While a few enlightened legislators, like California's Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) pushed through legislation supporting private access to space, administrators at NASA and its cadre of huge, military-industrial-complex vendors supported over-engineered, over-budget projects like the shuttle.
Two weeks before the Feb. 1 loss of the shuttle Columbia and its crew, the space agency administrator, who had worked in the Pentagon during the former Bush administration, was in Texas and had lunch with his old boss.
Speculation has been rife for months about who will replace Michael Griffin as the space agency administrator.
"From day one, the Obama administration has made it clear that the greatest nation on Earth should not be dependent on other nations to get into space," Nasa Administrator Charlie Bolden told reporters.
The space agency's administrator, Sean O'Keefe, disagreed fiercely with that view.
The renovated yard will provide the neighborhood with open space, said Antonio Martinez, administrator of Instituto Cervantes.
For more stirring stuff, there is Michael D. Griffin, the space agency's administrator.
"Sally Ride broke barriers with grace and professionalism - and literally changed the face of America's space program," NASA administrator Charles Bolden, a former astronaut, said in a statement.
The space agency's administrator, Michael D. Griffin, said in a statement, "While I deeply regret his decision to leave NASA, I understand his reasons for doing so, and wish him all the best in his future endeavors".
