Griffin gave his farewell speech to the NASA employees, and the public, via NASAtv today and he said his main regret about his time at the aeronautics and space agency was not being able to convince more people that the way the agency was going was the right way. He also said he had no idea what job he is going to next
He went on to question the ability of the US to politically carry out a “grand enterprise” such as returning to the Moon
He talked about the difficulties of communication through a large agency and contractor community where viewpoints had to be reconciled
He characterised the criticism his adminstration of the agency had taken as being by people who disagreed with the agenda set out, not by NASA, but the Bush government and that if NASA is to succeed people have a choice, support the agenda or leave
He predicted a circumlunar mission for the Chinese by 2015 or 2016 using a double Long March 5 launch that sent a Shenzhou with upgraded heat shield and, I guess, an Earth Departure Stage, for it to dock with, to a trans-lunar injection orbit
