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Thursday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space activities from around the world. NASA’s plans to replace the 20-year-old Hubble Space Telescope with a more capable space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, run into cost and schedule problems. In Washington, the Senate plans a hearing next week on NASA’s already cost constrained space exploration agenda. At the Kennedy Space Center, technicians find new cracks in the shuttle Discovery’s fuel tank. The federal deficit commission suggests that NASA’s commercial space initiative could be cut back as part of wider spending reforms. A space treadmill aids wounded veterans.
1. From the New York Times: NASA’s planned successor to the Hubble Space Telescope is in cost and schedule trouble, according to a report commissioned by a powerful Senate appropriator. NASA pledged Wednesday to straighten out the James Webb Space Telescope project, which is otherwise technically on track to bring the earliest epoch of the universe into focus for astronomers. But the pledge will require $200 million annually for the next two years, which NASA does not have, to keep the telescope on a pace for a 2015 launching.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/11/science/space/11nasa.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=NASA&st=cse
A. From the Orlando Sentinel: U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat who chairs NASA’s Senate appropriations subcommittee, calls the James Webb cost problems untenable in the country’s current fiscal situation. Maryland is home to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the facility leading the development of the new telescope. As a Senate appropriator, Mikulski called for the report.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/os-webb-telescope-overrun-20101110,0,2145543.story
B. From the Associated Press via the Washington Post: The total cost of the James Webb Space Telescope has grown by $1.5 billion since the telescope project was initiated in 2008. The rise was blamed on poor initial cost estimating by NASA and poor project management. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has responded with changes in the telescope project’s management to ensure closer scrutiny from top agency officials.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/10/AR2010111006339.html
2. Spaceflightnow.com: Workers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center find new cracks on the external fuel tank of the shuttle Discovery. They are located just under the long foam insulation crack that surfaced during Discovery’s Nov. 5 launch scrub. The delay in Discovery’s final mission was caused by a significant hydrogen fuel leak a vent line fixture on the tank. Shuttle managers are hopeful the metal and foam cracks can be repaired at the launch pad in time for Discovery to begin its 11-day mission to the International Space Station during a Nov. 30 to Dec. 6 launching period.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts133/101110crack/
3. From Florida Today: A Senate subcommittee with jurisdiction over NASA will host a Nov. 18 hearing to discuss how the agency is to proceed with a new agenda that includes a commercial space transportation initiative and the development of a new heavy lift rocket without additional funding. Witnesses will include representatives from NASA, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as well as the General Accountability Office, according to U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat and panel member.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20101111/NEWS02/11110313/Senate+to+review+NASA+funding
A. From Spacepolitics.com: The National Commission of Fiscal Responsibility and Reform issued a report Wednesday with recommendations for cutting the federal deficit through tax reform, savings and cuts in discretionary spending. Item 24 on a list of proposed savings points to NASA’s $6 billion commitment over five years to foster commercial space transportation services.
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2010/11/10/fiscal-commission-co-chairs-take-aim-at-commercial-spaceflight/
B. From Spacepolicyonline.com: Curtailing the NASA commercial initiative would be devastating for NASA and the nation, according to the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1212:deficit-commission-targets-commercial-crew-funding&catid=83:news&Itemid=76
4. From Spaceflightnow.com: Shuttle solid rocket booster developer ATK is pressing ahead with the development of a larger version of the rocket motor for a larger NASA heavy lift rocket vehicle. The work was initiated as part of NASA’s cancelled Constellation program. ATK is continuing the work under a 2010 continuing budget resolution, which is still in force. The effort is leading toward a ground test in the late summer and then perhaps a yet-to-be-defined role for in the development of a new heavy lift rocket for future deep space exploration.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1011/10heavylift/
5. From Space.com: A NASA treadmill that simulates low gravity is helping wounded U.S. veterans with post surgical rehab at a Palo Alto, Calif., Veterans Administration facility.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/businesstechnology/veterans-anti-gravity-treadmills-101110.html
6. From the Associated Press via the Los Angeles Times: A mysterious contrail in the skies off southern California on Monday evening was likely produced by an airliner, according to experts from the military and NASA. Some pointed to a clandestine rocket launch. The contrail, photographed by a television news helicopter, created an internet stir.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-sky-plume-mystery,0,1221535.story
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