William Atkins
Saturday, 17 January 2009 19:53
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 3
On Friday, January 16, 2009, Michael Griffin said goodbye to NASA employees in an all-hands meeting shown live on NASA TV. In one comment, Griffin says he expects to live to see the time where humans find life outside of Earth.
After a four-year tenure as the head of the U.S. space agency (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Michael Griffin spent most of his time saying “thank you” to many fellow employees at NASA.
He also made predictions for the space agency in the future and for the detection of life elsewhere out there in the universe.
Griffin stated,
“In one form or another, Exploration is what NASA is about. There is, in my view, no legitimate function in government for an agency like NASA that isn't leading the way.”
After complimenting many high-ranking leaders at NASA, Griffin said that there are still “
too many others” to mention
“and I don’t have enough time. I could be sitting here thanking people until hell froze over, and I wouldn't get to the end of the list for all the people who have offered support for our program and for me while I was here at NASA in this incarnation.”
In a moment of levity, Griffin quipped,
“I am, despite what you read on the blogs, not actually an idiot.”
He expanded on his comment by saying,
“I am aware that there are, of course, quite a number of people out working for our agency or in our industry who didn't think the things that I was doing were the right things or who did question motivations or the logic of the path that I took in making decisions. That is always going to be true. It can't be helped.”
Griffin continues,
“I know that your disagreements with me and the many who expressed them were not out of evil intent. They are out of honest disagreement, and yet, of course, I always felt like any decision I made was based on logic”
Page two talks about the United States and its role with its space agency, NASA, from Griffin's viewpoint.
