The Worst Leadership Performances of 2008, Washington Post “Act Clueless Award: Michael Griffin. The incumbent administrator of NASA judged Lori Garver, head of president-elect Obama’s NASA transition team, as “not qualified” to evaluate the merits of the return-to the moon Constellation rocket program. Griffin then sought an audience with the president-elect. Speculation is that Griffin is afraid that the Obama administration will gut his pet project and so he has […]

We think: NASA’s chief should welcome Obama team’s scrutiny, opinion, Orlando Sentinel “As NASA prepares to come under the direction of a new president, Mr. Griffin might believe he is saving the Constellation program by shielding it from outside interference. In reality, he does the program and his agency no favors if he stands in the way of a robust review of the current plan and any alternatives. Without such […]

New Report Details Aerospace Workforce Needs, Remedies, AIA “A new report from the aerospace industry promotes the need to convince more students to study math and science and makes proposals to senior policy makers to improve those education disciplines. The new report, “Launching the 21st Century American Aerospace Workforce,” documents steps the industry is taking to head off a potential workforce crisis and makes nine policy recommendations to government partners. […]

SpaceX Falcon 9 to Be Fully Integrated by December 31 “Yesterday we lifted the first stage off the shipping truck and lowered it onto the integration assemblies (shown below). With all of the F9 hardware currently at or on its way to the Cape, we are on track for a fully integrated launch vehicle by year’s end. Barring any unforeseen delays, the second stage and fairing are expected to arrive […]

NASA Might Change Hubble Mission Requirement to Keep Ares 1-X on Schedule, space.com “Current plans call for having Atlantis and Endeavour occupy Pads 39-A and 39-B, respectively, during preparations for the planned May 12 launch of the STS-125 Hubble servicing mission. But NASA officials now are considering launching Atlantis and then rolling Endeavour out to Pad 39-A, said Jeff Hanley, Constellation program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. […]

Rocket science treks to real world, Houston Chronicle “For nearly three hours, Brett Williams’ 24 teen-age rocket-designers faced one tough question after another from some of NASA’s most experienced aerospace engineers. But the outcome was no smackdown of Generation Y. The polite juniors and seniors from Fredericksburg High didn’t falter before their interrogators and methodically detailed their plans to build and launch a Red Bird rocket this spring. At the […]

Forty years ago, three men left for the Moon “[Sunday] marks the 40th anniversary of the launch of the Apollo 8 mission, Americas first human mission to the Moon and by any measure, still a remarkable achievement. Its difficult from our position so many years later to appreciate what a bold, giant leap this mission was, in some ways even greater than the subsequent lunar landing of Apollo 11. Before […]

Replacement for shuttle must serve as bridge craft, Steve Lindsey, Houston Chronicle “NASA spent several years studying architectures and researching every available commercial rocket to find the design that could best accomplish those dual mission objectives in the safest, most reliable way. The conclusion we reached was that a space shuttle and Apollo derived vehicle was the best choice. Many have challenged this decision and still are advocating the use […]

Editor’s note: The X- Prize Foundation has submitted a 3 page document “Five years out from the announcement of a new vision for America’s Space Exploration program, important lessons about what NASA should be doing and how it can best meet those goals are available.” Do you have something (document, study, memo, etc.) to share with the Transition team? Send it here. You can see what they have posted online […]

Transcript: President-elect Barack Obama’s Radio Address “Right now, in labs, classrooms and companies across America, our leading minds are hard at work chasing the next big idea, on the cusp of breakthroughs that could revolutionize our lives. But history tells us that they cant do it alone. From landing on the moon, to sequencing the human genome, to inventing the Internet, America has been the first to cross that new […]