By Jeff Foust on 2005 April 14 at 1:05 pm ET The Senate Commerce Committee finally released yesterday the assignments of its members to its various subcommittees, including the Subcommittee on Science and Space. The leadership of the subcommittee—chairwoman Kay Bailey Hutchison and ranking member Bill Nelson—had already been announced, but the rest of the members are just now known:
Ted Stevens (R-AK)
Conrad Burns (R-MT)
Trent Lott (R-MS)
John Ensign (R-NV)
George Allen (R-VA)
John Sununu (R-NH)
Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)
Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
Ben Nelson (D-NE)
Mark Pryor (D-AR)
Sen. Stevens is the chairman of the full committee, and thus has the power to sit on all the subcommittees. It’s interesting that Sen. Inouye (D-HI), the co-chairman and ranking Democrat on the full committee, did not exercise a similar role for this subcommittee, although he is a member of most of the other subcommittees.
By Jeff Foust on 2005 April 14 at 7:22 am ET The Senate is often called a slow, deliberative body, but it can act quickly when it wants to. Early yesterday it appeared that the Senate Commerce Committee would not act on Michael Griffin’s nomination until a full committee markup session scheduled for today; indeed, at one point during the day Griffin’s name appeared on the agenda for the hearing among those nominations to be approved by the committee. However, the leadership of the committee “convinced their colleagues to approve the nomination quickly”, according to a committee press release, and got the nomination to the floor, where it was approved by the full Senate without opposition just before wrapping up business for the day Wednesday evening.
Ironically, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who pressed for the committee to expedite the nomination during Tuesday’s hearing, was not on the Senate floor when it voted on the nomination, according to the Houston Chronicle. (She did, though, issue a press release to “applaud” the confirmation.) With the nomination now confirmed, Griffin “is expected to be sworn in later this week”, according to a NASA statement Wednesday night.
By Jeff Foust on 2005 April 13 at 12:52 pm ET
By Jeff Foust on 2005 April 13 at 8:16 am ET At yesterday’s confirmation hearing, the leadership of the Senate Commerce Committee appeared willing to agree to a request from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and expedite Michael Griffin’s nomination, planning a vote to recommend his nomination later in the day. However, that vote was delayed, the Hampton Roads (Virginia) Daily Press reports, because Sen. George Allen (R-VA) was dissatisfied with Griffin’s answers to his questions during the hearing on aeronautics. Allen asked committee chairman Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) to delay the vote until he received written responses to questions Allen submitted. Griffin apparently submitted those responses Tuesday night, according to the Daily Press, saying “he acknowledged the importance of NASA’s Langley Research Center.” Allen told the paper he found the responses “encouraging” and would not further hold up the vote, which could take place during a full committee markup session scheduled for Thursday.
I couldn’t help but notice that the New York Times made a minor error in its article about the hearing. It’s been corrected, but compare it to this screenshot of the page as it appeared early this morning and see if you notice it…
By Jeff Foust on 2005 April 12 at 1:22 pm ET 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.
By Jeff Foust on 2005 April 12 at 7:55 am ET Michael Griffin is expected to lead off a Senate confirmation hearing this morning; he has to share the hearing with several other non-NASA nominees, and according to reports the committee will spend no more than about an hour with Griffin before moving on to the others. As Florida Today reports, the hearing is part formality—there’s no opposition to the nomination—but is an opportunity for senators to query Griffin on some key issues.
There are a couple options for watching the hearing, if you’re not going to be there in person. The Commerce Committee provides its own live webcast of the hearing. Additionally, the audio of the hearing is available on CapitolHearings.org, a C-SPAN service. (C-SPAN itself will not carry the hearing on TV, instead covering the confirmation hearings of John Negroponte and John Bolton.) NASA TV is not scheduled to show the hearing, but its schedule is always subject to change.
