If you’ve been hanging around the space business for a while, you’ve heard of Michael Griffin. You may love him, you may hate him, but you’re probably not neutral about him.
If you haven’t been following NASA politics for the last decade or so, Mike was NASA Administrator from April 2005 until President Obama’s inauguration. He was a high-profile supporter of Project Constellation, which included two new rocket systems (Ares I and Ares V) and a lunar-landing system. Constellation was cancelled in 2010.
After three years at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, Griffin moved to Chairman and CEO of Schaefer Corp. in 2012. He is a frequent speaker on space exploration topics. Earlier today, he visited Georgia Tech to discuss “Opportunities and Roadblocks for the Development of Commercial Space Enterprises.”
With Dr. Griffin’s permission, I have uploaded his slide presentation, and am embedding a (low-fidelity) audio recording of his remarks and Q&A. (I didn’t press “Record” until about three minutes in. Sorry.) He has some interesting observations on commercial cargo and crew to ISS, as well as extensions to the Moon and Mars. Rather than summarize here, I’d encourage you to browse his slides, and listen to the audio if you have the time. Enjoy!
