Former NASA boss Mike Griffin says no new rocket until a new president

[ZombieHorde]

By Lee Roop, The Huntsville Times

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - NASA and its contractors know the next step in human spaceflight, they've been working on it for six years, and they're eager to build the big new rocket that is the key to taking that step.

That was the positive take on a panel convened by Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle Friday afternoon at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. Battle brought industry and former government leaders together hours before a gala celebrating NASA's last great rocket program, the space shuttle.

Panelists were less positive on when NASA will get the green light to build the rocket. Views ranged from "we're getting closer" to "it's a brutal time for budgets and it's not going to get any easier" to a flat prediction that it won't come until the Obama administration goes.

That assessment came from former NASA administrator Mike Griffin, a steady critic of the White House that replaced him as NASA chief and killed the rocket program Griffin was leading. Called Constellation, that program included two bigger rockets, one after the other, ending with a heavy-lift rocket like Congress still wants.

http://blog.al.com/space-news/2011/08/former_nasa_boss_mike_griffin.html

[Vincardog]

1. Net recommendation: 0 votes (Your vote: +1)

[a simple pattern]

3. Same here

[joshcryer]

4. Here too...

[ZombieHorde]

6. Error: you can't recommend your own topics nt

[Fuddnik]

7. I did it for you.

+4

[LetTimmySmoke]

2. NASA is one of the most economically stimulative programs out there.

Obama's cutting of NASA and its programs is short-sighted and ultimately does nothing for the budget.

[joshcryer]

5. Sadly they had to go with a Shuttle derived option.

Why can't they just say, hey, look, SRBs are only good for military. Let's move on.

[n2doc]

8. Not like Constellation was anything but a money pit

We need to have the capability, but W's admin wasted tons of money on this and it was clear cost overruns were going to bleed the rest of NASA dry. If we had our priorities straight maybe that would not have mattered so much, but it did.

Blame the TP'ers- They want NASA and other non war machine programs killed. There is no way Obama gets tens of billions in spending added to NASA's budget.