Space Science Update

NASA Budget: Crisis Deepens as Scientists Fail to Rejigger Space Research, Science (subscription)

“… And NASA Administrator Michael Griffin in accepts a portion of the blame. “I made a mistake,” Griffin told NASA’s new science advisory panel. “I made commitments in advance that I wasn’t able to keep,” referring to his 2005 promise not to shift money from science to human space flight. NASA’s current budget request would trim more than $3 billion from space science through 2011.”

“… In the meantime, Griffin pledges to listen more closely to scientists. He spent several hours at the advisory committee meeting answering questions and chatting informally with committee members. “I’m not the world’s best communicator,” he told them. But “we don’t get out of bed, drive to headquarters, and try to screw the program up. … We’re not out to do a Lone Ranger act.”