SP-4012 NASA HISTORICAL DATA BOOK: VOLUME IV
NASA RESOURCES 1969-1978

 

CHAPTER THREE

NASA PERSONNEL

black and white drawing illustrating flight controllers at mission control.

 

[61-63] List of Tables [see text for their respective links]

 

Table 3-1. Civilian and Military In-house Personnel.
Table 3-2. Accessions and Separations of Permanent Employees.
Table 3-3. Paid Employees by NASA Occupational Code Group: Number on Board and Percentage of NASA Total.
Table 3-4. Permanent Employees by NASA Occupational Code Group: Number on Board and Percentage of NASA Total.
Table 3-5. Average Salaries of Permanent Employees by Pay Plan.
Figure 3-1. Average GS Grade Level of NASA permanent Employees (at end of fiscal year).
Table 3-6. Permanent Employees with Earned Professional Degrees, by NASA Installation: Number on Board.
Table 3-7. Permanent Employees with Earned Professional Degrees, by NASA Installation: Percentage.
Table 3-8. Paid Employees by NASA Installation: Number on Board.
Table 3-9. Paid Employees by NASA Installation: Percentage of NASA Total.
Table 3-10. Paid Employees by NASA Installation: Changes in Number on Board.
Table 3-11. Permanent Employees by NASA Installation: Number on Board.
Table 3-12. Temporary Employees by NASA Installation: Number on Board.
Table 3-13. NASA Excepted, P.L. 313, and Supergrade Employees by NASA Installation: Number on Board.
Table 3-14. NASA Excepted, P.L. 313, and Supergrade Employees by NASA Installation: Percentage of NASA Total.
Table 3-15. Military Detailees by NASA Installation: Number on Duty.
Table 3-16. Scientific and Technological Paid Employees (Occupational Code Groups 200, 700, and 900) by NASA Installation: Number on Board.
Table 3-17. Scientific and Technological Paid Employees (Occupational Code Groups 200, 700, and 900) by NASA Installation: Percentage of NASA Total.
Table 3-18. Technical Support Paid Employees (Occupational Code Group 300) by NASA Installation: Number on Board.
Table 3-19. Technical Support Paid Employees (Occupational Code Group 300) by NASA Installation: Percentage of NASA Total.
Table 3-20. Trades and Labor Paid Employees (Occupational Code Group 100) by NASA Installation: Number on Board.
Table 3-21. Trades and Labor Paid Employees (Occupational Code Group 100) by NASA Installation: Percentage of NASA Total.
Table 3-22. Clerical and Professional Administrative Paid Employees (Occupational Code Groups 600 and 500) by NASA Installation: Number on Board.
Table 3-23. Clerical and Professional Administrative Paid Employees (Occupational Code Groups 600 and 500) by NASA Installation: Percentage of NASA Total.
Table 3-24. Scientific and Technological Permanent Employees (Occupational Code Groups 200, 700, and 900) by NASA Installation: Number on Board.
Table 3-25. Technical Support Permanent Employees (Occupational Code Group 300) by NASA Installation: Number on Board.
Table 3-26. Trades and Labor Permanent Employees (Occupational Code Group 100) by NASA Installation: Number on Board.
Table 3-27. Clerical and Professional Administrative Permanent Employees (Occupational Code Groups 600 and 500) by NASA Installation: Number on Board.
Table 3-28. Minority Permanent Employees: Number on Board and Percentage of NASA Total.
Table 3-29. Minority Permanent Employees, by NASA Occupational Code Group: Number on Board and Percentage of NASA Total.
Table 3-30. Minority Permanent Employees by Grade Range: Number on Board and Percentage of NASA Total.
Table 3-31. Average GS Grade Level of Minority and Non-Minority Permanent Employees by NASA. Occupational Code Group, 1972- 1978.
Table 3-32. Minority Permanent Employees by NASA Installation: Number on Board.
Table 3-33. Minorities as a Percentage of Permanent Employees by NASA Installation, 1972-1978.
Table 3-34. Female Permanent Employees, by NASA Occupational Code Group:: Number on Board and Percentage of Total Occupational Code Group.
Table 3-35. Female Permanent Employees by Grade Range: Number on Board and Percentage of NASA Total.
Table 3-36. Average GS Grade Level of Male and Female Employees by NASA Occupational Code Group, 1972-1978.
Table 3-37. Female Permanent Employees by NASA Installation: Number on Board.
Table 3-38. Females as a Percentage of Permanent Employees by NASA Installation, 1972-1978.
Table 3-39. Age Profile of Permanent Employees: Number on Board and Percentage of NASA Total.
 

