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Thursday’s CSExtra includes the latest reports on Congressional activities influencing NASA’s future. The full House may suspend its rules and take up its version of a NASA authorization bill today. The President has a supplemental appropriations bill that would further cement the Constellation back-to-the-moon program until lawmakers finish the 2011 appropriations process. A new Air and Space Museum display features stunning NASA photography of the moon and Planets. NASA scientists will join an airborne hurricane study. And the Face on Mars, a famous tabloid photograph, is well worth forgetting.
1. From Space News: The House Science and Technology Committee version of the NASA authorization bill could come before the full House on July 29, under provisions that require a suspension of House rules. This version directs NASA to follow many of the Constellation program projects, rejecting much of the White House strategy. The Senate has not acted on its version of the NASA authorization measure. Earlier this week, it appeared the measure would not come up before Congress recessed to allow members to campaign for re-election. http://www.spacenews.com/policy/100728-nasa-bill-vote-house.html
A. From Spacepolicyonline.com: President Obama has a NASA supplemental appropriations bill to sign. Passed this week, the funding measure requires NASA to continue spending on Constellation until directed otherwise by Congressional appropriators.
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1049:congress-sends-fy2010-supplemental-to-the-president-constellation-language-included&catid=67:news&Itemid=27
B. From Popular Mechanics: The magazine examines the NASA authorization bills before the House and Senate and concludes both could jeopardize the agency’s future by strapping it with programs it won’t have the funding to pay for.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/nasa/nasa-senate-appropriations-constellation
C. From the Space Coalition: An ad hoc NASA Advisory Council panel forms recommendations on how NASA could coordinate the nation’s response to a collision threat from Near Earth objects, a capability that has Congressional interest.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/blog/nasa-office-considered-for-planetary-defense
2. From the New York Times: A preview of “Beyond: Visions of our Solar System,” a powerfully visual display of 148 photographs is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. The collection includes photos of the moon and planets gathered by NASA spacecraft. “They are vividly, compellingly real; they astonish and bewilder, luring the viewer into a state of wonder” writes the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/arts/design/29museum.html?_r=1&hp
3. From the Huntsville Times: NASA will participate in GRIP a six-week airborne campaign to study the heart of hurricanes in unprecedented detail. Scientists will use high altitude aircraft and drones to examine hurricane formation over the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.
http://blog.al.com/space-news/2010/07/huntsville_nasa_scientists_wil.html
4. From Universe Today: The online site revisits the “Face on Mars,” the 1976 image from NASA’s Mars orbiting Viking spacecraft that graced the front page of tabloids for years, suggesting the Red Planet was home to a long gone civilization. Cameras aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter suggest the image conveys something much different, a lava dome.
http://www.universetoday.com/2010/07/28/extreme-close-up-of-the-face-on-mars/#more-69766
5. From MSNBC: Alan Boyle of Cosmic Log examines the controversy over a Harvard professor’s recent remarks about NASA’s Kepler Mission findings. Kepler is in search of Earth-like planets in the habitable zones of other stars.
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/07/26/4756559-millions-of-earths-talk-causes-a-stir
6. From Space.com: Venus, Mars and Saturn are soon to become visible close together in the evening sky.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/spacewatch/planetary-triangle-forming-night-sky-100728.html
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