking a lot of the same things
that Bill was talking about, just how
crucial Marshall was to the Apollo program,
which has left an incredible mark on the world.
And when Americans talk about
the value of government and what government does,
the Apollo landings always come up as number one.
And that's that's really important to know.
And, of course, you're playing the same kind of role again here
as we do something very different as we begin to
actually go out with humans in a responsible
and sustainable way to explore the whole solar system.
And I believe that the propulsion experts
at Marshall, the science, nuclear propulsion,
all of those things are going to be critical
to what we're doing going forward.
So I just wanted to share a couple of things
that are going on
kind of from a strategic perspective at the agency.
First of all, Moon to Mars,
having the first architecture concept review was really
important last last year or actually earlier this year.
It was an opportunity for us to take all the objectives
that we put together and then start to flow them down
into capabilities and the needs for the future.
And it was an opportunity to get feedback.
So we got feedback from industry,
We got feedback from you.
We got feedback from our international partners.
And just recently
we held a workshop with other government
agencies to get their feedback as well.
And with all this feedback,
we're able to actually link our strategy
all the way to the objectives
and then down to the elements that we're using
so that it's a clear picture for everyone.
And so we're going to host the next architecture
concept review in November. And
it's exciting times because
every year we'll have one of these reviews and every year
we will have an updated and evolved architecture.
And we have to do that because technology continues to change
and we will have new capabilities
that you're developing in some of our industry
and international partners are developing.
So we have to stay flexible
and stay focused on those objectives,
which is getting humans to Mars long term.
So speaking of staying focused,
it's actually really, really important that we think
about what exactly we are doing with the Artemis program.
So it's it's just really important
to stay focused on the why.
If you ever heard me speak before, you know,
I always say what is the value that space offers?
Because people do ask us that question
and we have to find a good way to articulate it.
And together, the Federated Board worked
with us a couple of years ago
to really articulate that in a beautiful way.
And they had three pillars.
And the first one is science.
Science is the seed corn of our knowledge and capabilities
of the universe, of the solar system,
of our planet, and of our own bodies
and biological and physical processes,
which we're learning on the space station by unmasking
second and third order effects by taking away gravity.
So much to learn about ourselves and those things become
the future technical capabilities.
And that's the second pillar is national posture.
It's those technical capabilities.
It's the when you do something hard, you actually
invent and create capabilities that spill over.
And, you know,
we like to
talk about our spinoffs, but I think when you really take
a look at the incredible impact, for example, software
engineering didn't exist as a discipline before Apollo,
but that's what allowed our country
to take a leadership role in computer science
and essentially invent the Internet in the next decades.
So, so many capabilities that we create from
what we're doing that actually lift
our national technical science and technology capability.
And increasingly, with our
growing commercial space industry, we're having
a huge economic impact as well on our country.
And then, of course, the third reason is inspiration,
which I don't need to tell any of you,
because we're inspired by our work every single day.
But it's important
to remember that the other seed corn is our students,
the ones who are uniquely inspired by space
to go into a STEM career.
And that helps us
keep that virtuous cycle going of science and discovery
that leads to national technical capability
that inspires the rest of the future.
We really need to recognize that as we go forward.
The differences between what
we're doing with Artemus and Apollo.
Apollo had a stated goal of putting a man on the moon
and returning him safely.
And there were some challenges with that
because after we did it, the national will went away.
Okay, we won.
We won the space race. We're over.
The truth was, we weren't really ready to stay.
We had so much to learn.
And our heritage with the space shuttle
and now with the space station has helped us
learn how to routinely put people in space safely
and how to do science in microgravity
and to stay for long periods of time.
But we really have to make sure that we're focused
on all the pillars of the why, because that's what's going
to create political resilience for Artemus and Moon to Mars.
So it's important that we talk about and articulate the science
and the technology that we develop
and the impact that that has on Americans.
And I'm personally excited as I see the incredible science
that you work on here with the International Space Station.
What new discoveries we're going to get with Artemus
and I love the way Reed Wiseman, the commander of Artemus,
to put it in August,
He said the measure of success for Artemus, too,
we're seeing astronauts on the moon,
not not their own mission, but seeing Gateway assembled,
seeing people follow in their footsteps,
doing science on the surface of the moon
and then eventually Mars.
And that's what that test flight is all about.
So with all that incredible activity
surrounding Artemus and Moon to Mars
and things that we're doing, we've also been really focused
on how we work together than an enterprise.
