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Monday’s CSExtra features a roundup of the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from around the world, plus a look back at weekend events. NASA looks to May 8 at the earliest for a second bid to launch shuttle Endeavour’s final mission. The two week voyage was scrubbed on Friday by a technical issue. Nonetheless, President Obama and his family kept a date to visit the Kennedy Space Center and the families of the astronauts. Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, gets new leadership. In China, the nation’s first astronaut calls on cooperation with the United States in the exploration of space. NASA faces challenges as it attempts to transition from Constellation program contracts for the Ares rockets to the Space Launch System, a heavy lift rocket strategy specified by Congress. In California, an innovative physics instructor finds that space robots can inspire students to study math and science. The last man on the moon sizes up NASA’s future. In Florida, both political parties point fingers in the apparent loss of $40 million in federal funds to assist NASA workers faced with job losses by the retirement of the shuttle program.
1. From Spaceflightnow.com, May 1: NASA looks to May 8, Mother’s Day, as the earliest it will make a second attempt to launch shuttle Endeavour’s final mission. The first attempt on Friday was scrubbed by a problem with the network of heaters that provides thermal control for the hydraulic system. While NASA’s troubleshooting continues, the Endeavour astronauts headed back to Houston on Sunday.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts134/110501delay/index2.html
A. From USA Today, May 1: Endeavour commander Mark Kelly’s wife, Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, intends to return to Florida to witness her husband’s launching. Giffords left Houston, where she is recovering from a gunshot would suffered at a January 8 political rally in Tucson, to witness last Friday’s launch attempt and meet with President Obama.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2011-05-01-endeavour-launch-canceled_N.htm
B. From POLITICO, April 29: President Obama’s motivation for visiting the Kennedy Space Center for the first attempt to launch Endeavour on April 29 included some political fence mending, according to POLITICO. As the shuttle program nears retirement, thousands in Central Florida are losing their jobs. The President visited Kennedy a year ago to make a space policy speech that promised jobs in the emerging commercial space transportation industry. Congress was not so receptive. This time, there were no public remarks and Obama met privately with Endeavour astronauts.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/53910.html
C. From The Hill, April 29: President Obama was visiting a political swing state with high employment on April 29, The Hill notes.
http://thehill.com/blogs/transportation-report/tsa/158425-obamas-visit-to-cape-canaveral-highlights-floridas-importance
D. From the Arizona Republic, April 30: Technical problems aboard the shuttle Endeavour force a launch scrub on Friday. President Obama, who visited Endeavour’s Kennedy Space Center launch site anyway, met with Endeavour’s crew and Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the wife of Endeavour commander Mark Kelly. Giffords, who is recovering from a January 8 gunshot received at a Tucson political rally, was at Kennedy as well.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2011/04/30/20110430gabrielle-giffords-meets-obamas-at-space-center.html
E. From Florida Today, April 30: President Obama and the first family, First Lady Michelle, his two daughters, and mother-in-law made the most of their Kennedy Space Center visit on Friday, though shuttle Endeavour’s lift off is scrubbed.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110430/NEWS02/104300321/Scrub-shuttle-Endeavour-doesn-t-stop-first-family-s-visit?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Space%20News
2. From Defense News, April 29: In Russia, Anatoly Perminov is replaced as head of Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency. Reports say the Army General Vladimir Popovkin takes over because Perminov reached the mandatory retirement age of 65. However, other reports say the change is linked to the Dec. 5 loss of GLONASS navigation satellites. The growing GLONASS network is similar tot he U. S. GPS system.
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=6367787&c=AIR&s=TOP
3. From Reuters, April 29: Yang Liwei, China’s first astronaut, calls on China and the U. S. to cooperate in the exploration of space.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/29/us-china-space-idUSTRE73S4BS20110429
4. From Space News, April 29: NASA is attempting to work out a strategy for the development of a new heavy lift rocket, called the Space Launch System, as prescribed by provisions of the 2010 NASA Authorization Act. However, that means navigating contractual arrangements with companies involved in the development of the terminated Constellation program’s Ares rocket developers as well as those that produce shuttle propulsion hardware.
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/110429-nasa-wary-protests-heavy-lift.html
5. From the Los Angeles Times, April 29: High school physics teacher Amir Abo-Shaeer has found a formula for inspiring students at the Dos Pueblos High School of Goeleta, Calif., in math and science. It’s robotics.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-robot-genius-20110429,0,736972.story
6. From the Houston Chronicle, May 1: In a question and answer session with the Houston Chronicle, Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan, the last human to walk on the moon, talks about the future of human space exploration. Cernan is disturbed at the decision to retire the space shuttle without a replacement. He casts doubt on the near term success of commercial human space transportation space ventures.
http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2011/05/last-man-on-the-moon-%e2%80%98i-don%e2%80%99t-have-a-lot-of-confidence%e2%80%99-in-commercial-space/
7. From Florida Today, April 30: A year ago, officials in Central Florida were looking to the White House for $40 million in federal assistance to help Contract workers with transition to new employment as the shuttle program came to an end. When a budget compromise for 2011 was enacted in April, the funding was not present. Both political partners blame the other for the lapse.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110501/COLUMNISTS0207/105010319/Matt-Reed-Who-broke-Obama-s-40-million-promise-Space-Coast-?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home
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