[FPSPACE] Looking under the hood

[E.P. Grondine]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122954780414915393.html?mod=googlenews_wsj#articleTabs_comments

and Griffin et al.'s response:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2008/12/18/obama-team-raises-new-questions-about-nasas-plans-to-replace-the-shuttle/

While I can agree with Griffin on Garver's engineering expertise, the qualifications of the industry engineers that transition team Obama is consulting with are well beyond Griffin's. 

In the meantime, you can be sure that Griffin et al. will make any transition from Ares 1 to Direct as difficult as possible, including tearing apart launch pads, termination clauses, etc., etc.

As a side note, Cowing reported that Griffin walked in the door with the design for Ares 1, whereas the earlier version of the Ares 1 origin had it coming from Scott Horowitz(?) after Columbia, if memory serves. Thiokol paid for Griffin's professorship, if I remember correctly. (Damn this stroke. I'm afraid I'm just not much fun anymore.) Anyone know for sure?

Given Thiokol's money, it strikes me that a better place for Team Obama to look than under the hood would be in the wallet.

I'm just hoping the next NASA Administrator will carry out the George Brown Jr. Amendment. 

E.P. Grondine
Man and Impact in the Americas



_________________________________________________________________
Send e-mail faster without improving your typing skills.
http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_speed_122008
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.friends-partners.org/pipermail/fpspace/attachments/20081220/ea8f7186/attachment.html