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Monday’s CSExtra offers a weekend roundup of the latest reporting on space-related activities from around the globe. A road map for NASA’s future, agreed to by the White House and Congress in October, appears to be under siege from burdensome legislative demands, tight budgets and other forces. In Washington, that seemed evident in an exchange between NASA and Congress over the future of a new heavy lift rocket and crew capsule. Shuttle Discovery astronaut Tim Kopra was injured in a bicycle accident on Saturday, an incident that will likely have an impact on the spacecraft’s already delayed final mission. Tragedy unites NASA twin astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly on a new mission. The crew of shuttle Columbia’s January 1986 mission, including NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, reunites. The Pentagon faces rising rocket costs. Jose Hernandez, who rose from son of migrant workers to engineer, leaves NASA’s astronaut corps. A U.S. solar panel manufacturer sees brighter prospects in China. Experts attempt to unravel mysteries over climate and dark energy.
1. From the Orlando Sentinel, Jan. 16: NASA’s efforts to chart a new course, rooted in the 2010 NASA Authorization Act signed into law by President Obama in October, are unraveling, according to the Sentinel. The disruptive forces include burdensome Congressional demands, a shrinking federal budget, greedy contractors, a hide bound bureaucracy and ambitious new commercial space companies. NASA’s dilemma was evident last week, when the agency informed Congress it could not complete work on a new heavy lift rocket and crew capsule within the Dec. 31, 2016 deadline and budget lawmakers envisioned. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/os-nasa-is-flailing-20110116,0,2482421.story?page=1
A. From Spaceflightnow.com, Jan. 14: An examination of the issue over NASA’s response to the heavy lift rocket and multipurpose crew vehicle initiative outlined in the 2010 NASA Authorization Act. http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1101/14heavylift/
B. From the Wall Street Journal, Jan. 14: The safety of NASA’s exploration program is at risk because of the prolonged debate among policy and law makers over the agency’s future direction, according to the independent Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel. The ASAP was created by Congress in 1968 to advise the NASA administrator on safety issues.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703959104576082451987770460.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
C. From Air and Space Museum Magazine, Jan. 14: Lunar scientist Paul Spudis in his Once and Future Moon Blog examines NASA’s response to the 2010 NASA Authorization Act requirements that the agency develop a heavy lift rocket and multipurpose crew capsule. He finds a problem with NASA’s response. The agency told lawmakers it could not make a Dec. 31, 2016 deadline with the available financing. Spudis says the agency has an architecture using shuttle technology that appears to fill the requirement.
http://blogs.airspacemag.com/moon/2011/01/heft-lies-and-videotape/
D. From Spacepolitics.com, Jan. 15: Spudis’ account suggests NASA could achieve the 2010 NASA Authorization Act requirements and make additional strides soon after.
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2011/01/15/hlv-costs-and-sidemount-options/
2. From Spaceflightnow.com, Jan. 15: Shuttle Discovery astronaut Tim Kopra was injured in a bicycle accident on Saturday. Kopra is assigned lead spacewalking duties on Discovery’s already delayed mission. His availabilities for the flight not set for a Feb. 24 lift off appears in jeopardy. http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts133/110115kopra/
3. From the Houston Chronicle, Jan. 16: To their Houston area acquaintances, the NASA astronaut twins Mark and Scott Kelly, are just regular guys. Friends rallied around the twins in the aftermath of the shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Mark’s wife. The incident has united the two brothers, one of them in command of the International Space Station, in a new mission — one more demanding than spaceflight. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/7384334.html
A. From Spacepolicyonline.com, Jan. 15: Friends and supporters of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords establish an Earth and Science fund in her honor. Giffords, wife of NASA Astronaut Mark Kelly, was upgraded from critical to serious condition as she recovers from a gunshot wound suffered during a Tucson political rally on Jan. 8. Donations are tax deductible. http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1353:gabrielle-giffords-earth-and-space-leadership-fund-established&catid=67:news&Itemid=27
4. From Florida Today, Jan. 17: The crew of shuttle Columbia’s January 1986 mission, including pilot and current NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, joined for a 25th anniversary celebration in Washington over the weekend. The astronauts recalled the risks of spaceflight — the mission that followed ended quickly in the loss of Challenger and her crew — as well as tragedies like the Tucson shootings that wounded Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Columbia’s crew also included U. S. Sen. Bill Nelson, who was then a member of the House of Representatives.http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110117/NEWS02/101170315/Former+Columbia+crew+reunites
5. From Space News, Jan. 14: Pentagon will see a sharp increase in the cost of rockets as it tries to preserve an industrial base for the launching of national security payloads.
http://www.spacenews.com/military/110114-eelv-program-costs-skyrocket.html
6. From the Stockton Record of California, Jan. 15: NASA Astronaut Jose Hernandez, the son of migrant workers who settled in California, departs the space agency’s astronaut corps after seven years for a position with MEI Technologies of Houston. Hernandez flew in 2009. With the last of the shuttle missions on the horizon, flight opportunities are limited to space station missions. http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110115/A_NEWS/101150322
7. From the New York Times, Jan. 14 — Evergreen Solar, the third largest maker of solar panels in the United States, is pulling up its Boston area stakes and moving to China as part of a new joint venture. The move will force the layoff of 800 personnel. The company began with the help of a $43 million grant from the state of Massachusetts. China, though, is offering more assistance. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/15/business/energy-environment/15solar.html?_r=1&src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB
8. From the Los Angeles Times, Jan. 14: A climate mystery. The Pacific is in the grips of La Nina, a cooling of the equatorial ocean waters that usually increases rainfall in Australia, Indonesia and other land masses in the region. Typically, that means dryer conditions in California and the southern United States. But California is experiencing lots of moisture, including record snow falls. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-la-nina-20110114,0,4513689.story
9. From the New York Times, Jan. 16: Dark energy, a confounding force unveiled a little more than a decade ago, has roots deep in Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Its repulsive forces threaten to steal an opportunity to thoroughly understand our past, as the earliest stars and galaxies rush out of view. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/opinion/16greene.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=opinion
10. From NASAspaceflight.com, Jan. 14: NASA managers discuss the prospects for the addition of a Bigelow Aerospace Co. inflatable module to the International Space Station. The inflatable would be launched using an expendable launch vehicle and function as a storage compartment. http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011/01/nasa-managers-discuss-prospect-bigelow-inflatable-iss/
11. From Spacepolicyonline.com, Jan. 16: Space policy events of interest in the coming week. http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1356:events-of-interest-week-of-january-17-21-2011&catid=67:news&Itemid=27
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