NASA Goddard Employee Wins 2011 Presidential SAVE Award

Matthew Ritsko, a financial manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., won the 2011 Presidential Securing Americans' Value and Efficiency (SAVE) award.The SAVE program began in 2009 and allows front-line federal workers to submit their ideas on how their agency can save money and work more efficiently. Ritsko's proposal calls for the space agency to create a "lending library" where specialized space tools and hardware purchased by one NASA organization will be made available to other NASA programs and projects.

"I was part of a team here at NASA Goddard within the Flight Projects Directorate that was exploring ways for continuous improvements," said Ritsko. "We discussed efficiencies from part purchases on a recent Goddard mission. NASA could create a high tech 'tool shed' where both reusable tools and additional parts could be shared."

Ritsko's proposal was one of four finalists that the Office of Management and Budget put online. More than 48,000 Americans across the country cast votes for the idea they liked best, and the "lending library" idea won with just over 19,000 votes.