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Tuesday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space-related activities from across the country. NASA awards $270 million to four companies to accelerate work on commercial space transportation systems that it hopes can begin to transport astronauts to the International Space Station by the middle of the decade. According to a pair of commentaries, NASA may have a budget for 2011, but financial challenges remain; and the government agency may need more of a profit focus to assure its financial health. Britain’s Skylon space plane faces a key propulsion test. Medications loose their potency in space. NASA distributes shuttle heat protection tiles to U. S. schools. Grad students follow the health of astronauts as they plan for planetary habitats.
1. From Spaceflightnow.com: NASA on Monday selects Boeing, Sierra Nevada SpaceX and Blue Origins for funding under the agency’s Commercial Crew Space Development program. The awards total $270 million. NASA says it would like at least one U. S. company capable of transporting astronauts to and from the International Space Station by the middle of the decade.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1104/18ccdev/
A. From Space News: The Boeing Co., of Houston, receives the largest of the commercial awards, $92.3 million.
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/110418-nasa-announces-ccdev-awards.html
B. From the Washington Post: NASA’s commercial spacecraft development awards represent a “bold step.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/four-companies-get-nasa-funding-for-space-vehicles/2011/04/18/AFjqnz1D_story.html
2. Two from Monday’s The Space Review:
A. In “NASA’s Continuing Problems,” contributor Taylor Dinerman, a New York writer, notes that NASA (and the rest of the federal government) finally received a 2011 budget late last week. The spending plan allows NASA to pursue the deep space exploration strategy outlined in the 2010 NASA Authorization Act. However, funding issues remain as the Congress and the Administration disagree over NASA’s future. Will NASA be able to justify investments in new technologies when the agency’s exploratory goals seem so ill defined?
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1824/1
B. In “Tobacco and Beaver Pelts,” Charles Gardner, a science policy veteran, finds the profit motive missing from U. S. space policy objectives. National goals should be physically and economically sustainable and aimed at meeting future national needs for clean energy, strategic material resources including precious metals and the mitigation of climate change, Gardner writes.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1827/1
3. From Space.com: Britain’s Skylon single-stage-to-orbit space plane concept will under go a key propulsion system test in June. The privately funded development effort envisions the start of operations around 2020.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/11414-skylon-space-plane-british-engine-test.html
4. From Discovery.com: Medications used to treat a variety of Earthly ills loose their effectiveness in space, new research suggests.
http://news.discovery.com/space/space-drugs-go-bad-110418.html
5. From Florida Today: NASA distributes shuttle heat shielding tiles to U. S. schools. Forty of the schools are located on Florida’s Space Coast.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110414/NEWS13/104140328/Dozens-Brevard-schools-get-space-shuttle-tiles?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Home|p
6. From the Wall Street Journal: Students at the Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation prepare to track the health of astronauts aboard the International Space Station in order to design future habitats for Mars.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704204604576268903925677190.html?KEYWORDS=NASA
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