Launching the replacement for the space shuttle as soon as possible is a top priority for the man almost certain to be NASA’s next boss. And Michael Griffin says he may reconsider a shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope, a plan that was axed by his predecessor, Sean O’Keefe.

Griffin was nominated by US President George W Bush to be NASA’s administrator in March and appeared before a US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on Tuesday. The committee is scheduled to vote on Griffin’s nomination on Thursday. After that, his nomination will go before the full Senate for another vote.

Citing the need to return the space shuttles to flight, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, from Texas, said that she would like to accelerate the confirmation process so Griffin can report to work on Monday.

Griffin says getting the space shuttles flying again will be his top priority: “Nothing will be more important to me.” The shuttles have not flown since the Columbia accident in February 2003. Griffin says he will look at how well NASA has instituted safety changes since the disaster. But he will not have much time – shuttle Discovery could lift off as early as 15 May 2005.


Despite the time constraints, Charlie Camarda, one of the astronauts flying on the next shuttle mission, has full confidence in Griffin. “I worked with him on the Reusable Launch Vehicle programme for six months and he is one of the sharpest people I have ever worked with. If anyone can assimilate this amount of technical information in a short amount of time, he can.”

Four-year gap

Griffin’s second priority, he says, will be to get the next generation of crewed launchers into space sooner than currently planned. NASA intends to retire the space shuttles in 2010, once construction of the International Space Station is complete. The shuttles’ replacement, known as the Crew Exploration Vehicle, is not scheduled to make its first crewed test flight until 2014, leaving a four-year gap between the two vehicles.

“I think that’s too far out,” Griffin told the committee, implying that the Crew Exploration Vehicle would launch sooner than 2014.

The Gemini and Apollo programmes went from design to launch in a much shorter time. “It seems unacceptable to me that it should take from 2005 to 2014 to do the same thing when we already know how.”

Eyes on Hubble

Several senators expressed concern over the future of the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA cancelled a shuttle mission to Hubble on 16 January 2004, citing concern for astronaut safety. But without a repair mission, the ailing telescope will have to be sent crashing into the ocean.

Before his nomination, Griffin led a design review committee that analysed the possibility of a robotic repair mission. Griffin said that it would have been too costly and would have taken too much time to design.

But, after the shuttles return to flight, Griffin said he would take a new look the risk involved in a human mission to prolong Hubble’s life.

Griffin currently leads the space department of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, US. He holds five master’s degrees and a doctorate.