Why airlines lose money

A couple of days ago I wrote about companies that use private aircraft to transport their CEOs for golfing as well as business purposes. Today, I'd like to talk about NASA, which also has a real penchant for private planes.

This penchant manifests itself in a fleet of planes NASA uses to transport its people, usually senior executives, on relatively routine business matters. Now it so happens that this type of transportation violates a policy that the federal government has had in place for a while: Federal agencies can own aircracft only as needed to meet specific requirements, such as transporting prisoners or doing aeronautical research. The GAO has shown that 86% of the flights taken by NASA's planes in 2003 and 2004 were for routine business in direct violation of federal policy.

Further, this transportation is very expensive. GAO has estimated that in the wonderful years of 2003 and 2004 NASA's reported air travel costs of $25,000,000 would have been only $5,000,000 had they used commercial airlines. Notice the words "reported costs". These costs apparently exclude such rare items as depreciation.

So, our employees are violating policies and spending a lot more of our money than they should. And DeLay says that there is no fat in the budget!

Can you find 26 people who will agree on a very complex subject?

Some newspaper stories have lambasted NASA because seven of the twenty-six panel members of the Return to Flight Task Group published a dissent to the conclusions reached by the Task Group, although the Task Group’s report was far from a whitewash.

The Task Group was charged with reviewing how well NASA had implemented seventeen recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. Looked at strictly by the numbers, NASA did okay: they implemented eleven, had mixed results with three and did not succeed with three.

It so happens that the three not implemented are thought by some to be the most critical recommendations: to eliminate all foam insulation debris from the external fuel tank; harden the shuttle's heat-shield system to resist any impacts that do occur; and develop reliable tile and wing leading edge repair techniques. But is improper inspection (which was a problem with Columbia) really less important than any one of the three failures? Yet, that was only one area where NASA improved significantly. What about an improved ability to deal with safety contingencies? As in most cases, we all have our own personal slant on things.

The Task Group concludes by reminding us that “Space, by its nature, is a hostile environment.” “…it is likely that another accident will happen in the future; if not with Space Shuttle, then with whatever vehicle replaces it.”

More About DOD and NASA Management

The latest GAO report on DOD and NASA management concerns the quality of the parts used in the systems of these agencies. Each of the twenty-one programs GAO looked at had problems with the quality of the parts being used. Okay, life is full of problems. But, the major difficulty here is that DOD and NASA did not find the problems until very late in the game; in one case this cost us $250,000,000 and a year delay in launching.

Here's what GAO has to say:

The causes of parts quality problems GAO identified were poor workmanship, undocumented and untested manufacturing processes, poor control of those processes and materials and failure to prevent contamination, poor part design, design complexity, and an inattention to manufacturing risks. Ineffective supplier management also resulted in concerns about whether subcontractors and contractors met program requirements.

Did the bosses flunk Management 101?

Airglow

This is not an edited photograph. It is NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day.

It was taken by Jeff Dai after a thunderstorm over Bangladesh in late April. The picture shows the air over Tibet and China. NASA says that "The unusual pattern is created by waves of alternating air pressure that can grow with height as the air thins, in this case about 90 kilometers up."

Pumpkins by NASA

NASA Engineers Show You How To Carve a Pumpkin by wired

Noise from outer space?

NASA has just released a video with sounds that may be from outer space. The sounds, which lasted an hour, were heard in May 1969 by the Apollo 10 astronauts as they circled the Moon. NASA says the sounds could not have been alien music.They likely came from interference caused by radios that were close to each other in the lunar module and the command module.

Student finds error in NASA data

In physics class seventeen-year-old Miles Soloman was looking at radiation sensors on the International Space Station (ISS). He found that ISS sensors were recording negative data when there was no radiation present. This is impossible. So, he let NASA know. They told him that while it was aware of the error, its experts had thought the data blips appeared only once or twice a year. But the student informed them it was happening several times a day.