We know there's a lot of challenges ahead.
I know that you're living with them every single day.
We put a lot of pressure on our workforce
and even more pressure on our infrastructure as well
as we have pushed the boundaries of our mission
and done incredible things
like Artemus one in preparing to do Artemus, too.
But really
the senior leadership team has a tremendous amount of energy
about improving the way we do things and providing
the same institutional benefits that we have as our mission.
We need to support our people and our facilities
and our infrastructure the same way
with the same passion that we execute our mission.
And that's what NASA's 2040 is all about.
You're going to hear a lot more about NASA's 2040 from Casey.
And you might notice
we're wearing a pin that says, Ask me about NASA's 2040.
So if you have any questions, I know there's also Casey,
you're hosting a roundtable
on Thursday, right, to roundtables.
So I think bring your best questions,
but more importantly, bring your best ideas, because
we are trying to make sure
that we are going to be doing all the amazing things
in the future that we're able to do today.
And I just also want to echo
the administrator and thank the workforce
for the incredible work that you do.
And it's really a privilege to be here.
We're very much looking forward to engaging with you
and having a dialog and hearing your questions.
So thank you.
Well, I just want to say how great it is to come back
to the Marshall Space Flight Center.
I love coming here.
When I was training for Spacelab mission on SCA 65.
I really love coming here.
When I got this train for the first disassembly mission
and see Node one, it started out as just an aluminum shell here
and seeing it to completion when it went on orbit.
But I think, Pam, I'll have to agree
it sure was a lot easier jumping in a T-38
and flying into Redstone or Huntsville than it is
going through Charlotte and Atlanta to get here.
It's a real pleasure for me to come and thank you
for all that you are doing for Artemus and the S.S..
You are critical to our future.
You know, KC and I had the privilege last week.
We were talking to the executive safety form down in Florida.
Robert and Lisa were there, and I'd like to see
a show of hands.
How many folks were
not here at NASA when we lost Columbia?
Not here.
Oh, my gosh.
That's over half the audience. That's out there.
So, you know, it's been 50 years since we were on the moon.
And this is challenging.
If you look back at the Apollo one accident in 1967,
Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2001.
We're talking about 20 years between events
when we kind of let our guard down.
And so one of the things that I brought up in talking
to the Executive Safety Forum
was the need to create an inclusive environment
where everybody feels free to be heard.
An inclusive team
where you create an environment where
people feel free to speak up.
And so that's what I'm asking of all of you
as you attend these meetings, as we push to get items two,
three, four and beyond going
in, Marshall plays a critical role in all of that.
Please make sure that you are active participants
in the meetings that are making that happen, that you speak up
if you have a concern and if you're leading a meeting,
please make sure that you create that environment
and that you actually listen
to the people
when they air their concerns
and that they are properly addressed.
What we are doing is too critical
to not give it our very best and have that environment.
Now, man, you guys, when I look at
all that's been accomplished.
As I said, you guys are critical to what's going on.
And I assess right now over in the park,
you guys are critical to Artemus
as we assess the core stage.
You're critical to the upper stage.
You're critical to the human landing system.
We're not going to the moon
without the Marshall Space Flight Center.
You guys are it.
And when we look to the future for going on to Mars,
nuclear propulsion,
you know, nuclear thermal propulsion, that's
here at the Marshall Space Flight Center.
We don't want to take years for these missions.
We don't want to take months to get to Mars.
We want to get there in a matter of weeks.
We can't do that without a new propulsion system.
So that's the Marshall Space Flight Center.
There is just a phenomenal future here
to make us successful as we explore
and go beyond our home planet.
Quick update, I think you guys Artemus, too.
Man, we are on track.
The engines are going into the core stage.
You know,
we've named a crew for Artemus
to hopefully those guys are going to get up here
and share their enthusiasm with all of you.
It's an amazing crew.
The mobile launchers out at the pad right now
going through testing, getting ready to accept that core stage.
When it gets down to KSC, the VAB is ready.
You know,
the solid rocket boosters are on their way down to the Cape.
We are getting ready for autumn as to next year.
And you guys did an amazing job on our newest one.
That was the most phenomenal
rocket launch I think I've ever seen.
I couldn't have been more happy.
And I know you guys were really proud of that.
Two items, three,
the critical role that Marshall's playing on that
and we're making progress on Artemus three
Space
X had a second static test fire down
in Boca Chica, getting ready to fly that big rocket.
