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Steve Jurczyk Named NASA Associate Administrator in Series of Exec Moves
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Steve Jurczyk Named NASA Associate Administrator in Series of Exec Moves


Steve Jurczyk Named NASA Associate Administrator in Series of Exec Moves
Steve Jurczyk

Steve Jurczyk has been named permanent associate administrator at NASA after serving in an acting capacity for two months.

“I want to thank Steve for stepping up to the plate as acting associate administrator these past months, and look forward to his counsel going forward,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement published Tuesday.

Jurczyk previously served as associate administrator of the agency’s space technology mission directorate and director at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.

The 20-year NASA veteran started his career at the agency as a design, integration and test engineer within the electronic systems branch before he transitioned to the role of director of engineering and head of research and technology at Langley.

He is a recipient of the 2016 Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Executive and two NASA Outstanding Leadership Medals.

Steve Jurczyk Named NASA Associate Administrator in Series of Exec Moves
Melanie Saunders

Melanie Saunders, who has been serving as acting deputy center director at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, has been appointed interim deputy associate administrator in a move that will take effect June 10.

Saunders will replace Krista Paquin, who is set to retire from NASA by the end of May after a 34-year career at the agency.

Saunders served for four years as associate manager of the International Space Station program.

She is former deputy manager of the ISS’ external relations office and manager for international policies related to the space station.

US-UK Defense Teams Exchange Military Innovation Insights and Priorities
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US-UK Defense Teams Exchange Military Innovation Insights and Priorities


US-UK Defense Teams Exchange Military Innovation Insights and PrioritiesThe U.S. Defense Innovation Board met Monday with the heads of the national security of the U.K. government and industry led by Gavin Williamson the U.K.’s defense secretary, to exchange insights and priorities on the innovation of military technologies.

The contingent from the U.S. included heads from businesses, civil society and the military such as J. Michael McQuade, science and technology senior vice president at United Technologies; Eric Schmidt, former chairman of Google and Sally Donnelly, the former senior adviser to the Defense Department Secretary, the U.K. defense ministry said Tuesday.

Williamson announced plans for a complementary U.K. Defense Innovation Board to visit American partners in the U.S. later in the year for the development of joint recommendations.

The U.S.-U.K. Defense Innovation Board meeting also featured the launch of a flagship laboratory that will support research on artificial intelligence, data science and machine learning for defense applications

The AI Lab is located in U.K.’s Defense Science and Technology Laboratory in Porton Down.

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DoD CIO Dana Deasy: Defense IT Pursues Collaboration, Innovation in Line With Mission
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DoD CIO Dana Deasy: Defense IT Pursues Collaboration, Innovation in Line With Mission


DoD CIO Dana Deasy: Defense IT Pursues Collaboration, Innovation in Line With Mission
Dana Deasy

Dana Deasy, chief information officer of the Defense Department, discussed his plans to pursue innovation and collaboration for DoD’s information technology initiatives under the National Defense Strategy.

He told members of the DoD IT community at the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association’s Defensive Cyber Operations Symposium Wednesday in Baltimore about his priority, the Defense Information Systems Agency said Friday.

“The three tenets are lethality, alliances, and reform,” Deasy said, advising the community to align efforts with the DoD mission through the National Defense Strategy.

He added that he seeks innovation in the fields of cyber, cloud, IT environment and approaches to data integration such as artificial intelligence, big data and machine learning.

Deasy, who was named CIO of DoD in April and formally assumed the role on May 7 after his tenure with JPMorgan Chase, also noted the value of IT collaboration with other federal organizations, the industry and academia.

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Trump Nominates Carl Mundy III as Marine Corps Forces Central Command Leader
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Trump Nominates Carl Mundy III as Marine Corps Forces Central Command Leader


Trump Nominates Carl Mundy III as Marine Corps Forces Central Command Leader
Carl Mundy III

President Donald Trump has nominated Maj. Gen. Carl Mundy III, commander of the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, to lead the Marine Corps Forces Central Command.

The Defense Department said Friday Trump also endorsed Mundy to the rank of lieutenant general.

Mundy was appointed commander of MARSOC in 2016, replacing Maj. Gen. Joseph Osterman, who took over the role of U.S. Special Operations Command deputy commander.

The MARCENT commander nominee previously served as the commanding general of 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade and the commander of Task Force 51, which is based in Bahrain.

He also led a Marine Expeditionary Unit in Iraq during the eight-year Iraqi War.

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Maj. Gen. Loretta Reynolds Nominated as USMC Deputy Commandant for Information, MARFORSTRAT Commander
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Maj. Gen. Loretta Reynolds Nominated as USMC Deputy Commandant for Information, MARFORSTRAT Commander


Maj. Gen. Loretta Reynolds Nominated as USMC Deputy Commandant for Information, MARFORSTRAT Commander
Loretta Reynolds

Maj. Gen. Loretta Reynolds, commander of the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Cyber Command, has been nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as deputy commandant for information and commander of the Marine Corps Forces Strategic Command.

Trump also endorsed Reynolds for promotion to the rank of lieutenant general, Defense Secretary James Mattis announced in a Defense Department news release published Friday.

C4ISRNET reported that Reynolds is set to succeed Lt. Gen. Daniel O’Donohue, who is due to transition to the Joint Staff in a new position.

The Marine Corps formed the deputy commandant for information role in the summer of 2017 in an effort to align cyber, electronic warfare, signals intelligence and other information-related capability through a single structure.

Reynolds previously served as commander of the I Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group and commanding general of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot/Eastern Recruiting Region at Parris Island in South Carolina.

The 32-year Marine Corps veteran also served as an acquisition project officer at the Marine Corps Systems Command and principal director under the office of the defense undersecretary for the Asia and Pacific.