To the moon or bust

Earlier this year NASA cancelled the Deep Space Climate Observatory, which would have given us needed knowledge about our world. Now they're proposing even more cuts in knowledge-seeking missions so that they can try to fulfill Bush's promise of a return to the moon by 2020. It seems that we are more interested in moon flights than in projects which would help us better understand global warming and make better weather forecasts.

Until two years ago, NASA was willing to spend good money on its earth science program. With the recent cuts to this program, the Space Studies Board has concluded that the program is neither robust nor sustainable. Still we spend money on stupid earmarks and attempts to control people's behavior. And money we do spend on worthwhile projects is often not managed properly. It's a wonderful world.

Another $100 Million Down The Drain

The problem is that the loss is more than money. It's a loss of knowledge about Earth's future. In 1998 Nasa began work on the Deep Space Climate Observatory, a satellite that could continuously monitor what's called the earth's 'energy balance', that is the gap between the amount of the sun's energy that is absorbed by the earth's atmosphere and surface and the amount reflected back into space. The satellite was ready for launch in 2001, but it was never launched; it just sat in storage until recently when NASA scrapped the project because of "competing priorities".

Projects are scrapped all the time. Why is the scrapping of this one important? First of all, it would have been able to look at the earth as an entire planet rather than as a collection of regional views. It was built to collect information on our climate system combining data from the atmosphere, the clouds, radiation and the earth's surface. This is information we do not have now although it is needed if we are to truly understand what is happening with our climate system.

As we non-scientists know, the energy we and all other bits of life get from the sun enables us to live; without it, life would cease to exist here. And, as we also know, the earth is getting warmer and, if the warming continues, we ain't going to be here. It may be that the problem of global warming is due to the rise in so-called greenhouse gases. But it may also be true that it is due to the "energy balance". It is vital that we learn what the cause or causes are. It seems foolish to scrap this project while we are spending money on the international space station, which seems to be more of a toy that a scientifically useful experiment.

Is Accounting 101 no longer taught?

You have to wonder about the state of accounting education in this country. Many private sector companies can't seem to close their books or analyze their cash needs or hire competent accountants or perform basic stuff any accountant worth his salt learned in the first year of Accounting. You can argue that these companies are not spending your money. But, these problems have spread to the federal government, which is spending your money. Here's what the GAO has to say about NASA:

• It's been on the GAO high-risk list since 1990.
• It can't properly identify adjustments or correcting entries
• It can't consistently post transactions to the right accounts
• Its financial statements cannot be audited.

And NASA is not alone. These problems "are not uncommon among federal agencies".

What in the Lord's name is going on? How can these agencies waste our money like this?

It worked!

'It' is Nasa's deep impact project. It struck the Tempel 1 comet this morning. After the difficulties of the past few years, Nasa must be proud today - and justifiably so on this day symbolizing America's potential.

Fiction becomes reality?

In two days Tempel 1 will be a name people will be talking about. It's the comet that Nasa's Deep Impact spacecraft will be crashing into on July 4. Nasa's web site on this is pretty cool.

Another area...

in which we've lost the lead, however tenuous our lead in rocket technology may have been. The head of NASA says that the European space rocket, Ariane5, is 'probably the best in the world'. The company that makes it, Arianespace, has more than 50% of the commercial satellite launching market.

We don't have to be #1 in everything - we can't be - but we should not act as though we were.

