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Success Through Failure

By Henry Petroski “Nothing succeeds like success” is an old saw with many different teeth — some still sharp and incising, some worn down from overuse, some entirely broken off from abuse.

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Interview with Rex Geveden

By Don Cohen Don Cohen and Ed Hoffman met with NASA’s Associate Administrator to talk about his NASA career and his view of the Agency’s current and future challenges.

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Leaders’ Responsibility to Develop Future Leaders

By Gus Guastaferro Early in my career, just after I completed a special task on the development of the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer for the Viking lander, Viking project manager Jim Martin asked me to go to Denver to manage the day-to-day activities of the all-up systems test on the entire lander.

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University Collaborations: Teaching and Learning

By Kevin Vipavetz When Tom Shull, my supervisor, told me the Virginia Space Grant Consortium (VSGC) might ask for project management and communications support for a university research balloon project, I thought about how I was already juggling four projects and didn’t have time to volunteer.

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Gravity Probe B: Testing Einstein … with a Management Experiment?

By Edward S. Calder and Bradley T. Jones Gravity Probe B (GP-B) has been called the most sophisticated object ever placed in space.

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Featured Invention: Langley Soluble Imide

The Inventions and Contributions Board works closely with the NASA General Counsel each year to help determine and fund the NASA Invention of the Year.

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A Powerful Communication Tool: the Engineering White Paper

By James Wood The New Horizons mission encountered an issue with the Atlas V booster RP-1 fuel tank four months before launch — a remarkably complex problem that involved NASA Headquarters, Safety and Mission Assurance, NASA Engineering and Safety Center, and the folks at Lockheed Martin who designed the system.

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Unexpected Delays Equal a Chance to Innovate

Hugh Woodward Sometimes a delay is the best thing that can happen to a project. While I was program manager, funding problems that slowed and threatened to cancel our plans to improve the efficiency of our paper manufacturing processes gave us time to prototype and test new technologies repeatedly.

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Cassini-Huygens: International Cooperation for Astronomical Achievement

By Kerry Ellis Many project managers tout communication and collaboration as important elements for building a successful team. But what happens when an ocean separates team members? Tougher still, what if you throw in a few different languages?

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