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Uploaded: Wednesday, September 12, 2012, 1:15 PM
Tiff brews between NASA Ames and NASA HQ?
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by Daniel DeBolt
Mountain View Voice Staff
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 | Those working to save Moffett Field's historic Hangar One have taken note of reports that Pete Worden, the director of Mountain View's NASA Ames Research Center, may be on his way out.
"Multiple sources report that NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden is planning to fire or reassign Worden and two other center directors as well," reported longtime NASA watchdog Keith Cowing of nasawatch.com.
William Berry, former assistant director at Ames, said the report was a backdrop for the fight to save Hangar One, calling it "clear indication that NASA HQ wants to fire Pete Worden in some part for his support of Hangar One."
Worden has spoken publicly in support of reusing the former airship hangar for a modern airship being developed by the U.S. Department of Defense.
In response to the Voice's query, a spokesperson at Ames said in an email that "Dr. Worden does not have a comment on the story."
Two other center directors could be ousted as well, though the "real focus" is on Worden, Cowing's Aug. 22 report said.
Cowing also reported that some sources say that Bolden has discussed replacing the directors of the Glen Research Center in Ohio (Ray Lugo) and the Johnson Space Center in Houston (Mike Coats) though neither have done anything to warrant replacement.
Several comments in Cowing's story express favor for Worden and his success in partnering with Silicon Valley businesses, which include Google.
"Pete Worden always joked about wanting to do such far-out stuff he'd get fired," writes a poster by the name of William Ogilvie. "He is well liked, has accomplished a lot, and will be missed. Six years is a long time at any job in Silicon Valley."Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.
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Posted by Citizen, a resident of another community, on Sep 13, 2012 at 10:01 am Hangar One should be torn down and the land restored to a useful purpose for the community.
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Posted by Otto Maddox, a resident of the Monta Loma neighborhood, on Sep 13, 2012 at 1:23 pm I agree.
Let's build a nice dirt bike track and maybe a shooting range.
Hard to find places to do either of those activities in the Bay Area anymore.
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Posted by Keith Cowing, a resident of another community, on Sep 13, 2012 at 4:05 pm You folks sure took long enough to stumble across my posting from 2 weeks ago. Here is a link Web Link
As for Bill Berry's comments - he's speculating - with an obvious local bias - on one local issue.
Keith Cowing
Editor
NASAWatch.com
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Posted by Mb, a resident of the Cuernavaca neighborhood, on Sep 14, 2012 at 12:08 am Yeah, hurry up and get rid of it already. Why not move the Chevron refinery from Richmond down to Moffett Field? Or open a freight airfield so we can all watch and listen to the roar of FedEx planes providing their 24 hour service. This city is so quiet, you can hear stupid crickets at night! A nuclear power plant is another option. California prisons are overcrowded. Why not build the world largest prison on the site? The possibilities are endless. Just think, any one of these exciting choices could happen once you put up the "for sale" sign on Moffett Field. Why are they dragging their feet on this? So what if Google might not like their new neighbors. They certainly have enough money to pack up and move somewhere else.
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Posted by Member, a resident of another community, on Nov 10, 2012 at 9:25 am I don't think the issue has as much to do with Hangar 1 as the story suggests. NASA ARC has a history of poor reviews by employees since the appointment of Worden.
ARC is ranked 105 overall by the employee viewpoint survey, and is the lowest ranked NASA Center. As comparison, the prison system is ranked 118.
Web Link
Worden has a history of bullying career civil servants out and appointing outsiders (mostly younger)to key positions at their expense.
The rankings for ARC jump up to 15 for the under 40 employees, then down to 138 for the over 40 employees. The prison system is ranked at 109 for the over 40 employees.
NASA as an Agency does much better overall as it should given that its competitors' missions are not nearly as exciting as space exploration.
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