New York Times on Ares Woes and Transition Concerns

So how does this work exactly?

The transition team gathers info. but they don't make decisions on any of the issues they are reviewing.

Nasa obviously doesn't make the decisions or they wouldn't be getting 2nd guessed on what they are designing.

The President isn't going to tell Nasa which vehicle to use (lack on knowledge obviously)

So, if none of those 3 make the decision who does?

The President definitely makes decisions. Even if not directly, he decides who bosses NASA. The President put Griffin in charge. The new President can replace him.

As Griffin himself noted, the President very usually does replace administrators anyway and it'd be unlikely for him to stay even if he wasn't doing anything really wrong.

Also, I have a really, really hard time believing that Griffin asked his wife to write an email to people.

That's just silly.

If I were in his place and my wife did that I'd have another heart attack.

I'm not sure why this is so hard to understand. The transition team's job is to gather information for the incoming administration, which includes the new President and his appointees. Those folks will be directing future Agency activities. They may elect to keep the status quo, or, with the congress, implement changes.

It looks like the transition team is asking appropriate questions. This is NOT "second guessing," it's educating the incoming administration about what decisions have been made and why, and what the options are from this point forward.

This article, written by a seasoned journalist that has covered space issues for many years, points the way towards the ultimate solution to the issue of Constellation launch architecture. And that is an outside review of the Ares and Orion designs, made by technical experts without a connection to the existing designs and whose qualifications are beyond reproach. I suspect that vice-president Biden will be the head of the new reconstituted Space Council and have ultimate responsibility for civil space. Then and only then will the air be cleared of the pro-andcon arguments against Ares 1, Direct, Juno, EELV solutions, and shuttle extension.
Since Griffin has so polluted the waters by his shrill defense of Ares, it should be obvious that only new civil space leadership will be credible enough to gauge such a review. John, this was a fair and balanced look at the issue.

Frank, I tend to agree with you. The difficulty will be to nominate adequate members of the Space Council and not have yet another competing - with the NASA administrator - direction. So, having the direction given by the President will be paramount. Having a flexible approach that you can change as you understand the problem more AND to not try to satisfy each and every "private" interest will determine whether we finally get anywhere. This comes down to leadership for which there is no recipe. Quite an interesting task actually for the Transition Team. I guess that is why "they are paid the big bucks"...

I wish the incoming prez would give us a hint. I'm getting the fidgets.