The VSE, on the whole, is a good program, and has actually gotten thru Congress and stamped as the way forward. But Griffin’s implementation of it threatens to take the entire thing down. If that happens, it is unlikely that Congress will be predisposed to fund another “grand scheme of things” for a very long tome.

If Griffin is quickly replaced, at least there is still time to replace his pet launchers with something that actually works, thereby saving the VSE itself. After being stuck in LEO for more than 30 years, it would be a shame to loose this opportunity to move beyond it solely because of the incompetence of the one man.

Congress asked Justice to investigate the destruction of the IG meeting record. Anyone know what happened with that? Is there any likelihood that Justice will indict the IG (and Griffin with him)?

It felt like a somewhat over-optimistic article to me and I’m worried that a lot of people would/do tend to advocate mostly based on a single “holy grail”. That makes for a single point of failure.

To me the greatest argument for both automated and human space exploration is all the things we do not currently know we will discover (provided we go) and benefit from both as pure knowledge and practical solutions. I.e. instead of betting on this or that possible ace of spades (or not, it might be a joker or even a blank card with this deck) we can get the whole deck of cards as long as we go to stay and keep at it.

The Space Review continues to provide interesting articles from regular contributers and others alike and I hope we’ll see more from Kathleen Connell too.

On the off-topic discussion; why does it make sense to replace Griffin as fast as possible? Isn’t it far too late for that? Isn’t it better to wait under a year to let whomever is elected the new President decide? That way one gets a NASA administrator at least initially supported by a White House administration.

Indeed letting the ESAS approach bury itself deeply into the ground even in the eyes of Dr. Griffin and all other ESAS-supporters would be huge benefit for whomever takes over next. Nothing ends a failed approach with a minimum of unhelpful could-have-beens and what-ifs like a big smoking crater. As it seems incredibly likely this will happen during the next year why not let it play out? Rescuing NASA from itself right now will prove to do it and everyone else an immense disservice in my opinion and only allow NASA –from top to bottom and back up again– to pretend it wasn’t their own fault!

A new administrator before the election is probably not going to happen anyway as I doubt all that many would be interested in the job for a small interim period of less than a year, perhaps even as little as half a year when taking into account the acting interim Administrators.

I think some of you commenters might be in space already ^_^;

This current design seems like a major departure from what he first proposed with the FLO concept from 1992:

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/firtpost.htm

The “COMET” would use a total of 12 engines, core-5 F1s and two on each of the two strap on boosters, ( interesting note: NON Solid strap ons even after the SRBs had been on the shuttle for 10 years + ) and three J2S for the upper stage.

So I wonder if this design was “suggested” to be his pet favorite?

This is only part of the requirement. I agree that the last thing NASA needs at the top is a “rocket scientist.” What NASA really needs is a consummate politician with a good understanding of the history of the development of commerce on difficult new frontiers. Dr. Griffin has, on occasion, tried, but he has let his temper get in the way too often, and when he does act on the political front, he is has proven, frankly, incompetent.

The saddest thing about this whole sorry experience is that the one single policy where the Bush Administration got it right — the VSE — was, in the end, bungled like everything else, partly because of the budgetary requirements of an insane war, partly through appointing the wrong person as Administrator, and partly through lack of attention. Were the VSE to succeed, history in the long term would forget all the rest of the Administration’s many disasters. Unfortunately, it looks like there will be no such distraction.

— Donald

If anything, it’s going to be a continuation of their scorched Earth policies right up until the end, and beyond. That’s generally how these things work out.

The Ares design, his personal pet favorite, which he has pushed thru is proving to be extremely deficient and even if he succeeds in getting it to work, will, imho leave us stuck in LEO for another 30 years, because I don’t believe that the Congress, after seeing what an absolute mess he has made of this entire effort, will be willing to pony up the money to fund his building still another companion rocket to go side by side with it. He has championed a launch system that will end up crippling the American manned space effort for years to come unless it is replace with something that actually works, quickly.

He needs to go, and the sooner the better. And he needs to be replaced by someone more dedicated to the VSE than to his or her personal pet project.