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NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has restructured the NASA Advisory Council (NAC), adding several new committees in key areas of importance to the agency’s future, including Education and Public Outreach, led by former CNN anchor Miles O’Brien and a Commercial Space, Information Technology Infrastructure committee led by Brett Alexander, the executive director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. “I consider the NASA Advisory Council to be an extremely important external advisory group, one that is uniquely capable to advise me and the entire NASA senior leadership team on some of the important decisions our agency will face in the coming months and years,” Bolden said. “I am confident that this new structure will serve as an effective forum to stimulate meaningful advice to me and the rest of NASA’s leadership.”
Other new committees include a technology and innovation panel led by Esther Dyson, an information technology investor and space travel enthusiast and an information technology infrastructure committee led by retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Al Edmonds, to deal with cyber security issues.
The NAC held their first meeting with the restructured NASA Advisory Council last week at the
Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.
The council’s members provide advice and make recommendations to the NASA administrator about agency programs, policies, plans, financial controls and other matters pertinent to NASA’s responsibilities. The chairs for the council and its committees are:
NASA Advisory Council: Kenneth M. Ford
Aeronautics Committee: Marion Blakey
Audit, Finance and Analysis Committee: Robert M. Hanisee
Commercial Space Committee: Brett Alexander
Education and Public Outreach: Miles O’Brien
Exploration Committee: retired Air Force Gen. Lester L. Lyles
Science Committee: Wesley T. Huntress, Jr.
Space Operations Committee: former astronaut and retired Air Force
Col. Eileen M. Collins
Technology and Innovation Committee: Esther Dyson
An appointment is pending for the Information Technology and
Infrastructure Committee.
Raymond S. Colladay represents the National Academies’ Aeronautics and
Space Engineering Board, and Charles F. Kennel represents the
National Academies’ Space Studies Board as ex officio members.
Great to see a known, popular space advocate in charge of ‘Education and Public Outreach’ included in the NAC. I always enjoyed seeing Miles’ enthusiastic and informed pieces on the international space scene when he was at CNN. He’s a great communicator of space science and research and CNNs loss is a win for the NAC. I still follow his blog site and am glad that his current position lets him do his thing in a popular and accessible way. Good luck to all involved with the NAC.