![\"2015-08-06-020907\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/2015-08-06-020907-350x293.jpg\")
He also served as the chair of the ISS Mission Management Team (IMMT) after managing several of its subsystem offices, and managed multiple offices for the Space Shuttle Program.<\/p>\nThe International Space Station (ISS) Program has named Kirk Shireman as its new manager, following the departure of Mike Suffredini. The news came hours after NASA administrator Charlie Bolden modified the Agency\u2019s contract with Roscosmos, to the tune of an extra $490m, to cover projected delays to the Commercial Crew Program.<\/p>\n
New ISS Chief:<\/p>\n
Mr. Shireman \u2013 who joined NASA in 1985 \u2013 is no stranger to the inner workings of the ISS Program, having served as deputy ISS program manager from 2006 to 2013.<\/p>\n
He then moved into the position of deputy center director at the Johnson Space Center.<\/p>\n
He also served as the chair of the ISS Mission Management Team (IMMT) after managing several of its subsystem offices, and managed multiple offices for the Space Shuttle Program.<\/p>\n
\u201cKirk brings considerable space station experience to this new leadership role. He will manage the overall development, integration and operation of the program,\u201d noted Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA\u2019s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs program manager, Kirk will work directly with international partners to ensure safe and reliable operation of the orbiting laboratory, and foster continued scientific research that benefits humanity and helps prepare the agency for its journey to Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n
*Click here for more ISS Articles*<\/p>\n
Mr. Shireman replaces the highly respected Mike Suffredini, who is leaving NASA to take up a role in the private sector.<\/p>\n
Space tourism guides (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n \u201cDuring Mike\u2019s tenure, the international project successfully completed construction and transitioned into a fully functional microgravity laboratory,\u201d Mr. Gerstenmaier added. \u201cUnder his leadership, the station opened avenues for a new commercial marketplace in space and established a platform for groundbreaking research.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Suffredini joined NASA in 1989, working his way up to become the ISS program manager in 2005.<\/p>\n Known as a hugely respected problem solver, Mr. Suffredini oversaw the successful transition of the orbital outpost into its utilization phase and guided the Station through a number of technical challenges that are also providing a knowledge base for NASA\u2019s future goals of long-duration deep space exploration.<\/p>\n Mr. Suffredini also welcomed an array of new vehicles to the Station, as the logistical challenges associated with replacing the superior capability of the Shuttle \u2013 with a fleet of international and commercial \u201cVisiting Vehicles\u201d \u2013 were ably balanced to allow the Station to continue to operate even during the unprecedented impact of three resupply vehicles failing in quick succession.<\/p>\n He also began the process to prepare the Station for the arrival of the first crewmembers to launch on a commercial vehicle. However, as to when that milestone will actually occur continues to be at the mercy of lawmakers.<\/p>\n Soyuz Support Extension:<\/p>\n The continuing Catch 22 scenario of fully funding the Commercial Crew Program versus paying Roscosmos for seats on the Russian Soyuz to bridge the ever-increasing gap in NASA\u2019s crew launch capability is not being helped by the uncertainty in the funding levels allocated by Congress.<\/p>\n Since the retirement of the Space Shuttle, the initial plan was to regain US domestic launch capability for NASA astronauts by around 2015. <\/p>\n That push towards the Commercial Crew Program\u2019s Full Operational Capability (FOC) milestone has since slipped to at least the end of 2017.<\/p>\n NASA also plans to pay for Soyuz support during the early phase of the Commercial Crew era as back-up \u2013 required to ensure a continued US presence on the ISS.<\/p>\n However, the amount of additional funding that has been paid to Roscosmos over recent years would have likely been enough to fully fund CCP in the first place. This would have reduced the projected schedule and allowed Commercial Crew to become part of the ISS budget line sooner.<\/p>\n As such, lawmakers are unlikely to have saved any real money via their penny pinching of Commercial Crew funding allocations. What they have achieved is to divert US taxpayer money from America\u2019s space industry to Russia.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has resulted in continued sole reliance on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft as our crew transport vehicle for American and international partner crews to the ISS.