Four members of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Logistics Management Division joined Space Systems Command’s (SSC) product support managers (PSMs) during a two-day forum at SSC headquarters Aug. 5-6.

The forum brought together SSC PSMs and other officials from the command’s S4 Installations, Logistics and Product Support directorate to discuss current efforts, issues and updates. The forum included presentations and a tour of SpaceX’s Hawthorne facility.

Working with NASA logistic officials isn’t new for SSC. Last year, officials from NASA, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the National Reconnaissance Office and U.S. Space Force headquarters met to discuss ways to increase domestic production of hydrazine fuel, used as spacecraft monopropellant.

“That kind of collaboration is where we in the space community can really help each other in different areas,” said Brad Leonard, director of SSC S4. “Together we can discuss what we see coming down in the next five, 10 years. What should we be planning for? This forum sets us up for aligned development, growth and speed.”

Taylor McQuain, Integrated Logistics Support program manager for NASA, gave a presentation on the second day explaining how NASA organizes logistics. Accompanying McQuain were Isabelle Di Grazia, NASA project support integrator at the NASA Ames Research Center; Anna Warner, project support manager for Airborne Science Program, and Ricardo Montenegro, deputy chief of logistics for NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Logistics is a language, and the more both NASA and SSC understand the terms their counterparts use, the easier it is to call someone and begin solving common problems, McQuain said.

“We know that this next year is going to be difficult for NASA and for the Department of War in general, just with the challenges we’ve faced with critical minerals and the shortages and certain bans from certain countries,” McQuain said. “We’re already seeing some challenges in various programs across NASA.”

McQuain referenced sharing resources as one way to collaborate, “Do we have assets collecting dust that you guys desperately need?” “Do you have warehouses with assets that we are trying to source?”

When the joint NASA and German Space Agency project, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) was discontinued in 2022, NASA logistics officials were tasked with disposing of the project’s assets, including the Boeing 747SP jetliner that carried the instruments, which went to the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Ariz. However, NASA’s SOFIA Closeout Team at Armstrong Flight Research Center was able to reutilize and/or sell 80 percent of the spare parts for the platform creating massive savings for the taxpayer.

As SSC pivots from large defense “primes” to working with smaller commercial space vendors, that presents its own set of challenges including trying to grow the industrial base for not just terrestrial uses, but also on-orbit logistics.

“Logistics determines mission outcomes,” Leonard explained. “As SSC fields capabilities, we have to make sure we have the right logistics structures in place, the supply chain, the transportation – to help our Combat Forces Command teammates in the fight.”

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