NASA Budget: Crisis Deepens as Scientists Fail to Rejigger Space Research, Science

"... and NASA Administrator Michael Griffin in accepts a portion of the blame. "I made a mistake," Griffin told NASA's new science advisory panel. "I made commitments in advance that I wasn't able to keep," referring to his 2005 promise not to shift money from science to human space flight. NASA's current budget request would trim more than $3 billion from space science through 2011."

Outspoken: Mike Griffin on the NASA budget, Nature

"I did think astrobiology was less important than traditional space science. It had less intrinsic subject matter to it, and was less advanced. If the community rises up and says it should be funded, we'll rethink it."