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Friday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on the policy options that will determine NASA’s future. The Senate’s 2010 NASA authorization bill continues to garner support. NASA’s assistance to the trapped Chilean miners receives acclaim. NASA shuttle contractors confront employment losses in Houston and Cape Canaveral. NASA outlines a $15 billion rocket launch strategy involving four companies. New studies examine the intensity of lunar cratering.
1. From Space News: In an e-mail, Norm Augustine, Chair of the Augustine Committee that in 2009 re-assessed NASA’s Constellation Program for the Obama Administration, sizes up NASA’s policy options. The former Lockheed Martin executive finds the Senate’s 2010 NASA authorization bill most in line with the Committee’s findings. However, his enthusiasm is not exactly a ringing endorsement.
http://www.spacenews.com/commentaries/100915-blog-not-exactly-ringing-endorsement.html
A. From Spacepolitics.com: The web site offers a second opinion on Norm Augustine’s Space News e-mail. Augustine notes that adequate funding is essential to any strategy. Some have questioned whether the Senate authorization bill, which calls for the development of a heavy lift rocket and spacecraft for human deep space missions by late 2016, as well as commercial space development, is sustainable.
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2010/09/16/augustines-lukewarm-endorsement-of-senate-nasa-bill-and-more/
2. From the Huntsville Times: The Alabama newspaper evaluates the space policy options facing Congress and the White House, as the House and Senate re-convened this week. The Senate’s authorization bill appears to be the most favored strategy, according to the Times.
http://blog.al.com/space-news/2010/09/crunch_time_for_nasa_budget_as.html
3. From the Houston Chronicle: In an editorial, NASA receives acclaim for its assistance to Chile in the difficult and long running rescue of 33 miners trapped a half-mile under ground. The Chronicle suggests that NASA itself, facing difficult times in the re-assessment of its mission, may need to take some of its own advice to the miners, “Organize. Find real, relevant work. Think about the future. Prepare for a marathon, not a sprint.”
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/7204814.html
4. From the Friendswood Journal of Texas: Jacobs Engineering, a NASA Johnson Space Center contractor, will lay off 129 workers in the coming weeks, the Houston suburban publication reports.
http://www.hcnonline.com/articles/2010/09/17/friendswood_journal/news/9-23_fj_jacobs_layoffs.txt
A. From Florida Today: More than 600 shuttle workers, facing certain layoffs Oct. 1, attend a Cape Canaveral job fair with more urgency. Some 900 will loose their jobs Oct. 1, and another 3,000 to 3,500 employed by United Space Alliance will lose their jobs as the shuttle program winds down early next year. More than 30 prospective employers, including Lockheed Martin, Siemens and GE Energy, participate.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20100917/NEWS02/9170314/KSC+helps+launch+job+search
5. From Florida Today: NASA selects Lockheed Martin, SpaceX, United Launch Alliance and Orbital Sciences as competitors for a prospective $15 billion in science mission launch services over the next decade. Up to 70 missions involved.
http://space.flatoday.net/2010/09/nasa-selects-companies-to-launch.html
6. From Space.com: Three new studies, based on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission, examine the history and intensity of lunar impacts. They also examine the mineral makeup of the lunar terrain, revealing what rose to the surface in response to the bombardment.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/scienceastronomy/moon-craters-mineralogy-study-100916.html
A. From Scientific American: When it comes to asteroid and comet impacts in the earliest era of the solar system, the moon serves a proxy for what was taking place on the Earth.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=lro-moon-craters
7. From Spacepolitics.com: The politically focused website offers a second look at the announcement by the Boeing Co. and Space Adventures Ltd. on Wednesday to back a U.S. space passenger travel capability by 2015. The proposal would leverage NASA investments proposed by the Obama Administration in commercial space transportation.
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2010/09/16/boeing-space-adventures-and-the-commercial-crew-debate/
8. From the Pasadena Star News of California: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory offers a look behind the scenes at the assembly of Curiosity, the next Mars rover and one of the most complex spacecraft ever developed. The $2.3 billion Curiosity will evaluate the Martian terrain for habitable conditions. The rover is slated for launching in the fall of 2011.
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_16096017
9. From The Coalition for Space Exploration: The experimental White Knight Two aircraft, which will serve as the airborne launcher for Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital passenger spacecraft, returns to the air after an Aug. 19 landing gear incident. Some minor modifications made it possible to resume flights on Sept. 13, developer Scaled Composites announces.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/blog/space-tourism-carrier-plane-returns-to-the-air
10. From Spaceflightnow.com: SpaceX conducts a successful countdown rehearsal test for its second Falcon 9 launching from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. SpaceX has reserved an Oct. 23 launch slot on the Air Force Eastern Range.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/002/100916wdr/
11. From Universe Today: Saturday, Sept. 18, marks the first International Observe the Moon Night, an opportunity to raise public awareness about the night sky while spotlighting the latest lunar research. Lots of NASA involvement in this one.
http://www.universetoday.com/73785/september-18-is-international-observe-the-moon-night/#more-73785
12. From Discovery.com: The sun’s powerful magnetic field may be weakening, thus at least temporarily, losing a key ingredient for the production of sun spots, say researchers at the National Solar Observatory.
http://news.discovery.com/space/is-the-sun-running-out-of-juice.html
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