Mike Griffin's Leaked Email: Is He Falling On His Sword?

Editor’s note: Some of you may recall my posting on 11 March 2005 that Mike Griffin was going to be the next Administrator of NASA. In that posting I recalled an action taken by Griffin during the Space Station Freedom redesign activity – one I described as having “demonstrated personal integrity – and did so in a public way that was rather career adverse.” At the time, a common NASA phrase for such an action was to say that someone “fell on their sword”.

For the first time on NASA Watch, here is the letter that Griffin wrote that more or less encapsulated that action – and also sank his immediate future at NASA at the same time.

To his credit, Mike Griffin has taken rather bold and blunt stances before. Motives aside, is he doing that again? And if so, isn’t it curious that both actions were due to threats to the space station – something that is not Mike Griffin’s favorite NASA project?