[65] When NASA was created on October 1, 1958, its work force consisted of 8,000 in-house employees. In the ensuing years, NASA experienced a period of rapid growth in its in-house employees, reaching a peak of over 36,000 persons in 1967. The trend was reversed during the second decade of NASA's existence, when the number of NASA in-house employees steadily declined from 33,929 in 1969 to 23,779 in 1978, a decrease of almost 30 percent. At the same time, there was a significant change in the composition of NASA employees. In 1969 scientists and engineers made up slightly less than 42 percent of NASA's in-house work force, but by 1978 they constituted almost 50 percent of NASA's in-house employees. During the same period, there was also a slow but steady increase in the percentage of professional administrative employees at NASA. The percentage of NASA employees engaged in trades and labor, however, declined from 13 percent in 1969 to just over 6 percent in 1978, and there was a slight decline in the percentage of clerical and technical support employees. The changing character of NASA's work force during the second decade of its existence can be further demonstrated by the fact that an increasingly large share of its employees possessed professional degrees. Whereas only slightly less than half of NASA's permanent employees had professional degrees in 1969, almost 59 percent of NASA's permanent employees possessed them in 1978.

Because of an improved reporting system in the 1970s (particularly since 1972), this volume takes a closer look than the previous volume at the position of minorities and women within NASA's in-house work force. Between 1972 and 1978, the total number of minority employees increased from 1,290 (4.7 percent of NASA's total permanent in-house work force) to 2,061 (8.9 percent of the total). This growth in minority employment at NASA was spread uniformly over every minority category-Black, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian. The most significant growth occurred among employees in the professional administrative branch of NASA, where the minority share rose from 3.0 percent in 1972 to 9.8 percent in 1978. Also, the percentage of minorities among technical support personnel and clerical personnel doubled, and it increased from 3.4 percent to 5.7 percent among scientists and engineers. In each of these categories, there [66] was also a marked numerical increase in minority employees, although the overall permanent NASA work force shrank considerably between 1972 and 1978. Between 1972 and 1978, however, there was a slight decline in the average GS grade level of minority employees in each of the employment categories.

During the same period, the number of women in NASA's permanent in-house work force remained nearly constant, declining slightly from 4,449 in 1972 to 4,400 in 1978. Overall, women made up 16.2 percent of NASA's total permanent work force in 1972 and 19.0 percent in 1978. Only in the professional administrative positions did women make significant progress; the number of women in these positions rose from 535 (14.1 percent of the NASA total) in 1972 to 809 (23.3 percent of the NASA total) in 1978. The overwhelming majority of women, however, were employed as clerical personnel, constituting 88.3 percent of all NASA clerical employees in 1972 and 92.1 percent in 1978.

A more detailed analysis of NASA's work force can be made from the tables that follow. Tables 3-1 through 3-5, as well as Figure 3-1, give an overall view of the agency's in-house personnel. Tables 3-6 through 3-27 present an analysis of personnel data by installation. Tables 3-28 through 3-33 deal with minority employees, and Tables 3-34 through 3-38 provide a similar analysis of the agency's female employees. The last table, Table 3-39, gives the age profile of NASA's permanent in-house employees. (Jet Propulsion Laboratory employees are not listed because they are employed by the California Institute of Technology, under contract to NASA.)

 

Definition of Terms

Many of the terms used in the tables of this chapter are defined in NASA Management Instruction 3291, Subject: Personnel Definitions and Reporting Requirements. All of the quotations that follow are from this NASA Management Instruction.

