NASA Chief to Oust 20

Only one of the officials, retired Navy Rear Adm. Craig E. Steidle, has confirmed his departure. The sources said Steidle, NASA's associate administrator for exploration systems, will take a job as vice president-international for the Aerospace Industries Association, a trade organization.

Griffin, 56, a blunt-spoken physicist and engineer, has made no secret of his enthusiasm for the moon-Mars initiative but clashed almost immediately with Steidle, a military procurement specialist hired in early 2004 to oversee development of the "crew exploration vehicle."

Steidle denied a month ago that he and Griffin had differences and told The Washington Post that he had no plans to abandon NASA in "the near term." Several sources at the time, however, said Steidle would quite likely leave, and other sources confirmed that he began discussing the Aerospace Industries job almost immediately.

The independent Web site Nasawatch.com reported last week that Steidle had resigned, and Steidle confirmed his departure in a Wednesday letter to exploration systems employees posted on the directorate Web site.

At the same time, rumors arose concerning the expected departures of other top officials as Griffin, a former NASA chief engineer and associate administrator for exploration, settled into his new job.

"He's wanted to be NASA administrator for a long time and has given a lot of thought to what has been done well or badly," one congressional source said. "Because of that, he is not going to take a year or two to get to know the organization."

Instead, the sources said, he expressed dismay that NASA over the past several years had put a lot of people in top management positions because of what one source described as "political connections or bureaucratic gamesmanship -- not merit."

Several sources spoke of a corps of younger scientists and engineers, including Griffin, who had been groomed in the 1970s and 1980s as NASA's next generation of leaders only to be shoved aside during the past 15 years. They said Griffin hopes to bring them back.

"The people around him will be quite outstanding," one source said. "The philosophy is that good people attract outstanding people. This is going to be a very high-intensity environment, and NASA needs experienced, outstanding people."