In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Decisions on the 2017 federal budget and space policy await the new president and Congress. A Russian Soyuz spacecraft delivered U.S., Russian and European astronauts to the International Space Station on Saturday.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Congress poised to punt on FY2017 appropriations, extend CR instead
Spacepolicyonline.com (11/17): The 2017 U.S. Congressional appropriations process has stalled in the aftermath of November elections. President-elect Trump’s new administration and a new Congress will inherent an already delayed process for settling on a federal budget for the 2017 fiscal year, which began October 1. The current budget Continuing Resolution extending federal spending at 2016 levels for most agencies, including NASA, will expire December 9. U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, has announced his panel will focus on a new CR that covers spending through March 31, 2017.
Planetary Society (11/18): Planetary Society Director of Space Policy Casey Drier advises patience in determining how President-elect Donald Trump will deal with space policy. Largely through advisers, Trump has spoken favorably of commercial space activities. However, NASA and its journey to Mars face budgetary challenges and the agency’s Earth science initiatives might be jeopardized, writes Drier.
Big change on the horizon for NASA under Trump
The Hill (11/18): In an op-ed, Lori Garver, a former NASA deputy administrator and advisor to presidential challenger Hillary Clinton, foresees several possible changes for NASA under President-elect Trump: a revived National Space Council, a cabinet-level coordinating body overseen by Vice President-elect Tom Pence to shape civil, military, commercial and international space policy objectives; the moon rather than Mars as the next focus of human exploration; less support for Earth sciences; a look at the cost and size of NASA’s infrastructure and administrative workforce.
The National Review (11/19): During a 2012 run for the U.S. presidency, Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, favored a human lunar colony. Gingrich would be a strong administrator for the space agency, restoring a U.S. human launch capability and setting a deep space exploration agenda. But, the former congressman has said he’s not interested in an administrative post, according to the National Review’s analysis.
With Trump, Gingrich and GOP calling the shots, NASA may go back to the moon
Washington Post (11/18): President-elect Trump’s administration may revive the lunar surface as a destination for U.S. space explorers, according to space policy experts.
Space Science
Telescope that ‘ate astronomy’ is on track to replace Hubble
New York Times (11/21): First conceived in 1996, NASA’s efforts to succeed the Hubble Space Telescope with an even more capable space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), stumbled. Now emerging from recovery mode, the JWST is headed for a liftoff in October 2018. Astronomers are hopeful JWST will open new vistas, including the universe’s distant first star systems and perhaps signs of biological activity lurking in the atmospheres of planets circling other stars.
How bad is the radiation on Mars?
Universe Today (11/19): Mars lacks a magnetic field, an absence that continues to challenge plans for humans to explore, let alone settle the red planet. Without a protective magnetosphere, the red planet can do little to fend off solar and cosmic radiation that could be harmful to humans over time. Some proposals would place habitats underground or above ground coated with Martian soil as a countermeasure. Others have proposed attempting to rejuvenate the planet’s magnetic core.
Low Earth Orbit
Russian Soyuz brings crew of 3 to Space Station
CBS News (11/19): A three-person U.S., Russian and European crew reached the International Space Station on Saturday. Russia’s Soyuz MS-03 delivered NASA’s Peggy Whitson, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet of France, and Russia’s Oleg Novitskiy at 4:58 p.m. EST following a launch from Kazakhstan on Thursday. They joined Expedition 50 station commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA and cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko. Whitson, a veteran of two previous space station missions, is in line to break the current U.S. record for career time in space, 534 days on April 24. The current mark was set by NASA’s Jeff Williams in September.
China to select new astronauts in 2017
Xinhuanet, of China (11/18): China is ready to begin a third round of astronaut selection, an announcement that comes on the heels of the country’s first mission to the recently launched Tiangong-2 space lab. China will select its candidates from the military and aerospace communities.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Atlas 5 launches the most advanced U.S. weather satellite in history
Spaceflightnow.com (11/20): NOAA’s new generation GOES-R weather satellite lifted-off atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on Saturday at 6:42 p.m. EST. After a series of maneuvers using the launch vehicle’s Centaur upper stage, the satellite was successfully deployed. GOES-R is the first of four advanced NOAA satellites designed to improve the accuracy and timeliness of severe weather forecasts. Focused on the western hemisphere, the new satellite is to be followed by three more of the same generation by 2024.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of November 21-25, 2016
Spacepolicyonline.com (11/20): Thanksgiving influences activities across the U.S. this week. However, the U.N. Office of Outer Space Affairs is sponsoring a conference on space economics in Dubai.