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Executive Summary
Pages 1-8

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From page 1...
... NASA's April 2006 Workforce Strategy discussed agency workforce competency trends, identifying an increased need for personnel in five skill areas through 2009.2 These include 150-200 full-time employees in program/project management, 100-150 in systems engineering and integration engineering, and 200-240 in mission operations -- numbers driven primarily by the establishment of the Constellation program. 3 At the time NASA 1The Vision for Space Exploration initiative was announced by President George W
From page 2...
... Given that the bulk of the development activities over the past 10 years have been in robotic spacecraft, NASA needs to leverage the robotic spacecraft workforce skill development opportunities to meet some of the human spaceflight program development skill needs. The committee believes that systems engineering methodology and technical skills acquired from complex robotic spacecraft development can serve as an important base for the transition to systems engineering of human spacecraft.
From page 3...
... If it does nothing to achieve a better age distribution across its overall internal workforce, NASA will suffer a gap not only in technical leadership, but also in overall technical experience, especially if the development dates for key VSE components slip and highly skilled workers with experience in the Space Shuttle program retire. The committee concluded that if NASA is to avoid a long-term shortage of the required in-house technical expertise in human spaceflight systems and other areas, it will have to adopt a strategy to address potential long-term shortfalls.
From page 4...
... (Top) A technician prepares a sounding rocket payload.
From page 5...
... , they also offer an opportunity for tapping and developing new workforce resources. The committee reached its conclusions after benefiting from input from public meetings at which it heard from representatives from NASA, the Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the aerospace industry, and university science and engineering schools and from analysis of documents from NASA and other organizations.
From page 6...
... The committee recommends that NASA collect detailed data on and develop accurate assessments of the capabilities possessed by the current workforce and required for the future S&T workforce. • Because each NASA center has unique mission requirements and the mobility of personnel between centers is limited, NASA should complete a center-developed, bottom-up assessment of the current skills, experience levels, and projected attrition of the workforce for each individual NASA center.
From page 7...
... . NASA training programs are addressing some of the agency's requirements in this experience base, but the current requirement for a strong base of highly skilled program/project management and systems engineering personnel, and limited opportunities for junior specialists to gain hands-on space project experience, remain impediments to NASA's ability to successfully carry out VSE programs and projects.
From page 8...
... • The Graduate Student Researchers Program supports the education and training of prospective NASA employees and deserves augmented support. • Undergraduate and graduate co-op student programs are particularly effective in giving students early hands-on experience and in exposing students and NASA to each other to help enable sound career choices and hiring decisions.


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