Successful and Productive “All Hands” Meeting

Just a quick note to say that last week’s “All Hands” Meeting was a tremendous success. We had a great turn-out at the NASA Headquarters Building in Washington, DC, including over 25 participants via teleconference. Special thanks to all of our speakers: Peggy Gervasi, Charlie Leader, Mark Andrews, Jay Merkle, and of course, our guest speaker, Dr. John Zukowsky. NASA TV taped Dr. Zukowsky’s presentation–so, if you missed it, you’ll have a chance to see a recording of his live presentation in the upcoming weeks. Be sure to check www.jpdo.gov for more details on this recording.

In the meantime, you can view all of the “All Hands” PowerPoint presentations here.  Look under “Meetings and Conferences” and “2009.”

You can also see pictures from the event here on our Web site, or here on Facebook.

David Kerr
JPDO Director, Partnership Development Division

Successful NextGen JPDO Board Meeting

The JPDO held its Board Meeting (go here to see who is on the Board) on May 5 (a few pre-meeting pictures are posted on the JPDO Facebook Fan Page).  Meeting highlights included a discussion by Lourdes Maurice (Acting Environment Working Group Government Co-Chair) regarding the environmental challenges facing NextGen, especially the need to reduce aviation’s carbon footprint.  Next steps include initiating a dialogue with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), finalizing the Environmental Management System for JPDO Board endorsement, and drafting NextGen environmental targets.

Space weather issues were also revisited at this meeting.  Mark Andrews (Weather Working Group Government Co-Chair) provided more information on the time scales for various solar events that can affect aviation systems, and the status of current modeling efforts that will provide improved space weather forecasts.  Next steps include an assessment of NextGen “cope and mitigate” strategies for dealing with space weather events.

Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) was also highlighted with briefings on the National PNT Architecture by Karen Van Dyke and a GPS Constellation Update by Lt. Col. Robert Ingegneri.  The PNT briefing highlighted focus areas within the national effort that are applicable to NextGen.

Also covered at this successful JPDO Board Meeting, were the NextGen international strategy and the SPC “stoplight” charts.

Bob Pearce
JPDO Deputy Director