Mike Griffin, NASA’s chief administrator, has said his farewells to NASA staff in an all-hands meeting.

You can read a transcript of his entire speech over at Spaceref.com. Mike seems like a funny guy, from all the ‘[laughter]’ inserts there are in the transcript. He also has a lot of people to thank for being ‘inside his head’. It must be quite full in there.

It is no secret that Griffin wanted to stay on at NASA under the Obama administration (he offered his resignation to Obama, as is usual for political appointees); even his wife campaigned for him to stay when, late on Christmas Eve, she sent an email to a bunch friends and family to ask for their help to keep her husband in his job.

But Obama accepted the resignation, and Mike has to go. Not before having his say and a pop at some of his critics: “I am, despite what you read on the blogs, not actually an idiot,” he said. [Laughter.]

He acknowledged the difficulties some of his staff have had with him and his decisions, and admitted that he has a problem “connecting with people”.

Griffin is still strongly in favour of establishing a base on the Moon as a place to hop off to Mars from. And for that matter, he’s pretty sure that NASA scientists will find life out there (New Scientist).

Griffin came to NASA in the aftermath of the Columbia shuttle disaster and he praised all at NASA for “the way that we have managed to pick ourselves up after Columbia and find technically solid ways to return to the Shuttle to flight”. (LA Times) Part of Griffin’s legacy is the end of the Shuttle programme to service the space station, which has also met with criticism. Griffin is instead doggedly determined that men should get to visit Mars.

So, farewell Mike. Whatever you end up doing next. We will leave this post with his final words as administrator:

“Thanks again, everybody. Thanks for coming today.

[Standing ovation.]“

Image: NASA/Renee Bouchard