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI am writing to inform you that NASA, once again, has modified its current contract with the Russian government to meet America\u2019s requirements for crew transportation services. Under this contract modification, the cost of these services to the U.S. taxpayers will be approximately $490 million.\u201d<\/p>\n Both SpaceX and its Dragon 2 vehicle, along with Boeing and its CST-100 spacecraft, have a test flight schedule that includes their first historic missions to the ISS.<\/p>\n These missions are scheduled to open with uncrewed test flights to the ISS as soon as December 2016 (Dragon 2 \u2013 SpX-DM1). Crewed missions will follow in 2017, per the current manifest outlook.<\/p>\n However, General Bolden warned lawmakers that the continued stranglehold on funding may result in milestone renegotiations and schedule slips.<\/p>\n \u201cReductions from the FY 2016 request for Commercial Crew proposed in the House and Senate FY 2016 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies appropriations bills would result in NASA\u2019s inability to fund several planned CCtCap milestones in FY 2016 and would likely result in funds running out for both contractors during the spring\/summer of FY 2016.<\/p>\n General Bolden called on all lawmakers to come together and support the Commercial Crew Program, specifically urging Congress to provide the funds requested for CCP this year, \u201cso we can prevent this situation (more money to Roscosmos) in the future\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI am asking that we put past disagreements behind us and focus our collective efforts on support for American industry \u2013 the Boeing Corporation and SpaceX \u2013 to complete construction and certification of their crew vehicles so that we can begin launching our crews from the Space Coast of Florida in 2017.\u201d<\/p>\n (Images: via NASA, Boeing and L2 Sections, including renderings created by L2 Artist Nathan Koga.)<\/p>\n (Click here: http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/l2\/ \u2013 to view how you can support NSF\u2019s running costs and access the best space flight content on the entire internet)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The International Space Station (ISS) Program has named Kirk Shireman as its new manager, following the departure of Mike Suffredini. The news came hours after NASA administrator Charlie Bolden modified the Agency\u2019s contract with Roscosmos, to the tune of an extra $490m, to cover projected delays to the Commercial Crew Program. New ISS Chief: Mr. Shireman \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[670,8996,7893,3985,1565,8726,233,316],"class_list":["post-39276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-boeing","tag-ccdev","tag-ccp","tag-cctcap","tag-cst-100","tag-dragon-v2","tag-iss","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39276"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"2015-08-06-021053\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/2015-08-06-021053-350x255.jpg\")
Mr. Suffredini announced his departure to an All-Hands meeting at JSC on Wednesday, which was noted to include an emotional farewell speech, followed by a standing ovation from those in attendance.<\/p>\n![\"2015-08-06-021140\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/2015-08-06-021140-350x231.jpg\")
He was deeply involved with the major task of ISS assembly, working alongside both the Shuttle Program and international partners.<\/p>\nSee Also<\/h4>\n
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![\"2015-08-06-030835\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/2015-08-06-030835-350x262.jpg\")
\u201cUnfortunately, for five years now, the Congress, while incrementally increasing annual funding, has not adequately funded the Commercial Crew Program to return human spaceflight launches to American soil this year, as planned,\u201d wrote General Bolden in an open letter to Congress.<\/p>\n![\"2015-03-05](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/2015-03-05-19_32_43-index.php-4500%C3%972531-350x239.jpg\")
NASA is currently funding two primary contractors via the ongoing Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract.<\/p>\n![\"2015-06-10-014319\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/2015-06-10-014319-350x251.jpg\")
\u201cThe fastest path to bringing these new systems online, launching from America, and ending our sole reliance on Russia is fully funding NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Program in FY 2016. Our Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contractors are on track today to provide certified crew transportation systems in 2017.<\/p>\n![\"2015-01-30](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/2015-01-30-11_04_15-Boeing-CST-100-HR-Updates-and-Images-350x250.jpg\")
\u201cIf this occurs, the existing fixed-price CCtCap contracts may need to be renegotiated, likely resulting in further schedule slippage and increased cost.\u201d<\/p>\n