Stern out as SMD head.
Weiler in.
"Alan has rendered invaluable service to NASA as the Principal Investigator for the Pluto/New Horizons mission, as a member of the NASA Advisory Council, and as the associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate. While I deeply regret his decision to leave NASA, I understand his reasons for doing so, and wish him all the best in his future endeavors."
Griffin also announced that Dr. Edward J. Weiler, director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., will serve as interim associate administrator. "
Rumour is cost issues and lack of SMD funding were partial cause.
Something tells me there is a story here.
Expect some further personnel changes, and then possibly some severe pain to areas of science, and further reprioritization.
Ed Weiler's appointment is interim, for now.
Also announced Mather is returning to JWST science position full time.
He was split with HQ.
This is making me somewhat uneasy.
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They're gutting flight projects to fund manned spaceflight projects, which themselves aren't flying and will eventually be scrapped, after the money has been squandered. MER just got hit.
Could this administrative shakeup have impact on the decision reported earlier this week to shut down one of the two mars rovers and limit the activities of the other?
ISTR that Weiler was shuffled out to Goddard from the SMD at HQ in an earlier reorg a few years back, during the O'Keefe era. If his interim appointment becomes permanent, it would be confirmation that the current residents of the ninth floor think the entire O'Keefe era was a mistake.
The key question: Is Stern leaving entirely of his own accord, or was he pushed out?
I don't think the Mars Rover threatened shutdown is the proximate cause.
The money involved is too small, the public uproar is reason enough for HQ to override SMD without it being crippling on the SMD management, and Stern is overall pro-planets, probably as pro-planets as SMD will get.
The worry is that SMD has been asked to take a BIG cut, maybe to shut down some major high priority program and that the admin refused to do it.
If I had to guesstimate, I'd say >> $300 million cut, per fiscal year, would be something to resign over.
That is why the astro.*.edu e-mails are buzzing today.
Oh, and if you know something, pass it on.
Sorry, I wasn't asking if the Mars Rover shutdown could be the cause of the change, I was trying to ask if the Mars Rover shutdown is more or less likely to be reversed because of this change.
I think MER shutdown attempt is symptomatic of what is coming.
The Rovers are safe for another year, but I fear that cut is moving somewhere else and is just the first one we heard of.
Something is going to give and I am worried about what it is.
All I have heard is that this is a problem and that Stern was moving things in the right direction. My spies are not very informative.
Stern just sent out his farewell message to the NSPIRES-Help mailing list.
Short version: It's about spiraling mission costs that are out of SMD's control, and he had been thinking about it for months.
Weiler takes over on Monday.