According to the Orlando Sentinel, NASA administrator Michael Griffin got involved in a dispute with Barack Obama’s transition team on Friday, over inquiries by Obama about cost cutting. Reports say Griffin was not cooperating with Obama’s team, and he is “scripting” NASA employees and contractors on how to respond to transition team inquiries.  

Even though the White House has directed federal agencies to give an all-access pass to the president-elect’s representatives, sources claim Griffin has sought to control access to his subordinates, and stage-manage their interviews with the transition team. 

Last week, Space.com reported that Obama’s team was asking the space agency how much money could be saved by canceling the Ares 1 rocket, which would be a core component in the Constellation program’s effort to return astronauts to the moon by 2020 and later send them to Mars. 

That is when the friction between Griffin and Obama’s team apparently came to a head. At a book party held in NASA’s library, Griffin clashed with Lori Garver, the head of Obama’s NASA review team, who also happens to be a former associate administrator at the agency, and is currently president of Capital Space LLC. 

Attendees overheard an ‘animated’ conversation between Griffin and Garver, during which the NASA head told Garver she was “not qualified” to assess the technical aspects of agency programs. 

Keith Cowing - a former NASA manager who now edits the Web site NASAWatch - said the Bush administration’s troubled “Vision for Space Exploration” moon program was the main bone of contention, and there were, admittedly, a few kinks to work out of the program’s flagship Ares I rocket.