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Thursday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from around the world. In Earth orbit, new U. S. and Russian crew members dock with the International Space Station. In Washington, Congress appears to be at an impasse over spending that could force a shutdown of the federal government late Friday. However, NASA’s Mission Control is expected to continue essential operations. In remarks at a Washington conference on the International Space Station and Mars, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden emphasizes a crucial role for commercial space transportation services in the agency’s future. In an op-ed, a retired NASA executive outlines the need for a timely public/private strategy to guide the agency’s future. A report from a NASA consultant suggests the agency has underestimated the cost of nurturing a commercial space transportation industry. The Marshall Space Flight Center announces job cuts. Solid rocket booster maker ATK announces additional layoffs in response to the shuttle’s looming retirement. A new Alaskan launch complex disappoints. November will bring a close encounter with a large asteroid. An influential NASA scientist dies.
1. From Florida Today: American Ron Garan and Russians Alexander Samokutyaev and Andrey Borisenko dock their Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station late Wednesday, joining cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev, NASA’s Catherine Coleman and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency. The newcomers will remain on the station through mid-September and greet the astronauts from NASA’s final space shuttle missions.
http://space.flatoday.net/2011/04/new-crew-docks-at-iss-wife-has-credit.html
2. From Spacepolicyonline.com: Sizing up the prospects for a government shutdown on Friday at midnight, when the current budget Continuing Resolution expires. One provision would trim $100 million from NASA’s space operations budget.
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1514:budget-games-continue&catid=67:news&Itemid=27
A. From the Associated Press via the Washington Post: Essential federal activities will continue if the budget impasse forces a government shutdown. The essential activities include NASA’s Mission Control in Houston, which oversees activities aboard the International Space Station. Less certain are the activities to process shuttles Endeavour and Atlantis.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-shutdown-will-disrupt-economic-recovery-slow-tax-returns-and-limit-federal-loans/2011/04/06/AFGfxLpC_story.html
B. From Space.com: A look at how a shutdown of the federal government might affect NASA. The safety of two astronauts (Catherine Coleman and Ron Garan) would remain a high priority, an agency spokeswoman tells the website.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/11317-nasa-government-shutdown-spaceflight.html
3. From MSNBC: At the International Space Station and Mars Conference in Washington, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden emphasizes the role of commercial space transportation services in supporting the orbiting science laboratory if NASA is to pursue its aspirations of exploring deep space. That may include an announcement late this week of which companies will share in a second round of NASA commercial crew development funding.
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/04/06/6420552-nasa-mulls-commercial-space-plan
A. From USA Today: In an Op-ed, Gerald Griffin, the former director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, urges policymakers to settle on a public/private solution to human space transportation. NASA’s shuttle program is near retirement, he notes, and the U. S. cannot afford to give up its hard earned access to the International Space Station or future missions of exploration.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2011-04-06-column06_ST1_N.htm
B. From Space News: What will it cost to foster U. S. commercial space transportation services? The cost of nurturing one company that could reach the International Space Station could cost $20 billion over 15 years, according to an Aerospace Corp. study conducted for NASA. That could bring the cost per passenger for NASA to $100 million — more than the cost of assigning transportation to the Russians. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation, an advocacy group, challenges the estimates and the assumptions used to arrive at the cost figures, Space News reports.
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/110406-commercial-market-study-firestorm.html
4. From the Huntsville Times: At the Marshall Space Flight Center, officials say they are trimming up to 300 contractor personnel in response to budget reductions.
http://blog.al.com/space-news/2011/04/nasas_marshall_space_flight_ce.html
A. From the Salt Lake Tribune: ATK, the maker of NASA’s shuttle solid rocket boosters, lays off 134 workers. The departures, the fifth in two years, are in response to the shuttle program’s retirement and cancellation of the Constellation program. Many were voluntary. All are to receive severance packages. The 2100 workers who remain, equal 45 percent of the workforce just two years ago.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/51569422-79/employees-atk-program-aerospace.html.csp
5. From the Anchorage Daily News: The state’s Kodiak Launch Complex sputters from lack of business, leaving state law makers wondering how to fund operations.
http://www.adn.com/2011/04/05/1794506/launch-complex-gobbles-money-but.html
6. From Space.com: The sizable asteroid 2005YU550 will sweep close to the Earth on Nov. 8. The space rock, about 1,300 feet in diameter, will pass within the orbit of the moon. Experts say an object that size comes close to the Earth once every 30 years.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/11310-huge-asteroid-2005-yu55-passing-earth-november.html
7. From the New York Times: Biochemist Baruch Blumberg, the first director of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute, has died. He was 85. Blumberg, a Nobel laureate, developed a vaccine for Hepatitis B.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/health/07blumberg.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=NASA&st=cse
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