A lovefest

That’s perhaps the best description of this morning’s confirmation hearing for Michael Griffin. The hearing lasted over an hour, but Griffin’s hearing was held in parallel with that for Joseph Boardman, the nominee to run the Federal Railway Administration; Griffin probably got a majority of the attention, but not an overwhelming amount. There were plenty of platitudes, and even a joke or two, but here weren’t too many questions from the senators, although some promised to submit their questions in written format to Griffin for inclusion in the record. A few highlights:

• On Hubble, Griffin pointed out that until his nomination was announced last month, he had chaired an independent technical review committee of the proposed robotic servicing mission. He concurred with the conclusion that a robotic mission was not feasible on the timescales required, saying that the robotic option should be taken “off the plate.” However, he seemed open to restoring a shuttle servicing mission, but wants to wait and see what NASA learns after the shuttle return to flight.
• Griffin agreed with Sens. Hutchison and Nelson that the gap between the end of the shuttle program and the introduction of the CEV needs to be shortened. He seemed to favor finding ways to shorten the development time of the CEV, noting that the entire Gemini development program took about 39 months. (Hutchison and Nelson have complained about this gap in the past, but tended to favor extending the shuttle program beyond 2010.) Shortening the gap, he said, would be his second priority, after return to flight.
• He said he believed that NASA should “bring the space station to a level of completion consistent with our obligations to our international partners.” That, some might argue, offers some wiggle room to end station assembly at some point earlier than current plans, so long as ESA and JAXA in particular get their modules in place.
• At least three senators (Mikulski, Nelson, and Sarbanes) called him a “rocket scientist”; Mikulski added “Thank God!” Both Mikulski and Sarbanes pointed out Griffin was from Aberdeen, Maryland, the birthplace of Cal Ripken. Mikulski went so far as to claim that Griffin embodied the “Ripken Way” of being the best that you can be.

For some more details see the writeup at SpaceRef. The Senate Commerce Committee seemed eager to act on Griffin’s nomination, agreeing to a request by Sen. Hutchison to expedite the nomination, getting it approved by the committee as soon as today and approved by the full Senate by the end of the week.