This week in The Space Review…. Griffin’s critique of NASA’s new direction Mike Griffin spent nearly four years in charge of NASA building up an exploration architecture that the administration now wants to dismantle in favor of a new approach to human space exploration. Jeff Foust reports on what Griffin said about that new direction, and what is a “real†space program, in a speech last week. A milestone for […]
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Former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin
As one might expect, former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin isn’t digging what the Augustine Commission had to say, the Orlando Sentinel reports:
Former NASA Administrator Michael Griffin apparently has sent a scathing memo to friends and supporters in Washington, lashing out at the work of the presidential committee reviewing NASA’s human space flight plans and calling some of its recommendations “irresponsible.â€
In the 11-point email sent out Wednesday and made available to the Orlando Sentinel today, Griffin — the intellectual architect and champion of NASA’s Constellation Program of Ares rockets and Orion capsules — accused the committee of doing shoddy work and failing to make clear why Constellation isn’t viable and why the Ares I is a failed rocket.
 Mike Griffin
The Huntsville Times has a long profile of former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, who accepted a $300,000/year teaching/rainmaker position at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
“The need for the (current space study commission headed by Norman Augustine) is motivated solely by the public controversy over whether NASA got it right, if you will, in the architectural choices being made following the (explosion of the shuttle Columbia in 2003),” he said.
Former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin
AP Interview: Ex-NASA head critical of Obama move
Associated Press
Griffin was pleased with Obama’s selection of former astronaut Charles Bolden as his successor. Griffin — who was sometimes faulted for what some described as a prickly personality — said Bolden has the experience, smarts and people skills for the job.
(more…)
Exclusive interview with Griffin on US space funding
WAFF 48
“We should be mad as hell and not going to take it any more,” said Griffin on the gap left between the shuttle retirement and Constellation project. “I am tempted to use the word disgusting, but at the very least, it is unseemly.”
Mike Griffin
Exclusive interview with former NASA Administrator
WAFF 48 News
Griffin says he turned down several better-paying university president positions to take the UA-Huntsville professorship because he wasn’t interested in fund raising.
During a Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership round table on Saturday, Oceaneering vice president Mark Gittleman said he is concerned about whether the Obama Administration is providing enough funding to allow his company to build NASA’s new spacesuit. Former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin shared the concern:
Griffin said Gittleman’s concerns are well placed in light of the proposed $3 billion-plus cut in the budget for the manned space program.
NASA's Ares I rocket lifts off in this artist's conception. (Credit: NASA)
Speaking at a Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership round table on Saturday, former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin expressed concern about the Obama Administration’s decision to review the space agency’s Constellation lunar program:
Griffin said that NASA does not need the type of review that the Obama administration is proposing, but if it is to occur, he hopes that it convinces the administration to support the manned space program.
Former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin
ROTARY FOUNDATION PRESS RELEASE
The Rotary National Award for Space Achievement (RNASA) Foundation’s National Space Trophy was presented to former NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin on Friday, May 8 at a gala held at the Houston Hyatt Regency hotel.
Guests, including former trophy winners, NASA officials, members of the military, aerospace executives, and Stellar Award nominees, were welcomed by RNASA President Rodolfo Gonzalez and Harris County Judge Ed Emmett. Clear Lake High School Army JROTC presented the colors, Kemah City Councilwoman Kelly Williams sang the anthem, and Greg Fincke, senior pastor of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Houston, gave the invocation prior to a dinner featuring filet mignon with port wine reduction and jumbo crabmeat purse.
NASA Budget Being Drafted Without a Top-Level Advocate
Aviation Week
NASA plans to roll out its Fiscal 2010 budget the first week in May, amid complaints that the White House staff is giving short shrift to the U.S. space program. The space agency is struggling to make ends meet during the difficult transition to the post-shuttle era.