The Man With the Plan

Space program advocates had barely finished breathing a collective "thank you!" to President Bush before they began urging NASA to hurry up and do something about the nation's new vision for exploration. As one industry executive cautioned in April, "You all know a vision without a plan will not survive long in a political arena."

Craig Steidle is on the job. In December, NASA officials tapped the retired Navy rear admiral to lead America's multi-billion-dollar exploration initiative. Steidle remembers the telephone call that brought him out of a holiday "funk" last November. Deputy NASA Administrator Fred Gregory wanted to know about the "systems of systems" challenges he overcame to initiate the $200 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program in 1995. "He said, 'Can you come in and visit? Now?' " Steidle recalls. He had no idea why the civilian space agency was interested in an advanced combat jet, but Steidle agreed to meet with senior NASA officials in Washington that day. They asked him to stay, and he did.

"They were very genuine about wanting a new way of doing business," he says. Right under his nose, a secret White House working group was formulating the new space vision. Steidle had been chosen to become one of the central figures in U.S. space policy, but he was none the wiser for weeks-until NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe appointed him as the agency's first associate administrator for exploration systems. "I knew him by reputation," says O'Keefe, who crossed paths with Steidle in 1992 and 1993 when O'Keefe was Navy secretary and Steidle was a captain directing development of the F/A-18 E/F warplane.

Steidle learned his management lessons in that program, and perfected them in the Joint Strike Fighter effort. Due to enter production in 2007, the JSF uses the latest technology in a common family of aircraft designed to meet the different needs of three U.S. services and their allies. Two proposed NASA projects have similarly diverse requirements. Project Constellation will develop a line of spacecraft that carry explorers to the moon and Mars but, if needed, double as a taxi for space station researchers. Project Prometheus is investigating a range of nuclear electric propulsion and power applications to be demonstrated by the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter probe set for launch in 2015.

The key to "harmonizing" JSF acquisition requirements, Steidle says, was in a report by a 1986 commission on defense management. It identified several common characteristics of successful commercial and governmental projects: unambiguous communication, small staffs of highly competent professionals, emphasis on innovation, smart buying practices, and a stable planning and funding environment. It recommended increased testing and more reliance on prototypes, a "build a little, test a little" concept known as spiral development that Steidle is applying to the projects at NASA. The report also found that weapon systems work best and cost less when the users help write the acquisition requirements.

Steidle has assembled just such a team-and populated it with several astronauts-to plan how NASA will carry out the strategy Bush announced in January. With a core group of about 80 in Washington, the Office of Exploration Systems eventually will span the country but number no more than about 150 people. The office issues periodic requests for information, seeking ideas on everything from acquisition management to specific technologies. One such request in March prompted almost 1,000 responses. "We hope industry will participate with their particular revolutionary concepts as well as traditional ones," Steidle says. To help stimulate technical innovation, NASA has established a "Centennial Challenge" contest with cash prizes. Steidle says the agency also will reach out to entrepreneurial rocketeers and rely on partnerships "at the highest levels" with a variety of Defense Department agencies involved in space research and development.

Steidle admits that he has "caused some problems at the [field] centers" with his management style. But in Washington, an agency often characterized as arrogant and aloof is welcoming this outsider with open arms. "I haven't had any negative experiences here," he says, "other than the workload is tremendous."