Nasa Has Become a Transition Problem for Obama

In addition, Griffin is scripting NASA employees and civilian contractors on what they can tell the transition team and has warned aerospace executives not to criticize the agency’s moon program, sources said.

Griffin’s resistance is part of a no-holds-barred effort to preserve the Constellation program, the delayed and overbudget moon rocket that is his signature project.

Chris Shank, NASA’s chief of strategic communications, denied that Griffin is trying to keep information from the team or that he is seeking a meeting with Obama. He also insisted that Griffin never argued with Garver.

“We are working extremely well with the transition team,” he said.

However, Shank acknowledged Griffin was concerned that the six-member team — all with space-policy backgrounds — lacks the engineering expertise to properly assess some of the information its members have been given.

Garver would not comment about her conversation with Griffin — and his remark that she is “not qualified” — during a book-publication party at NASA headquarters last week. Obama’s Chicago office — which has sent similar transition teams to every federal agency — also had no comment.