NTB >> NEWS >> WHO'S WHO AT NASA January 2005
	Rex Geveden Chief Engineer, NASA Headquarters Washington, DC Rex Geveden is NASA’s chief engineer and director of the independent technical authority. Geveden joined NASA in 1990 and was previously deputy director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL.

NASA Tech Briefs: What are the responsibilities of the Office of the Chief Engineer, and how will you help to implement the President’s Vision for Space Exploration?

Rex Geveden: There are really four areas of primary responsibility for the office. Presently, first and foremost is the implementation of the independent technical authority, which was a recommendation that came out of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB). The chief engineer, in our concept, is the technical authority for NASA and is empowered to make technical decisions independent of the program and project management chains. Obviously, the technical authority recommendation, since it is tied up with the CAIB recommendations, is a key component of Return to Flight, so there is a direct linkage to exploration because Return to Flight and the assembly of the International Space Station (ISS) are the first steps in the President’s Vision for Space Exploration.

The second area is that we have responsibility for program and project management policy, governance, training, and support. The third area is responsibility for engineering throughout the agency, as well as engineering assessment. The fourth area is called independent assessment, which is not the same as independent technical authority. Independent assessment is work that is being done outside of the program and private chain to evaluate that work. The chief engineer’s scope covers all of the NASA field centers. Anywhere there is active project and/or engineering work, we would have some amount of involvement with it.

NTB: Has the recent transformation of NASA’s organizational structure affected your office?

Geveden: I think in practical terms, the chief engineer’s office used to be a staff office. It was very small and the primary function was to advise the Administrator on technical matters that were agency-level concerns. The chief engineer’s office has a much more significant role now. It covers the four areas of responsibility that I discussed, and I believe that the most significant change that came out of the transformation was this responsibility for technical authority that now resides with the chief engineer’s office. The old role of chief engineer typically was an advisory function, and the new role is an active, technical, decision-making function.

NTB: What are some of your goals as chief engineer?

Geveden: First and foremost is getting the technical authority implemented. We did get the policy document signed off by the Administrator on November 23. If you look at the recommendation that came out of CAIB, it said that NASA should prepare a detailed plan for an independent technical authority for the space shuttle program. The Administrator gave us a bigger challenge. He said that obviously we are complying with every element of the CAIB, but he said we’re going to go beyond that — we are going to implement an independent technical authority NASA-wide and we are going to implement it for all programs and projects. Getting that rolled out and functioning in a meaningful way before Return to Flight is my biggest challenge and is really what I need to accomplish in the next six months.

A full transcript of this interview appears online at www.techbriefs.com/whoswho. If you have a question for Rex Geveden, please contact David Steitz at david.steitz@nasa.gov.