They got some work to do getting their license.
But hopefully we'll get that thing flying
the big rocket along with Starship
so that we can prove out this system
that we need for a lander,
the EVA suit that is required to put astronauts on the moon.
They've done the fit checks on that,
making great progress in that regard.
And as I look on beyond that,
for Artemus, for beyond the rover,
we're working through, getting the rover ready.
Gateway, the solar electric propulsion
with Aerojet Rocketdyne,
they've started qual testing on those
solar electric propulsion motors.
You know,
this isn't anything that's that far off in the future.
It's now
we're creating all the systems we're making it to happen now.
So I just want to thank all of you
for your hard work
and your dedication to make NASA's who we are,
the best agency in the federal government.
But why is that?
It's because of this amazing team that we have
in this amazing mission
that we have where when you go home at night,
you're not making a difference for the Marshall Space
Flight Center or the state of Alabama.
Even for the United States, you're
making a difference for humanity because that's our future,
to go beyond our home planet and explore.
And if you were looking at those videos,
I think one of the key
things that came out of there is we're doing this together.
We are not going to be successful
unless all of NASA works together,
unless our whole team works together,
the centers, the mission directors
and all the people, as well as our industry partners
and our international partners together, we are doing this.
We are going and it's going to be an awesome adventure.
Thank you.
All right.
Yeah.
It felt so good to be here in the South.
I'm from the South, so every time I come back
I can count on t hugs and seeing some really cool
space stuff. So.
Always happy to be here in Huntsville.
And as the administrator was talking,
I was thinking back to the first time I came here and.
And then I looked at the show of hands in the room
and how many people weren't here during Columbia.
And, you know,
I started right at right before return to flight.
And I remember sitting in the auditorium
at the Johnson Space Center
where I spent a big portion of my career
before I went to headquarters.
And just how exciting that was and the feeling that I felt
when we return to flight with shuttle.
And now I look at where we are
almost two decades later and the broader space economy.
And it's just a crazy difference from even where we were.
I look at the activity over
90 launches this year down at the Kennedy Space Center.
That's a
double from what was even last year.
I look at the number of U.S.
commercial companies, 5500 space companies in the U.S.
alone, 10,000 across the world.
And we're over half of that.
When I first started, I could think of
a handful, and there were still hundreds.
But I just look at where we are and how different that is.
You look at the broader space economy, you know, over
$460 billion.
And what's so cool about that is the leadership role
that NASA plays. And that's the piece that I get.
So about when I watch those videos.
The role that we play in inspiration
and exploration and innovation for the world.
And, you know, really when I think about NASA's 2040,
that's what it's about, is
we think about that space economy continuing to grow
and the leadership that we play, not just for U.S.
but for the world.
And how do we make sure as an organization,
we're making decisions today to help define that future.
We go forward.
And I don't know about folks in the room,
but I'm really excited that we're going back to the moon
and I'm excited to eventually go to Mars.
How many people want to go to Mars?
A lot of people want to go to Mars.
20 year sliding scale at a minimum.
So if we're going to do that,
we have to
get back to the moon today and we need to get ready.
And so
when we think about NASA's 2040 and that's a big part
of why we started that and we think about kind of our
our goal, our role in that ecosystem
and being that leader, making those decisions today requires
not only are we making investments, but frankly,
what are the things that we're not going to do
and we think about that broader ecosystem.
Personally, I think it's NASA's role to do
the really hard things that only NASA's can do.
And so when we talk about 2040
and we talk about our mission strategy,
how do we make sure we have an articulated strategy
of what NASA will do and won't do in the future,
how do we make sure we have an agency
operating model that best sets us up
for that future, that aligns to mission goals?
And how do we make sure we have an institution that
frankly reflects how amazing and incredible our mission is?
And so that's why the leadership team kicked off this effort.
So we started tackling this back in May.
And I'll tell you, there are conversations
happening long before that.
Pam and I probably started
that dialog shortly after she came in
and I told her at the time, I said, Hey,
I think it's a leadership team. We need a little bit of time.
I'm not sure
we're ready to kick off something that big,
you know, most folks have been at home
for, you know, several years over the pandemic.
We hadn't got to gel as a leadership team in person.
And so we really have spent, you know,
the last couple of years doing that.
And we came together as a leadership team in
May and said, hey, you know, we have some big challenges
ahead that we need to tackle.
