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5.13.2005

Griffin Minds the Gap

In his appearance yesterday before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science, Dr. Michael Griffin talked about priorities including servicing Hubble, and his goal (expressed at his confirmation hearings a month ago and elsewhere) to close that icky four or five year gap between retirement of the shuttle by 2010 and the flying of the proposed Crew Exploration Vehicle in 2014.

And just how will NASA pay for accelerating the CEV and fixing the beloved space telescope? Naturally, the
new chief did not show up without a revised 2005 operating plan, which Space.com overviews
here. Cuts or delays are slated for Project Prometheus, Mars Science Laboratory, Space Interferometry Mission, Terrestrial Planet Finder, research programs on the space station and more. We may live in an infinite universe. But we can't have everything.

The N.Y. Times has a good
article on the NASA administrator's testimony. And here is Griffin's prepared statement.



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