Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 15, 1990 TAG: 9007150163
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
CBC-TV reported on its "Weekend News" Saturday that the panel probably will be named this week.
"I think the White House is disappointed with the priorities coming out of the agency," George Washington University professor John M. Logsdon told the network. "I think there is a crisis of confidence in NASA as an organization, in its management and its leadership."
The White House press office did not immediately return a telephone call requesting comment on the report.
Although the space agency has named committees of its own to look into recent problems, a White House oversight panel could be seen as a response to congressional calls for an outside review of NASA procedures.
For example, Sen. Al Gore, D-Tenn., head of the Senate Commerce space subcommittee, has said that the "new [NASA] management team, ironically, has been looking at this but the agency hasn't gotten attention from the president and that's what's needed now."
A White House review of NASA probably would be coordinated by the National Space Council, which is headed by Vice President Dan Quayle and meets next week.
CBS said Quayle "reportedly got an earful of complaints against NASA last week and is expected to take the lead in strategy meetings beginning Monday."
The network said the White House concern is not so much with NASA's recent string of technical problems, but the agency bureaucracy's failure to deal with them adequately. Despite the concern, the report said NASA Administrator Richard Truly, recently appointed by President Bush, still has the White House's confidence.
by CNB