And so this is why we kicked this off.
So in June
was the official kickoff following the retreat,
and that established a core team that we're calling
the transformation engine.
And it's supported by seven high impact Workstreams
that I'll talk about.
We sent a Talent Marketplace ad out shortly after,
had an overwhelming number of applications.
Several hundred folks reached out.
We had a session for anyone that had applied
and threw their name in the hat
to garner interest to
you know, explain kind of what the overall effort was about.
And since then,
we've been really working hard to get teams in place
defining terms of reference for each of these seven Workstreams
making sure we're really clear on what the milestones are
with the objectives are,
what we're trying to accomplish and what does success look like
is a leadership team.
We've committed to quarterly off sites, you know, so
this isn't one of those efforts that, you know,
we're going to say, okay, go off a year,
come back together, we're going to meet quarterly
as a leadership team to define progress.
And across these seven WORKSTREAMS,
we have owners from each of the executive officials in charge.
So that's the highest level official in charge responsible
for that workstream plus several other officials
in charge assigned to each of those.
So this really is a whole of agency approach.
And let me talk about the Workstreams for a minute.
Mission, strategy, structure, budget
people, infrastructure, technology and process.
And so those workstreams will work directly
with the transformation engine.
I actually have a couple of my transformation folks in here.
So Lori Grindle, who's our deputy center
director at Armstrong.
Hey Lori, everyone say hello.
Lori and Emily
Van Sise, who's her deputy on the overall effort.
So they're really leading the overall engine, the integration,
the interdependencies between each of these efforts.
So for mission strategy, this is really around
what will the agency do or not do as we go forward structure.
It's no secret we have a complex, challenging matrix,
so it's really important
that we get really clear on roles and responsibilities.
One of the things that I've heard since I've started
is we need to increase decision velocity.
We need to move faster.
Okay, Well, if we've been talking about that
for 20 years, when do we start moving faster?
So that's really what
that's really
what the structure piece is about is how do we make sure
have the right decision making in place
so that we can move faster?
And with the evolving ecosystem that I described, we have more
and more partners internationally.
We just signed what is it, number 29, sir?
The Artemus Accords just last week,
an increasing number of commercial
and international and academic partners.
So being really clear on our structure,
the front door is for NASA budget.
We need flexibility
and we need to ensure
that it takes into account the total cost of the mission.
So this is where the institutional piece comes in.
How do we make sure that we're looking
we look at our overall mission strategy.
We're really thinking about the needs that we have in
workforce and infrastructure, the technology investments
that we need to make, things like investing in IRA dollars,
people having a strategic workforce plan
and being really clear on what our value proposition is.
You know, I still would say that NASA has the best,
most talented workforce, bar none.
I would put it against any company on the planet.
How do we make sure it stays that way going forward?
And how do we make sure we have developmental plans
in place for when people come to NASA, what they can expect,
infrastructure, Our needs exceed our annual budget.
And I don't have to tell anyone
here. We have a lot of aging
infrastructure that is at end of life.
So we need aggressive, short and long term plans
to get into the modern age with our infrastructure.
That's something that we haven't gotten here overnight.
It's not going to change overnight,
but being really intentional around what our strategy
and what our plans are, it's going to be really critical.
And then technology, this isn't dissimilar from infrastructure.
So we have the technology that is our jobs
and then we have the technology that we need to do our jobs.
And, you know, I would say while this is about
both, it's more the latter than the former.
We really need to make sure
we have the technology to do our job so that we can put
our people first
in a way that really allows them to focus on the mission
and then process.
This is really, as we look at agility,
how do we tackle the things that are really limiting us
and frankly, some of the bureaucracy
that's keeping us from moving at a faster pace.
So the whole leadership team is here descending on Huntsville
this week.
I'm really excited
to spend the next couple of days,
you know, kind of tackling this even more.
We're going to dive into
we're staggering each of these workstreams
the mission strategy and the structure first,
shortly after we have budget,
the executive OIC responsible is Margaret Vocus, our CFO.
She's in the audience.
And Tia Ferguson, Marshall's very own is the executive lead
for budget.
So thank you, Tia, for stepping up to that role.
She's probably not going to take any of my calls any more
because it's a really big workst
Angela Walker, she's the director of Spacecraft
and Vehicle Systems here at Marshall.
She's on the mission team, and Donya S.A.
is the deputy manager of Marshall's
Science and Technology Office.
