Dave King Is Retiring From NASA

The Huntsville good old boy network at work. King might find out that in his case it does not operate as smoothly as before.

Rather abrupt timing - I wonder if the new Obama Administrations' tighter rules on what SESers can't do once they leave government service will lead to an accelerated surge of "retirements" by those planning second careers outside of government before they take effect.

Good Riddens! Hopefully there will be a lot less earmarks in the NASA budget since Dave negotiated with Shelby in back door deals. Take a look at the ones that went to Marshall and how many of them took work from other centers.

I know I'm dreamin on less earmarks

Dave King is one of the best Directors MSFC had in a long time. Mr. King is respected by one and all. His retirement is no surprise. He’s going to a good company with a major raise in pay. Well done and well earned. No one forced him away. One of the last things he did as Center Director was to remove one of the most corrupt NASA MSFC managers on Ares 1. That happened yesterday. The crews will fly safer now, a collection of lower level managers have lost cover (can’t ignore physics or the law anymore).

The Astronauts/ Enginners are happy.

Well done Dave King and thank you!

...One of the last things he did as Center Director was to remove one of the most corrupt NASA MSFC managers on Ares 1...

OK. If this has been known for some time, why did it take so long for King or anyone else to act? The inattention to this for so long does not speak well for anyone in the management chain, particularly those running the Ares project. This comment indicates that the entire project office needs a good housecleaning.

The crews will fly safer now ... can’t ignore physics or the law anymore. The Astronauts/ Enginners are happy.

Pay no attention to that rocket behind the curtain.

Ares 1 Vehicle Integration Manager. Hmm ... doesn't this strike anyone else (besides me) as being a little odd?

No this is NOT odd at all, Remember CxP/ESMD are in control of the program NOT the CD at each center. Mikey Set it up this way.

For Mr King to make such a decision with out CxP approval this well could have meant a budget hit for MSFC.

Now that we have Mr Scolese in office who does not play this BS game, Mr King got the green Flag I assume. It is sort like a presidental Pardon if you will.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out Davey.
How a paper pusher from KSC ended up as the Director of a development center is beyond my understanding. He did NOTHING at MSFC. He insulated himself from the working troops with his direct report clowns ... and remained clueless. If he had any idea how much the leadership at NASA is despised by the working troops he would have left long ago.

Can't speak to the Reuter issue, however, Dave is a consummate professional. It is our loss.

Another clueless post from Flash "Remember CxP/ESMD are in control of the program NOT the CD at each center"

Yes, but the CD's are in control of the people at their centers. CxP/ESMD doesn't hire or fire the people below the project level.

Dave King thought he fixed the Ares 1 VI problem last year when he removed Sexton as Reuters Deputy and striped him of his SES. Turned out nothing changed. As time past the problem children became more bold, reckless and criminal. Removing a corrupt head should start to fix the problem.
The key is who they bring in to replace him, what people the new manager will invite out of Level III and the lawsuits some contractors are now facing because they went along with Reuter.

Yes, but the CD's are in control of the people at their centers. CxP/ESMD doesn't hire or fire the people below the project level.

Yes ME

The above makes perfect SENSE. Now go smell some more rocket fuel, you are delusional at best.

"If we knew how to do it then we wouldn't be developing Ares - we would be flying it," King told The Times.


Isn't that an interesting -- and revealing -- statement? I was under the impression that the basic idea was to take existing, already-developed components and designs (things we already have/had in hand), put them together as needed, and go fly them. Had we done that (or had we stuck with OSP), we might well have an overlap now instead of a gap ahead of us.

One word that links MSFC and Dynetics, FASTSAT. Look into it.

...The key is who they bring in to replace him, what people the new manager will invite out of Level III and the lawsuits some contractors are now facing because they went along with Reuter.

Again, this comes back to a systemic problem with the management of the program office. MSFC would be well served to clean house and bring a truly new team on board.

'OZ

'Pay no attention to that rocket behind the curtain.'

I hope your saying there is a 'Shovel Ready' rocket in the top desk drawer.

I know that MSFC has always wanted to put SSME's on the bottom of the ET. I that time is near.

We have two and only two mangers @ level III working the project office side of VI worth a darn. The rest need to find work in the food services or house keeping industries....

*****
Don't let the door hit you on the way out Davey.
How a paper pusher from KSC ended up as the Director of a development center is beyond my understanding. He did NOTHING at MSFC. He insulated himself from the working troops with his direct report clowns ... and remained clueless. If he had any idea how much the leadership at NASA is despised by the working troops he would have left long ago.

*****

"paper pusher from KSC" Any leader at the CD level will have people that love them and hate them as we see from the comments above. But as someone who worked at KSC and saw Dave's development/ascension he cannot be called any more a paper pusher than any other NASA leader and it could be argued he had more real (real time operational, with lives and hardware at stake) expereince than 99 percent of NASA SES'rs.

Not to start an operational center development center wee-weeing contest but please tell me (in the spirit of Dan Goldin) when was the last new rocket motor MSFC developed and who was president then??? Development is more than a designation (and more than money spent without something operational as an outcome).

His abrupt departure, and dismissal of Reuter, may be a sign that bad news is forthcoming on significant Ares cost overruns, as has been rumored.

His abrupt departure, and dismissal of Reuter, may be a sign that bad news is forthcoming on significant Ares cost overruns, as has been rumored.

Bingo, and this is the word circulating now. Truth is that the mitigating measures needed to make Der Ares I Schlonger operational are blowing the bank, and this will only get worst as we enter REAL hardware design, fabrication and test. We need to get off this Fool's Quest, and onto a more tenable approach.

