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New NASA Administrator - Michael Griffin - Page 2

© Robert Davis

Griffin is also delightfully frank about destinations. Let there be no doubt, he intends for us to follow the vision laid out by the President, and to take advantage of the CEV's spiraling growth in capabilities, by returning to the moon, and then heading on to Mars with all due dispatch. There's good work to be done in orbit, but not a whole heck of a lot of exploration. It's important to remember our real goals--the goals that inspire, the dreams that quicken the pulse--and to not allow them to slip away. Griffin is an exceptionally intelligent and talented individual, with a long history of experience and accomplishment in the world of aerospace, and evidently with the "fire in the belly" that has always been needed to realize grand enterprises.

Last month I talked about the fate of Hubble, and the regrettable direction that decision had taken. Fortunately Dr. Griffin wants to revisit it, believing that the capacity for the benefits to outweigh the risks of a manned servicing mission have perhaps not been properly counted. By all means, yes. Reconsider. Let us reconsider, and let us truly decide whether we think it is worth it. I'm inclined to say that it is, and it would be a terrible thing to close that magnificent window on the cosmos unnecessarily or unwisely or under false pretenses.

With Michael Griffin's arrival at NASA HQ, things are looking exceptionally promising. Here at last, after the all-but-wasted decade of the 1990's, and the fits and starts prior to the arrival of the President's official Vision for Space Exploration, we have a solid course and someone at the helm with the spark and savvy to see us through. The next few years will be an exciting time, indeed--and with any luck, only the beginning.

It is on this note of hope for the future, after some admittedly uncertain times in the past four years, that I conclude my editorship of the "Destiny in Space" topic. I have very much enjoyed these four years, and it is with no small regret that I find the time has come for me to move on to other pursuits. Nevertheless, that time has indeed come. So, to all who have read, and all who will yet read, my heartfelt thanks. I expect we'll meet again. There is, after all, still so much future ahead of us. But for now--with a smile and a wink at the Westerns evoked in this article's title--I find that "my work here is done."

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