Profile: David A. Bearden, Principal Director, NASA Advanced Programs Directorate

Leading NASA Independent Assessments

An entrepreneurial spirit and forward-thinking attitude have enabled Dave Bearden to flourish at Aerospace.

Dave Bearden says his work style and thinking has always been "somewhat out of the mainstream," which may well contribute to his success at The Aerospace Corporation. He believes that while some may perceive Aerospace work culture to be highly structured, there is clearly room for an "entrepreneurial spirit, where they let you run." In a recent interview, Bearden, who joined Aerospace in 1991, reflected on his career, and the success he has found heading up the Aerospace NASA/JPL Advanced Programs Directorate in Pasadena.

Born in California, Bearden spent much of his early life in Germany. He is a self-proclaimed "military brat"—his father was a civilian in the Air Force and transferred to new assignments every 2 or 3 years. Bearden has a vague recollection of the first moon landing. "We were on vacation in a campground in Germany, the only Americans among a group of Germans gathered around a little black-and-white television. And when the astronauts stepped on the moon, the Germans were patting us on the back because it was such a great accomplishment for our nation," he recalled.

The family eventually moved back to the United States, and Bearden spent most of his high school years in Utah. When he first entered the University of Utah, he studied physics and astrophysics, but a friend drew him to mechanical engineering. He quickly developed an interest in structures and how things work and more particularly, the phenomenon of aging aircraft—how parts fatigue, fracture, and break, and whether these types of failures can be predicted. "I always had an interest in space as well," he said. "As a child, I often made models of aircraft and spacecraft, painting and hanging them from fishing line in my room."

While still an undergrad, Bearden spent a year as an exchange student at the University of Maryland, where he "soaked up as many satellite design courses as I could." After graduation from the University of Utah, he worked at 3M as a computer programmer (he had minored in computer science). At the same time he was researching and writing papers about small satellites.

A paper he wrote about expanding the capabilities of the Pegasus launch vehicle was accepted for presentation at the annual Small Satellite Conference. Although today organizers of this conference reach out to college students, Bearden soon realized he was the only recent graduate there. "I'm just out of school giving this paper, which was well received, and in the audience was Tom Hopp from The Aerospace Corporation. He approached me afterward, gave me his business card, and said he'd like to talk with me about working at Aerospace. I thought 'OK, this is my chance to get into space.' "

That was Bearden's first introduction to Aerospace. "Since then, I've realized that Aerospace is a phenomenal place to start your career. If you're a generalist (which I am—I like to have insight into a lot of different topics, programs, and technologies), it's really the perfect place because of this crosscutting nature of the engineering matrix," he said.

Before joining Aerospace, Bearden attended a summer session with the International Space University (ISU), an educational organization based in France that offers courses in space technology and policy. His experiences that summer began an ongoing relationship with ISU. Over the years, he has taught there, and is now a member of its board of trustees. "It has really altered my perspective of the world in a profound way," he said. He learned the power of networking, too: A colleague he met at ISU was in later years his first NASA customer, sponsoring Aerospace's Small Satellite Cost Model in 1993. "That model has become the premier model for assessment of small satellites," Bearden said. Building on this early work, Bearden has authored chapters in Space Mission Analysis and Design and Reducing the Cost of Space Systems.

Bearden's first job at Aerospace was working as a member of the technical staff in the Systems Engineering Division, where he focused on space concept analysis and design. He moved through positions of increasing responsibility, first as a section manager in the Space Architecture Department, where he headed development and application of the Small Satellite Cost Model for NASA independent reviews and deployment of the Concurrent Engineering Methodology at JPL's Project Design Center. In 1998, he joined the Civil and Commercial Division (now Civil and Commercial Operations, or CCO) as a senior project engineer in the Business Development Department. In that role, he initiated, developed, and directed space business activities with civil and commercial clients, including Motorola's Iridium and Teledesic programs. In 1999 he was promoted to systems director, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Program Office. Aviation Week & Space Technology recognized Bearden with its annual aerospace laurels in 2000 "for conducting the first quantitative assessment of NASA's faster-better-cheaper initiative in space exploration." He was named to his current position, principal director of the NASA Advanced Programs Directorate, in 2006. While working at Aerospace, Bearden also completed his Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California.