High Risk Areas

Every two years the GAO publishes a list of areas they think have a high risk of wasting money. This is the latest list:

Addressing Challenges In Broad-Based Transformations
• Modernizing the Outdated U.S. Financial Regulatory Systema (New)
• Protecting Public Health through Enhanced Oversight of Medical Products (New)
• Transforming EPA’s Processes for Assessing and Controlling Toxic Chemicals (New)
• 2010 Census (New in March 2008)
• Strategic Human Capital Management
• Managing Federal Real Property
• Protecting the Federal Government’s Information Systems and the Nation’s Critical Infrastructures
• Implementing and Transforming the Department of Homeland Security
• Establishing Effective Mechanisms for Sharing Terrorism-Related Information to Protect the Homeland
• DOD Approach to Business Transformation
• Business Systems Modernization
• Personnel Security Clearance Program
• Support Infrastructure Management
• Financial Management
• Supply Chain Management
• Weapon Systems Acquisition
• Funding the Nation’s Surface Transportation System
• Ensuring the Effective Protection of Technologies Critical to U.S. National Security Interests
• Revamping Federal Oversight of Food Safety
Managing Federal Contracting More Effectively
• DOD Contract Management
• DOE’s Contract Management for the National Nuclear Security Administration and Office of Environmental Management
• NASA Acquisition Management
• Management of Interagency Contracting
Assessing the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Tax Law Administration
• Enforcement of Tax Laws
• IRS Business Systems Modernization
Modernizing and Safeguarding Insurance and Benefit Programs
• Improving and Modernizing Federal Disability Programs
• Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation Insurance Programs
• Medicare Program
• Medicaid Program
• National Flood Insurance Program

Many of these areas need input from our weak and ineffective Congress, so don't expect much of a breakthrough with the current crop of supposed legislators.

Trump's latest tweet moves the moon to Mars

"For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon - We did that 50 years ago. They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science!"

 59.8K 1:38 PM - Jun 7, 2019

Women at NASA

It's gotten warmer

The following chart is from Climate Central. It's based on data from NOAA and NASA and shows the degree of warmth each month from 1880 to 2015. The blueish boxes indicate cool months, the reddish warm months. As you can see, the blues have disappeared.

Spending Our Money

I know our wars have been very expensive, but I didn't realize how out of whack these costs were until I read an article by Nancy Youssef of McClatchy Newspapers. Here are some highlights:

• In one month we spend more on our wars than the annual budget for the EPA.
• We could launch six NASA flights for what it costs us each month for our wars.
• The Medicare drug benefit is quite generous and expensive, yet in three months of war we spend more than we do on the drug benefit in a year.
• In four months we spend more on wars than the annual budget of the State Department.
• The military spends $4.55 for a gallon of gas (that's more than I spent on the island of Martha's Vineyard). Plus they have to spend money to get it to the vehicles; that could increase costs twenty times.
• Afghanistan is a hot place weather-wise. It costs $20 billion a year to provide air conditioning for the troops. Over the past forty years we've spent $1 billion a year on Amtrak on average.
  
• The per-person cost in Afghanistan in FY2010 was $667,000; it increased in FY2011 and likely will increase next year.
  

Something is truly wrong with this picture.

More than the usual summer melting

In a typical summer about half of the ice sheet in Greenland melts.  Summer 2012 is quite different.  In four days from July 8 to 12 melting of the surface went from 40% to about 97%. How  much of the entire glacier melted is not known.  Nor is it known whether this extensive melt event will affect the overall volume of ice loss this summer and contribute to sea level rise.  This phenomenon has occurred before, 1889 being the most recent.

There is a great video of the collapse at the BBC site, which did not allow sharing.  Click here to view it.

NASA has some shots also.  Here is what things looked like on July 8.

After the melting this is what it looked like on July 12.

Far and near

The BBC reports two astronomical findings today,  one is a planet with four suns and 5,000 light-years away, the other a planet only four light years away.

The far planet was discovered by volunteers from the Planethunters.org, which in less than two years has garnered more than 170,000 members.  The organization aims to harness human pattern recognition to identify transits in publicly available data gathered by Nasa's Kepler Space Telescope.  The planet is more than six times the radius of the Earth.

The near planet was discovered by the European Southern Observatory's La Silla facility in Chile.  This planet is not in our solar system.  It has has at minimum the same mass as Earth, but circles its star far closer than Mercury orbits our Sun.