The U.S. Senate tonight confirmed the nomination of Dr. Michael D. Griffin as NASA’s 11th Administrator. He is expected to be sworn in later this week.

President George W. Bush nominated Dr. Griffin as NASA Administrator in March, while he was serving as the Space Department Head at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Baltimore.

Dr. Griffin was President and Chief Operating Officer of In-Q-Tel, Inc., before joining Hopkins in April 2004. He also served in several positions within Orbital Sciences Corporation, Dulles, Va., including Chief Executive Officer of Magellan Systems, Inc.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Griffin served as Chief Engineer at NASA and as Deputy for Technology at the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization. He also has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University.

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