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Statement of Task
BACKGROUND
On October 15, 2008, the president signed into law H.R. 6063, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2008, which authorized appropriations to NASA for Fiscal Year 2009. Section 507 of the act, “Assessment of Impediments to Interagency Cooperation on Space and Earth Science Missions,” directed NASA to engage the National Research Council to carry out the following assessment:
(a) Assessments- The Administrator, in consultation with other agencies with space science programs, shall enter into an arrangement with the National Academies to assess impediments, including cost growth, to the successful conduct of interagency cooperation on space science missions, to provide lessons learned and best practices, and to recommend steps to help facilitate successful interagency collaborations on space science missions. As part of the same arrangement with the National Academies, the Administrator, in consultation with NOAA and other agencies with civil Earth observation systems, shall have the National Academies assess impediments, including cost growth, to the successful conduct of interagency cooperation on Earth science missions, to provide lessons learned and best practices, and to recommend steps to help facilitate successful interagency collaborations on Earth science missions.
(b) Report- The report of the assessments carried out under subsection (a) shall be transmitted to the Committee on Science and Technology of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate not later than 15 months after the date of enactment of this Act.
ACTIVITY
The Space Studies Board will establish an ad hoc study committee to prepare a report that will:
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Assess impediments, including cost growth, to the successful conduct of interagency cooperation on Earth science and space science missions;
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Identify lessons learned and best practices from past interagency Earth science and space science missions; and
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Recommend steps to help facilitate successful interagency collaborations on Earth science and space science missions.
Specifically, the study shall:
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Examine the rationale for interagency cooperation in Earth science and space science missions, including variations in motivation for interagency cooperation among agencies.
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Survey Earth science and space science missions, either in operation or under formulation or development, which involve a significant partnership in either mission execution or instrument development by NASA with one or more other federal agencies. Such missions might include:
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Fermi (formerly the Gamma-ray Large Aperture Space Telescope, GLAST), a NASA-DOE astrophysics mission;
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Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM), a NASA-DOE astrophysics mission;
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OSTM/Jason-2, developed by NASA and CNES and handed off for operation to NOAA and EUMETSAT;
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ACE, developed and operated by NASA for research purposes, but provides data for operational use to NOAA and DOD;
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GOES-R, being developed by NASA for NOAA under a reimbursable arrangement and originally included development of an advanced instrument suite (the Hyperspectral Environmental Suite);
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National Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), a tri-agency (NOAA, DOD, and NASA) program; also the NPOESS Preparatory Program (NPP), a joint program of NASA and the NPOESS Integrated Program Office (IPO);
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The operational Landsat system, which has involved combinations of NASA, NOAA, and USGS; include also the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM); and
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C/NOFS, a DOD-NASA program to enable forecasting and nowcasting of ionospheric irregularities.
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From these case studies, identify lessons learned and best practices. Areas include.
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Acquisition strategies;
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Program management and structure, including partnership models; and
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Interagency issues related to the “research to operations transition.”
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