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Monday’s CSExtra features reports and commentary on weekend activities from around the globe, as well as a look at what to expect in the week ahead. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden’s future with the agency is uncertain, according to reports that cite strained relations with the White House over the long campaign to develop a new agency road map. Bolden embarked for China over the weekend to discuss future cooperation. This trip is straining relations with some in Congress, who believe the Administrator has been absent too often when he should have been looking after NASA’s future at home.
1. From the Orlando Sentinel, Oct. 18: NASA Administrator Charles Bolden’s relations with the White House are strained by efforts to forge a NASA blue print that have taken well over a year. This week’s trip to China and visits to a total of 14 nations abroad have strained relations with Congress as well, according to the Sentinel.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/os-absentee-nasa-administrator-20101018,0,905017.story
A. From the Houston Chronicle, Oct. 15-16: As NASA Administrator Charles Bolden departed for China, his future as the space agency chief was in doubt. The more than year long struggle to re-define NASA’s mission has taken its toll on his ties to the White House and some in Congress, the Chronicle reports. Some lawmakers are adamantly opposed to any new form of cooperation with China.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/7249634.html
B. From the Huntsville Times, Oct. 15: NASA’s best days lay ahead, Bolden tells NASA workers in a closed circuit address following the President Obama’s signing of the 2010 NASA Authorization Act on Oct. 11. Bolden stressed the need to fly the last of the agency’s shuttle missions safely as the agency’s the top priority. Other priorities include the pursuit of new technology, fostering a commercial space transportation industry and cooperation with industry, academia and other nations.
http://blog.al.com/space-news/2010/10/nasas_best_days_are_ahead_admi.html
C. From Space News, Oct. 15: Lockheed Martin, joined by a pair of Colorado lawmakers, both Democrats, urge the President to spend on Orion at 2010 budget levels. Lower spending included in the 2011 spending plan will mean a drop in the workforce and doubts about the project’s ability to have the Orion capsule ready for a crucial 2013 flight test. The higher spending rate would also ensure Orion emerges capable of deep space missions.
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/orion-development.html
D. From Cleveland.com, Oct. 15: The 2010 NASA Authorization bill includes a three-year moratorium on job losses for NASA’s civil servants, according to Ohio lawmakers.
http://blog.cleveland.com/newssun/2010/10/nasa_funding_bill_includes_lay.html
E. From the Spacepolitics.com, Oct. 17: If the Republicans re-claim the House in the Nov. 2 elections, look for Dana Rohrabacher, a veteran California lawmaker, to seek chairmanship of the House Science and Technology Committee, which serves as a NASA authorization panel. Article also recounts the NASA administrator’s strained ties to the White House and Congress.
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2010/10/17/boldens-exile-more-on-kosmas-adams-and-halls-ambitions/
2. From the Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 16: NASA Administrator Charles Bolden heads for China to discuss future cooperation in Space. Some in Congress are not happy. Others warn that a lack of U. S. and Chinese cooperation in space would soon isolate the U.S. while such traditional partners as Europe, Japan and Russia extend a hand.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/1016/NASA-s-Bolden-walks-tight-rope-on-China-trip
A. From Space News, Oct. 15: NASA Administrator Charles Bolden leaves for China to discuss the potential for cooperation in the human exploration of space. Congress is divided on the issue, some lawmakers want no part of cooperation, others urge a move to ensure an international rescue capability among the Chinese, Russians and Americans
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/bolden-heads-china.html
B. From Spacepolicyonline.com, Oct 16: Troubled global economies underscore the need for international cooperation in the exploration of space, and China should be a part of the effort, according to European and Japanese representatives who participated in a Center for Strategic and International Studies conference last week.
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1174:global-economic-woes-mean-more-international-space-cooperation-should-include-china-say-international-space-reps&catid=91:news&Itemid=84
C. From Spacepolicyonline.com, Oct. 15: More than 3,000 pieces of debris remain in Earth orbit from the surprise January 2007 Chinese anti-satellite test, posing a threat to a number of operational satellites, according to a NASA study. The total comprises 97 percent of the debris from the impact.
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1173:debris-from-chinese-asat-test-now-more-than-3000-pieces&catid=91:news&Itemid=84
3. From Spacepolicyonline.com, Oct. 17: The list of space policy activities this week include sessions on commercial spaceflight, technical innovation and NASA safety.
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1175:events-of-interest-week-of-october-18-22-2010&catid=67:news&Itemid=27
A. From the New York Times, Oct. 17: The National Geographic Channel hosts the first in a series of documentaries Monday night on Richard Branson’s efforts to begin a passenger suborbital space flight service.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/arts/television/18natgeo.html?_r=2&ref=media
4. From the Coalition for Space Exploration, Oct. 15: The U.S. needs a strategy to deal with the threat of a collision with a near Earth object, or asteroid, according to the NASA Advisory Council’s ad-hoc task force on planetary defense.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/blog/asteroid-threat-to-earth-office-of-planetary-defense-backed
5. From Space.com, Oct. 16: NASA awards contracts worth up to $30 million to six team for lunar data. The teams are Google Lunar X-Prize contestants and have until Dec. 31, 2012 to furnish the findings and compete for a second $30 million purse. The lander strategies employed by the contestants could influence the design for future NASA mission hardware. http://www.exploredeepspace.com/news/nasa-contracts-private-moon-data-101015.html
6. From NASAwatch.com, Oct. 16: In Houston’s Clear Lake community, the old Outpost Tavern burns. Closed months ago, the Outpost was nonetheless a memorable symbol of the space program’s scrappy roots, especially those of the fabled early astronauts.
http://nasawatch.com/archives/2010/10/adios-outpost.html
A. From the Galveston Daily News of Texas, Oct. 17: The Outpost began as an Army barracks at Houston’s Ellington Field. The cause of the blaze, which prevents a future resurrection of the bar and grill, is under investigation.
http://galvestondailynews.com/story/184066
7. From USA Today, Oct. 17: The prospects for the discovery of Earth-like planets circling other stars is growing, thanks in part to NASA’s Kepler mission. However, the prospects for launching missions to them is greatly constrained by physics and our own lack of technologies.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/2010-10-15-interstellar-travel_N.htm
8. From the Miami Herald, Oct. 17: Wish to see one of the last space shuttle launches up close? Unfortunately, the Kennedy Space Center’s visitor’s complex is sold out. The Herald scouts out other promising viewing sites. The final launches are likely to draw as many as one million viewers each.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/17/1871601/final-shuttle-launches-promise.html
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