Good morning, Washington! We’ll have more mid-week news coming your way on Wednesday, but I just wanted to share this one unusual item today. First, it honestly made me smile. But moreover, I wondered if it might mark the beginning of an intriguing partnership between the public and non-profit sector — and whether it signaled a growing awareness of the power inherent in cross-disciplinary collaboration.
As Popular Science reported this weekend: “NASA Plans to Put Non-Profit Group in Charge of International Space Station Experiments:”
As NASA prepares to put the finishing touches on the International Space Station — just as soon as space shuttle Discovery can make one last visit — the space agency is looking to outsource its science experiments.
When Congress extended the space station’s mission to 2020, the authorization bill also directed NASA to establish a nonprofit organization to manage station research, hoping to ensure broad access to the orbiting outpost. Other US government agencies, academic institutions and even private firms should have access to the station, according to the bill.
NASA announced Thursday that it’s looking for a partner who can take on that task. It must be a non-profit group, according to Congress. NASA is holding a forum for interested organizations next week in Washington, DC.
The Non-Profit Quarterly reported further on the project yesterday, including more details on the forum, which will take place at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at 300 E Street SW from 9:00 to 1:00. The article also concluded:
This should be one hefty cooperative agreement that NASA will release next week. The nonprofit will be in charge of a facility that cost 15 nations working through five international space agencies a cool $100 billion to build. [...]
Imagine if your nonprofit was charged with keeping an eye on the national laboratory at the space station. Now imagine if you are assigned for a stint of on-site management.
Of course, no one can say how the project will move (or blast?) forward from here. But I am quite interested to see how it progresses. What do you think? What type of non-profit would be best suited for such an assignment — and for what will NASA be looking?