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Friday’s CSExtra offers a look at the latest reporting and commentary of space activities from around the world. The U.S. House passes a 2011 budget continuing resolution with most of the $19 billion in spending included in the 2010 NASA authorization bill agreed to by the House, Senate and signed into law by President Obama earlier this year. Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong elaborates on his historic moon walk. Business leaders in Florida praise the SpaceX demonstration mission for NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, believing Wednesday’s flight will help to stimulate the state economy. A former NASA worker questions the ethics and value of primate research.
1. From Spacepolicyonline.com: A House passed year-long continuing budget resolution for 2011 includes most of the $19 billion included in the 2010 NASA Authorization bill. The CR includes funding to begin work on a new heavy lift rocket; continue work on a multi-purpose crew capsule; invest in commercial crew and cargo services; extend space station operations to 2020; as well as pay for an extra shuttle flight using Atlantis. Restrictions on canceling Constellation are lifted.
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1275:house-passes-year-long-cr-nasa-would-get-189-billion&catid=67:news&Itemid=27
A. From Space News.com: The NASA appropriations measure awaits Senate consideration.
http://www.spacenews.com/policy/101209-bill-more-money-nasa.html
B. From the Huntsville Times: The House appropriations measure includes $169 million than requested for work on a new heavy lift rocket.
http://blog.al.com/space-news/2010/12/house_passes_nasa_budget_gives.html
C. From Spacepolitics.com: The year long NASA budget continuing resolution passed by the House this week includes a provision that would have NASA pay expenses to prepare shuttle Discovery for display in the Smithsonian Institution’s Air & Space Museum. Others museums and display venues around the nation bidding for one of the retired shuttles will have to raise millions to prepare for the display.
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2010/12/09/cr-passes-house-with-an-interesting-shuttle-provision/
2. From National Public Radio: Science blogger Robert Kulwich receives a detailed e-mail from Neil Armstrong about an NPR blog that pondered humanity’s first moon walk and questioned why Armstrong and fellow moon walker Buzz Aldrin did not stroll further from the Eagle lander. Armstrong explains he gave in to the urge to stroll further than he was supposed to.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2010/12/08/131910930/neil-armstrong-talks-about-the-first-moon-walk
3. From Florida Today: Central Florida business leaders see hope for their local economy in the aftermath of Wednesday’s successful Falcon X/Dragon demonstration mission by SpaceX. The outcome bodes well for a surge in commercial space development for the region, they believe.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20101210/NEWS02/12100322/SpaceX+success+thrills++enthuses
A. From the Associated Press via the Washington Post and others: During Wednesday’s SpaceX Falcon 9 flight, the Dragon capsule carried a cheese wheel as a tribute to Monty Python.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/09/AR2010120905263.html
4. From Space.com: The Earth, moon and Mars were pummeled by comets and asteroids late in the planet forming process, a study published in the journal Science suggests. The impacts enriched the Earth’s crust with gold, platinum and other heavy metals and apparently deposited water on the moon.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/scienceastronomy/earth-moon-mars-formation-impacts-101209.html
5. From the Coalition for Space Exploration: An update on NASA’s Mars Exploration rovers, Opportunity and Spirit. Opportunity is half way to its next major destination, Endeavour crater, and close to a stop over at Santa Maria crater. Spirit, stuck in sand since April 2009, may awaken from a winter slumber in mid-2011 to function as a weather station.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/blog/nasas-mars-rovers-opportunity-rolls-spirits-health-in-doubt
6. From the Houston Chronicle: An op-ed from April Evans, a former NASA worker who left the space agency over her opposition to using primates in radiation experiments. Evans writes the space agency would do better to devise protective shielding for humans assigned to deep space missions than pursue lab tests using primates exposed to radiation.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/7332691.html
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