Early friction plagues talks between NASA, Obama team
By STEWART M. POWELL and MARK CARREAU Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
Dec. 11, 2008, 7:08PMWASHINGTON — Officials with NASA and President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team on Thursday tried to paper over tensions that have arisen as the agency defended a chronically underfunded blueprint for space exploration.The officials were responding to a published account that said NASA administrator Mike Griffin was not cooperating with Obama’s transition team and had dismissed Lori Garver, the Obama team leader, as unqualified to assess NASA’s rocket program because the veteran space policy expert is not an engineer.”There is natural tension,” said John Logsdon, a space historian who has served as director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. “The transition team is asking questions that are on everyone’s mind. The NASA administrator is saying, ‘Trust me. You don’t need to ask these questions.’ The transition team can’t accept that response.”