Former NASA administrator praises presumed successor

Griffin: no longer with NASA, but still interested in its future

Former NASA administrator Michael Griffin praised President Obama’s choice for his successor, former astronaut Charles Bolden. Griffin had hoped to retain the job, but the new president refused to keep Griffin, a Bush appointee. (Griffin himself succeeded another Bush appointee, Sean O’Keefe who was, in my opinion, the worst administrator ever.)

Instead, Griffin is now an engineering professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Good man, bad decision

Whatever his shortcomings, Griffin was and is interested in keeping NASA in the forefront of space exploration. And, although he praised Bolden’s character and qualifications for the position, he was dubious of Bolden’s support for a review of NASA’s manned spaceflight program.

In particular, he’s worried that NASA’s new vehicle  and plans to return to the moon may be in jeopardy. So, I might add, am I.

Back to the moon…if the will and money is there

Constellation, the new program to return to the moon and perhaps go on to Mars, is centered on the Ares booster and the Orion crew vehicle. Ares is experience difficulties. But this is normal for doing difficult things. The Saturn V experienced problems—perhaps greater problems—during its development decades ago.

What is this review really about?

It’s difficult to say where the problem lies. Is is about money? Is it about wariness about the difficulty of the project or NASA’s ability to execute? In that case, let’s stop pretending to be interested in space exploration.

Because space exploration is inherently expensive and difficult. As far as NASA’s ability is concerned, I think the agency has proved it’s competence many times over the past 50 years. What I question is: the motives and competence of those doing the review. They should do one of two things: kill the program or let it go forward.

The worst thing they could do would be to mutilate it.