Mike Griffin, the administrator of NASA, is making the farewell rounds. While this blunt, irascible leader with a self-described “difficult user-interface” isn’t prone to emotional outbursts, make no mistake: he will miss his job.
Speaking at a breakfast press briefing Tuesday, sponsored by the Space Foundation, he confirmed that as of noon on 20 January — president-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration — he’ll be gone. He has submitted his letter of resignation, as is customary for political appointees, and has not been asked to stay by the incoming administration. He’s planning a final address to his employees at NASA headquarters on Friday, and then will take off for a few days of skiing. After that, he says, “I’ll go home and start looking for another job.”
In terms of a successor, the Obama transition team has so far been quiet, and so until someone is named, associate administrator Chris Scolese will be at the helm. Of course, speculation is rife, and plenty of names have been thrown around, everyone from former NASA science chief Alan Stern, to former NASA earth science division leader Charles Kennel, to astronaut and retired US Marine General Charlie Bolden.
Griffin would not comment on the qualities that he thinks are important in an administrator, but did say: “I love this space agency, I love NASA, I love the program. If they pick someone who loves it as much as I do, that will be the most important thing.” I’m not going to say I heard his voice tightening or cracking, but that’s about as emotional as I’ve heard him.
Asked about the immediate challenges a successor would face, Griffin mentioned some of the usual things: dealing with a continuing budget resolution, which will soon result in contractor layoffs; retiring the Space Shuttle by the end of 2010; and looking to continue the International Space station past 2015.
But he also mentioned a fairly narrow science mission, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), that I wrote about at length a few months ago. Not later than late spring, Griffin says, NASA needs guidance on AMS, an anti-matter detecting magnet that needs a ride to the ISS so it can start start tracking the cosmic rays that fall through its maw. Shuttle managers need 18 months of lead time to prepare for any specialized cargo like AMS, but right now, no flight is on the books. Obama mentioned adding an extra shuttle flight in his campaign rhetoric, and Congress, in its new NASA authorization act, mandated an extra flight for AMS. But congressional appropriators have yet to pay for one. Reading between the lines, it’s possible that Griffin wants to make sure paying for an AMS flight doesn’t come out of an existing NASA budget. “I’ve been working for three years to keep the option to fly that flight open. If they want to fly the flight, somebody has to send money, and they also have to send a specific direction to do so.”
Image: NASA/Renee Bouchard