New NASA Administrator Named

CheshireCatCO writes "The Bush Administration has nominated Mike Griffin as the new chief administrator of NASA. Griffin currently heads the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University and holds degrees in physics, civil, electrical, and aerospace engineering and aerospace science, as well as an MBA. (How did he ever have time to do anything else?) He was also part of the Strategic Defense Initiative in the 80s."

Comments

Good appointment for 3 reasons

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, this is a Very Good idea for three reasons:

(1) the nominee is Not a Beancounter;
(2) the nominee is not an astronaut married to the Space Shuttle/Space Station welfare system;
(3) the nominee knws some science and engineering.

-- Jonathan Vos Post

Re:Good appointment for 3 reasons

[lecithin]

I'll give you another one:

"From an entrepreneurial standpoint, he has someone who has actually experienced what it is like to be on the other side of the table dealing with the government," he said. "We haven't had that before."

Re:Good appointment for 3 reasons

[helioquake]

Yeah, but the real skill required for a NASA administrator is this:

Let engineers be engineers.

You can replace the word "engineer" with "scientist", too. There are too much bureaucratic work at NASA. It costs some money to file document; it costs money to spend money. The facility is on the constant maintenance mode, i.e., a fix is being fixed as being fixed. The money is wasted where science and engineering doesn't get involved. Laboratories and divisions at NASA have largely been run by bean-counting civil servants who worked very hard in the Apollo days and now lucratively hold the wallet to keep his friends happy (yet unproductive). Let that change. Let the engineers and scientists be engineers and scientists! And those bean-counters should merely be there to help achieve the goal, instead of getting in the way.

Furthermore, it lacks a clear vision for the future of this institution. Since the Bush administration speaks little about the Moon/Mars project after the election. So I consider that moot. This Griffin guy needs to be questioned what he sees as the future of NASA at a confirmation hearing in the Senate. I'm sure Barbara from MD would ask if he'd save the Hubble.

Re:SDI?

[r00t]

If nothing else, SDI encouraged the USSR to run themselves out of money.

Plus you have to understand that SDI is only part of a many-layered defence. All layers are weak, and some have already failed. Some layers have not been implemented; this is terribly irresponsible. The layers can include at least:

• nuclear non-proliferation treaty (mostly successful, but note India and Pakistan among others)
• economic ties (you wouldn't nuke your trade partners)
• foreign aid
• export of culture
• revenge ability
• border crossing and port inspections
• monitored airspace
• spys and pre-emptive strikes
• early-stage ICBM take-down (airborne laser, high-speed rocket in nearby area, long-range gun in nearby area...)
• space-based mid-stage ICBM take-down (X-ray laser, smart rocks, chemical laser, rail gun...)
• late-stage ICBM take-down (high-speed rocket, long-range gun, various laser systems)
• bomb shelters

Every single one of these layers can fail. Relying on just a few layers is foolish.

Re:SDI?

[Rei]

The whole "SDI helped break the Soviet Union" thing is a myth. About the only things SDI could be responsible for would be additional programs for MIRVing warheads and other countermeasures. That's hardly a budget busting line item there.

The whole "military buildup helped break the Soviet Union" might have some truth to it, but countermeasures for SDI cost a tiny fraction of the cost of SDI. It's only good against newly emerging nuclear powers.

Of course, even the notion that the military buildup was the big issue is wrong; many people had rightfully predicted far earlier that the internal contradictions within the soviet system would destroy it. One of their biggest flaws (which is still around, BTW) is the fact that people often (rightfully) felt that they would be better off by hiding damaging information than admitting it. We got a nice taste of it, for example, after the Kursk accident. Factor in the failed collective farms and other failed social experiments, and it's not surprising that so many people saw this one coming.

You can't factor out the military buildup; however, crediting SDI is pretty unrealistic.

Re:Time?

[Manan Shah]

NASA doesn't need someone who can build a rocket engine. As chief, he wont be building anything himself. His job is to MANAGE and LEAD. And he has the knowledge and experience to do just that.

Re:Time?

[Quantum Fizz]

So you criticize this guy for having too many management jobs, and then use that as the argument for why he's unfit for the top management job as NASA?

You also criticize a guy that loves science for jumping to the 'dark side' of management. But just what kind of manager are you looking for at NASA anyway? Someone that doesn't like science?