For generations NASA has been the undisputed leader when it comes to space exploration. More recently, however, competition has been improving from other countries like the European Space Agency and China.
In addition, private space companies including Space X have really surged to become leaders when it comes to innovation in space.
A new report published by a group of aerospace experts has recently been published, which specifically looks at NASA’s current position, challenges, and potential future.
The report, entitled, “NASA at a Crossroads” was published at the request of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and medicine.
Part of the problem, the report finds, is that many of the best engineers at NASA have been leaving the organization. Some of them have been retiring, but others are taking higher paying jobs in the private sector.
There are many reasons why these engineers are moving to those jobs. For one, NASA has faced repeated budget cuts, which has a direct impact on the number of engineering position as well as their pay.
Another, potentially more significant issue, is that NASA is often contracting out their most demanding or exciting projects to private companies like Space X or Boeing.
Top engineers don’t want to manage a contract, they want to do the work of figuring out these astronomical problems themselves. To do this, they need to abandon NASA and move to one of the private organizations that is actually doing the work.
Norman Augustine is the reports lead author and a former CEO at Lockheed Martin commented saying:
“One tends to neglect the probably less glamorous thing that will determine the success in the future.”
He want on to talk about the challenges NASA will have if they continue down the current path:
“It will have trouble hiring innovative, creative engineers. Innovative, creative engineers don’t want to have a job that consists of overseeing other people’s work.”
Of course, it is never wise to count NASA out. They still have a number of interesting and innovative missions planned for both the near and long term horizons.
Hopefully they will be able to solidify their place in the rapidly evolving landscape of both space research and the budding space economy.
NASA really needs to find their path forward.
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