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New York dumps NASA contract because of cost overruns.

New York Mayor de Blasio has fired a team of NASA consultants that had been hired by the previous mayor to lead the overhaul of the city’s 911 system after costs skyrocketed and the project fell far behind schedule.

Up to 20 NASA consultants had spent the past two years working on the project, at average annual salaries of $250,000. They’ve conducted technical designs for new radios and computer dispatch systems. That technology will eventually link police, FDNY and emergency medical system dispatchers and field units to the city’s main emergency call center in downtown Brooklyn, and to a still-unfinished backup call center in the Bronx.

City officials did not say they were dissatisfied with NASA’s performance. They simply believe the work can be done cheaper in-house.

Why does this sound familiar?

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

4 comments

  • Joe

    Is it because private Space is doing the same thing to government Space?

  • wodun

    Why would they go to NASA for help with a communications system? It seems there should be more qualified organizations to go to. And why is NASA engaging in this type of work? It isn’t their role nor their job.

  • I strongly suspect that NASA itself was not involved, only former NASA people who acted independently as contractors/consultants. Unfortunately, the general press has a very bad habit of dubbing anything that involves anyone who once sneezed in an NASA facility as a NASA project.

  • Pzatchok

    I can fix their departmental radio communications problems.

    Buy radios with the channels for the other departments on them. They are available.
    As radios are replaced buy the new ones to make communication easier.

    They even have radios that have the “push to talk” option built into them to use the cell system as a back up for emergencies. Like times when your out of radio range.

    Pretty much just open up a catalog or even go so far as to call the manufacturers for advice.

    One guy could do this for all departments thus saving everyone a huge amount of cash. Money better spent on the actual radios.

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