William Gerstenmaier
William Gerstenmaier
William H. Gerstenmaieris the current Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations for NASA, holding this position since 2005. He has been described as "arguably the most influential person when it comes to US spaceflight." Prior to being Associate Administrator, Gerstenmaier served as the International Space Station Office Program Manager, at Johnson Space Center, a position he began in June 2002...
continue crew exchange flying space
We're 'go' for the crew exchange and 'go' to continue flying to the space station.
force question ready work
The question is, what is the work force ready to do.
lots options sure
There's lots of options being investigated. We're not really sure where things are right now.
best ought
We think that's the best thing to do, just take it off. I think we ought not to think about May right now.
chill cracking easy fit process related
We know a lot about the cracking phenomenon, but we still haven't pinpointed the cause. We know it's related to the chill down process and to some pressurization of the tank, but how those fit together...it's not an easy problem.
early fly general generating oxygen problems systems work
We know that oxygen generating systems in general have had a lot of problems over the years during start-up. We want to fly it early so we can work those out.
likely puts september window
We're going to have to make some modifications to the tank, so that probably puts the September (launch) window into a not very likely possibility.
data drive opportunity unique
We're going to do the right thing and let the data drive us where we need to go. I think we've got a unique opportunity to get this right.
accomplish along assumed goals good planning problems schedule shuttle station
We're still going to be able to accomplish our goals for a good station configuration for shuttle retirement. In our schedule and planning we assumed that we'd have some shuttle problems along the way.
looks remove unlikely
It looks like it's going to be very unlikely that we're going to be able to just remove the...ramp and fly.
countries great help occurred partners relationship remarkable russian space tragedy
It's great that our Russian partners are here to help us during this time. It would never have occurred without the tragedy of Columbia. So out of that tragedy has come a remarkable relationship between our two countries and our two space programs.