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Friday’s space news scan offers a roundup of reporting and commentary on space-related events from around the world. In Washington, a Senate oversight committee clashes with NASA over agency documents pertaining to a new heavy lift rocket. New studies based on findings from a NASA spacecraft suggest the sun and planets were not made from the same basic materials. The Atlantis astronauts rehearse the final shuttle mission countdown. A Russian cargo capsule docks with the International Space Station. Authorities in St. Louis seize Apollo moon dust. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft closes in on the large asteroid Vesta for a year of orbital scrutiny. NASA to overfly the Washington area to improve satellite pollution studies. An experts offers hope for Florida’s post shuttle space economy. NASA balks at using a troubled rocket. The U. S. and Canada may collide over satellite refueling aspirations.
1. From Florida Today: The chair of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and the ranking Republican want a look at NASA’s efforts to develop the Space Launch System, a new heavy lift rocket to take future explorers on deep space missions. The materials pertain to design tradeoffs, cost estimates and time tables.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110624/NEWS02/106240330/NASA-faces-subpoena-heavy-lift-rocket-work?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home
A. From the Houston Chronicle: Members of a Senate NASA oversight committee threaten to subpoena documents from the space agency related to post shuttle human space exploration strategies. NASA has five days to produce documents, say members of the Senate panel.
http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2011/06/sen-hutchison-joins-effort-to-subpoena-nasa-documents/
B. From Spacepolicyonline.com: The website offers a review of the new book Falling Back to Earth: A firsthand account of the Great Space Race and the end of the Cold War, written by Mark Albrecht, the executive director of the National Space Council during the administration of President George H. W. Bush. Albrecht offers an insider’s view of how and why an effort by the first President Bush to place NASA on the road to the moon and Mars failed and why some of the same steering currents may be at work today.
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1643:falling-back-to-earth-mark-albrechts-memoir-of-the-national-space-council-1989-1992-a-spacepolicyonlinecom-book-review&catid=67:news&Itemid=27
2. From Space.com: New studies based on findings from NASA’s Genesis spacecraft question whether the sun and the solar system’s inner planets were made from the same basic materials — as previously assumed. http://www.exploredeepspace.com/12059-earth-formation-sun-building-blocks-nebula.html
3. From Space.com: The astronauts assigned to NASA’s final shuttle mission climb aboard orbiter Atlantis at Launch Pad 39A on Thursday to rehearse the last hours of their upcoming countdown. Lift off of the 12-day mission is tentatively set for July 8. http://www.exploredeepspace.com/12058-space-shuttle-atlantis-sts135-tcdt-test.html
A. From Spaceflightnow.com: The Russian cargo capsule, Progress 43, docks with the International Space Station on Thursday. The unmanned freighter brings nearly 6,000 pounds of equipment. http://www.spaceflightnow.com/station/exp28/110623prog43p/
4. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: In St. Louis, authorities pursue moon dust collected from film canisters returned to Earth by the Apollo 11 astronauts. They are not rocks, but the sale of the lunar material by an auction house is illegal. http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_3dc4815f-bbdb-5676-8975-d26ffbdc5ce1.html
5. From the Christian Science Monitor: NASA’s Dawn spacecraft approaches the first stop on its unique trek through the asteroid belt. Dawn will spend a year orbiting Vesta before pressing on to Ceres. Dawn’s mission is to learn more about the planet building process.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/0623/NASA-s-Dawn-satellite-has-reached-the-asteroid-belt.-First-stop-Vesta
6. From the Associated Press via the Washington Post: NASA will conduct a series of flights over the Washington-Baltimore area next week to better characterize air pollution near the Earth’s surface. The findings will be used to improve air quality studies using satellites.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/nasa-to-fly-over-baltimore-washington-region-to-help-satellite-study-of-air-quality/2011/06/23/AGxl8zgH_story.html
7. From the Orlando Sentinel: In an op-ed Alan Stern, a former NASA associate administrator for science, sees future economic strength in the diversity of commercial space projects currently under development. It’s time for Florida to quit looking to a single government run exploration initiative for that security, Stern writes.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/os-ed-alan-stern-062411-20110623,0,6205009.story
8. From Space News: NASA balks at launching a key Earth observing satellite aboard an Orbital Sciences Corp. rocket that has suffered two failures. The decision prompts a suspension of nearly $70 million in payments. The two lost satellites are the Orbiting Carbon Observatory and Glory. The two were lost in mishaps this year and in 2009. NASA will consider other options for launching the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, a replacement for the first spacecraft.
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/110623-nasa-suspends-payments-orbital.html
9. From Space News; A Canadian company may clash with NASA over plans to demonstrate dueling orbital satellite refueling capabilities. The U. S. equipment will launch aboard shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station for development activities later this year. http://www.spacenews.com/civil/110623-nasa-defends-satellite-refueling-demo.html
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