posted 11-06-2008 01:02 PM               

Who should be NASA's boss in the new Obama administration?

Should Mike Griffin (who appears to be fairly apolitical) be retained?

posted 11-06-2008 08:31 PM               

I am "in the book".

posted 11-07-2008 10:42 AM               

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Originally posted by DChudwin:
Should Mike Griffin (who appears to be fairly apolitical) be retained?

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If not, who would you recommend? Are political skills (a la Jim Webb) or engineering skills more important?

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posted 11-07-2008 06:57 PM               

Nelson expressed his wishes in a phone call this week to Lori Garver, who is running Obama's NASA transition team.

"He called Lori Garver and said that until they had a surefire choice, they should continue with Griffin. And he thinks Griffin is doing a good job," said Bryan Gulley, a Nelson spokesman. Gulley would not say who Nelson would support if or when Obama picks a new NASA administrator.

posted 11-07-2008 07:28 PM               

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Originally posted by sts205cdr:
Wayne Hale. Engineering skills are more important.

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posted 11-07-2008 08:17 PM               

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Originally posted by LCDR Scott Schneeweis:
Disagree... the Administrator's mandate is to lead his organization, not design.

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posted 11-08-2008 09:44 PM            

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
Reports are that the new administration's transition team will begin work at NASA Headquarters on Monday.

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posted 11-08-2008 09:58 PM               

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Originally posted by Blackarrow:
What does this actually mean?

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Since mid-summer NASA has been preparing for the Presidential transition that is now upon us. The Office of Management and Budget has led the efforts across the government and has been very forward leaning with both campaign teams to be ready to initiate a smooth transition, particularly with the challenges that we face as a nation today.

While NASA usually does not factor as a near-term decision for incoming Administrations, this year the General Accounting Office (GAO) highlighted Shuttle retirement as one of its top 13 urgent issues across the government.

Based on experience from past transition teams, NASA has been developing a large set of reference material for the new team to review. Phil McAlister from the Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation is NASA's lead point of contact for the transition activities. As such, he has been representing NASA for several weeks of transition planning meetings across the government. The NASA transition book and a companion issues book have been reviewed by all of the Strategic Management Council members and are now in final preparation for the President-Elect Barack Obama's Transition Team.

In addition, the General Services Administration (GSA) has asked each agency to provide floor space and basic services for the transition teams to operate within the agencies. All that has been done; the books are being printed and we are ready to begin the discussions.

posted 11-09-2008 11:21 PM               

As the new NASA Administrator, I would concentrate on publicizing our nations schools science and technology programs, promising to visit each one that has its own Planetarium... and working that the publicity help loosen public and private purse-strings for funding.

posted 11-15-2008 06:35 PM               

NASA chief doubts he'll keep job during Obama administration

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told Kennedy Space Center workers on Thursday he doesn't expect to hold his post in the Obama administration, though he'd like to work for the new president with a larger budget to explore the moon and Mars with humans.

posted 11-26-2008 10:44 AM               

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Originally posted by KSCartist:
I would hope that Shana Dale be promoted.

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This will be my last entry on this blog as I prepare to transition out of NASA in January 2009. When people, regardless of where they live around the world, find out that I work at NASA, their eyes light up. It is a tribute to this great Agency! People around the world hold NASA in the highest regard. And they should. This is a special place with exciting missions that push the frontiers of human knowledge, and it's filled with people that love the work they do and are completely committed to America's space program.

So, it's been a great ride and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the people of NASA and the broader aerospace community. It's a tight-knit group and although it sometimes feels like a soap opera, it's still family.

posted 12-24-2008 12:33 PM               

Griffin's backers include Neil Armstrong, whom I'm told has emailed several people at NASA informing them that he intends to write a letter to the Wall Street Journal advocating Obama retain Griffin. (Personally, I'm not sure why you'd tell people you were going to do something instead of just going ahead and doing it and let the deed speak for itself, but that's another issue.)

A more grass-roots effort was launched today by Scott Horowitz, a former space shuttle commander whose last job with NASA was as the associate administrator for the agency's new exploration initiative, which includes the development of the controversial shuttle-derived Ares rockets, along with Apollo-style capsules called Orion. Horowitz has started an internet-based "Keep Mike" petition drive.

posted 01-01-2009 10:27 AM               

NASA Chief's Wife Asks Obama to Not Fire Her Husband

Late on Christmas Eve, one last wish was sent, by e-mail: Please let NASA Administrator Michael Griffin keep his job.

It was from his wife. Rebecca Griffin, who works in marketing, sent her message with the subject line "Campaign for Mike" to friends and family.

It asked them to sign an online petition to President-elect Barack Obama "to consider keeping Mike Griffin on as NASA Administrator."

She wrote, "Yes, once again I am embarrassing my husband by reaching out to our friends and 'imposing' on them.... And if this is inappropriate, I'm sorry."

posted 01-06-2009 01:46 PM               

According to these sources, Griffin's resignation will be accepted on January 20, along with those of other Bush presidential appointees. He will be replaced as acting administrator by Chris Scolese, currently NASA's associate administrator and former chief engineer, until a new administrator is named.

