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Friday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space-related developments from across the country. In Washington, Congress passes a compromise spending plan for the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year. The measure, awaiting President Obama’s signature, would fund NASA at $18.5 billion, enough to pursue the bi-partisan blueprint for human exploration included in the 2010 NASA Authorization Act. A Chinese space officials calls for closer cooperation with the United States in human exploration. NASA’s Mission Control is renamed in honor of Christopher C. Kraft Jr, the agency’s first flight director. The U. S. Air Force launches a National Reconnaissance Office payload. A former NASA official assesses this week’s shuttle orbiter. With the help of two NASA space telescopes, Astronomers find evidence of galaxy formation much sooner than previously believed. A spinning asteroid passes close to the Earth on Friday.
1. From Spacepolicyonline.com: The House, then the Senate passed a compromise budget continuing resolution on Thursday, funding the federal government, including NASA, through the end of the 2011 fiscal year. President Obama is expected to sign HR 1473 on Friday. The spending measure was hammered out by the White House and House and Senate leaders on April 8 and 9, averting a government shutdown. The long term CR includes nearly $18.5 billion for NASA, or about $240 million less than initially requested by President Obama in February. The spending plan funds provisions of the 2010 NASA Authorization Act that tasks NASA with the development of a Space Launch System and crew capsule for the eventual human exploration of asteroids and Mars.
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1526:full-year-cr-clears-congress&catid=67:news&Itemid=27
A. From Space News: NASA Administrator Charles Bolden praises Congress for passage of the compromise spending plan.
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/110414-congress-approves-1845-billion-for-nasa.html
B. From the Huntsville Times of Alabama: Business leaders close to the Marshall Space Flight Center are pleased with lawmakers but taking a wait and see attitude on how strongly the Administration supports work on the new Space Launch System, or heavy lift rocket for human deep space exploration.
http://blog.al.com/space-news/2011/04/federal_budget_agreement_gives.html
C. From Spaceflightnow.com: The new spending measure means NASA no longer has to spend on the terminated Constellation Program.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1104/14budget/
D. From Spaceflightnow.com: Cuts in funding in the new budget measure will slow work on the Joint Polar Satellite System, a series of civilian weather satellites expected to monitor severe conditions and monitor climate change, NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco warns lawmakers this week.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1104/15jpss/
E. From Spacepolitics.com: Alabama lawmakers press appropriators to include a requirement for a 130-ton capability heavy lift rocket in NASA’s 2011 budget Continuing Resolution. NASA, however, favors a two-step approach that starts with a less capable but more affordable rocket. The 2010 NASA Authorization Act, which appropriators are using as a road map, calls for the rocket and a Multi-purpose Crew Vehicle to be operational by the end of 2016. The rocket and capsule are part of NASA’s strategy to resume human exploration beyond low Earth orbit.
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2011/04/14/the-source-of-the-130-ton-sls-provision/
2. From Space News: The vice president of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. calls for closer ties with the United States in the human exploration of space. Lei Fanpei address the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/110414-chinese-official-space-cooperation.html
3. From the Associated Press via Yahoo.com: NASA names its Mission Control Center in honor of Christopher Kraft Jr., Kraft, 87, was NASA’s first flight director and among those who guided the agency’s Apollo program to the moon. The Christopher Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center is located at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110414/ap_on_sc/us_nasa_pioneer_shuttle;_ylt=AhKjoVNpNlszGFZdGkPMW5GHgsgF;_ylu=X3oDMTJ0dW9scjFjBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwNDE0L3VzX25hc2FfcGlvbmVlcl9zaHV0dGxlBHBvcwM4BHNlYwN5bl9wYWdpbmF0ZV9zdW1tYXJ5X2xpc3QEc2xrA25hc2FwaW9uZWVyaA
4. From Spaceflightnow.com: The U. S. Air Force on Thursday successfully launched a classified spacecraft for the National Reconnaissance Office from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California atop an Atlas 5 rocket.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av027/status.html
5. From Space News: In a guest blog, Wayne Hale, the former NASA shuttle program manager, said Houston failed in its bid to receive a retired space shuttle orbiter this week because the city made a weak pitch and takes the space agency’s presence for granted.
http://www.spacenews.com/commentaries/110414-blog-houston-not-get-shuttle.html
6. From Space.com: Astronomers find evidence of galaxy formation 200 million years after the big bang, much sooner than thought. NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes participate in the observations.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/11386-galaxies-formation-big-bang-hubble-telescope.html
7. From Spaceweather.com: A newly discovered, 50-meter wide spinning asteroid makes a relatively close approach to the Earth on Friday. With video.
http://www.spaceweather.com/
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