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Wednesday’s CSExtra includes reports from Washington and elsewhere revealing the toll on jobs and momentum as the debate over the nation’s future course in space continues. Congress, poised for an Aug. 2 to Sept. 13 recess for campaigning, is unlikely to take up NASA legislation until after the November elections, and possibly next year. Meanwhile, notices to 1,400 shuttle program workers facing the loss of their jobs by Oct. 1 began to go out on Tuesday.
1. From Space News: NASA’s 2011 spending bill may have to wait until January for legislative action, according to U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, the ranking Republican on the House appropriations subcommittee with space agency jurisdiction. Lawmakers will recess in early August to campaign, then adjourn in early October, Wolf tells a Capitol Hill luncheon hosted by the Space Transportation Association. That leaves NASA to operate under a restrictive continuing resolution when the 2011 fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
http://www.spacenews.com/policy/100727-wolf-bleak-timely-passage-nasa-bill.html
A. From Spacepolitics.com: The House Science and Technology Committee’s NASA authorization measure, which passed the committee last Thursday, is unlikely to come up before the full House before the August recess, according to U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, the ranking Republican on the House space and aeronautics subcommittee. Olson, who was at the STA luncheon, would like the House and Senate to work out their differences on the NASA authorization bill and have the measure considered separately rather than as part of an omnibus bill.
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2010/07/27/wolf-makes-few-predictions-about-the-nasa-appropriations-process/
B. From Spacepolicyonline.com: The online publication reports on the STA luncheon and notes the August Congressional recess will not end until Sept. 13.
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/
2. From the Orlando Sentinel: United Space Alliance, following up on an announcement earlier this month, began notifying 1,400 shuttle program workers on Tuesday that they will be laid off by Oct. 1. Most, 1,000, are in Florida. Most of the others are in Houston, Alabama.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/os-usa-announces-layoffs-20100706,0,2474357.story
A. From Florida Today: The newspaper breaks down the USA lay offs as 900 in Florida, 500 in Texas and 14 in Alabama. The announcement form USA earlier this month allowed workers who wished to retire or separate voluntarily to identify themselves. In Florida, 60 percent will go involuntarily, according to Florida Today.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20100728/NEWS01/7280331/1086/USA+workers+on+notice
B. From Discovery.com: While shuttle workers loose their jobs, Congress mulls NASA’s future. The departing USA workforce represents 15 percent of the 8,100 left after two previous layoffs. Nearly 750 left in June and October due to shuttle program downsizing.
http://news.discovery.com/space/for-space-shuttle-workers-the-end-is-here.html
3. From Space News: A report this week from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, concludes the U.S. should permit China to launch communications satellites and that the U.S. Air Force should consider an overhaul of its relationship with United Launch Alliance. The report, “National Security and the Commercial Space Sector,” concludes that the nation’s national security relies on a healthy and responsive commercial space industry.
http://www.spacenews.com/policy/100727-report-overhaul-launch-policies.html
A. From the Los Angeles Times: Sea Launch Co. will emerge from bankruptcy in the hands of a Russian rocket maker, an affiliate of the Rocket and Space Corp. Energia.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-sea-launch-20100728,0,1545119.story
4. From Space.com: Researchers from NASA, academia and industry are teaming to develop ever smaller satellites, pico and nano satellites that weigh from 1 to 10 kilograms. Thanks to shrinking electronics, these small spacecraft have many of the same capabilities as their larger forbearers.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/scienceastronomy/tiny-satellites-big-space-science-100728.html
5. From the New York Times: A look at two personalities who are making ties between Google and NASA’s Ames Research Center closer.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/meet-googles-space-commander/?scp=3&sq=NASA&st=cse
6. From Time Magazine: Physicist and noted science fiction writer Gregory Benford wonders if SETI searches should be altered. Why look for a continuous signal from an intelligent civilization? Expect something concentrated and intermittent.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2006631,00.html
7. From Psychology Today: A look at the difficulties of sleeping in space, against a larger backdrop of a future in which commercial space passenger travel is possible.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sleepless-in-america/201007/sleep-lost-in-space
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