When NASA Administrator Mike Griffin tapped retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Pete Worden to run the agency’s Ames Research Center this past spring, there were high expectations of a prominent role for the Silicon Valley facility in reconnoitering the Moon in advance of a planned return of human explorers.

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Brian Berger is editor in chief of SpaceNews.com and the SpaceNews magazine. He joined SpaceNews.com in 1998, spending his first decade with the publication covering NASA. He was named senior staff writer in 2004, a position he held until being named...