NASA

  • In anticipation of a March 18 launch, crew members from NASA's Expedition 47 mission to the International Space Station take their final qualification exams at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia.

    February 25, 2016
  • Depending on whose numbers you believe, federal workers are either overpaid by 34 percent or underpaid by 25 percent compared to the private sector.

    February 22, 2016
  • NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity recently complete its 12th year on Mars. Its mission was originally meant to last just 90 days. Since then, the gadget has taken more than 200,000 images and driven more than 26 miles across the surface of the red planet. Just how did it work out so much better than NASA could have hoped for? Federal News Radio's Eric White spoke with John Callas, the Project Manager for the Mars Exploration Rover Project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He shared that interview on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

    February 12, 2016
  • Fear of asteroids can conjures up snickers, like worries of a spaceship veering in on the National Mall. In reality, asteroids whack at the Earth regularly.

    January 21, 2016
  • For the second year in a row, NASA's safety panel points out a "growth over time in the maximum acceptable Loss of Crew probabilities."

    January 15, 2016
  • More than three years after the General Services Administration’s infamous Las Vegas conference featuring clowns, mind readers and bike-building morale exercises, federal employees are still feeling the effects of strict policies designed to prevent a repeat. In many cases, those policies mean several layers of agency approval before feds are allowed to attend any conference. Several science and technology organizations are telling agency leaders and Congress that those policies are a serious overcorrection to over-the-top agency conferences of years gone by, and they’re hindering the careers of federal scientists and other professionals. Dr. Sandra Magnus, executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, talked with Jared Serbu on Federal Drive with Tom Temin about the dropoff in conference attendance by federal employee and why she thinks the oversight pendulum has swung too far.

    December 18, 2015
  • Yesterday, the President signed an executive order designed to strengthen the Senior Executive Service by requiring agencies to rotate more of their SES-ers to different agencies or assignments, making sure they’re not paid less than their General Schedule subordinates and refining agencies processes for onboarding SES members. Jeri Buchholz is a strategic business development adviser for FMP Consulting and a former chief human capital officer at NASA. In a column she wrote for Federal News Radio, she argues the order is a good first start, but it might also be a distraction from the real problems in the Senior Executive Service. She talked to Jared Serbu on Federal Drive with Tom Temin about wh

    December 16, 2015
  • The latest iteration of NASA's Solutions for Enterprise Procurement is only about six months old, but officials are pleased with how things are going. So far, 147 companies have won spots on SEWP 5. That's 110 more than under SEWP 4. Joanne Woytek, SEWP program manager, spoke Monday with Federal News Radio's Jason Miller at the 34th annual Government Contracts Management Symposium hosted by the National Contract Management Association. Jason shared the latest with Jared Serbu on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

    December 15, 2015
  • Even the smallest opinion counts at the agencies with the most satisfied employees, according to the results of the 2015 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government.

    December 08, 2015
  • For the first time in four years, federal employee satisfaction and commitment improved among the workforce, according to the Partnership for Public Service's 2015 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government.

    December 08, 2015
  • Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is looking to bring order and definition to the term 'paid administrative leave.' Grassley says the unchecked practice is leaving employees without answers or recourse, and taxpayers stuck with the bill.

    December 04, 2015
  • Even for long-serving federal managers, moving from one federal department to another can produce some surprises. Systems, cultures, people might all be different. Just a few short weeks into her job as NASA chief information officer, Renee Wynn has a lot of work to do. Recently decamped from EPA, she compared the two agencies for Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

    November 30, 2015
  • Tableau Software's Jerry Valerio and Trippie Group CEO Keith Trippie join host John Gilroy to discuss data management, data storage, and visualization. November 10, 2015

    November 09, 2015
  • Telework can save hours in time spent commuting and make life a little easier for many. But, working away from the office can also have unintended consequences. Those working away from the office can find themselves disconnected from coworkers while those left in the office might find themselves alone without a coworker to turn to. Jeri Buchholz, a strategic business development adviser for FMP Consulting and former chief human capital officer at NASA, sheds some light on the subject on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

    November 09, 2015