Instruments Division News
4/16/2009
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Welcome to our newest staff members: Kevin Volk joins INS as a Canadian Space
Agency (CSA) Scientist working on the JWST Tunable Filters Imager (TFI). Also
new as a CSA Scientist is André Martel, although we know André already for his
work over the past two years on the WFC3 team.
Farewell, too, to some staff whom we will miss: Jessica Kim, Helene McGlaughlin,
and Katya Verner will all be leaving the institute over the next week. We greatly
appreciate your contributions, wish you well in your new endeavors, and hope to see
you back again some day.
HST news:
o Atlantis is on the pad and still preparing for flight to HST on May 12. 26
days to go!
o Ground system software freeze is in place. Please consult the HST
Mission Office if you have any questions.
o The SM4 delta-readiness review is coming up next Tuesday, April 21, in
the auditorium.
JWST news:
o The WIT team hosted a productive calibration summit. They made lots of
progress on identifying common elements among the instruments and
laying groundwork for calibrations during I&T.
o Planning is underway for the next partner’s workshop, May 21-23, in
Ottowa.
Security changes: I know that the flurry of new procedures for ITAR, computer
security, and physical security have made many of us uncomfortable. I want to thank
the vast majority of you who have taken these changes in stride with civility and
equanimity. This is exactly what we have been working to achieve over the past
couple of years. However, there were a number of unpleasant confrontations between
a few staff members and the personnel at the front desk. One of the lessons we
learned from our consultations with Ivan Rosenberg two years ago is that it only takes
a few incidents like this to poison the atmosphere of trust and respect among the staff.
Failure by managers to take corrective action then exacerbates the problem. I want
you to know that we have not ignored these interactions nor do we deem them
acceptable. We have taken steps to rectify them. Please remember that it is paramount
that we maintain our civility and respect for each other, even when confronted with
procedures that we dislike. And we should especially refrain from venting our
frustrations on staff who are responsible for enforcing the procedures. I and all the
management staff welcome feedback and suggestions. Many of these rules result
from government or NASA regulations over which we have little control. They often
have short deadlines for implementation that leave little time for either investigating
exceptions or developing a full panoply of workarounds. We are and will continue to
work on ways to make STScI both more secure and procedures less intrusive or
complex for our staff. Please work with us in a civil way to do so.
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The next INS lunch is next Thursday, April 23, in the Boardroom, from 12:00-1:30.
Again, volunteers are needed for coordinating this!
The next TIPS meeting may be Thursday, May 21, 2009, depending on how busy we
all are.