Friday’s CSExtra finds a flurry of reporting on the falling fortunes of NASA’s Constellation Program. In a letter this week, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden informs Congress the agency has instructed contractors to set aside nearly $1 billion in termination costs for the back-to-the-moon program the White House intends to terminate. Congressional supporters of Constellation say work should continue until lawmakers can complete work on the 2011 budget. More job losses in the works…
1. From the New York Times: NASA informs its Constellation Program contractors to set aside money to cancel Constellation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/science/space/11nasa.html?scp=2&sq=NASA&st=cse
A. From the Huntsville Times: NASA’s Constellation Program, already facing cancellation, is experiencing a near $1 billion shortfall. Lay offs expected soon at major contractors.
http://blog.al.com/space-news/2010/06/nasa_constellation_nearly_1_bi.html
B. From Spacepolicyonline.com: Summarizes the letter from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden to Congress outlining Constellation’s latest financial issues. A workforce reduction of 30 to 60 percent, or 2,500 to 5,000 workers, by the end of the year, will be necessary.
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=965:text-of-bolden-letter-to-congress-on-constellation-termination-liability&catid=67:news&Itemid=27
C. From The Hill: U.S. Sen Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, tells The HIll that NASA’s response to Constellation’s budget is “skirting” the law.
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/102547-hutchison-says-nasa-is-skirting-law-by-shutting-down-constellation
D. From Florida Today: NASA’s response to the anti-termination law is a backdoor effort to terminate the Constellation Program. Some 2,500 to 5,000 jobs in jeopardy as spending on the program stops.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20100611/NEWS02/6110319/1086/Moon+program+awaits++1B+cut
E. From the Orlando Sentinel: The Sentinel finds some in Congress and in NASA’s contractor community claiming that NASA has not in the past enforced contract termination liability provisions. The liability, or money that should be set aside, equals nearly $1 billion, NASA said in letters to contractors this week.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/2010/06/congress-and-contractors-reject-nasa-move-on-constellation-moon-plan.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+news%2Fspace%2Fspace_blog+%28Space+Blog+The+Write+Stuff%29
F. From the Ogden Standard Examiner of Utah: NASA’s termination directive could lead to the off of 2,000 jobs at ATK, which is developing the first stage for the Ares 1 rocket. “Thousands more will be out of work, and our industrial base will suffer an irreversible blow,” U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, tells the Standard Examiner. http://www.standard.net/topics/atk/2010/06/10/2000-atk-jobs-stake-bishop-says-directive-will-deal-irreversible-blow-utah-ind
G. From the Denver Post: Six members of Colorado’s congressional delegation urged President Barack Obama on Thursday to save jobs that may be eliminated from NASA’s Orion crew-capsule program. Lockheed Martin has said it may have to cut some of the 600 to 650 employees who work on Orion in Colorado because NASA expects it and other contractors to shoulder the cost of terminating the Constellation spaceflight project, of which Orion is a part. The company said May 27 it is cutting project costs by 20 percent. About 1,000 people in the state and 4,000 nationwide work on Orion for various contractors.
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_15272411
2. From Space News: The House Science and Technology Committee puts new pressure on NASA to estimate the costs of developing Orion as a life boat for the International Space Station, the strategy called for by President Obama on April 15. Orion is one component of Constellation that may have a future. In testimony on May 26, Administrator Charles Bolden placed the cost at $4.5 billion over five years. At the same hearing Committee chairman Bart Gordon said he’s heard estimates of $7 billion. Nonetheless, the expense was not included in NASA’s 2011 budget proposal.
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/nasa-pushed-for-details-orion-crew-lifeboat.html
3. From Space News: The trade publication reports on the finances of SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Earlier this week, Musk took issue with a Wall Street Journal report on the hurdles SpaceX faced achieving a successful launching of the Falcon 9 on June 4. Musk speaks with analysts at Thompson Reuters, saying most of the $6 billion NASA proposes to spend commercial space transportation in the coming years would go to Boeing and Lockheed Martin. SpaceX will aim for third place.
http://www.spacenews.com/commentaries/100610-fromwires-musk-speaks-finances.html
A. Here is the Wall Street Journal story: “SpaceX Illustrates Privatization Risk,” which was published on Monday, June 7, with access limited to WSJ subscribers. The restriction has now been lifted. Here’s an excerpt and the link. “In an interview in March, the 38-year-old Mr. Musk, SpaceX’s brash founder and chief executive, recalled the serious cash squeeze the company confronted repeatedly from mid-2007 to mid-2009. Describing the intense pressure as “the worst two years of my life,” he said there were “certainly many times when we were not far from running out of money.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704726104575290604217670696.html?KEYWORDS=SpaceX
4. From Flightglobal.com: Citing Space Foundation estimates, Flightglobal reports the global aerospace market reached $262 billion in 2009, up 7 percent from the previous year.
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/06/10/343047/ila-value-of-space-economy-rose-7-in-2009-says-space.html
5. From the Pasadena Star-News of California: NASA’s Summer of Innovation, a campaign to inspire students to study science, technology, engineering and math, gets under way at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_15271626
6. From the AP via the Los Angeles Times: In Australia, scientists settle in to await the return of the Japanese asteroid probe, Hayabusa. Re-entry is expected on Sunday. The probe, launched in 2003, has traveled more than 1.2 billion miles to rendezvous with an asteroid and return to Earth. Propulsion troubles developed along the way.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-as-australia-space-landing,0,6228609.story
A. From Bloomberg News: Hayabusa landed on the asteroid Itokawa in November 2005, but it’s unclear whether the spacecraft actually gathered a sample of the space rock.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aOelHsUXLHeE
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