Griffin Contradicts White House: Making Shuttle Extension Plans

EXCLUSIVE: NASA to study extending shuttle era to 2015, Orlando Sentinel

“NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has ordered his suborbinates to study how the agency could fly the space shuttle beyond its planned retirement in 2010, according to an internal e-mail obtained by the Orlando Sentinel. The decision signals what could be a huge change in NASA policy. Griffin repeatedly has rejected the notion of extending the shuttle era beyond its 2010 retirment date, arguing it could cripple the fledgling Constellation program, a system of new rockets and capsules meant to replace the shuttle in 2015.”

NASA Internal Email: Shuttle Extension Assessment, Courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel

“The SSP program in conjunction with Cx and ISS have been asked by the administrator to put together some manifest options to assess extending shuttle flights to 2015. SSP would like to have some options developed for review by senior management by the end of September. The result of the review might be a formal budget assessment of a option(s).”