Conviction is growing throughout NASA and the aerospace industry that neither NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher nor Presidential Science Advisor William R. Graham, Jr., is providing leadership for strong civil space program action and support for aggressive new space goals. Many of the country’s most experienced space managers are threatening to quit, while others express open hostility and disappointment with the U.S. space program’s top management. The White House, for example, has yet to reply to the National Commission on Space report completed last year and widely hailed as a blueprint for advanced space planning. Numerous veteran NASA managers told Aviation Week & Space Technology that Fletcher is regarded as inarticulate and uninformed on many important space issues. Important decisions are being handled indecisively, managers said. The result is extremely low agency morale and ineffective use of a proven civil space team.
—“Washington Roundup” Aviation Week & Space Technology, p. ...
