The Email Mess

The Heat is on for NASA chief Mike Griffin, and heat at high pressure and O-Rings don't mix with the frost.

The Agency is feeling the pressure from the political campaign, as Obama and McCain bid for Central Florida votes, and vote elsewhere, like Ohio, tossing reckless ideas around like salvaging the Space Shuttle beyond a retirement schedule already well-underway.

Lunar Pioneer is already on record on this matter. Clearly we have a problem, but the Space Shuttle is, and always has been, an experiment. We are paying the price for having put all our eggs in one basket and if we can't depend on an underfinanced COTS or ESA's ATV or JAXA's HTV, perhaps we should think the unthinkable, and man-rate a stop-gap booster and fast-track Orion Block One.

Keeping the Space Shuttle flying is not an option. Depending on the Russians in the present climate is not an option, either. Orion is in the Out Years. That leaves innovation, and someone had better start humping.

Here's what Michael Griffin had to say:

RELEASE : 08-220

Statement of NASA Administrator Michael Griffin on Aug. 18 Email

WASHINGTON -- The following is the complete statement of NASA Administrator Michael Griffin regarding the Aug. 18 email published by the Orlando Sentinel

The leaked internal email fails to provide the contextual framework for my remarks, and my support for the administration's policies. Administration policy is to retire the shuttle in 2010 and purchase crew transport from Russia until Ares and Orion are available. The administration continues to support our request for an INKSNA exemption. Administration policy continues to be that we will take no action to preclude continued operation of the International Space Station past 2016. I strongly support these administration policies, as do OSTP and OMB.

And here's "the Mess."

NASA chief says he backs 2010 shuttle retirement

Leaked internal e-mail displays worry about staffing space