John

e.g. man rated arianna or delta v

thanks

jim

This is true. Gration does not have the same amount of political experience as Webb.

Unfortunately, in today’s environment NASA gets passed over by the real political pros. They are uniformly not interested, as NASA is not seen to be a top national priority like it was for President Kennedy. The Daschle’s, Rahm’s, and Clinton’s of the world want a prestige job. NASA does not make the prestige list for an experienced and connected political pro.

However, Gration has a lot more political experience and credentials than Griffin, Boldin, and many other names that have been mentioned.

Gration has a good personal relationship with the President-elect, which is critical, and of equivalent nature to Webb-Kennedy. He has worked on Obama’s political campaign for over a year. He has been a White House fellow. He has significant foreign policy experience, which gives you an education in politics. Many of his postings gave him experience in politics. And the job of USAF General can be quite political at times.

NELLASELIM: Gration doesn’t even come close to matching Webb’s stature or charisma for that matter.

It seems to me that you are going a little bit overboard here. Let us break down your assertion.

On “Stature” — Let’s assume this is true (although measuring stature is often in the eye of the beholder, and a 2-star general who has intensely campaigned for you for over a year has some real stature). As I mentioned, NASA is not going to get a major “stature” person. None of the other candidates for the job are major stature figures.

On “Charisma” — When did “charisma” become a criterion for the Administrator job , as opposed to “vision”, “leadership” and “innovator”? (I look at the list of previous Administrator’s and don’t see a lot of “charsima” there). How do you measure “charisma”? Have you met and worked with Gration, and if not, how do you know Webb’s charisma is greater than Gration’s?

I am not advocating for Gration. It is appropriate to be concerned and worried because there are some important things that we do not know. For this reason, we all should want to know a lot more about Gration. At the same time, we should keep an open mind, and not jump to conclusions, before we get the information.

FWIW,

– Al

Bob, Pete Worden has a doctorate in Astronomy and has published over 150 papers in astrophysics while working on such diverse programs as DARPA and Space and Missile Systems for US Space Command. Worden has extensive experience in both space science and engineering. He would be well qualified to be director of Ames. Richard Truly was with NASA from 1965 through 1983 then returned to NASA in 1986 after Challenger disaster. He had a long history of serving NASA when he was named NASA administrator in1989. Both of these men had a NASA track record while serving in the military. Gration has no prior NASA record or scientific, engineering expertise in space. He served as a White House Fellow for a deputy NASA admin Hans Mark for one year which doesn’t mean squat. When articles have to preface his qualifications with this line:

“Gration’s lack of experience with the space program would not necessarily be a handicap, experts said.”

There is a serious problem. He has served his entire career in military USAF commands and has no direct experience working with a civilian agency like NASA. Do not make the mistake of comparing apples to oranges. Running a military command is vastly different than running a civilian government agency.

I noted late last night that this could be really, really good, or really really bad, for just that reason. This will be the closest administrator to the president since Webb. Whatever the policy is, it will be implemented. The issue is entirely whether the policy will be good, or bad.

– Al