December 31, 2008 | 2:02 pm

Jewish astronaut launches petition to save NASA chief

Posted by Adam Wills

Scott "Doc" Horowitz

Veteran astronaut and former NASA associate administrator Scott “Doc” Horowitz has been circulating an online petition since Erev Christmas to help save the job of NASA administrator Michael Griffin, a Bush appointee, once Obama takes office. Horowitz’s public efforts to save the space agency chief (along with those of Griffin’s wife)—a rarity in Washington—is attracting attention given recent reports of dust-ups between Griffin and President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team.

Griffin is not cooperating with Obama’s team, is obstructing its efforts to get information and has told its leader, Lori Garver, a former NASA associate administrator, that she is “not qualified” to judge his rocket program, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

In a heated 40-minute conversation last week with Lori Garver ... a red-faced Griffin demanded to speak directly to Obama, according to four witnesses.

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 over-budget moon rocket that is his signature project.

Horowitz, a CSUN alumnus and Thousand Oaks native, defended Griffin to Time magazine, which investigated the friction between the administrator and the transition team as well as claims of a shouting match between Griffin and Garver:

The dust-up between Griffin and Garver is said to have occurred [in early December] at a book launch party in Washington when, according to the Sentinel, a red-faced Griffin told Garver she was “not qualified” to make engineering decisions. Horowitz, who was not at the party but knows the NASA boss well, says he doubts that Griffin raised his voice.

“I think that’s bulls—-,” [Horowitz] says. “I believe that anything he was asked he was very honest in answering because he’s a systems engineer. And Lori Garver is not equipped to make technical judgments on the architecture of a space exploration system.”

Horowitz’s petition calls Griffin “one of the most technically and managerially competent administrators in NASA’s history. He has brought a sense of order and purpose to the U.S. space agency, guiding decisions in all programs with the firm belief that our strength as a world power is determined in a large part by our preeminence in space, particularly in human spaceflight. Dr. Griffin has guided the Constellation Program—the goal of which is to return the United States to the moon, and then explore Mars and beyond—out of the conceptual phase and into the factory, with contracts for all of the major elements, despite severe budgetary limitations. In the process he has helped NASA regain the respect of the Congress. Mike Griffin—a true rocket scientist and systems engineer and gifted administrator—is uniquely qualified to take NASA into the next era of space exploration.”

More than 900 people have signed the petition as of this afternoon, including astronaut Mike Fincke, who is currently aboard the International Space Station.

However, Rep. Bart Gordon, chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, is noticeably absent from the petition despite his support for Griffin, according to the blog Space Politics.

In a briefing with reporters last week, he recommended that the Obama Administration keep Griffin in office, even if only temporarily until the administration finalizes its choice of a replacement. “I’ve been pleased with the working relationship with Dr. Griffin,” he said, as reported by Aerospace Daily, adding that while Griffin can be blunt, he “understands what he’s doing, in contrast to previous administrations.”

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