快猫短视频

WITH the US space programme billions of dollars over budget, it鈥檚 not
surprising that the new chief of NASA is a finance expert. But while many think
Sean O鈥橩eefe is the ideal man, some NASA employees may be less enthusiastic.

O鈥橩eefe is number two at the White House Office of Management and Budget,
which scrutinises NASA鈥檚 accounts and has criticised overspending on the
International Space Station.

After his nomination last week, O鈥橩eefe said his main task was to impose
financial discipline on the ISS, to free up resources for other programmes. 鈥淭he
station must live within its means,鈥� he says. 鈥淥ver the last 10 years, it is
hard to know how many new opportunities for space exploration may have been lost
due to the year-to-year struggle of adding funding to the station.鈥�

Sherwood Boehlert, chairman of the House of Representatives science
committee, praised the appointment, describing O鈥橩eefe as an outstanding
manager. John Logsdon, director of George Washington University鈥檚 Space Policy
Institute, agrees: 鈥淭his is the person who has been spearheading the effort to
get the station costs under control,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 view this as an appointment to
go fix that part of NASA.鈥�

But Logsdon predicts that the appointment will be unpopular with
rank-and-file NASA employees. 鈥淭his is a guy coming from the enemy, the place
that鈥檚 put the budget limits on,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 expect the NASA troops to
stand up and cheer.鈥� However, he adds that awareness of the agency鈥檚 problems
seems to have persuaded most employees to swallow whatever bitter pills O鈥橩eefe
prescribes.