She's on the structure team,
So a lot of folks really engaged across the board,
really looking at kind of diverse
makeup of the workforce as we move forward.
And strategy is really about making
it's around shaping the future, but it's also around
making sure again, we're making decisions today
that are best going to shape that future.
So a little bit of both.
It's, hey,
how do we spend
and the ideas that we're going
to spend 18 to 24 months really tackling this effort,
but how do we make sure we're making decisions
but then also teeing up milestones
for what we're going to need to do in the future?
I'm really excited about it.
I think we all would agree it's it's been really exciting
when I've gone out to have some of the roundtables.
I'm really looking forward to the one here at Marshall.
But one of the things I've heard a lot,
particularly from our early and mid-career
workforce, is they're excited about the opportunities
for collaboration.
And they, you know, it's it's hey, Casey,
I think we can do more
if we collaborate more across centers,
if we expand outside of geographic boundaries,
if we leverage capabilities.
And so that's what I hear from our workforce.
I'm excited about that.
And I think now so 2040 will bring us
a little bit closer to it.
So happy to answer any questions on it.
Come ask about NASA's 2040.
Good afternoon.
Thanks so much to the leadership team
for sharing that information
with us and really for being with us here today.
We're now going to move into the question
and answer portion of the program
and answer some questions
submitted by the Marshall Workforce.
So we've grouped the questions
into themes, so hopefully we can address
more subjects in the short time we have left.
So I'm going to kick it off the first theme that we're going
to cover is NASA's 2040 and the future of NASA.
I'm going to ask the headquarters
leadership team to answer.
The first question
is with large programs that have traditionally provided
the bulk of Marsha's Marshals charge code
going away, what does the future look like for Marshall?
NASA 2040?
I'd love to tackle that for a moment.
I'm I'm just very excited,
actually, about the future for Marshall.
But I do want to say it's going to look different.
I think the times where we had a single monolithic
human spaceflight program
that every single person was working on
is going to shift a little bit and technology is moving fast.
The complexity of our moon to Mars architecture.
And it's not just moon to Mars.
If you look, for example, at Mars sample return,
that's also more complex.
What we're discovering is
as we're trying to do harder things,
it means we have to work together
in new ways with a lot of different moving parts.
And so what you can expect from the future
is more programs that move faster.
So you will have the opportunity to move around,
not just stay with one program.
There's always
going to be a place it now nassr for those wizards
who you know have are like the walking expert
on the face of the earth on a given technical
topic will always have a place for people like that.
But we will also be seeing people moving from program
to program and that, you know, as you look out ahead,
this is why we need a mission workstream to take a look at
what is our strategy for investment and divestment
so that we can actually move faster and pick things up.
But if you also look at the moon to Mars architecture,
you can just see a steady flow of exciting programs
coming out there.
So I think that's probably the best answer I can give right now
is is it's going to look different
and it's going to be super exciting.
I want to add a part to it.
Pam said earlier in her remarks,
and Bob did too.
We got to go to Mars faster.
We can't go with conventional because it's
going to take us too long and by the time you get there,
you're going to have to stay on the surface
a much longer period of time because the planets of realigned
in order for the crew to get back.
And so I've been on the warpath
for nuclear thermal
and nuclear electric propulsion.
And that's right here.
That's here. And it's at Glenn.
And so that would be an example
of one of the things that we're going to have to do.
And it's essential.
The future is very, very bright here.
But technology doesn't stand still.
You got to adjust with it. It's very.
Thank you for that, sir.
Ma'am.
Now, we're going to go to the audience
for a couple of questions.
Don't be shy.
I know you guys have questions.
We got a microphone out there.
There's a couple of mikes out there.
Just raise your hand if you have a question.
Good afternoon, all.
When are we going to start throwing mass to the moon
and then to Mars?
Thanks
to the moon?
Well,
we're going to throw
a lot of mass up there as soon as we fly our team
as to improve out
that we've got a safe vehicle for a cruise
so that we can get the outermost three.
And it's not about just throwing mass up there.
It's providing a sustainable infrastructure that's up there.
It's commercial activities. When I look at,
you know,
what we're doing in order to enable this to be successful,
we would like to create
commercial opportunities also on the moon
so that we can focus going on to Mars.
We've got a lot of work to do before we can go to Mars.
You know, all the studies I've seen say
we need 18 to 20 metric tons of supplies and equipment
staged on Mars before we can send humans.
And we're having a hard time look at what it takes
just to get you know, one metric ton
in a curiosity or perseverance rover on Mars.
So we need to develop the systems.
We've got the rocket.
All right? We need that upper stage.
And I know you guys probably saw that GAO report,
but I'm telling you, you know, this is this is our rocket
and we are going to make it more affordable.
We're working on the exploration production operations
contract to help reduce costs.
This is the future for us to be able to throw
the kind of mass that we need to have meaningful missions
going to the moon and eventually on to Mars.
And I'll just add,
you know, our eclipse providers are already buying,
hopefully the first one by the end of the year,
we'll be getting science and technology payloads.
But Bob is absolutely right.
My goodness.
If there's anything
we've learned from ISIS, it's how much logistics
it takes to support humans and to support their science.
So the Europeans are interested in developing a heavy lander.
We've got a cargo lander approach with our HLS providers
and clips. We hope to evolve that.
Who knows, Maybe in a few years we'll have Eclipse
going to Mars. We've got
we've got a couple of these
clips missions that are coming right around the corner.
They go into the South Pole.
They're going to start digging
to see if there's water.
And of course, if there's water,
then it's Katie by the door.
There's going to be a lot of mass on the south
pole of the moon,
because then we can create the hydrogen
and the oxygen for fuel and for living up there.
This is what's so exciting.
And I just want to tell you, I'm so proud of these two
plus Casey, but particularly the
these two, because
these two are the real deal right here.
Space shuttle commanders,
both military test pilots,
and they just let me tag along.
And no, Bob and I did not coordinate our address.
Yeah, because they'd be in trouble
if they didn't didn't tell me to wear my brown shoes.
If you told us a little bit about the NASA's 2040,
what would you say
some of the next milestones where we can start
to see the clutch engaging with that?
And you know, what can we be looking to see come out of that
in milestones things milestone for?
Well, I think some of the milestones
you're going to start seeing immediately.
I mean, when we look at mission strategy and structure,
one of the things
the teams have been working
really, really hard since June to really tee up
those milestones.
So pretty soon after this, this retreat,
you'll be able to see we're going to have
a white paper that we can share across the workforce
so folks can see specifically,
you know, what the overall effort's about.
We're going to share the terms of reference
so people can see specific milestones, deliverables,
what the overall success criteria is for each of those
to give the workforce a better sense for those
that want to dive into certain Workstreams
When I look at mission strategy and structure,
Bob's got structure team on a pretty tight deadline.
He's told them by the end of the year
he wants to be able to make a decision on the structure
and mission strategy, saying we're looking
at the end of the year to really start
kind of getting to where we're laying out some clear
milestones and deliverables for that budget.
And some of the others,
as I said, were staggering, getting those going,
you know, Margaret's working hard
so we can look at even as early as next year,
how do we start having a plan now?
Not to say that we'll be able to implement in 2026
when we start planning for the fiscal year for 2026.
But how do we start thinking
about the total cost of the mission,
including the institution
as early as 2026 and our planning cycle?
So pretty quickly, as I said,
it's an 18 to 24 month effort and we want to move fast.
Thank you.
Any more questions from the audience?
I see one over there.
Thank you to the leadership team for being here to continue
pulling on the NASA's 2040 thread.
I wondered if you could speak to the demographics
making up the team that's doing this, particularly making sure
that you've captured every facet of the NASA workforce.
And I'm especially interested
in how you're incorporating early career ideas
into the formulation. Thank you.
Absolutely.
That's a great, great question.
And that's been one of the key
principles, is we're developing the teams.
And so that's Lori's responsibility
when she looks
across the broader engine in the workstreams
to make sure we have diversity in those teams,
we now have at least the executive leads
and all the oases posted on the 2040 website.
There is a 2040 website out there,
so I would encourage you to go on the one NASA's page
and look at that,
because that was kind of the big criteria is making sure
we had diversity across every center, every mission,
every organization.
And the teams been working really hard to do that.
In terms of early careers.
That's a big part of what these roundtables
are about, getting perspectives from each of the centers.
And that's not just me that each of the Workstream
leads are tackling that as well.
They're going out and doing,
whether it's interviews, listening sessions.
So we now have a 2040 email address
where you can email questions.
So a variety of comms mechanisms.