***
But as someone who worked at KSC and saw Dave's development/ascension he cannot be called any more a paper pusher than any other NASA leader and it could be argued he had more real (real time operational, with lives and hardware at stake) expereince than 99 percent of NASA SES'rs.
***

Yeah ... we were real impressed with Dave's "hardware" experience ... he passed on so much of that knowledge to the MSFC team.

***
Not to start an operational center development center wee-weeing contest but please tell me (in the spirit of Dan Goldin) when was the last new rocket motor MSFC developed and who was president then???
***

I think the FASTRAC engine of the late 1990s may be a good example of what the working troops can accomplish when given the opportunity. By no means a masterpiece but good enough for SPACEX to copy.

But let the "leadership" get involved (like Ares) - and you end up with a kluge of hardware designed in the 60s and 70s. Apparently, that's all the SES'rs think we are able to do anymore - reuse tired old ideas. It's a national embarassment and no amount of cheerleading from the utterly incompetent SES'rs at NASA will change that.

And for all you SES'rs out there who read this - don't you think you've done enough damage? Do you have no shame? Do the taxpayers a favor and leave now!

"His abrupt departure, and dismissal of Reuter, may be a sign that bad news is forthcoming on significant Ares cost overruns, as has been rumored."

It has come ...

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2009/03/aresorion-slipping-18-months-shuttle-extension-upper-hand/

This is 100% true:

The situation with Ares is known in key areas of the Agency, with a “9th Floor” NASA HQ effort already taking place to evaluate the viability of cancelling Ares I, and replacing the launch vehicle with an EELV (Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle) - such as an Atlas V Heavy or a Delta IV Heavy - whilst moving the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) effort towards concentrating on Ares V.

This is what happens when your NASA manager(s) are not doing Vehicle Integration for Ares 1 but a much less noble thing on the Tax Payers $$$.

None of the MSFC work force really knew ole' Dave, only to see his picture in the newsletter every week. Dave was so isolated but loved playing the celebrity. He was really out of touch with the day to day work.

As soon as Dave got his 25 years in, he was eligible for immediate annuity when leaving. Better to jump ship than walk the plank. Every single development effort led by MSFC has failed in the last 20 years, I suspect Ares I will be no different. God knows if it ever got to KSC, we wouldn't be ready. NASA has been in operations so long, it just doesn't know how to do development anymore. There is only one SES'er at KSC that knows design, ONE. The rest are ops people. Not that they are stupid, they just have no clue about design. But they are too arrogant to admit it. You can't learn anything when you think you know it all. As a result, we are doomed. The capability is gone and cannot be recreated by mandate. I see ignorance everywhere I turn regarding those running this program and the projects. I really don't know how NASA can succeed at anything in manned spaceflight anymore. It's over. Good thing I have my 25 years in.

@possum
"There is only one SES'er at KSC that knows design, ONE. The rest are ops people"

Are you sure about that?

Aren't the KSC Shuttle Engineering folks that did the design for Pad B startup way back when and the folks that still do ground sustaining engineering mod/upgrade design work still there or have they all retired?

Maybe the KSC Shuttle workforce has more ground design expertise available that was/is not being fully used in the
KSC CxP project.

Maybe the NASA Exploration directorate & the Operations directorate should be reorg'd into a "Manned Spaceflight" Directorate.

At one time NASA did things that no one had done before. If all KSC does now is operations, they should be turned over 100% to the private sector. NASA should be doing novel research. Colossal Carbon Tubes are ten thousand times larger in diameter than the carbon nanotubes of the past. Windle's materials science group at Cambridge is growing carbon ropes 18 miles long. If you can combine these two technologies earth stationary space tethers would be technically feasible today. A stationary space tether attached to an oil platform off the coast of the Christmas Islands will drop the cost of space transport to GEO by three orders of magnitude. That is the type of high risk high payoff work that NASA has historically done. I have to laugh at that comment asserting that SpaceX copied FASTRAK, what a joke! FASTRAK was started by a NASA manager who noticed that his young NASA engineers had zero hands on experience actually designing and building rocket hardware. SpaceX will eventually sort out their problems and become the workhorse to the ISS and the moon. Marshall should be working on novel forms of fusion, plasma rockets, basic materials science for space tethers, laser power beaming, 60% efficient laser PV array rectennas, biological life support systems for moon and mars bases, astronomy instruments for the moon and Lunar mining techniques. Move all the environmental studies back to the ecology department. Stop Ares, concentrate on a heavy lifter. Move the moon base up five years. Let's stop talking about it, and actually DO space exploration again.

...Marshall should be working on novel forms of fusion, plasma rockets, basic materials science for space tethers, laser power beaming, 60% efficient laser PV array rectennas, biological life support systems for moon and mars bases, astronomy instruments for the moon and Lunar mining techniques...

I agree that NASA should be concentrating on R&T, specifically on advanced propulsion, energy, life support and in-situ technologies. Marshall, however, is not the place to do this anymore. Dave King and company, under the direction of Griffin, gutted these areas and chased away a good portion of the people working these technologies. The capability to do this work could be reconstituted, but at other Centers. Many people at Langley, Ames and Glenn continue to pursue work in these areas, although these activities are somewhat tangential to the exploration plan laid out by Griffin.

Besides, work on Ares V could easily consume the entire workforce at Marshall. The Center wouldn't have the resources to work advanced technology, even if it wanted to.