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Friday’s CSExtra features the latest reporting on space related activities from around the world. In Florida, stormy weather disrupts training by the shuttle Endeavour crew. Meanwhile, shuttle managers clear Endeavour for an April 19 lift off on her final mission. Famed American aircraft designer Burt Rutan retires. Russia plans the construction of a new spaceport. The Congress and White House appear at odds over the financing and pace of a new heavy lift rocket for future human space exploration. Anxiety within the federal workforce grows, as congressional debate over a 2011 budget continues. Federal agencies, including NASA, could face a shutdown after April 8. A look through the historical prism at the events that shaped John Kennedy’s decision to send Americans to the moon. Cosmic fears.
1. From Spaceflightnow.com: Severe weather at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Thursday and Wednesday slows plans for a countdown dress rehearsal on Friday for the crew of shuttle Endeavour’s last mission. Nonetheless, shuttle program managers conclude their flight readiness review with a green light for Endeavour’s 14-day mission to equip the International Space Station with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. The ‘okay” sets the stage for an April 8 agency wide Flight Readiness Review. The target launch date remains April 19 at 7:48 p.m. EST. SFN offers updates on Friday’s activities.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts134/status.html
A. From the Associated Press via the Washington Post: Endeavour commander Mark Kelly, speaking with reporters at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, said he’s awaiting a decision from doctors on whether his wife, Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, can make the trip to Florida for the ship’s April 19 lift off. Giffords is recovering in Houston from a gunshot wound inflicted in Tucson in early January.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/astronaut-working-out-details-for-april-launch-in-case-wounded-congresswoman-wife-can-attend/2011/03/31/AFMBqM9B_story.html
2. From the Los Angeles Times: Aerospace designer Burt Rutan retires. A legend in the aerospace community for his flying creations, including SpaceShipOne and Voyager, Rutan will leave Mojave, Calif., and the company he founded, Scaled Composites, for Idaho.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-rutan-retirement-20110401,0,1938565.story
3. From Voice of Russia: Russia plans a new spaceport, Vostochny, which will join Baikonur and Plesetsk. Vostochny will open in 2015 and include among its many facilities a runway to accommodate reusable manned spacecraft.
http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/03/31/48241539.html
4. From Space News.com: The White House is pushing back on Congressional direction that NASA develop a heavy lift rocket for future human deep space exploration, Space News reports. The publication speaks with White House science policy adviser John Holdren, who says a failure by Congress to pass a 2011 budget is slowing the development. The science policy adviser says Congressional spending authorizations in the 2010 NASA Authorization Act for the work are a “little out of date.”
http://www.spacenews.com/policy/110331-obama-administration-pushing-back-congressionally-mandated-rocket.html
5. From the Washington Post: The federal government, including NASA, is facing the prospect of a government shutdown on April 8, when the latest budget Continuing Resolution expires. Democrats and Republicans in Congress remain hesitant to compromise on a spending plan for 2011. Within the bureaucracy, professionals deal with the anxiety of a shutdown and what it will mean to their jobs and their families. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/for-federal-workers-anxiety-over-a-possible-shutdown/2011/03/31/AFZiXiCC_story.html
6. From Washington Monthly: A look back, with the help of space historian John Logsdon, at the events that motivated John F. Kennedy to send American astronauts to the moon.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2011/1101.homans.html
7. From Ria Novosti: A Russian astronomer, Sergei Popov, examines Magnet stars and other threats, real and imagined, to our existence.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20110331/163312694.html
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