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MARCH 13, 2015 VOLUME 23, NO. 7
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NASA Ames director retires CITY LOSES A PARTNER IN AMES CHIEF PETE WORDEN By Daniel DeBolt
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PHOTO COURTESY OF THE GERMAN AEROSPACE CENTER.
The telescope aboard NASA’s SOFIA infrared observatory is mounted in the fuselage of a modified Boeing 747.
Peering through the dust and gas LOCAL EDUCATORS TAPPED TO FLY ABOARD NASA’S SOFIA ASTRONOMY MISSION By Kevin Forestieri
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cientists and school teachers alike are taking to the skies this year in NASA’s heavily-modified jumbo jet and exploring the galaxy with an airborne infrared telescope. But once they’re back on the ground, their roles are a little bit different. While scientists parse the data and make new
discoveries on star formation and development, the teachers, like Foothill College physics professor David Marasco, are tasked to bring their experience and what they’ve learned to kids all over the country. Marasco teamed up with Los Altos resident Dan Burns, a teacher at Los Gatos High School, to take part in a 10-hour flight on an airborne
Drama teacher sent packing despite student outcry By Kevin Forestieri
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tudents and parents showed up en masse Monday at the Mountain View-Los Altos school board meeting to oppose the district’s decision not to rehire Mountain View High School drama teacher Rob Seitelman. One by one, students from
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Seitelman’s classes gave tearyeyed testimonials in front of a crowd of more than 150 people. Students said he improved the theater department, changed their outlook on life and gave them a renewed sense of confidence. But the board, following more than an hour of comments, decided it was the right decision not to rehire Seitelman
observatory called the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, also known as SOFIA. The ship is a Boeing 747 with a large infrared telescope inside, and its missions involve flying at 41,000 feet — well above normal air traffic — to get a good look at what’s going on in the night sky. “There’s the added excitement See SOFIA, page 6
as a teacher next year. “It was a huge defeat last night,” said parent Martha Dehnow in an email to the Voice following the meeting. State education code allows school districts to not rehire a probationary teacher, in a process called non-reelection. This can be done without a hearing, and there’s no need for district officials to give any cause or reason. The decision by district See DRAMA TEACHER, page 9
ASA Ames Research Center director Pete Worden has announced that he will retire at the end of the month after nearly nine years directing use of the center’s wind tunnels, research labs, simulators and supercomputers. Worden told the Voice that now that he’s reached age 65, he’s decided to retire from the National Aeronautics and Space Admin- Pete Worden istration, and is “considering some opportunities in the academic/philanthropic area.” “I have enjoyed almost 40 years working for the United States in many capacities, but none have been more rewarding and exciting than the almost 9 years as a NASA center director,” Worden wrote in his retirement announcement. “The men and women of NASA are simply the greatest on earth (and off it!).” Worden’s strange mix of military sensibilities and colorful behavior made him stand out. Worden is known to dress up in costumes for fun, suiting himself up as Darth Vader, a wizard, and even posing for a photo as a goatherd, complete with goats, on the Moffett Airfield. Before joining NASA in 2006, he was a member of the Air Force for 29 years, serving as commander and director of various space-related programs and departments managing satellites and missiles, among other things. In 1992 Worden wrote an article called “On self-licking ice cream cones” which was a sharp critique of how NASA is treated by Congress, calling NASA’s bureaucracy self-perpetuating, with sacrifices made to the quality of NASA’s missions in order to
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provide jobs in certain Congressional districts. He wrote that NASA is actually controlled by the senior staff of Congressional appropriations committees “who have little interest in space or science. NASA officials’ noses are usually found at waist-level near these committee staffers.” Mountain View city officials are lamenting the loss of Worden, as they recalled that other center directors weren’t always so understanding when residents and city staff had concerns about Ames operations, like flight traffic noise, the possibility of cargo flight operations on the airfield, or the long-stalled plan for a massive new research park at Ames, with over 1,000 homes and a major college campus. “Whether it was council members or city staff, he never made any of us feel like any of our local concerns were either trivial or unimportant, and that’s not easy to do,” said former city manager Kevin Duggan, who regularly met with Worden for four years after working with several other Ames directors. “Worden never gave the impression that the concerns were parochial or inconsequential or unimportant — he was very good about that.” Last week, City Council member Lenny Siegel described Worden in a similar way when the council discussed what sorts of topics would be raised with federal officials in a visit to Washington, D.C., saying that it would be important to advocate for the hiring of a new director who would also be a good partner with the city. While it may not have been evident to the public, Duggan recalled that Worden and his office staff worked hard to preserve the iconic Hangar One at Moffett Field, which Navy officials had wanted to tear down instead of simply removing See WORDEN, page 7