Technology News: News: Bush Taps Hopkins Physicist to Lead NASA: "Bush Taps Hopkins Physicist to Lead NASA
Bush Taps Hopkins Physicist to Lead NASA

By Marcia Dunn
Associated Press
03/13/05 5:21 PM PT

Prior to taking over the space department at Johns Hopkins, Michael Griffin was president and chief operating officer of In-Q-Tel, a CIA-bankrolled venture-capital organization. Earlier in his career, Griffin worked at NASA as chief engineer and as deputy for technology at the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization.


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President Bush picked physicist Michael Griffin to lead NASA Latest News about NASA as it prepares to resume space shuttle flights and tries to meet the White House goal of sending astronauts back to the moon in the decade ahead.

If confirmed by the Senate, Griffin would become the space agency's 11th administrator.

Members of Congress on Friday immediately praised the president's choice, as did John Logsdon, director of George Washington University's space policy institute.

'I've known Mike for a long time and have a great deal of respect for him as a kind of innovative thinker, real enthusiast full of energy,' Logsdon said.

'His biggest challenge is convincing Congress that the president's vision should be a national vision, that it's the right way for the program to proceed,' Logsdon added.

Sean O'Keefe left NASA last month after three years in the top job to become chancellor of Louisiana State University. Since then, his deputy, former space shuttle commander Frederick Gregory, has been serving as acting administrator.

For the past year, Griffin has headed the space department at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. It is the lab's second-largest department and specializes in projec"