Jennifer Stanfield, who is Marshall's
own, is our comms lead for the overall effort,
and she's been doing just an incredible job
putting up frequently asked questions.
But I think
you'll be hearing more and more as things get underway,
but really trying hard to get a diversity of perspectives.
This is not just a leadership top down effort.
This is really everybody.
This is bottoms up
across the board.
We're really trying to get perspectives from everybody.
And so if you have feedback or ideas
on the best way to do that,
we're looking at a lot of
different mechanisms but would welcome those as well
because we really do want to hear and I'll tell you,
just even from the feedback we've gotten, we've already made
several and tweaks based on what we've heard from folks.
So it's really, really important that we hear from you
because this is our agency
and we're building it for the future together.
And just want to add, I've been at NASA for quite a
while in a leadership position, and I've gone to these agencies
strategic retreats numerous times,
and we get together and we talk all these big ideas
and nothing meaningful comes out of it.
A year later, we're back together again,
talking about the same thing.
And that is not going to happen this time.
If we want meaningful change, it can't be directed.
It's got to it's got to be all of us have to be involved.
We have to own it. You have to own it.
And we have meaningful actions that we're going to take.
We're laying out a strategic plan
to implement this because this this is transitional.
This goes beyond political administrations.
This is core to who we are as an agency and who we want to be.
If we want to successful in the future.
And if we are not organized correctly,
if we don't have the right budget streams,
the right goals, missions is if we don't all own that
and make these meaningful changes,
we're not going to be successful in the future.
So this
this is our an asset
that we are
are trying to ensure that we have a meaningful future.
And I just I got to compliment the team that's working on this
to help make it happen.
And as Casey said,
I told my structures team I want meaningful actions
by the end of the year that we can move out on.
Thank you.
We have time for one more question.
Can you hear me?
Hey, I have a question on the space
communications infrastructure.
Do you have insight on investments
that we're doing in that area, not only with just direct
with Earth communication, but also just
a constellation that we can have available
in the future for to support our MTS program?
Yeah, I'll tell you,
this is definitely a huge focus area for us.
I think
really Artem is one helped us
see and I think the James Webb Space Telescope also
how much pressure we're putting on our deep space network,
but our near space network, you know,
the technology is evolving, industry is evolving.
This is a pivotal moment for scan in communications.
And I think,
you know, it's really critical that we actually make
the technology investments and take the leap forward
to figure out how to use optical communications for deep space.
So I'm very excited about the deep space,
the desire to experiment on psyche,
which but but, you know, we also, as an agency
have to figure out how to tech transition
and there's going to be huge challenges ahead.
We'll have kind of
a hybrid architecture for for some time to come.
But I think the right people are talking about it.
I think there's a lot of emphasis at the
I know there's a lot of emphasis at our level about that.
Bob, do you want to add any
you know, this is, again, critical to our future.
We really overloaded the the whole scan
system, leave space, come with the Artemis mission.
But we're going to require an updated near Earth comm system.
Also,
as Pam said, October 5th, psyche is going to be launching
with optical comm demonstration on it.
That's going to be amazing.
We need a lunar comm architecture
and we're looking at how, you know, what
what should the government do and what can we do commercially?
Because there are others that are going to use this also.
So the investments are being made.
You know, we've got a little bit of what happened out at Guam.
I think you all know they got by a huge
hurricane, typhoon, typhoon
out in the Pacific and it really impacted
our communications network, our Tejas network.
So, you know, those investments have to be made
to get that back up to speed.
But it's the investments for the future
that are even more critical so.
We're working hard to get the funding for the scan
to have a meaningful comm network as we move forward.
And by the way, we're in a space race going back to the moon.
And so this is a whole of government problem.
This is not just Nassau needing the deep space network.
There are a lot of other agencies
that need the Deep Space network,
and we're all working together.
Well, thank you.
I hope Bob's got one more.
And I've got to warn you guys, I'm two. Absolutely one.
I forgot that
when I was up there,
I was going to close my talk with and I totally forgot.
I have to call out Joseph Pelfrey.
Joseph, you're doing an outstanding job
leading the center here in taking care of the team.
And I just want to thank you for what you're doing.
You're doing you're doing awesome.
Well, nobody ask about the budget.
If you ask me what is going to happen
at the end of this month, I can't really tell you,
but you can look at history
and and
and look at the recent past.
In the recent past,
we had worked so hard for what's called
the president's budget for recommended for 20.
Four.
