The Full Story

Editor’s note: The following appears in Space News: “According to sources closely tracking the effort, Shank and senior NASA officials met behind closed doors April 22 to discuss what to do about the current CEV solicitation. Notably absent from the meeting was Craig Steidle, NASA’s associate administrator for exploration systems, who was taking a personal day while options were being discussed about the single biggest acquisition managed by his organization.”

According to knowledgeable NASA sources, Steidle’s staff actually readjusted his schedule several times – because Mike Griffin’s office changed this meeting date several times. In the end, Steidle was not able to adjust his schedule to make the final meeting date due to a previous appointment.

Editor’s note: In addition, NASA sources note that Steidle met with Mike Griffin for more than 2 hours on 21 April. This is all in sharp contrast to what is hinted at by Space News. Curiously, NASA PAO did not try (or care enough) to fix this published misinterpretation of Steidle’s participation in these important discussions – even though internal meeting minutes (below) provide an explanation:

NASA Senior Management ViTS Minutes 25 April 2005

“- [Dr. Griffin] apologized to Craig Steidle for scheduling a meeting with him, which caused Adm. Steidle to cancel an event on his calendar. Dr. Griffin later had to cancel the meeting.”