Griffin is a man on a mission.

...the new administrator doesn't seem thrilled with the current plans, and perhaps the current management, of the program. The previous administrator, Sean O'Keefe, a former Secretary of the Navy, had brought in an admiral, Craig Steidle, to head up NASA's exploration office, and he brought with him many of the management techniques and philosophies that he had used as the manager of the Joint Strike Fighter program, including a concept called "spiral development," which was a means of continuously building on capabilities as a program moved through different phases and increasing levels of performance (e.g., low earth orbit operations, then lunar landings, then lunar bases). Now rumors are swirling that neither the admiral's plans nor (perhaps) the admiral himself are in favor with the new administrator, and that the entire approach is being revamped to achieve his goal of accelerating progress toward both retiring the Shuttle and getting on to points beyond.