Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Nation, DeLay, and space policy
Space Politics ^ | April 22, 2005 | Jeff

Posted on 04/22/2005 12:20:55 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

The Nation, a left-leaning magazine, published an article about House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's influence over NASA and its budget. The article largely rehashes the issues most regular readers of this blog are familiar with: DeLay's addition of JSC into his Congressional district, his last-minute move to top off NASA’s FY05 budget request, and the recent reorganization of the House Appropriation Committee's subcommittee structure. Like many such articles, it includes an arguably questionable comment from John Pike: "With NASA changing its spending priorities to support President Bush's vision for space exploration that will return humans to the moon and take them to Mars, there will be plenty of money going to start-up companies with no record of producing hardware, and there will be no way to measure results." I'm not sure what he means by there being "no way" to measure results; at least one startup company has complained publicly about the amount of status reports and other paperwork they have to supply to NASA.

The thesis of the article is summarized in this sentence: "NASA, then, is another potential source of money and power for DeLay--if he survives his ethics troubles." Don't you think that if someone like DeLay—who already has significant power in Congress today—wanted "another potential source of money and power", he would take aim at something a bit bigger than NASA and its $16-billion annual budget? Is that the best he can do to shore up his constituency back in Texas? Or is DeLay someone with an actual interest in space and is willing to use some of the power and influence he has accumulated to support the space agency? That alternative, unfortunately, isn't really explored in the article other than a sentence that "for years, DeLay has expressed an interest in the space program."

Posted by Jeff at 01:03 PM


TOPICS: Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: delay; globalsecurity; globalsecurityorg; johnpike; nasa; nation; spaceexploration; thenation; tomdelay; vision
***Prior to his appointment, Griffin was serving as Space Department Head at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Prior to that, he was President and Chief Operating Officer of In-Q-Tel, Inc. He also served in several positions within Orbital Sciences Corporation, including Chief Executive Officer of Magellan Systems, Inc.

Earlier in his career, Griffin served as chief engineer and associate administrator for exploration at NASA Headquarters and also worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He also served as Deputy for Technology at the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization.

Griffin received a bachelor's degree in Physics from Johns Hopkins University; a master's degree in Aerospace Science from Catholic University of America; a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland; a master's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California; a master's degree in Applied Physics from Johns Hopkins University; a master's degree in Business Administration from Loyola College; and a master's degree in Civil Engineering from George Washington University. ***

http://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/griffin_admin.html

___________________________________________________________________

***.... Stone, a PhD mathematician from Stanford, acknowledged that his star staff member (John Pike) attended Vanderbilt but never got a degree. "I view him as the Edwin Land of our community - Land never graduated from Harvard. He was a great genius, and he didn't have time for college," Stone said. "John didn't have time for anything that didn't interest him. As opposed to working on lost causes, John works on things that are ripe for media attention - and he's been far more successful at managing the media than any scientist at FAS."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/610069/posts#18

1 posted on 04/22/2005 12:20:56 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife
John Pike: "With NASA changing its spending priorities to support President Bush's vision for space exploration that will return humans to the moon and take them to Mars, there will be plenty of money going to start-up companies with no record of producing hardware, and there will be no way to measure results."

Not knowing who the heck John Pike is, I'm going to go way out on a limb and say that he has clearly never worked under contract to NASA.

2 posted on 04/22/2005 12:28:00 PM PDT by The_Victor (Doh!... stupid tagline)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: The_Victor
Who is John Pike?

Why does the media think John Pike is a "national security expert"?

Mike Griffin is the new head of NASA.

3 posted on 04/22/2005 12:36:16 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife
My assertion about JP's "knowledge" of government/NASA contracting practices would appear to be correct.
4 posted on 04/22/2005 12:41:34 PM PDT by The_Victor (Doh!... stupid tagline)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: The_Victor
Not knowing who the heck John Pike is, I'm going to go way out on a limb and say that he has clearly never worked under contract to NASA.

He's a U.N. loving LIBERAL with globalsecurity.org

5 posted on 04/22/2005 12:42:52 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: The_Victor
My assertion about JP's "knowledge" of government/NASA contracting practices would appear to be correct.

Not knowing what he's talking about seems to be JP's stock in trade.

6 posted on 04/22/2005 12:44:03 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson