NASA has traditionally measured
its progress in terms of technical performance, cost and schedule. Now,
in the post Cold War era there is another measure: contribution of technology
to national economic security.
--Agenda for Change
Technology Transfer and Commercialization
Because they are challenging and demanding, NASA
programs generate a great wealth of advanced technology. This bank of technology
is a national asset that can be reused to develop commercial products and
processes, which benefit the U.S. economy by creating companies and jobs,
and as a result contribute to the Gross Domestic Product. According to
NASA Associate Administrator Robert E. Whitehead, NASA has helped generate
almost one million high-quality jobs, more than $40 billion in annual exports
and almost $30 billion in positive balance of trade.
Through its Technology Transfer Program, NASA
employs a variety of mechanisms to stimu late the transfer of aerospace
technology to other sectors of the economy. The program is managed by the
Commercial Development and Technology Transfer Division of NASA's Office
of Aeronau tics and Space Transportation Technology headquartered in Washington,
D.C. Recently reorganized to include elements of the Office of Space Access
and Technology, the Office of Aeronautics and Space Transportation Technology
functions as a strategic alliance between NASA's aeronautics and space
programs for developing then transferring and commercializing technologies.
Another new aspect of the Office of Aeronautics
and Space Transportation Technology is the addition of the Reusable Launch
Vehicle program; in partnership with the Air Force and private industry,
NASA is developing and demonstrating new technologies for the next generation
of reusable space transportation. This will ultimately reduce the cost
of access to space, and thereby create a new market: the commercialization
of space.
The Commercial Development and Technology Transfer
Division coordinates the activities of the NASA Commercial Technology Network
(CTN) throughout the United States. The CTN includes a commercial technology
office based at each of NASA's 10 field centers. The offices serve as regional
managers of the Technology Transfer Program, promoting and facilitating
transfer and commercialization of technology that has significant potential
for secondary use.
Since NASA Commercial Technology: Agenda for
Change was written in 1994, NASA has been implementing a new way of
doing business through new practices. The Commercial Technol ogy Program
has been inviting industry to define and lead joint R&D projects that
are relevant to the NASA mission but not driven by specific project requirements,
with industry sharing the costs. Dual-use technology, where the efforts
can be applied to mission objectives and industry commer cial goals; a
push to acquire commercial off-the-shelf technology to meet program requirements;
targeting small business in outreach and information exchange efforts;
and establishing local, state and regional alliances to leverage resources
and build individual technology networks are a few other examples of NASA's
new approach.
The following pages contain a summary of the mechanisms
employed by NASA to promote and facilitate technology transfer, including
the structure of the CTN, the types of assistance provided by the Regional
Technology Transfer Centers and affiliated organizations, and the technol
ogy transfer activities of NASA's field centers. To illustrate some of
the details of today's technology transfer work, the field center summary
focuses on activities within one organizationLangley Research Center's
Technology Applications Group.
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