WP,pg1: NASA Chief to Oust 20: Shake-Up Linked to Mars Initiative

[DeepModem Mom]

NASA Chief to Oust 20
Shake-Up Linked to Mars Initiative

By Guy Gugliotta
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 11, 2005; Page A01


New NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin has decided to replace about 20 senior space agency officials by mid-August in the first stage of a broad agency shake-up. The departures include the two leaders of the human spaceflight program, which is making final preparations to fly the space shuttle for the first time in more than two years.

Senior NASA officials and congressional and aerospace industry sources said yesterday that Griffin wants to clear away entrenched bureaucracy, and build a less political and more scientifically oriented team to implement President Bush's plan to return humans to the moon by 2020 and eventually send them to Mars.

The moon-Mars initiative has put severe pressure on NASA's budget, forcing Griffin into a difficult balancing act -- trying to build quickly a next generation spaceship without crippling programs ranging from Earth observation satellites and aeronautics research to maintaining the Hubble telescope.

At the same time, the sources said, Griffin wants to restore NASA's glamour, reasserting the engineering and science leadership that has been eroding since the Apollo era. To this end, the sources said, he is willing to oust as many as 50 senior managers in a housecleaning rivaling the purge after the 1986 Challenger explosion....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/10/AR2005061001911.html

[Teaser]

1. Fucking insane.

*We Have No Money*

In an ideal universe, I'd be jazzed about this kind of thing. But Commander Cuckoo Bananas has made sure that we don't actually have the resources to do this or any other fucking thing.

[Last Lemming]

2. NASA

this is how you weaponize space--
clear out the "deadwood"--replace them with your patsies--then do what you will.

[pacifictiger]

8. that was my first thought too

[Dudley_DUright]

3. This is lunacy (pun intended)

Less political?? The moon and Mars manned missions are all politics. There is no scientific justification whatsoever.

[Maple]

4. Absolutely vital

they be manned. It's the only thing that generates public interest in this...and the public is paying the bills.

[tlcandie]

9. the public pays the bills until they can privatize it....

Once we pay all the upfront expenses of exploration and getting to/from while finding the resources that will make more of these types richer than their wildest dreams, then it will be privatized.

It's not about exploring space or finding answers...again, it's about greed and power.

http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk/

Name:Bruce Gagnon
Location:Brunswick, Maine, United States

Check out my new video "Battle for America's Soul" at http://www.space4peace.org

EDIT: I first saw him on LINK TV or FSTV on a special program there. Shocking to say the least.

[William Seger]

15. Exactly

"... build a less political and more scientifically oriented team" and "restore NASA's glamor" are conflicting, incompatible goals. Science ain't glamorous -- everyone knows science is for nerds! Most astronomers and planetary scientists that I have read consider manned space missions to be huge wastes of money with little real scientific value. The Hubble, on the other hand, is one of the most fruitful scientific devices ever built. Except for bringing back samples, Mars orbiters and rovers have already done more science than the planned manned mission.

Anyway, I don't really know if perhaps the people being replaced are too political and should be replaced, but I do know I have zero confidence in anything this administration says or does. Every time they say anything, I automatically assume it's the opposite of the truth.

[necso]

5. Interesting tidbits from

wikipedia:

"Griffin's prior experience includes a previous stop at APL in the 1980s, when he helped design the successful Delta 180 series of missile-defense technology satellites for the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization. After leaving APL in 1986, he served as the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization’s deputy for technology, and as the chief engineer and later Associate Administrator for Exploration at NASA Headquarters."

"In the years following his first tour with NASA, Griffin was president and chief operating officer of In-Q-Tel, a private, non-profit enterprise funded by the Central Intelligence Agency to identify and invest in companies developing cutting-edge technologies that serve national security interests. Griffin’s resume also includes several leadership roles at Orbital Sciences Corporation and key technical positions at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and at Computer Sciences Corporation."

Super-booster, SDIv2, weapons in space (etc), here we come.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Very interesting tidbits -- thanks, necso.

[quaoar]

6. These are the same fuckers

that want to let Hubble burn up in the atmosphere and want to pull the plug on Voyager just as they reach the edge of the solar system -- all to save a few million. We can blow billions every month on the Iraq quagmire but can't find a few million for these programs.

[kimpossible]

10. Prep for militarizing space?

Wonder if this is the next step in the neocon agenda of co-opting the space program to turn it into a military operation? Getting rid of the existing people who would object?

"less political and more scientifically oriented" my ass! I'll believe that when "Clear Skies" actually means what it sounds like.

[DeepModem Mom]

13. See necso's post #5 for this guy's background --

you could well be right.

[daleo]

11. The only Mars Bush cares about is Mars the God of War.

As for the moon, well we can imagine his taste in moons.

[agincourt]

12. No doubt they are being laid off for political loyalty,

not competence. I'd be suprised if any are close to the Columbia tradgedy.

[Javaman]

14. Translation...

Fire those that think it's useless and to expensive with repuke cronies who are willing to put the blinders on and spend our money in to oblivion.