By Jeff Foust on 2005 April 11 at 8:37 pm ET While Tom DeLay doesn’t have an official role in the confirmation of Michael Griffin as the next NASA Administrator, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison—chair of the Senate Commerce Committee’s space subcommittee—certainly does. On Monday her office issued a terse press release endorsing Griffin’s selection. “I have spoken with Dr. Griffin about working together to reauthorize NASA and implement our vision for NASA’s future,” she said in the statement. “I look forward to his hearing tomorrow and, hopefully, a smooth confirmation.”
Meanwhile, there’s a report that some space activists will hold a rally Tuesday morning in support of Griffin and manned spaceflight in general. Let’s just hope they show up at the right place: the report says the group, including some NSS and Space Generation Foundation members, will meet at 9am at the “Russell House Office Building”; presumably they mean the Russell Senate Office Building (where the confirmation hearing will take place), although where in the vicinity of the building hasn’t been announced.
By Jeff Foust on 2005 April 11 at 8:01 am ET While House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) won’t have a direct role in the confirmation of NASA administrator nominee Michael Griffin, he has given Griffin his seal of approval. In a meeting late last week on Capitol Hill, DeLay and Griffin discussed NASA legislative strategy as well as “the importance of reaching out to the public on the important work NASA is doing and the need for commercialization of space.” DeLay said he was “excited” by Griffin’s nomination, concluding that he “has the background and the passion to lead NASA in the right direction.”
By Jeff Foust on 2005 April 8 at 8:05 am ET Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), chairman of the space subcommittee of the House Science Committee, gave an address at the National Space Symposium this week. This is perhaps his most detailed address on space issues to date; he is also scheduled to give a press conference next week where he will outline his plans for the space subcommittee for the year. Some highlights from his talk:
- The major theme of his address is that the barriers between the civil, commercial, and military space efforts need to come down. “We no longer have the luxury of each sector of our Nation’s space program working in isolation from the others,” he said, adding that closer cooperation is needed to reduce “expensive duplication of effort”.
- The one comment that attracted the most attention, including a Space News article, was his preference to proceed with a Hubble deorbit mission rather than a robotic or shuttle servicing mission. “Although we will have a gap of coverage” until the James Webb Space Telescope is launched, he argued, “Hubble has delivered volumes of data that will keep scientists busy for years to come.”
- One of his highest priorities this year is to get a NASA authorization bill passed, although he acknowledges “how difficult that it is to get a NASA Authorization through the Congress.”
- Calvert said he supports NASA’s current “small prize program” and adds that the NASA authorization bill now under development will include prizes.
- NASA, he said, “needs a Human Capital Strategy that retains the best people and encourages the next generation to pursue careers in science, engineering and technology.” Before that, though, the agency needs “a clearly defined mission” that includes space exploration, aeronautics, and other core missions. That might involve something like a Zero-Based Review “to create a new, requirements based organization.”
- Calvert strongly supports Michael Griffin as the next NASA administrator. “He is a free thinker, a rocket scientist, and a business man who understands the government. What a great combination to lead NASA at this critical time!”
- One quizzical comment he made was that “when it comes to the newest and most exciting field of commercial space, human space transportation, the leader in the field deliberately chose not to have any involvement with our civil space program.” Presumably he means—but does not explicitly name—Scaled Composites, developer of SpaceShipOne. Yet for all of Burt Rutan’s “Nay-Say” bluster, Scaled is part of the team led by Transformational Space Corp. (t/Space) that won a $3-million NASA “concept exploration and refinement” contract last year to study lunar exploration architectures.
By Jeff Foust on 2005 April 7 at 1:12 pm ET The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee has scheduled the confirmation hearing for Michael Griffin, the president’s nominee to be the next NASA administrator. The hearing is scheduled for 10 am on Tuesday, April 12, in the committee’s regular hearing location, Russell 253. The timing of the hearing is interesting, coming on the anniversaries of both Yuri Gagarin’s first flight as well as the launch of STS-1, although I imagine the timing is just coincidence. (However, perhaps Dr. Griffin will stick around and attend Yuri’s Night that evening.) Griffin is actually one of several nominees who will appear before the committee at the same time: the others are for primarily transportation-related bodies, like the Federal Railroad Administration, as well as Consumer Product Safety Commission.
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