MAIN ARTICLE: NASA: Griffin out Boldin in?
The Orlando Sentinel reports that Griffin is packing his bags. Is NASA going to get a new Administrator? Who should it be?
Poll Results: Yesterday's poll set a new particpation record. Scroll down for the exciting results from the first poll on America's energy portfolio.
Star Trek: In the News. Funeral held for widow of 'Star Trek' creator.
Yesterday's Comments: "Nah, I've flogged that horse enough for a while. . ." Bill White
Today's Poll: Who should President Elect Obama pick as the new NASA Administrator?
Once again the Orlando Sentinel broke a story in the continuing sage over at NASA and it's Chief Administrator Dr. Michael Griffin. Several articles have covered the trials and tribulations of the, often underfire, NASA Chief:
(see "NASA Chief's Wife to Obama: Don't Fire My Husband.", 'Americans in Space' - Jan 02, 2009)
(see "Political Cartoon: Barack as Spock. NASA News.", 'Americans in Space' - Dec 19, 2008)
(see "NASA's Griffin denies tension with Obama's transition team", 'Americans in Space' - Dec 12, 2008)
Yesterday Robert Block reported that the NASA Chief was in the process of cleaning out his office and getting a new email address:
![Photobucket](http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo232/vladislaw_photo/griffin1.jpg)
NASA: Mike Griffin out, Charlie Bolden in?
"When Barrack Obama takes the Oath of Office on January 20, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin will be clearing out the last of his possessions from his office and heading off to a new career in either academia or the aerospace business.
At least, that’s the word circulating in the halls of power in Washington and among some of the better-connected space industry poobahs. And though there's no official confirmation from either Griffin or Obama's transition team, that hasn't stopped folks from insisting that it's so.
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.
Griffin's press secretary, David Mould, said Griffin stepping down for Scolese "would likely be the case if he is not asked to stay beyond the 20th. But there has been no official discussion so far."
Other agency insiders, however, say that Griffin has been operating under the assumption for the last several weeks that he will be leaving on January 20, and has already started taking stuff out of his office back to his house. In fact, Griffin sent an e-mail to friends just after Christmas with a new private e-mail address. A copy of the e-mail, obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, reads, simply: "All – In the event that I am not asked to remain at NASA after 20 Jan 09, and should the need to reach me arise, the above e-mail address will always work. Mike" "
THE FINAL COUNTDOWN:
In less then two weeks America will know how this is going to play out and if Griffin has to bring stuff back to his office, or finish what he started and remove the last of it.
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Charles F. "Charlie" Bolden, Jr.
Statement by Charles Bolden at a Senate Subcommittee on Science and Space Hearing
"NASA Budget and Programs: Outside Perspectives"
"At this time some of us are beginning to understand fully the statement credited to the late Dr. Bob Gilruth, director of the Johnson Space Center in what may be called the golden age of human space flight, when he said "People will realize how difficult it was to go to the Moon when we try to return." While we have a pretty good grasp on the technology to accomplish this mission, I'm not certain we have the national will power or determination. I do not mean to insult anyone's intelligence today, but I do wish to remind all of us that exploration of any sort is risky, expensive, and unpredictable. While we may be able to continue many of the science and exploration programs on which we have been embarked over the past forty plus years, we cannot do them on the cheap and we cannot do them in series. Human exploration and science experimentation and research are necessarily parallel endeavors that are mutually supportive if we are to realize success in either. While the NASA Administrator, Dr. Mike Griffin, is making a very commendable effort to fit it all into today's NASA budget, it's like trying to fit fifteen pounds of stuff into a five pound sack. From my perspective, you in the Congress and the President must see your way to expanding the funding for the NASA by some marginal amount that will enable Dr. Griffin to retain emphasis on many of the science and aeronautics programs that are being reduced or cut. As an example, building a vehicle or set of vehicles to take humans to the Moon and on to Mars without continued emphasis on the life science research to understand more fully the environmental and human factors challenges that must be overcome to successfully allow humans to survive these journeys is a certain recipe for disaster and ultimate failure. Similarly, funding increased science exploration and experimentation through employment of robotic vehicles and remote sensing and satellite data gathering without continued improvement in our ability to safely send humans beyond Earth's bounds and on to other heavenly bodies literally defeats our innate human drive and curiosity to explore the unknown and venture from this planet in search of ways to improve our lives here at home. In the very simplistic and perhaps somewhat naïve words scribbled on a rough space exploration drawing by a young third grader in 1992, Samantha Aignier, "We'll never know if we don't go!"