Excepted Employees. Civil servants who fill high-level permanent positions created under the provisions of Section 203(b) of the Space Act of 1958. (P.L. 313 and Executive Pay Act employees are included under this heading for the purposes of this chapter.)

Grade. A civil service categorization scheme to differentiate levels of pay, duties, responsibilities, and so forth. Excepted positions are paid in the range from GS-16 to GS-18 and above. Wage System pay is locally rather than nationally set.

Military Detailees. Military personnel detailed to NASA. See Paid Employees.

Occupational Code Groups. The definitions that follow are taken from NASA Management Instruction 3291.

100-Trades and Labor Positions: "Includes trade, craft and general laboring positions (non-supervisory, leader and supervisory), compensated on the basis of prevailing locality wage rates."

[67] 200-Support Engineering and Related Positions: "Includes professional physical science, engineering, and mathematician positions in work situations not identified with aerospace technology."

300-Technical Support Positions: "Includes scientific and engineering aid, technician, drafting, photography, illustrating, salaried shop superintendents, quality assurance specialists, production planning and inspecting positions."

500-Clerical and Non-Professional Administrative Positions: "Includes secretarial, specialized and general clerical, and administrative specialist positions, the qualification requirements for which are clerical training and experience or specialized non-professional experience in supply, fiscal, procurement and similar or related activities."

600-Professional Administrative Positions: "Includes professional management positions in research and development administration in such activities as financial management, contracting, personnel, security, administration, law, public affairs and the like for which a college degree or the equivalent, and specialized training and experience are required."

700-Scientific and Engineering Positions: "Includes professional scientific and engineering positions requiring Aero-Space Technology (AST) qualifications. Includes professional positions engaged in aerospace research, development, operations, and related work including the development and operation of specialized facilities and supporting equipment."

900-Life Science Positions: "Includes life science professional positions not requiring AST qualifications. Includes medical officers and other positions performing professional work in psychology, the biological sciences and professions which support the science of medicine such as nursing and medical technology."

Paid Employees. Permanent employees and temporary employees combined. Specifically excluded from this category are military personnel detailed to NASA regardless of any reimbursement.

Permanent Employees. Defined as "all employees whose appointments are not time limited or . . . are for a period of more than one year."

Temporary Employees. These are called "Other Than Permanent" in the currently used Personnel Management Information System (PMIS) and include "employees whose appointments are specifically limited to definite periods of one year or less" and others who are included in this category by definition (such as CO-OP [cooperative; alternating work and study] students and intermittent employees).

 

[73] Figure 3-1. Average GS Grade Level of NASA permanent Employees (at end of fiscal year).

 

 

[82]

Apollo 11 Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin A. Aldrin watch the traditional post-flight cake-cutting ceremony from their Mobile Quarantine Facility aboard the USS Hornet. Not shown is Astronaut Michael Collins. The Apollo 11 spacecraft is in the background.

Apollo 11 Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin A. Aldrin watch the traditional post-flight cake-cutting ceremony from their Mobile Quarantine Facility aboard the USS Hornet. Not shown is Astronaut Michael Collins. The Apollo 11 spacecraft is in the background.

 

The crew of Concept Verification Testing at their stations in the General Purpose Laboratory at the Marshall Space Flight Center.

The crew of Concept Verification Testing at their stations in the General Purpose Laboratory at the Marshall Space Flight Center.

 

 

[96]

Richard B. Hoover, left, of Marshall Space Flight Center, and Dr. Ian Tuohy of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory in the United Kingdom check out an X-ray telescope to be used in a joint rocket mission by the United States and Great Britain.

Richard B. Hoover, left, of Marshall Space Flight Center, and Dr. Ian Tuohy of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory in the United Kingdom check out an X-ray telescope to be used in a joint rocket mission by the United States and Great Britain.

 

Overall view of the Mission Control Center, Manned Spacecraft Center, showing the flight controllers celebrating the successful conclusion of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission.

Overall view of the Mission Control Center, Manned Spacecraft Center, showing the flight controllers celebrating the successful conclusion of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission.

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