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Monday’s CSExtra includes the latest reports on a prospective Senate authorization bill for NASA that would reverse much of President Obama’s space initiative. Action in the Senate is possible late this week, according to the reports. Global temperatures set record highs for the first half of 2010. A look at the asteroid impact threat. A full eclipse of the sun impresses those in the South Pacific on Sunday.
1. From the Orlando Sentinel: NASA’s Senate oversight panel, the Commerce Science and Transportation Committee/Science and Space Subcommittee, will mark up a three-year authorization bill this Thursday that reverses much of the Obama space initiative, the Sentinel reports. The measure, covering years 2011-2013, the rest of the Obama first term, would cut work for commercial crew transportation as well as research and development and redirect spending to a new heavy lift rocket. This report, based on a look at the authorization measure, builds on recent reports from the New York Times, MSNBC and Florida Today suggesting the bi-partisan effort will return the Orion spacecraft to its deep space status, accelerate heavy lift rocket development and fund at least one additional shuttle mission. The new heavy lift and Orion would be ready to fly in 2016 by making changes in existing Constellation contracts, the Sentinel reports.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/os-nelson-overturns-nasa-plans-20100711,0,2094998.story
A. From NASAwatch: The web site offers an assessment of the Senate measure, noting the steep cut in commercial space transportation investments. Obama is unlikely to sign such an authorization bill, according to NASAwatch. NASA could become stuck in a 2010 continuing resolution that would prolong the uncertainty over the agency’s future.
http://nasawatch.com/archives/2010/07/senate-rejects.html
B. From Spacepolicyonline.com: The website offers a list of space policy related events for the week ahead, as Congress re-convenes. The website characterizes as “rumored” the likelihood of a Senate authorization markup on Thursday. As of late Sunday/early Monday, the session had not been listed on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee’s website.
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/
2. From the Washington Post: The first six months of 2010 are the warmest on record, according to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. In some cases, the atmospheric readings for some of the first six months of the year are between 1.8 and 3.6 degrees F above what they were in previous years. Also, the Arctic sea ice extent hit the lowest level for any June.
http://views.washingtonpost.com/climate-change/post-carbon/2010/07/first_half_of_2010_sets_heat_records.html
3. From This Week in Space with Miles O’Brien: This week’s program features an update on the search for asteroids that could pose a threat to Earth with expert Don Yeoman’s of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Other recent head line stories, including Lockheed Martin’s shuttle external tank ceremony in New Orleans, the European Planck mission’s cosmic background observations as well as shuttle program layoffs announced by United Space Alliance.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/twis/
4. From the AP via the Los Angeles Times: Modern disasters, whether they involve the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf, a space shuttle tragedy, or the buckling of a bridge share some common elements: Too much confidence in technology, arrogance among operators, and other human weakness, according to experts consulted by the AP. The news service looks for common threads as a Presidential commission begins its probe into the Gulf Oil spill.
http://www.latimes.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-us-oil-spill-technology-arrogance,0,5470811.story
5. From Spaceflightnow.com: India launches an Earth observation satellite early Monday. In all, the rocket carries five spacecraft for Algeria as well as student science projects.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1007/12pslv/
6. From Space.com: Observers wowed by a total eclipse of the sun on Sunday. The eclipse was visible in the southern Pacific.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/spacewatch/total-solar-eclipse-south-pacific-photos-100712.html
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