Perhaps the greatest casualty of NASA's failure to adequately fund a balanced program of human exploration and science and aeronautics research will be the continued deterioration in interest in science and math among our elementary and secondary school students, not to mention the college and post graduate students who see no value in pursuing the fields of science and engineering where each year brings less and less funding for research to the university campuses.
Where once students in elementary school responded with enthusiasm in large numbers that they wanted to be astronauts when they grow up, most no longer hold this aspiration when I visit the campuses around the U.S. to talk about my exploits as a test pilot and astronaut. Many of today's students don't even know that we still have Americans in space every single day on the International Space Station. They want to know when we're going to return to space and go to the Moon and Mars."
Biography
"Major General Charles Frank "Charlie" Bolden, Jr., USMC (retired), (born August 19, 1946 in Columbia, South Carolina) is a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer who served from 1981 to 1994 as an astronaut in the United States' space program. A 1968 graduate of the United States Naval Academy (USNA), he became a Marine Aviator and test pilot. After his service with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, he became Deputy Commandant of Midshipmen at the USNA. Bolden is the virtual host of the Shuttle Launch Experience attraction at Kennedy Space Center." - wiki
"From April, 2003 to January, 2005 Mr. Bolden served as senior vice president of TechTrans International, Inc., a women-owned language services company serving the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and other government and commercial entities doing business in Russia and the former Soviet Republics, with offices in Houston, TX, Washington, DC, and Moscow, Russia. He presently serves on the Board of Directors of Marathon Oil Corporation, GENCORP, and Palmetto Government Benefits Associates as well as the Board of Trustees of the University of Southern California." - Bolden Bio
American Astronauts to Visit China.
"NASA astronauts Charles Bolden and Mae Jemison will join Apollo 16 Moonwalker Charlie Duke from 19 July to 3 August in a non-government trip to the 'Middle Country,' Chinese Society of Astronautics (logo pictured above) Deputy Director Yang Junhua announced Thursday. The three astronauts will visit China's space research and development institutes, including those that develop the nation's spaceships, satellites and carrier rockets. In Beijing, the astronauts will take part in an international youth meeting of astronauts and address the country's major astronautics universities, possibly meeting with their China counterparts. They will also tour the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River, the world's third longest river. The trip is sponsored by DuPont, which has contributed to space exploration for the past half-century, including materials on Apollo spacesuits and electronics for the Mars Spirit and Opportunity rovers. Corporate Vice President Thomas Powell says sponsorship of the visit is a natural fit with the company, which operates in 70 countries worldwide. The visit should help to advance China-American international space / lunar cooperation." - Lunar Enterprise Daily
The Mars Society did a 60 second interview with Mister Bolden last December:
Bolden Interview
"Major General Charles Bolden spent 30 years in the US Marine Corps, serving in Vietnam and as a test pilot. He went on four space flights for Nasa, twice as mission commander. He now encourages students to pursue science as a career and is talking at a conference at the Royal Aeronautical Society on January 22, co-sponsored by Metro. See www.isset.org
What will you do at the Royal Aeronautical Society conference?
"I'm trying to get people interested in science. Most kids in the US want to go into business now at university, rather than the sciences. They think that's the way to make lots of money. It's important to foster an interest in science among younger people by telling them not to fear failure: some people find the subject intimidating. I use the examples of the Apollo fire, the loss of Challenger in 1986 and then Columbia in 2003. Those were huge failures in the United States space programme but we refused to accept that as defeat and worked out how to avoid future mistakes."
Bolden has been involved in education several times in the past and has consistantly pushed for more math and science in American schools.
OTHER NAMES FLOATED:
In the same Sentinel article Robert Block also reported on other choices:
"Other names that the Obama team has been mulling over include, Scott Hubbard of Stanford University, a member of the Columbia Accident Investigation 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."
Both Huntress and Hubbard have been foreward thinking on COTS and have been involved with 'New Space' companies. I could find nothing on Sally Ride and commercial space.
POLL RESULTS:
Yesterday's poll was about the Nation's energy portfolio.
"What should be the number one item in America's energy portfolio."
Solar was the clear winner with 33% with wind coming in second (20%) and nuclear third with 14%.
STAR TREK: In the News.
Funeral held for widow of 'Star Trek' creator
Yahoo News
YESTERDAY'S COMMENTS:
"Poll Comment Focused Solar is the best chance we have to reduce the amount of carbon we place in the atomospher. With the exception of the mirrors it uses off the shelf industry standard steam turbine generators. It does suffer from night time problem, but wind or nuclear can take up that slack." - Something the Dog Said
TODAY'S POLL:
Who should President Elect Obama pick as the new NASA Administrator?
Other NASA Diaries on DKOS