Thursday, December 11, 2008

NASA "not cooperating" with Obama transition

Robert Block at OrlandoSentinal.com - - -

NASA administrator Mike Griffin is not cooperating with President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, is obstructing its efforts to get information and has told its leader that she is “not qualified” to judge his rocket program, the Orlando Sentinel has learned.

In a heated 40-minute conversation last week with Lori Garver, a former NASA associate administrator who heads the space transition team, a red-faced Griffin demanded to speak directly to Obama, according to witnesses.

In addition, Griffin is scripting NASA employees and civilian contractors on what they can tell the transition team and has warned aerospace executives not to criticize the agency’s moon program, sources said.

Griffin’s resistance is part of a no-holds-barred effort to preserve the Constellation program, the delayed and over-budget moon rocket that is his signature project.

Chris Shank, NASA’s Chief of Strategic Communications, denied that Griffin is trying to keep information from the team, or that he is seeking a meeting with Obama. He also insisted that Griffin never argued with Garver.

“We are working extremely well with the transition team,” he said. ...

The rest of Block's story's here.

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Comments:

It sure doesn't sound like "We are working extremely well with the transition team," does it?

BTW - Have you noticed that the NY Times, which was late and downplayed the Ayers-Obama connections, is forced to play catch-up on recent major stories embarrassing to Obama coming our of Illinois, D.C,, and now, NASA?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Constellation program is a piece of crap, representing a change back to an Apollo style space exploration vehicle. Designed to be a smarter, better, more modern version of Apollo, it has problems from top to bottom. If they could not come up with any new ideas, it would have been better to make a smarter, better, more modern version of the Space Shuttle.
No bailout for the big three may result in a better vehicle for America, and no bailout of NASA's Constellation could result in the same for America's space program. Obama would be wise to kill this one, in my opinion.

Anonymous said...

To the 10.40: It would be nice if we all had some idea of your expertise in the space program. It could add a great deal to your credibility if you know what you're talking about.
When I make statements on specialized subjects I always try to give the reader some idea of my background in the area.
Tarheel Hawkeye