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Monday’s CSExtra features a roundup of news reports and commentary on space policy and activities from the weekend and Monday. Congressional passage of a 2010 NASA Authorization measure, now awaiting President Obama’s signature, continues to be a popular topic. Will NASA now focus so intently on commercial space development and the exploration of asteroids that it will leave the future exploration of the moon to China? There’s more, too, on the hundreds of NASA employee contractor layoffs at the end of last week, a case involving NASA workers pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Also, the web cast This Week In Space signs off. Reporters ride along on a space shuttle training mission as NASA’s White Sands, N.M. training site.
1. From the Houston Chronicle (Oct. 3): NASA’s long fixation with the moon as a destination for human explorers is over under the road map spelled out in a three-year NASA authorization bill, according to the Chronicle. The measure now awaits the president’s signature after clearing the House and the Senate. NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver claims the moon remains a focus of commercial/government interest. Long time space policy analyst John Logsdon says he concerned that NASA’s new destinations, asteroids, will not draw the political backing NASA needs. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/7230097.html
A. From Scientific American (Oct. 1): China’s Chang’e-2’s mission will scout a landing site for a future robotic lander. The lunar orbiting mission is China’s second.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=china-change-2-moon-mission-2010-10-01
B. From the New York Times (Oct. 1): In an editorial, the Times questions the merits of the 2010 NASA Authorization bill. Specifically, it finds the legislation likely to mire in current technologies for a new heavy lift rocket rather than pursuing the “game changing” new technologies that President Obama proposed when it presented his budget to Congress in February.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/opinion/02sat2.html?_r=1
C. From Florida Today (Oct. 2): In an editorial, the newspaper praises the 2010 NASA Authorization bill that cleared Congress last week. Florida Today says the measure offers welcome clarity to NASA’s future, and establishes a foundation for future employment.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20101002/OPINION/101001015/1006/NEWS01/Our+views++Setting+the+course+%28Oct.+2%29
D. From the Orlando Sentinel (Oct 1): In a brief editorial, the Sentinel applauds Congress for its 2010 NASA Authorization bill. However, it reminds lawmakers they must follow through on funding for the initiatives in commercial space development and the human exploration of deep space.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/os-ed-senate-nasa-plan-100110-20100930,0,834523.story
E. From Florida Today (Oct. 3): Columnist John Kelly takes a look at the pluses and minuses of the policy road map provided NASA by the Congressional passage of a 2010 authorization measure last week. The pluses include policy direction for NASA lacking since the 2008 presidential election, as well as the prospect for an additional space shuttle mission. Among the minuses, the authorization bill has yet to be signed by the President. Even with a signature, an authorization bill does not actually appropriate the money, it just offers guidance.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20101003/COLUMNISTS0405/10030327/1086/John+Kelly++New+policy+sets+a+course+for+NASA
F. From Spacepolictics.com (Oct. 1): Round 2 in the competition for funding by NASA’s commercial crew development program will be formally announced around Oct. 25. New awards to be announced in March. The first round of contracts was awarded early this year. http://www.spacepolitics.com/2010/10/01/nasas-new-future-is-already-beginning/
2. From the Huntsville Times (Oct. 2): The community surrounding NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center is coming to grips with as many as 250 layoffs, and perhaps more, as Constellation program contractors wind down their work. However, local leaders were heartened by comments from NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver on Sept. 30 that Marshall will lead efforts to develop the new heavy lift rocket outlined in the 2010 NASA authorization measure passed by the House last week (and by the Senate in August). The jobs may return.
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/10/constellation_layoffs_begin_in.html
A. From the Pasadena Star News of California (Oct. 1): NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will cut 2 percent of its workforce in response to a declining budget. Forty-five workers let go on Oct. 1.
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_16232572
B. From the Bay Area Citizen (Oct. 1): More than 700 contractors and subcontractors in Houston lose their jobs or soon will in response to the looming retirement of NASA’s space shuttle program, many of them employed by Untied Space Alliance.
http://www.hcnonline.com/articles/2010/10/03/bay_area_citizen/news/10layoffs7.txt
C. From Florida Today (Oct. 4): The newspapers executive editor, Bob Stover, discusses the challenges of reporting on the hundreds of space shuttle program workers who have lost their jobs in recent days. Some workers are eager to speak about the experience; while others consider it a private matter.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20101004/COLUMNISTS0218/101001022/1086/Bob+Stover++Reporting+on+KSC+job+losses
3. From the Associated Press via the Washington Post (Oct. 3): The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a privacy case Tuesday involving 25 workers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who claim the federal government is invading their privacy with background security checks. Robert Nelson, who investigates whether Saturn’s moon Titan hosts volcanic activity by day, is the lead plaintiff in his off time. The case involves who may have access to federal labs. The background checks look at health issues, past drug use.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/03/AR2010100301757.html
4. From Spaceflightnow.com and This Week in Space (Oct. 2): The web production is signing off, at least for now. Chief correspondent Miles O’Brien is moving on to PBS, where he will be the science correspondent. O’Brien and his partner David Waters, thanked their sponsors but state that in the end the finances to continue the show just weren’t there, for now. They pledge to think of new ways to make a return as a non-profit or using another web based approach.
http://spaceflightnow.com/twis/
5. From the Houston Chronicle (Oct. 3): NASA’s space shuttle orbiters land on a glide slope seven times steeper than an airliner’s. Steve Lindsey, the NASA astronaut who will command the upcoming mission of shuttle Discovery, and his pilot Eric Boe practice in NASA’s Shuttle Training Aircraft at White Sands, N.M., with several news reporters aboard. lhttp://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/7230301.html
6. From Time/CNN (Oct. 1): The news magazine examines the science and art of searching for extra-solar planets. Now 15 years old, the search produced its first strong candidates for a planet orbiting within the habitable zone of another star.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2022989,00.html
7. From the Los Angeles Times (Oct. 2): A 44-year-old NASA Deep Space tracking antenna that has been an essential part of understanding the solar system is receiving a face lift. Once expected to last no longer than the 1980s, the antenna has tracked a long list of missions, from the Mars Rovers to the distant Voyager spacecraft.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-deep-space-antenna-20101003,0,6414536.story
8. From Spacepolicyonline.com (Oct. 2): A look ahead at publicly announced major space policy events for the week, Oct. 4 to 8.
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1156:events-of-interest-week-of-october-4-8-2010&catid=67:news&Itemid=27
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