Last week, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin sat down the Houston Chronicle’s editorial board and reporter Eric Berger to discuss a range of issues. Some highlights:
Griffin is opposed, for reasons of safety and cost, to efforts by Congressman Dave Weldon and others to extend the shuttle program beyond 2010.
China will “probably” get to the moon before the United States. “They are constructing a very well-crafted space program. They are doing things on a number of fronts — economic, political, military — that seem to have the intent of establishing China as a strategic power in the world.”
Griffin does not want another “space race.” Although the Apollo program was a stunning achievement, America was not able to use it as part of a long-term space exploration effort with sufficient political and public support.
Steve Cook, manager of NASA’s lunar Ares program, says critics are wrong about the Ares I launcher being underpowered, poorly designed and behind schedule, according to a FlightGlobal.com article. Speaking during a recent conference in Denver, Cook said the vehicle has acceptable payload margins and that NASA engineers have oscillation and control issues well in hand.
“We have hit all our milestones and are on track to hit [the preliminary design review] milestone in August 2008. We won’t go into a review unless we’re ready,” Cook said.
World Magazine reports on NASA’s sprint to finish the International Space Station by 2010 so it can turn its attention toward landing people on the moon by 2020.
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Rob Coppinger is blogging from NASA’s 3rd Exploration Conference in Denver. Rob provides detailed rundowns from various sessions, including extensive coverage of the space agency’s plans for human Moon missions. One intriguing post includes proposals for commercial participation in the lunar program.