...So who is going to replace Griffin? While there are several names out there, one stands out above the rest: former astronaut Charlie Bolden.

...other names out there include, Scott Hubbard of Stanford University, a member of the Columbia Accident Investigating Board and leader of the re-examination of the Vision for Space Exploration; Wesley Huntress at the Geophysical Laboratory at the Carnegie Institute; Dr. Sally Ride, America's first female astronaut; and Dr. Alan Stern, a planetary scientist who once worked at NASA running robotic missions to other planets.

The current head of Obama's transition team, Lori Garver, is hoping to be deputy administrator.

Sources involved in the White House transition said Bolden was under consideration for the NASA post, but they did not indicate that a final decision had been made. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the selection process publicly.

posted 01-06-2009 08:25 PM               

[Griffin] and all other political appointees from the Bush Administration have submitted their letters of resignation as a matter of course. All are effective Tuesday, Jan. 20. Monday, Jan. 19, is a federal holiday, so that means Friday, Jan. 16, would be Griffin's last day in his ninth-floor office at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Griffin plans to stage a "NASA Update" show on NASA TV on Jan. 16. That event likely will be his swan song with the agency.

JSC Today Special: NASA Administrator All Hands Friday

This Friday, Jan. 9, at 9:30 a.m., NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and JSC Director Mike Coats will hold an all hands meeting followed by a question and answer period in the Building 2 South Teague Auditorium.

All JSC team members are encouraged to attend this special event, which will also be broadcast live internally on JSC Cable TV Channel 2, and will be signed for the hearing impaired.

posted 01-06-2009 09:09 PM               

Nothing against Bolden at all, but if we are lucky enough to have him succeed Griffin, it is just a small consolation for losing such a visionary leader.

posted 01-06-2009 09:54 PM               

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Originally posted by 328KF:
No surprise at all that Garver will likely be rewarded for her housecleaning with the big broom of "Change."

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Besides, she, nor any of the members of the transition team, did any "housecleaning"; they only collected information. Griffin did the same thing after he was appointed.

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What does this say about the future of Constellation?

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For a brief insight into Bolden's views of NASA, today and tomorrow, see our interview with him when he was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.

Granted, these quotes are a couple of years old, as it happened to be the same day as the 45th anniversary of Alan Shepard's Mercury flight, we spoke about where the U.S. would be in space 45 years hence.

I know where I thought we would be today, prior to Challenger. I thought we would be beyond the Moon and on the way to Mars now. I know that may sound like folly to some people but I really did. The [space] program was robust, we were flying relatively regularly. I thought we were on target to be well beyond where we are today.

I have to admit to being somewhat discouraged when I look at funding that is going into the program ...I've been away from the program since 1994, so all my observations are from without. As a person from without, I just don't see the fiscal support that we need to be where I know I'd like for us to be 45 years from today.

posted 01-06-2009 10:34 PM               

Bolden said Tuesday night that while he has discussed the space agency and its future with friends at NASA, he has not been contacted by Obama's transition team.

"I'm as surprised as anyone," he said about the reports circulating in Washington and at the Johnson Space Center about his name surfacing as a leading candidate. NBC News and the Orlando Sentinel published the reports Tuesday afternoon.

Asked if he would discuss the job if contacted, Bolden said, "Yes," adding, "You never say never."

Bolden said he would be open to talking about the future of NASA and the direction that the Obama Administration would like to take the agency. He also has some good ideas about who might make a good NASA Administrator -- "and my name is not on that list," Bolden said.

"If I would have any conversation with the transition team, I would plead for continuity -- if not in people, at least continuity in execution," he said.

"Now does that mean we don't change anything right now in the Constellation system?" he asked. "No, it doesn't mean that. But it means let's take a look at things and get to the moon and Mars."

posted 01-06-2009 11:50 PM               

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
she's one of "us", a space enthusiast.

Besides, she, nor any of the members of the transition team, did any "housecleaning"; they only collected information.

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It just seems painfully obvious that Obama had no intention of keeping a Bush appointee on at NASA from the beginning. He needed a reason not to offer for him to stay on, and seized on this Ares 1 flap as a means to an end. Obama sent in his "transition team" of policy folks, none of whom were engineers, and got into a semi-private debate over very technical issues that they were marginally qualified to judge.

As I have said before, Obama keeps his hands clean this way. He takes the expected recommendation of his "best and brightest", shows Griffin the door, and rewards one of his advisors with a high-ranking position. The house, or at least the Administrator's office, was most definitely cleaned.

"Job well done." pat, pat.

I certainly hope that the next Admin, whoever he/she is, has the guts to stick to the plan and see this thing through. We have all seen too many false starts over the years, and it seems that now there is some definite momentum to get out of LEO and on to real exploration.

posted 01-07-2009 12:24 AM               

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Originally posted by 328KF:
It just seems painfully obvious that Obama had no intention of keeping a Bush appointee on at NASA from the beginning.

