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| Bush Names Missile Defense Veteran to Head NASA |
| 2005-03-12 |
| Now that the ChiComs are in the space race, NASA gets a missile defense kinda guy... Michael Griffin, a former chief engineer at NASA who has also worked on missile defense systems, was named on Friday as President Bush's choice to head the U.S. space agency. Griffin is head of the space department at the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, which works on civilian and military space programs, including missile and air defense and national security analysis. Previously, he was president of In-Q-Tel, the CIA's private venture capital arm, and worked at Orbital Sciences Corp., which develops rockets and missiles. Earlier in his career, Griffin served as NASA's chief engineer and as deputy for technology at the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, founded in 1984 to develop a space-based anti-missile defense popularly known as "Star Wars." The program was abandoned in 1993. The announcement Bush intends to nominate Griffin drew quick bipartisan praise from members of both houses of Congress and from the space-boosting Planetary Society. |
| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #12 OSC is VERY results oriented from what I remember. Its in their contracts. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2005-03-12 12:53:16 AM |
| #11 OSC is VERY results oriented from what I remember. Its in their contracts. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2005-03-12 12:53:16 AM |
| #10 Agreed but that stupid test ban treaty with a defunct empire stands in the way. (actually a treaty with thin air?) |
| Posted by: 3dc 2005-03-12 6:23:21 PM |
| #9 Speaking of flagrant commercialism, but relevant: While you're there, check out the NuclearSpace online store. Besides the usual coffee mugs and mousepads, we have Project Orion jacket patches and the new "Hot Stuff" NuclearSpace thongs and boxer shorts. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2005-03-12 3:25:50 PM |
| #8 Forgot my plug: If we absolutely positively had to build a big Moon base or get people to Mars in the short term, there are some guys who know how to do it. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2005-03-12 3:20:31 PM |
| #7 Looks like just the guy to get the Golden Goose (aka Shuttle) program dismantled before it kills anyone else. I have suspected for some time that the new Bush space initiative, postulating a return to the Moon and eventual flights to Mars, is really just a way to get NASA's fossilized legacy programs out of the way. By the time it reaches the stage of serious Moon efforts, it will probably have been superceded by events, with the success of Rutan's Spaceship One being only the first step in an exponential progression toward genuinely economical spaceflight. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2005-03-12 3:17:01 PM |
| #6 Actually, .com, this guy has an MBA, in addition to degrees in several forms of engineering. (I don't reember where I saw a list of his academic degrees... but I'm unsure about whether he's actually slept.) |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2005-03-12 1:19:28 PM |
| #5 Well said, .com. W00t! |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-03-12 12:21:04 PM |
| #4 .com, Hear!, Hear! Applause. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-03-12 6:36:05 AM |
| #3 Bravo! A proven Engineer, not an MBA. Who'da thunk it? Wow! Y'know, every time Bush makes a choice like this (Negroponte, Bolton, et al) it surprises me - and others most of the time. I hope we never get used to it and become jaded - he is shaking the tree harder than any predecessor in my lifetime, and doing it for the right reasons. Looking back on the last 4 years I think we've seen two totally opposing phases. Phase 1 - New President who is following the standard form, playing the political averages and trying to satisfy the nay-sayers, etc, trying to get along in the insane world of Beltway whoring - think people like O'Neill, Mineta, etc. Result? Half-assed success - again, standard form. the change... It seems this lasted about 2 years of first term. 9/11 started the turn because it became deadly important. The usual, standard form, Clintonian feel-good bullshit wouldn't do - dangerous beyond imagining. Bush got it - and just as we've learned to trust that he is the ultimate WYSIWYG (thus contradictory) politician - he changed everything, became as deadly serious as the problems he faced and hasn't wasted a single minute since. Every step calculated (checking off the boxes that many see as wasteful, but that are not in his world), every issue prioritized (even when it pisses people off that their current cause de jour is seemingly passed over, example: immigration), every motion calculated to minimize wasted effort and political capital - and maximize needed change. Phase 2 - A President who has things to do and an unknown timeframe to do them - pre-re-election. He dumped "the Beltway game", pissing off a large chunk of the entrenched status quo - and further infuriating both the Congressional Committees who believe they are the President, it seems, as well as the various unelected Beltway and Academic Dukes and Earls who had become accustomed to wielding power. In point of fact, he has washed his hands of half-measures and compromise (read: compromised) appointments and actions, knowing what he needs to do - and now fully focused on getting it done, without apologies, while he can. Think of all of the "firsts" - total breaks with traditions - he has already made: from changing the game to hardball with the Saudis to calling the IRA and its apologists what they are, terrorists. I don't doubt we could collectively name 30 or 40 more. Think of those which are obviously coming, from picking someone who has the stones to take off the kid gloves and deal with the UN honestly, giving it its due, no more / no less, to heaping on the pressure in the M.E. to destabilize the collection of corrupt "nations" and instill the idea and hope of change to the people who had never before, ever, had any reason to hope. Now they do. Bush is on the job. That means Bad Shit Happens a lot more often - to the people who deserve it most. That also means that Good Shit can Happen to those with the stones to fight for it. Bush will be right there if they do, doing what he can to help them lift themselves up. Awesome. Melike. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-03-12 2:23:45 AM |
| #2 OSC is VERY results oriented from what I remember. Its in their contracts. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2005-03-12 12:53:16 AM |
| #1 With that background, will he be more results oriented? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-03-12 12:23:43 AM |