And we had gotten a substantial increase.
And then along comes
reality
in a divided world that we're in.
And you get a small group
that can hold up the works and was threatening the default
of the full faith and credit of the United States government.
So that obviously had to be taken care of.
And a compromise measure was put together bipartisan.
It was passed overwhelmed, mainly in both houses.
But the
compromise in order not to default
was to whack some spending,
and thus
what they basically said
was in order not to default.
The agreement is that the best you're going to get for 24
fiscal year 24, which starts
in just a little bit,
is you're going to get 23
appropriations level.
And for 25
you're going to get 23 appropriation
level plus 1%.
That's the very best you can get.
But coming up to the deadline of September
the 30th, October the first for the new fiscal year,
which is the beginning of the 24
fiscal year,
a small group in the House is saying,
no, we want additional cuts.
So much so that last night
they passed a bill that says additional 8% cuts.
Now, that's not going to pass,
so you don't have to worry about that.
But the fact is that
in both 24 and 25,
we're going to have to mind our P's and Q's.
And it's the political
and economic reality.
And so
the thing is, this
is what you ought to take out of here
because of you,
because of all those 17,000 civil servants
and 45,000 contractors that all wear
the massive badge.
Not only are we considered
the best place to work in the federal government,
but we are very popular
and we get support among ours.
And these.
And at the end of the day,
we may have to strain and grant,
but at the end of the day, we're going to be okay.
The moon to Mars program
is going to be okay
because I'll tell you where the angst right now is.
The angst is in science.
Because of some of the science
projects like Mars Sample Return,
Dragonfly,
their costs have exploded.
And so that's where the angst is,
will get the money for
to the moon, to Mars.
But in the meantime it's it's
going to be some tough going.
But we've been through this before.
And the final thing that I'll tell you,
this is a new aspect of Nasser
that just really makes all of us feel good.
Nasser is so popular
that when we go abroad,
we can get in to the doors that are closed
to others in the United States government
and the example is
just having well, let's go back when
President Zelinsky came
to Washington
over a year ago after he visited with the president,
where do you want to go?
He came to Nasser.
Foreign policy
vis a vis India is so important to us
as a counter against the Chinese.
So when the Indian prime
minister came for a state visit,
lo and behold,
there meeting with us.
And part of the deal is
that we're going to train an Indian astronaut
and we're going to fly him probably on a PM
private astronaut mission.
And they're going to go nuts
in India because of that.
When the Indian prime minister was there in the White House
and I had Sonny Williams with me,
the astronaut Sunita,
prime minister, was walking toward us.
And before he gets to us, he's saying out loud,
I know I knew her father.
I knew her father when we were boys and he was a singer.
And that goodwill is there.
We just came back from South America.
Brazil, by the way, where China is trying
to make inroads in
South America, Africa
and some of the left leaning
elected presidents in South America are
are playing footsie with the Chinese.
And the Chinese are coming in.
And some government officials they won't even see
unless it's their level of the head of state.
They'll see Nasser and they saw us
and we talk turkey with them
in Columbia and in Brazil
on stuff that they need because those presidents
have a high agenda of trying to save the rainforest
in the upper Amazon, which is not only inches
of importance to them, but the entire world.
And so we told them what we can share
with you from all of our instruments in space
that make us, by the way, not only a space agency,
aeronautical agency, we are a climate agency
because of all the stuff up there
that is measuring very precisely
what is happening on this planet.
So as you look down the road,
just recognize at the end of the day
it's going to be all right.
There'll be some bumps along the way on this budget.
It is a sign of the times.
I wish it were not that way.
But I can tell you that Nasser
brings people together and Nasser unites.
And that's not only in domestic politics,
that is around the world as well.
Thank you, sir.
Casey, you got any closing remarks?
I will defer my remarks to these two.
Okay. Bob, anything else?
We can't follow that.
And you're going to expect me to now.
So thank you very much.
Really appreciate you guys
being here to talk to the workforce
and for the workforce for your questions and engagement.
Thank you, Bob, for your comments.
I cannot take all the credit,
Ray and Larry, our whole leadership team
has been tremendous in leading through this transition
and will continue to do so until we're told to stop.
So we have exciting future ahead.
We have a tremendous workforce to accomplish these missions.
And I couldn't be prouder of our team
and what we have to look forward to going forward.
So thank you for taking time to be here at our workforce.
And you guys have a great week. Thank you.