Ares Manager Steve Cook Resigns From NASA

FleaPlus writes "Steve Cook, project manager for the Ares I-X, Ares I, and Ares V rockets, announced that he will resign from NASA MSFC after 19 years at the agency, leaving for an executive position at Dynetics, Inc. This raises doubts about the future of the Ares program, which has been plagued with development problems and massive cost/schedule overruns since its inception. Steve Cook also oversaw the (since discredited) 2005 ESAS study which scrapped NASA's prior plans to adapt already-existing commercial rockets for human/beyond-LEO exploration in favor of internally developing the Ares rockets."

Comments

One Person is not a Program

[El Torico]

Why would the departure of Steve Cook raise doubts about the future of an entire program? If that is the case, then NASA really needs to work on hiring and/or training more Program Managers.

Re:One Person is not a Program

[Paradoks]

The summary of the article mentioned that his previous work included overseeing a discredited study, and until now he had been overseeing a program that seems to not be doing terribly well.

This departure would seem a net positive.

Unless, of course, Timothy and fleaplus have led me astray with that summary of Steve Cook's nineteen years at NASA.

Re:One Person is not a Program

[Overzeetop]

Here's the problem - good program managers come from good engineers. And NASA has very, very few engineers anymore. They've got principal investigators (scientists) and contract managers. Most anybody who was left at the end of the 70s was fired by Reagan and the jobs subbed out to contractors. That way they could manage cash flow by simply increasing or decreasing manpower by manipulating the contract. Which sounds great if you're a business major, and is just death for any sort of continuity and corporate knowledge. The best and brightest go on to find steady work, the good stay around, and the dregs come on and off jobs as the contract tide rises and falls. Which, by the way, happens very little. With the contractor employees being so entwined with the remaining personnel, there's pressure to find work for everyone when the money gets tight. That's just human nature - but it foils the MBA's plans to save money, and it prevents NASA from having the in-house expertise (since it was all farmed out).

Re:One Person is not a Program

[PapayaSF]

If that is the case, then NASA really needs to work on hiring and/or training more Program Managers.

Sorry, I don't think feeding the giant bureaucracy that NASA has become will get the results we want. Here's my manned space program:

1. Take the money NASA gets for manned space and give it to Burt Rutan.
2. Tell Burt to get people into orbit and to the Moon.
3. Stand back.

Re:Back out of Plan Affirmative-Action

[Kell Bengal]

What's really interesting is that much Russian space technology hasn't changed from the 70s as a result of limited funding. As a result, they've pretty much got all the bugs out of their craft and it's very reliable. I think it's impressive that the American space hardware is just as reliable considering equally strenuous time constraints and stupid management in the US. Just imagine what could be accomplished if these space agencies were globally integrated, well-funded and properly managed. Spaceflight continues to be the crowning achievement of humanity; something we can all be proud of, no matter where we're from.

Thank God

[MrMista_B]

Steve Cook has done more to damange the US space program than any foreign enemy government could hope for. Now that he's gone, maybe things can start to get back on track. He will /not/ be missed.

Re:Back out of Plan Affirmative-Action

[Quothz]

Spaceflight continues to be the crowning achievement of humanity

I agreed with everything you said up to this point. What about the elimination of smallpox? The Internet? Sanitation? Prenatal genetic testing? I won't argue that space flight has been a terrific triumph of engineering, but I'd hesitate to say it's the most important and impressive thing humans've ever done. Say it again when we have a permanent settlement on another planet and maybe I'll change my mind, but for now I'd rank it not quite at the top. Certainly very, very high on the list, tho'.

Re:Back out of Plan Affirmative-Action

[moosesocks]

If Soyuz has a severe problem during landing, it ends up in another country.

If the Shuttle has a severe problem during landing, it blows up. There is literally no room for error.

Do you see where I'm going here? There were likely some gross oversights that led to the incident you linked to -- however, by virtue of the fact that Soyuz is both simple and mature, the craft is able to survive the statistical fluke of a faulty explosive bolt.

(De)Face The Facts

[DynaSoar]

The Huntsville Times (of all places) gets the story half right and half sensationalistic speculation based on ignoring the rest of the facts, and in posting it here the summary turns to 25/75, prompting shadow tippers to pretend they know enough to continue the line of assumed criticisms and innuendos.

Cook has been on this project since it began, working his way up and filling bigger shoes capably, including those of his previous supervisor. Now he's leaving with the blessings of NASA to rejoin his previous supervisor, working for a contractor specializing in space craft test telemetry and analysis, including that of (The Rocket Boys' "Miss Riley"? no. My Shiny Metal Ass? no. Wait for it...) Ares.

Cook is not leaving the project, he's only leaving federal employment. That's not necessarily true, he may be tasked with other work, but figure the odds they'll waste his experience on something else as long as Ares is viable.

Now, my money says it's not viable and will get canceled and Cook will continue to make good money elsewhere, but at this point neither NASA nor Dynetics is betting that way, and that's how the story should have been written if it had been intended to be journalism. Had it been, it may have even been reported as such here. Of course that would never stop such dedicated and learned critics from toppling every perceived ivory tower with their Tonka Trucks of Truth as long as the facts can be safely kept outside the sandbox.

Re:Back out of Plan Affirmative-Action

[Kagura]

Spaces, bitches. I'm talkin 'bout the United States of Space!