NASA rushed engineers out of their labs.
asserted
NASA → rush → labs
They say it risks future space missions
When NASA launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida late last month, engineers were anxious.
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engineers → say → Florida
The telescope is supposed to collect more information than any other has before about how the universe is expanding and how many previously hidden planets might be in the galaxy.
uncertain
planets → suppose → galaxy
Fifteen years of preparation and $4 billion had led to this moment.
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years → lead → moment
But with spacecraft, the smallest of mistakes can derail everything.
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smallest → derail → everything
And at NASA's premier space flight complex, the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., engineers knew that teams working on the telescope had been operating under tenuous conditions.
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teams → know → conditions
NASA's management had forced scientists to quickly move out of their labs at Goddard multiple times since last November — and as recently as a month before Roman's launch, engineers said.
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engineers → force → launch
That affected work on the telescope.
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That → affect → telescope
Propulsion engineers had to run tests on Roman's fuel using less sensitive gear, two engineers told NPR, because some of their tools — which they say were higher quality and more precise — had been lost in a move months before.
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they → have → move
NASA asked staff at a radio communication lab to test an antenna for Roman before launch, but they'd lost almost all their equipment.
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they → ask → equipment
"We can't do the work because we don't have our $6 million antenna chamber anymore," an engineer said.
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engineer → do → chamber
NPR spoke with seven current and former NASA scientists and engineers at Goddard who said the moves that have continued over the past 10 months have resulted in the loss of specialized workspaces, employees and expensive machines that were critical to making Roman and other spacecraft.
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that → speak → Roman
Current employees requested that NPR not use their names because they fear retribution for speaking to the media.
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they → request → media
NASA's management said that moving scientists out of buildings last year was aimed at reducing costs and eliminating "waste and redundancies," according to internal NASA documents reviewed by NPR.
uncertain
moving → say → NPR
Moving scientists out of more than 80 facilities aligned with a previously published master plan for changes to Goddard's campus and would allow the center to avoid paying tens of millions of dollars in deferred maintenance, NASA has said.
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NASA → move → maintenance
But the relocations are hurting NASA's mission, workers said.
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workers → hurt → mission
For decades, NASA helped the U.S. lead the world in the race to space, and Goddard built the spacecraft vital to that mission.
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Goddard → help → mission
Goddard's diminished capacity has been delaying projects and hindering the agency's ability to produce spacecraft in the future, scientists said.
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scientists → diminish → future
"That only adds a whole lot of risk to an already risky endeavor," said Jack Kiraly, chief of advocacy at the Planetary Society, a nonprofit that champions space science and exploration.
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that → add → science
We don't do ourselves any favors by putting the people that make this happen in precarious situations."
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this → do → situations
One engineer said they had to launch a satellite before it was ready — something they had never done in their more than a decade of working at Goddard.
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they → say → Goddard
The project, called GRITSS, was launched in July to help other satellites accurately track changes to Earth's water levels and landmasses from space.
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satellites → call → space
But scientists interviewed by NPR say they don't know whether the satellite will be able to do that, because they weren't able to test its ability to radio communications back to Earth before it launched.
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it → interview → Earth
"We are half-blind in terms of trying to troubleshoot it," said a scientist who worked on the GRITSS satellite.
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who → try → satellite
"The project had to eat the risk.
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project → have → risk
NASA's management moved a radio communications lab out of its previous space at Goddard in November while employees were home during the government shutdown, engineers told NPR.
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engineers → move → NPR
The engineers lost almost all their equipment and their one-of-a-kind radio communication testing facility, they said, and they were not allowed to try to stop their machines from being taken away.
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they → lose → machines
"We were actively prevented from going to recover material," said another engineer who worked with the lab.
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who → prevent → lab
"This was ripped away from the hands of NASA employees that would have been most capable of utilizing the equipment."
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that → rip → equipment
An engineer on a different team said their work on a spacecraft being built to explore Venus, called DAVINCI, was delayed in August because they didn't have a place at Goddard to do their part of the job.
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they → say → job
Their team's lab and a specialized "clean room" for working on large spacecraft were all moved out of another building at Goddard in November.
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lab → work → November
"We do not have a replacement lab," the engineer said.
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engineer → have → lab
"I did not have anywhere to start laying out the components and figure out what we have, what we need and all of that.
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we → have → that
Meanwhile, as of August, the lab space they were rushed out of at Goddard remains vacant, the engineer said.
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engineer → rush → Goddard
"They clearly don't have a long-term plan," the engineer said, "which was not really how we feel you should be treating world-class engineering labs.
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you → have → labs
The statements from scientists largely contradict a report issued in June from the NASA Office of Inspector General that said moving teams out of labs at Goddard had not hurt ongoing projects and would "not impact NASA's anticipated missions."
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moving → contradict → missions
NASA didn't respond to NPR's questions about the impacts of the relocations.
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NASA → respond → relocations
NASA officials acknowledged in that report that there was "an increased risk that property may not have been properly accounted for during this process," though the agency said it didn't violate policy.
uncertain
it → acknowledge → policy
Internal emails, interviews with scientists and data reviewed by NPR indicate that this wasn't always true.
asserted
this → review → NPR
NPR tracked down equipment and found that some of it was auctioned, donated or thrown in the trash, and that NASA's rules for disposing of supplies were not always followed during the moves.
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rules → track → moves
…and 34 more, not listed.
The Aporia