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GAO: Post-Implementation Reviews of DHS’ Major Acquisition Programs Key to Portfolio Mgmt
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GAO: Post-Implementation Reviews of DHS’ Major Acquisition Programs Key to Portfolio Mgmt


GAO: Post-Implementation Reviews of DHS’ Major Acquisition Programs Key to Portfolio MgmtThe Government Accountability Office has called on the Department of Homeland Security to improve its portfolio management efforts through post-implementation assessments of major acquisition programs upon the deployment of initial capabilities.

GAO made the recommendation after it found that DHS does not leverage data collected from reviews once those programs conclude the implementation phase, according to a report published Thursday.

The congressional watchdog recommended that DHS update its procurement policy to mandate the certification of fund memorandums when acquisition projects rebaseline in response to violation of schedule, cost and performance objectives.

GAO reviewed 24 major procurement programs of DHS in 2017 and found that 10 of those programs were on target to meet cost and schedule goals. Six of the assessed programs were facing cost increases and schedule delays.

The report also showed that DHS met key practices for portfolio management and those include the establishment of standard review criteria, prioritization of investments and leadership empowerment.

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Gina Haspel Confirmed as CIA Director
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Gina Haspel Confirmed as CIA Director


Gina Haspel Confirmed as CIA Director
Gina Haspel

The Senate voted 54-45 Thursday to confirm Gina Haspel, formerly deputy director of the CIA, as the first female director of the agency, Politico reported Thursday.

Haspel will succeed Mike Pompeo, who assumed the secretary of state role in April following his Senate confirmation.

She has held various roles at the agency such as head of the National Clandestine Service and chief of staff to Jose Rodriguez, former director of the counterterrorism center, according to Biography.com.

The 33-year CIA veteran is a recipient of numerous awards including the Presidential Rank Award and the Intelligence Medal of Merit.

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Lt. Col. Ross Morrell Cites Transcom’s Efforts to Streamline App Migration to Cloud
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Lt. Col. Ross Morrell Cites Transcom’s Efforts to Streamline App Migration to Cloud


Lt. Col. Ross Morrell Cites Transcom's Efforts to Streamline App Migration to CloudAir Force Lt. Col. Ross Morrell, chief of the center of cloud excellence at the U.S. Transportation Command, has said Transcom has initiated efforts to influence the organizational culture in order to facilitate the migration of applications to the cloud.

“We brought our acquisition community early on to help us drive the messaging back to the program management community, to say, ‘We [through cloud computing] can help you manage your programs and run your programs better, not just by lifting and shifting to the cloud, but by changing the way you deliver capability,’” Morrell said Wednesday at the Defense Information Systems Agency Cloud Symposium in Baltimore.

He said Transcom also developed a communications strategy with its public affairs team to inform the command about the cloud migration effort.

Morrell cited the three design patterns used by the command to analyze the applications and evaluate the migration options: redesigning applications; lift and shift re-hosting; and refactoring some elements of an application to leverage automation in the cloud.

Mission assurance is the reason behind Transcom’s move to the cloud and Morrell said the command expects to move 70 applications to the cloud by the end of 2018.

“Right now we have Impact Level 2, Impact Level 4 and Impact Level 5 environments, and we’re standing up an Impact Level 6 environment,” he added.

Steve Wallace, technical director for DISA’s development and business center; and Michelle Jacobs, director of the DISA liaison and hosting office at the Defense Logistics Agency; also discussed at the event some of the lessons learned from their cloud migration efforts.

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Emily Murphy: GSA Plans to Restructure Contract Vehicles to Reduce Duplication
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Emily Murphy: GSA Plans to Restructure Contract Vehicles to Reduce Duplication


Emily Murphy: GSA Plans to Restructure Contract Vehicles to Reduce Duplication
Emily Murphy

Emily Murphy, head of the General Services Administration, has said GSA plans to restructure the contract vehicles to streamline the procurement process for federal agencies and contractors in support of the current administration’s aim to reduce duplication and advance the use of shared services, FedScoop reported Wednesday.

“Do we need all of the schedules we have or could we reduce duplication within GSA by combining the schedules? … If we had vigorous competition at the task order level or the price level, we could instead, at the contract level, be focusing on the technical qualifications and the services we offer,” Murphy said Wednesday at the Coalition for Government Procurement conference.

Emily Murphy: GSA Plans to Restructure Contract Vehicles to Reduce Duplication

Murphy, a 2018 Wash100 recipient, noted that e-commerce portals and reform of procurement schedules are some of the initiatives that are key to GSA’s shared services objectives.

The report said GSA plans to set up a task order review board that will work to simplify acquisition vehicles that promote competition.

Join the Potomac Officers Club on Wednesday, July 18th to hear Murphy speak at the GSA Plans and Priorities Forum, where public and private sector leaders will discuss how industry can help the GSA provide the best value in real estate, acquisition, and technology services.

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House Committee’s 2019 NDAA Includes Hosted Payload Coordination Language
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House Committee’s 2019 NDAA Includes Hosted Payload Coordination Language


House Committee's 2019 NDAA Includes Hosted Payload Coordination LanguageA fiscal 2019 defense appropriations bill crafted by the House Armed Services Committee contains language that would require a Defense Department component to manage commercially hosted payloads, SpaceNews reported Wednesday.

Rep. Donald Norcross, D-N.J., introduced the language as amendment to the panel’s version of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act.

The amendment calls for DoD and U.S. Air Force leaders to assign an office that would coordinate processes, data and lessons learned concerning the use of hosted payload services from industry.

Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told SpaceNews he believes industry offers multiple opportunities for military services to increase payload capacity and resiliency.

The report said some commercial satellite operators view national security payloads as a potential business opportunity that can also work to help address a military requirement.

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