Friday’s CSExtra finds more reporting and commentary on NASA’s future path. The agency fails to meet a deadline this week imposed by the House Science and Technology Committee for records used in establishing NASA’s 2011 budget request, which includes the cancellation of the Constellation Program. The panel reacts with a new deadline and some stern language. Also on Thursday, a Soyuz spacecraft delivers two new American and one new Russian crew members to the International Space Station.
1. From the New York Times: NASA misses a June 16 deadline for the production of budget documents demanded by the House Science and Technology Committee. The committee imposes a new deadline, June 25. Much of the dissent is over the cost of injecting a scaled back version of Constellation’s Orion capsule into the Obama plan as a space station life boat. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/science/space/18nasa.html
A. From Space News: The Science Committee is seeking all records, e-mails, charts, even voice messages pertaining to the agency’s 2011 budget preparations.
http://www.spacenews.com/policy/100617-lawmakers-demand-documents-human-spaceflight-plan.html
B. From Spacepolicyonline.com: The website examines an exchange of letters between NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and the committee. NASA claims it’s still addressing the committee’s many questions.
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=981:house-authorizers-demand-documents-from-nasa-after-nasa-misses-deadline&catid=67:news&Itemid=27
C. From Spacepolitics.com: The website examines an emerging debate within a larger debate over the Constellation Program and NASA’s future. This inside debate is over when to begin the development of a heavy lift rocket. Spacepolitics.com looks at recent reports from the Marshall Institute, the Planetary Society and several policy luminaries. Is heavy lift a project chasing a program at this point?
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2010/06/17/when-is-the-right-time-to-start-heavy-lift/
2. From the Huntsville Times: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center to issue letters to Constellation contractors informing them of the finances that remain for their responsibilities on the back to the moon program. The “scope of work” notifications are expected to trigger layoffs among program contractors. As many as 5,000 jobs around the country are at stake, up to 1,700 of them in Huntsville.
http://blog.al.com/space-news/2010/06/constellation_contractors_in_h.html
3. From Spaceflightnow.com: A Soyuz spacecraft delivers Americans Doug Wheelock and Shannon Walker and Russian Fyodor Yurchikhin to the International Space Station.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/station/exp24/100617dock/
A. From the AP via the Los Angeles Times: NASA’s Mission Control considers moving the station to avoid pieces of old Russian and Chinese satellites. For the first time, two women are among the residents of the space station.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/wire/sns-ap-us-space-station,0,2344810.story
4. From the AP via the Washington Post: General Dynamics receives a NASA contract to upgrade the agency’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite communications network.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/17/AR2010061704574.html
5. From Discovery.com: A vivid picture taken from the International Space Station showing the distinct layers of the Earth’s atmosphere.
http://news.discovery.com/space/layers-of-atmosphere-seen-from-space.html
A. From the AP via the Orlando Sentinel: May 2010 was the warmest May on record (dating back to 1880), according to the National Climate Data Center.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/sns-ap-us-sci-warm-may,0,1378776.story
6. From USA Today: Retired NASA astronaut Robert “Hoot” Gibson to join the ocean going speaker set.
http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/post/2010/06/after-five-times-in-space-a-top-astronaut-says-its-time-for-a-cruise/97077/1
7. From the London Daily Telegraph: Scientists worried satellites as well as the International Space Station could come under an assault from the Draconids meteor shower in October 2011.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/7835232/Nasa-warns-new-meteor-storm-could-damage-Hubble-and-International-Space-Station.html
8. From Space News: Jean Jacques Dordain will remain at the European Space Agency’s helm. He’s elected to a third four-year term on Thursday.
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/100617-dordain-reelected-third-esa.html
9. From space.com: Japan’s Hayabusa spacecraft, which landed in Australia on Sunday after a seven-year journey to an asteroid, heads for Japan, where its contents will be examined.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/missionlaunches/hayabusa-asteroid-sample-heads-to-japan-100617.html
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