Thursday’s CSExtra includes reports from Florida and Texas on plans by the Labor Department to assist thousands of NASA workers facing the loss of their jobs as the shuttle retires. The latest grant will not go far enough say critics. The latest from SpaceX on plans for the inaugural launching of the Falcon 9 on Friday.
1. From Florida Today: On Wednesday, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis traveled to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to announce a $15 million grant program to assist thousands of workers facing aerospace company lay offs as the shuttle program retires. Florida Today notes the latest announcement of assistance will help an estimated 3,200 workers, less than half of those affected.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20100603/NEWS02/6030318/1086/Plan+strives+to+ease+sting+of+shutdown
A. From the Houston Chronicle: Apparently no such help is headed to Houston, home to the Johnson Space Center, where as many as 7,000 could lose their jobs. Local officials find the oversight politically motivated.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/7033686.html
B. From The Hill: The grants administered through Florida’s Brevard County Workforce Development Board will be used for career guidance, retraining and continuing educations. Boeing and United Space Alliance workers are among those expected to benefit.
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/101085-displaced-nasa-workers-get-15-million-from-labor
C The AP reports on the Labor Department actions via the Wall Street Journal.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703561604575282733674159078.html?KEYWORDS=NASA
D. From spacepolitics.com: A recently minted Republican congressman in Alabama loses his re-election bid in the party primary. Parker Griffith, who served on the House Science and Technology Committee as a Democrat, can count the pending cancellation of NASA’s Constellation program in part for his defeat, the victor says.
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2010/06/02/parker-griffith-can-lose-after-all/
2. From Space News: NASA issues a draft request for information on proposed expenditures of $2 billion to upgrade launch complexes at the Kennedy Space Center and adjacent Cape Canaveral Air Force station. The upgrades are intended to accommodate future commercial as well as government launches.
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/100602-nasa-seeks-info-range-upgrades.html
3. From Space.com: SpaceX moves toward an inaugural launching of its Falcon 9 on Friday at 11 a.m. EDT, weather permitting. Saturday is the backup launch date. The launch window spans four hours. Forecast calls for a 60 percent chance of favorable conditions each day.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/missionlaunches/private-rocket-falcon9-launch-friday-100602.html
4. From The Guardian: Near Moscow a multi-national Mars simulation mission gets under way. The simulation will run 520 days for the participants, three Russians, two Europeans and a Chinese.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jun/02/mars-500-countdown-mission-moscow
5. From Space News: Lockheed Martin announces changes, including plans to sell two units.
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/100602-lockheed-sell-two-divisions.html
A. From the Washington Post: Lockheed Martin moves will avoid Pentagon conflicts of interest. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/02/AR2010060204496.html
6. From Space.com: In Oregon, a 40-pound meteor is found in a ditch. Retrieved in 1999, the beach ball sized rock spent another decade in a garden before it was identified.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/scienceastronomy/oregon-fifth-meteorite-discovery-100602.html
7. From MSNBC: In the constellation Orion, the star Betelgeuse displays signs of an explosion. The Earth need not worry, according to one astronomer. http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/06/02/4454217-betelgeuse-sparks-doomsday-debate
8. From Collectspace.com: The website examines the legacy of Atlantis, which completed what is likely the orbiter’s final mission last week.
http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-060210a.html
9. From National Geographic News: The news service offers a report on SOPHIA, the airborne infrared telescope mounted in a NASA 747.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/05/photogalleries/100602-sofia-science-space-telescope-observatory-pictures/#sofia-flying-telescope-airplane-door-open_21174_600x450.jpg
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