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By Andrew Chambers and Dan Rasky   NASA is committed to working with private industry to develop the next generation of space-transportation technologies.

NASA in the News NASA’s Space Shuttle fleet began setting records with its first launch on April 12, 1981.

Don Cohen, Managing Editor   Spaceflight is hard, Wayne Hale reminds us in the interview in this issue of ASK. His discussion of a long career devoted to the Space Shuttle touches on the sources of the shuttle program’s many successes and its few painful failures.

By Ed Hoffman   What do we mean when we talk about change management? Change is an inevitable part of the life of an organization. Regardless of why it happens, it is always difficult and painful for many people. One metaphor that’s helpful for understanding change in an organizational context comes from evolutionary biology.

By Laurence Prusak   A number of years ago I was asked by some clients to come up with a rapid-fire indicator to determine whether a specific organization was really a “learning organization.”

Contrails are seen as workers leave the Launch Control Center at Kennedy Space Center after the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery and the start of the STS-131 mission. After its nearly thirty-year history of human spaceflight achievements, the Space Shuttle is nearing its final planned launch. Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

By Matthew Kohut   The former shuttle program manager talks about career-long learning and what the Columbia accident taught the agency. Former Space Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale’s career roughly paralleled the life cycle of the Space Shuttle program.

By Kent A. Greenes   Faced with challenging projects, teams call on colleagues with relevant experience. Knowledge workers in NASA work on the edge, carrying out complex projects that have never before been attempted.