N EWS OF THE WEEK NASA resources.” He went on to praise the Hubble Space Telescope, noting that as a young Nominee Wins Quick Praise for engineer he was involved in the project. “Certain unmanned space systems having His Technical Expertise little connection with human space flight will be supported—as they are today— President George W. with the lunar and Mars mis- because of their inherent scientific or utili- Bush has tapped an aero- sions. “It is beyond reason to tarian value,” he added. “There is no inher- space engineer with an believe that [the space station] ent conflict between manned and unmanned undergraduate physics can help to fulfill any objec- space programs, save that deliberately prom- degree to lead NASA. His tive, or set of objectives, for ulgated by those seeking to play a difficult choice of Michael Grif- space exploration that would and ugly zero-sum game.” fin, announced on 11 be worth the $60 billion A test of that position will come soon March, won immediate remaining to be invested in the enough, given O’Keefe’s decision not to send plaudits from both program,” he told the House the shuttle again to service the telescope. The Democrats and Republi- Science Committee last year. same day that the White House announced cans, signaling a likely (Griffin could not be reached Griffin’s nomination, the National Academies swift confirmation by the for comment for this article.) released its final report on Hubble calling for Senate. That will be the Yet Griffin is also a strong a shuttle flight to upgrade the instruments. easy part: Once he is on proponent of robotic space Griffin also will be forced to take a stand the job, Griffin will science. In 2003, he told the on more earthly matters, including a proposal immediately face a host Science-centered. Michael Griffin same panel that “scientific to cut 15% of NASA’s workforce in coming of pressing budgetary and heads the space department at research devoted to using years. That plan has upset many lawmakers, programmatic decisions. Johns Hopkins’s Applied Physics Lab. space assets to improve our some with large NASA facilities in their dis- Griffin’s chief asset is understanding of Earth’s tricts. So although Griffin’s technical expert- his technical expertise. That constrasts with environment, our solar system, and the cos- ise may go far, his ability to lead the $16 bil-

his predecessor, Sean O’Keefe, whose mos beyond will always, and should always, lion space agency will rest ultimately on his on March 12, 2012 strength was his political prowess. With a receive due attention in the allocation of political acumen. –ANDREW LAWLER Ph.D. in aerospace engineering and an undergraduate textbook on the discipline, Griffin has earned a reputation as a low-key and methodical thinker who’s done stints in government, industry, and academia. Although he lacks the high-level connec- tions of O’Keefe, who was a protégé of Vice

President Dick Cheney, Griffin, who heads www.sciencemag.org the space department at Johns Hopkins’s Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Lau- rel, Maryland, is thoroughly familiar with many components of NASA. “I am pleased President Bush is sending us a nominee with a strong technical background,” says Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R–TX), who chairs the space and science panel on Downloaded from the Commerce Committee. “I look forward to … having a smooth nomination process through our committee.” Other lawmakers and many scientists also praised the 55-year-old Griffin. “This is good news,” says Stamatios Krimigis, the APL PLANETARY SCIENCE department head emeritus. “Mike has always expressed his support for the science mission of NASA.” APL’s space work focuses on solar Enceladus, a Work in Progress physics and outer solar system exploration, As the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn looks like someone had applied an egg slicer two areas facing cuts in the president’s 2006 looped by the icy 500-kilometer moon to it,” says Cassini imaging team member budget request (Science, 11 February, p. 832). Enceladus again last week, it found yet more Torrence Johnson of the Jet Propulsion Labo- Griffin is well suited to carrying out the terrains beaten up by still-mysterious tec- ratory in Pasadena, California. Apparently, vision that President Bush spelled out in Jan- tonic processes.This time Cassini focused on says Johnson, again and again over great uary 2004. He was a chief of exploration at a side of Enceladus still bearing the pock- spans of time Enceladus had the internal NASA during the agency’s aborted attempt in marks of ancient impacts; elsewhere, the energy to rework at least parts of its surface. the early 1990s to get a similar effort off the surface has been wiped clean of craters by Such a small body should have cooled to a ground, and he has been skeptical of the space cracking, ridging, and smoothing. Now it’s state of geologic stupor long ago. Planetary station and space shuttle—two programs the obvious that even recognizably old terrain scientists will be searching for the source of White House is eager to finish and close has been reworked repeatedly. In places, “it its evident energy. –RICHARD A. KERR

CREDITS (TOP TO BOTTOM): JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY; NASA/JPL/SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE SCIENCE BOTTOM):LABORATORY; NASA/JPL/SPACE APPLIED PHYSICS TO JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY (TOP CREDITS down by the next decade in order to proceed

www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 307 18 MARCH 2005 1709 Published by AAAS