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Monday’s CSExtra offers a round up of space activities from around the world that are making headlines this week, or made them over the weekend: From Washington, the latest developments on the federal budget suggest most agencies, including NASA, will operate under a restrictive Continuing Resolution through early March. Action could come Monday or Tuesday. Shuttle Discovery will head for a Kennedy Space Center hangar this week, after launch pad troubleshooting Friday to reveal the cause of tiny fuel tank cracks. The troubleshooting has the ship’s final mission on hold. A multinational crew docks with the International Space Station. A full lunar eclipse will be visible to residents of North and South America late Monday and early Tuesday. In Titusville, Fla., residents from every walk of life brace for the retirement of NASA’s shuttle program. The rise of commercial space transportation and the risks. New debate over the big bang. NASA’s Johnson Space Center embraces green building.
1. Spacepolicyonline.com, Dec. 19: A dozen appropriations bills for 2011 await congressional/White House agreement. The current budget Continuing Resolutions funds the federal government through Tuesday at 2010 levels. In NASA’s case this includes restrictions that preserve the previous administration’s Constellation Program and do not fund the additional mid-2011 shuttle mission NASA seeks using Atlantis nor the other changes agreed to by the Congress/White House in the 2010 Authorization bill. Resolving the budget is the major Washington event of the week, according to SpacePolicyOnline.com.
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1292:events-of-interest-december-20-31-2010&catid=67:news&Itemid=27
A. From Spacepolitics.com, Dec. 19: On Sunday, Senate appropriators announce plans for another restrictive budget Continuing Resolution lasting through March 4. As they adjourn, lawmakers will pass the fate of the budget including NASA’s future, to the new Congress.
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2010/12/19/after-the-short-term-cr-a-longer-one/
2. From Spaceflightnow.com, Dec. 17: Nothing out of the ordinary surfaced as NASA shuttle engineers carried out a tanking test of the shuttle Discovery at launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Engineers will spend a couple of weeks looking at stress and thermal measurements in an effort to explain four small cracks in the stringer region of Discovery’s external fuel tank. The cracks surfaced on Nov. 5 during a launch scrub caused by an unrelated hydrogen fuel leak. Discovery will be rolled to Kennedy’s VAB on Dec. 21 for an X-ray evaluation of the ET stringer section. The ship could return to the launch pad in mid-January and lift off on her final mission Feb. 3.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts133/101217tankingtest/index2.html
3. From Space.com, Dec. 17: U.S., Russian and Italian astronauts dock with the space station, raising the number of men and women working aboard the orbiting lab to six. The newcomers include Catherine Coleman of NASA, Russia’s Dmitry Kondratyev and the European Space Agency’s Paulo Nespoli.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/missionlaunches/space-station-soyuz-crew-arrival-101217.html
4. From the Associated Press via the Washington Post and other publications, Dec. 19. Late Monday and early Tuesday will bring a full lunar eclipse for North and Central America — where skies are clear. The full moon will be high in the sky, making it more visible because of the winter solstice. The totality phase begins Tuesday at 2:41 a.m., EST. Scientists also predict that as the Earth’s shadow creeps across the lunar surface, the moon will appear reddish — because of volcanic ash in the Earth’s atmosphere.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/19/AR2010121901617.html
A. From USA Today, Dec. 20: “We all have a ring side seat,” to the lunar eclipse, the editor of Sky and Telescope magazine tells USA Today.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2010-12-20-Eclipse20_ST_N.htm
B. From Space.com, Dec. 17: More on the science behind the full lunar eclipse.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/spacewatch/winter-solstice-full-moon-eclipse-align-101217.html
5. From Florida Today, Dec. 20-21: A personal look at Titusville, Florida’s Space City, and how the winding down of NASA’s shuttle program is affecting this clean cut town of 44,000 nestled against the Kennedy Space Center. Unemployment already stands at nearly 14 percent, and many of the town’s residents work for NASA or the agency’s contractors. Those who don’t, make their living from those who do.
http://www.floridatoday.com/section/news0206?GID=UNFtGvnA9ro89hmiHLehFCbv5TwyUzVrFG1XirGRy+0%3D
A. From Florida Today, Dec. 19: Columnist John Kelly offers NASA a Christmas wish list: Good fortunes for SpaceX; better marketing through greater astronaut candor and the use of social media; a NASA BRAC to save money; a clear cut budget with funding for policy changes; safe passage for the shuttle to retirement.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20101219/COLUMNISTS0405/101219024/1086/John+Kelly++A+holiday+wish+list+for+space++
B. From Time magazine, Dec. 17: Time examines the flight safety issue as it chronicles the rise of commercial space companies interested in launching cargo and possibly astronauts to the International Space Station.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2037089,00.html
6. From Politico, Dec. 16: U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican and global warming skeptic, will become the vice chair of the House Science and Technology Committee, joining chair Ralph Hall of Texas in majority leadership positions. U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Dallas area Democrat, will lead the committee’s minority members.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/1210/Warming_skeptic_gets_key_Science_post.html?showall
7. From Space.com, Dec. 18: Scientists probing the earliest radiance of the big bang have different opinions on what they are observing. Are they seeing the signature of a previous big bang, are they seeing evidence of multiple universes? Are some experts mis-reading the data?
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/scienceastronomy/universe-multiverse-big-bang-cosmic-microwave-background-101218.html
8. From the Houston Chronicle, Dec. 18: NASA’s Johnson Space Center’s Building 20 wins recognition from the U.S. Green Building Council. The facility offers transitional office space for up to 520 workers whose usual office space is under going renovation. The building achieved a 57 percent performance rating over traditional office space. The conservation measures include energy saving glass as well as drought tolerant Bermuda grass.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/realestate/7345086.html
9. From the Los Angeles Times, Dec. 19: Stefano Patura and his son Aureleo, 5, traveled to Cocoa Beach, Fla., in early November, expecting to watch the launching of Discovery’s final mission. When the launch was scrubbed, father and son embarked on a new even more satisfying adventure, meeting astronauts, steeping themselves in space history and bonding with one another.
http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-time-20101219,0,496335.story
10. From Xinhua (China’s news service), Dec. 18: China launches the seventh in a series of global navigation satellites.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/2010-12/18/c_13654117.htm
11. From Discovery.com, Dec.19: What’s the definition of an Earth-like planet, or an Earth analogy. NASA’s Kepler mission has raised the question. More findings from Kepler are coming in early 2011.
http://news.discovery.com/space/how-will-we-know-if-planets-are-inhabited.html
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