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Thursday’s CSExtra offers a collection of stories on Boeing’s widely reported plans to market seats to non-professional astronauts through Space Adventures Ltd. Boeing’s proposed seven-passenger CST-100 commercial space capsule would fill four of the seats, with NASA astronauts on missions to the International Space Station. Plus, more commentary on NASA’s future, as Congress reconvenes this week to address the 2011 budget. Hurricanes from space. The Earth’s temperature is on course to tie a record.
1. From The Coalition for Space Exploration: The Boeing Co. and Space Adventures Ltd., the Virginia-based company that has pioneered the use of Russian Soyuz spacecraft to transport wealthy adventurers to the International Space Station, announce plans to offer a similar service at competitive prices. Boeing’s proposed seven-person CST-100, developed with the help of NASA funding, would become a passenger transport.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/blog/attention-space-tourists-seats-available
A. From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Boeing’s CST-100 could be operational in 2015. The company will set prices as the development proceeds.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/aerospace/archives/221444.asp
B. From the Washington Post: Boeing’s strategy is intended to facilitate the human migration to space, according to Brewster Shaw, Boeing’s general manager of space exploration.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/15/AR2010091504961.html
C. From the New York Times: Space Adventures is ready to talk with prospective passengers, says company co-founder Eric Anderson. The company’s most recent space tourist paid about $40 million to launch on a Russian spacecraft and spend about eight days on the space station, Anderson says.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/science/space/16nasa.html?_r=2&ref=science
D. From the Los Angeles Times: Boeing’s CST-100 will carry seven passengers. NASA will need four seats, leaving three open on missions to the International Space Station. Financier Dennis Tito, who became the world’s first space tourist in 2001, endorses the project. “I’m delighted to see Boeing jump into this,” he tells the Times.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-boeing-space-20100916,0,1157716.story
2. From Spacepolitics.com: More opposition to the House version of a 2010 NASA Authorization bill surfaces from the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste. The group focuses its opposition on the Ares 1 rocket, which is a component of NASA’s Constellation-back-to-the-moon program, and the growing federal deficit.
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2010/09/15/more-opposition-to-house-nasa-authorization-bill/
A. From the Houston Chronicle: As Congress reconvenes this week, the Chronicle offers a summary of House and Senate positions on NASA’s 2010 budget and a hint at the difficulties that loom if the Oct. 1 start of the 2011 fiscal year passes without a new budget. They include more layoffs in Houston, the Chronicle reports. The best course of action for NASA would be a decision by the House leadership to scrap its own 2010 Authorization bill in favor of the Senate bill, which has a larger consensus of support. Then, amend the Senate bill on the House floor and prepare to send it to the President for a signature, the newspaper reports.
http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/2010/09/nasa_budget_a_small_window_for_clarity_now_or_else.html
B. From The Daily Caller: Which version of a 2010 NASA Authorization bill is destined to survive, the House measure or the Senate measure. The House now appears likely to make a move next week, according to the Daily Caller.
http://dailycaller.com/2010/09/16/president-obamas-nasa-plan-meeting-opposition-on-the-hill/
3. From the Orlando Sentinel: Columnist Mike Thomas looks at recent work within NASA to develop an alternative to the Ares V as a new heavy lift rocket concept using space shuttle components. The approach is similar to the once overlooked Jupiter Direct concept. Why, Thomas wonders, wasn’t NASA’s leadership able to produce its latest version sooner, saving the funds that were spend on the Ares 1, 5, which now face cancellation as part of the Constellation Program.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-mike-thomas-abolish-nasa-091610-20100915,0,7615792.column?page=1
4. From the Huntsville Times: During a depressed economy, space scientists can expect support for small to medium projects rather than new major space observatories, the newspaper reports.
http://blog.al.com/space-news/2010/09/space_scientists_face_a_cut_in.html
5. From Space.com: NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station are observing Atlantis hurricanes Igor and Julia, both of which reached Category 4 status on Wednesday. “It just really takes your breath away,” reports NASA astronaut Douglas Wheelock.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/missionlaunches/space-station-astronaut-snaps-hurricane-igor-photos-100915.html
6. From the Associated Press via the Orlando Sentinel: 2010 has so far tied 1998 as the warmest year on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Also, the amount of sea ice is the third lowest since 1979, according to satellite observation records.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/sns-ap-us-sci-hot-august,0,3823251.story
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