Word: mooning
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...some conservationists, his appointment disappointed a cadre of environmental groups and prominent scientists, more than 100 of whom had signed a petition urging President-elect Barack Obama to tap Arizona Representative Raúl Grijalva. Salazar seemed undaunted by the criticism, promising to work with Obama to "take the moon shot on energy independence...
NASA has moved with uncharacteristic nimbleness in the last five years and is already cutting metal on the new machines in the hope of having crews in Earth orbit by 2015 and on the moon by 2020. Schedules have slipped some - the original plan was to launch the orbital missions in 2014 - and costs have swollen, though so far not dramatically. (See the Top 50 space moments since Sputnik...
...been surrounding himself - most recently, Nobel prize winning physicist Steven Chu, who has reportedly been tapped to be Secretary of Energy. Garver is also not thought to be much of a fan of Griffin - who is an engineer - nor to be sold on the plans for the new moon program. What she and others are said to be considering is to scrap the plans for the Ares 1 - which is designed exclusively to carry humans - and replace it with Atlas V and Delta IV boosters, which are currently used to launch satellites but could be redesigned, or "requalified," for humans...
NASA is right to be uneasy about just what Obama has planned for the agency since his position on space travel shifted - a lot - during the campaign. A year before the election he touted an $18 billion education program and explicitly targeted the new moon program as one he'd cut to pay for it. In January of 2008, he lined up much closer to the Bush moon plan - perhaps because Republicans were already on board and earning swing-state support as a result. Three months before the election, Obama fully endorsed the 2020 target for putting people...
...NASA source, both present and former astronauts as well as some NASA contractors are quietly - and sometimes not so quietly - lobbying for Griffin to stay. But the incoming administration is not saying anything so far. It was President John F. Kennedy who famously committed Americans to reaching the moon. Now it is Obama - who so often invokes the themes and style of JFK - who may decide if we go back...