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posted 01-07-2009 09:03 AM               

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
I don't see why this has to be partisan.

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I know it's early, but no one has yet given an explanation as to why he is not being asked to stay on. If we were in the middle of a well-established program, a new Administrator would not be a huge issue. But at this critical juncture, with all of the difficult technical decisions to be made in the near future, I don't feel that it's time to be changing leadership.

posted 01-07-2009 09:58 AM               

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Originally posted by 328KF:
Obama made the right call keeping Gates on in his role as Sec of Defense to see us through the tough road ahead in Iraq and Afganistan. I wish he would have had the same wisdom to recognize how vital this juncture in our manned space program is and done the same with Griffin.

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posted 01-07-2009 10:55 AM               

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Originally posted by 328KF:
I know it's early, but no one has yet given an explanation as to why he is not being asked to stay on.

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posted 01-08-2009 09:14 AM               

While there are competent candidates from whom to choose for the role of NASA administrator, of critical importance is that the candidate must have unquestionable leadership attributes. The candidate must be a respected leader, a strong and effective program manager and a technically competent engineer or scientist who understands the stakes for our nation, the program and the workforce who engage in these high risk, high profile NASA missions. The NASA administrator cannot lack in any one of these attributes; they must be firmly developed in all.

Concluding my Senate testimony I spoke of the necessity to continue with the current NASA leadership team stating, "Mike Griffin is the finest leader I have seen at the helm of NASA for the last two decades."

posted 01-09-2009 07:41 AM               

Despite a last-ditch campaign by some supporters to keep NASA Administrator Mike Griffin on the job, the transition team of President-elect Barack Obama is now vetting a handful of replacement candidates, among them scientist Charles Kennel, who previously ran the agency's Earth science division, according to sources familiar with the situation.

...sources close to the NASA transition effort, meanwhile, said Obama intends to name a new NASA administrator before Inauguration Day and possibly as soon as Friday. They said Obama's overall transition team leader, John Podesta, and his colleagues have been formally vetting NASA administrator candidates this week. One previously unreported candidate getting a close look, these sources said, is Kennel, a former NASA associate administrator for Earth science and a recent director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego.

Another source with ties to the NASA transition team said the Obama administration would like to pick a distinguished scientist to lead NASA, noting that Obama already has tapped Harvard University physicist John Holdren as his science adviser and Nobel laureate physicist Steven Chu to run the U.S. Department of Energy.

If the Obama administration is determined to put a scientist at NASA's helm, that would disqualify retired U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden, a former space shuttle commander. Space News identified Bolden in November as a potential NASA administrator candidate and he has been the subject of fervent press speculation in recent days.

The source who identified Kennel as a serious contender for NASA's top job cautioned that the Obama transition team, at least as of Thursday, had not settled on a candidate. The source said Podesta and his colleagues were vetting names submitted by Obama's NASA transition team as well as some names of their own. The source said it was possible that when Podesta goes to Obama with a recommendation, the president-elect "may have a name or two" to enter into the mix. Two sources said the Obama transition team has also reached out to Capitol Hill for input.

Kennel currently chairs the National Academy of Science's Space Studies Board, which keeps a close eye on NASA programs and policies. He also served on the NASA Advisory Council from 1998 to 2006, serving as the council's chair from 2001 to 2005. In the mid-1990s, Kennel ran NASA's Mission to Planet Earth enterprise, the predecessor to the agency's $1.3 billion Earth science division.

Last year, Kennel joined a group of former high-ranking U.S. government officials in calling for merging the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey into an independent Earth Systems Science Agency to improve the study of the Earth's changing environment. That proposal envisioned leaving NASA's Earth science programs intact and in place.

posted 01-09-2009 11:55 AM               

This Friday, Jan. 9, at 9:30 a.m., NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and JSC Director Mike Coats will hold an all hands meeting followed by a question and answer period in the Building 2 South Teague Auditorium.

"I think we all are aware we have a political transition almost upon us, and the odds are in a couple of weeks I won't be in this position. We don't know yet, and I certainly don't want to make presumptions about what the president-elect will do. But those are the realities."

Griffin said that if he was provided another four years as administrator, he would focus on tackling "process" at NASA, streamlining the programs and projects, as well as the bureaucracy within the agency. He said he knew it was a problem when he first took the job, but he didn't have the time for it until now given the tasks that were laid out for him.

posted 01-09-2009 02:37 PM               

Unfortunately, I think he shot himself in the foot by sparking the confrontation with Garver's team a few weeks ago. Griffin should have been more willing to show her team what was "under the hood" instead of being indignant and claiming that they should just trust him. Like it or not, the Administrator's role is partly political in nature. If Obama perceives that Griffin won't play ball with his administration, then Obama is well within his rights to appoint a new administrator (regardless of how competent one thinks Griffin is on a technical or managerial level).

posted 01-09-2009 09:00 PM            

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Originally posted by mjanovec:
...Unfortunately, I think he shot himself in the foot by sparking the confrontation with Garver's team a few weeks ago...

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