NASA and JPL Work

The Aerospace NASA subdivision that Bearden heads up within CCO was established in 2006, but he remembers working with NASA and JPL as early as 1993. "At that time, the activity was perceived as marginal. There were clear financial benefits to having this business: it offset costs, resulting in lower costs per STE to the Air Force, NRO, and other government customers. But it hadn't really been a legitimate program office in my mind until Aerospace formed CCO as an operation and then created the NASA division. Now, you can point to a vice president and managers and counterpart relationships with senior civil servants at NASA. This is meaningful when I go and speak with people at NASA," he said.

One of Bearden's proudest work accomplishments has been the establishment in early 2000 of the Pasadena office, where the original goal was to develop strong customer relationships with JPL. "When we first came to Pasadena, it was Matt Hart and I. And Matt's in here sitting on a box with his laptop. We used to laugh. But that's how these things begin; and now it's a full-fledged operating facility. The company backed us up when all we could say was, 'We're going to work hard to develop this customer at JPL. We're going to work hard to justify the costs.' And it's worked out great."

The Pasadena office has now expanded beyond working with JPL as its sole customer. It has developed relationships with several NASA centers, including Ames, Glenn, and Marshall. "And then, a big success has been our entrance into NASA Headquarters, the Program Assessment and Evaluation office. It's really at a very high level. It's the independent technical and analytical arm of NASA Headquarters, a stone's throw away from the NASA administrator," Bearden said. "We've been able to really leverage some of the best of Aerospace to provide independent assessments and analysis of programs in a crosscutting way. We fit very well with that activity, and it has grown to a very large level that surpasses even what we did at JPL," he said.

President's Distinguished Achievement Award

Bearden, together with Matt Hart, Debra Emmons, and Robert Bitten, received the Aerospace President's Award in 2006 for providing critical analysis of alternatives for servicing and repairing the Hubble Space Telescope. Aerospace analysis recommended against using robotic servicing to repair Hubble.

But before Aerospace was asked to analyze the plan and brainstorm alternatives, NASA had decided to go with robotic servicing of Hubble, something that had never before been done. Prior service missions had been conducted by space shuttle astronauts, but NASA was in a risk-averse environment following the space shuttle Columbia accident in 2003. Meanwhile, predictive models were saying that Hubble would fail by 2009 or 2010 if it were not maintained. Hubble was so popular with the public that there had been an outcry with talk of it failing.

One of the recommendations from the Columbia Accident Investigation Board was that astronauts needed to be in the vicinity of the International Space Station to use it as a safe haven if anything were to happen in orbit. But the Space Station is too far from Hubble, so NASA decided that the option of using astronauts for the repair was off the table.

"So, NASA's blazing down the trail trying to convince themselves robotics servicing is doable. It was the only option at the time. We came into this politically charged environment and had no idea our assessments would get so much exposure. Looking back, it was sort of the perfect storm," Bearden said.

"Aerospace's findings and recommendations were unpopular because we said robotic servicing is not a good idea. The odds are not good that you'd even get there in time, and there's even less probability that it will work. It was just a very complicated repair operation. We were a lone dissenting voice and everyone else was hopeful until the National Research Council agreed with us," Bearden said.

The National Research Council recommended putting the space shuttle option back on the table, agreeing with the Aerospace assessments. Eventually, NASA agreed. "I think at one point there were over 800 citations of Aerospace and our studies in the press," Bearden recalls. Aerospace's analysis was cited in The New York Times and picked up by the Associated Press. "We found ourselves thrust into this huge national dialogue on the issue," Bearden said.

The analysis culminated with Bearden briefing the National Research Council and congressional staff and then Gary Pulliam, vice president of Civil and Commercial Operations, giving testimony before the House Science Committee. "And throughout the whole thing, Aerospace came out looking like a very honest, capable organization," Bearden said. Aerospace's report, coupled with congressional testimony on its findings, is often cited as having a major impact on the reinstatement of shuttle servicing of the Hubble.

Reflecting on the company, Bearden said, "Aerospace is a resilient recipe that seems to transcend political changes. We've had relatively few layoffs. We've had our share of challenges, but I do worry that we may be lulled into a false sense of security. Are we anticipating the future challenges? Aerospace has to be very careful to always be able to articulate its role in national security space and not have that uniqueness eroded. We must keep our capability high and stay focused on mission success."

And as for working at Aerospace, Bearden said, "The company will support you in becoming the very best at what you do. That's the strength of Aerospace. You don't get pigeonholed into some area. They let you rattle around until you find your lot in life. You will be supported in staying abreast of changing technology."

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