Mike Griffin's Evolving Opinion On ISS and Shuttle

NASA’s Griffin Tells Forum Crowd There Are No Guarantees In Space Travel, Aero-News.net

“The US and its partners have invested $100 billion in the [ISS],” said Griffin, “so it does seem short-sighted to not spend the $3 billion a year to maintain the Shuttle. ” Directing his comments to the children in the audience, “Sometimes Washington does silly things.”

What Mike Griffin *Really* Thinks About NRC’s Space Station Report (2005 posting)

“I’m copying a bunch of folks on this note because it concerns the nucleus of a strategic problem for us in going forward with the VSE. Bottom line, we’re going to have to answer the specific issues in this report. We’re going to have to define the program of activity for ISS that obtains from it the utility that it can provide. We may NOT be able to fund that activity at present; I consider that almost a fact on the ground. But we can put in place the kind of peer-reviewed science that we WOULD do, given the money, and that we WILL do, when we can afford it.”

Why the U.S. should return to the moon and venture on to Mars, (edited transcript), USA Today (2005)

“Q: In retrospect, was the shuttle program a mistake?
Griffin: My opinion is that it was.

Q: Was the space station a mistake?
Griffin: I would not have built the space station. We are now trying to change the path while doing as little damage as we can.”

Editor’s note: First the ISS and the Shuttle were “mistakes” (Griffin’s own words). Now their imminent demise is “short sighted”.