In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA’s legislative overseers sound bipartisan call for adequate NASA funding.
Human Deep Space Exploration
House authorizers join pro-NASA chorus on Hill
Spacepolicyonline.com (3/17): Members of the U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee vowed Thursday to ensure NASA receives adequate funding for its human exploration and planetary science initiatives, including Space Launch System exploration rocket and Orion crew capsule development. The bipartisan call from the authorizing committee to their counterparts responsible for actual appropriations would reverse an estimated $1 billion cut in NASA’s proposed budget for 2017. The administration’s proposed spending plan assumes NASA could receive additional money from so called mandatory programs, which has frustrated lawmakers.
NASA administrator says Alabama will put the ‘go’ in going fast to Mars
Huntsville Times (3/17): Nuclear Thermal Propulsion will likely play an important role in delivering U.S. astronauts to Mars, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden testified during a U.S. House panel responsible for shaping the agency’s future on Thursday.
Robot-built landing pad could pave the way for construction on Mars
Space.com (3/17): Experiments in Hawaii suggest that rolling robots could assemble a landing site on Mars before human explorers make the transit.
Apollo 13’s Jim Lovell meets man who designed trajectory that saved his life
Spaceflight Insider (3/18): This year’s Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium became a meeting place for Jim Lovell, commander of NASA’s ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, and Paul Penzo, a NASA space trajectory expert. Penzo’s pioneering efforts made it possible in April 1970 for the Apollo 13 spacecraft to swing around the moon, following a mission ending oxygen tank explosion that thwarted plans for a third lunar landing. Penso’s “free return” trajectory enabled Lovell, Jim Swigert and Fred Haise to return to Earth safely.
Space Science
Pluto is defying scientists’ expectations in so many ways
Los Angeles Times (3/17): Among the surprises is the dwarf planet’s diversity of landscape. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft sped close to the distant Kuiper Belt object last July 14. New Horizons is still transmitting its imagery and other data back to Earth — 40 percent of the total so far, as its journey continues. Much of the icy terrain of Pluto and its moon Charon is heavily cratered, suggesting it may be as much as 4 billion years old. Some of the landscape, however, appears fresh — as though it is still active. Mission scientists published a collection of research papers this week in the journal Science.
Hubble unveils monster stars
Science (3/17): The NASA, European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope has spotted Milky Way stars far outclassing the mass of the sun.
Low Earth Orbit
Next Space Station crew set for Friday launch, docking
CBS News (3/17): Three U.S. and Russian fliers are prepared to lift off Friday for a six month tour of duty aboard the International Space Station. They are NASA’s Jeff Williams, who is in line to become the first from the U.S. to serve a third lengthy tour of duty aboard the six person Space Station, and Russia’s Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka. Lift off is scheduled for 5:26 p.m., EDT. With a successful lift off, they will dock at 11:11 p.m. EDT.
NASA astronaut Williams to set U.S. spaceflight record
Florida Today (3/7): NASA’s Jeff Williams is to become the first from the U.S. to serve on three long missions aboard the International Space Station, with the launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket late Friday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. His third tour of duty places him in line to break the recently set record for career time in space of 520 days set by Scott Kelly. Williams will launch with cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka at 5:26 p.m., EST, for a six month stay aboard the six person orbiting science lab.
Star astronaut Scott Kelly: Time right to retire from NASA
Associated Press via San Diego Union Tribune (3/17): NASA astronaut Scott Kelly says he will retire from NASA on April 1 because it’s time to move on after a U.S. record setting 340 days in Earth orbit. Kelly announced his retirement Mar. 11, only days after his marathon flight ended. “You need to leave when the time’s right for you, and the time is right for me,” Kelly told the AP.
School being renamed in honor of astronaut twin brothers
Associated Press via New York Times (3/17): Officials in West Orange, N.J., plan to name an elementary school for Scott and Mark Kelly, the twin former NASA astronauts and Naval aviators. Scott recently returned to Earth after a U.S. record setting 340 days in space. The twins were raised in the New York suburb.
Air Force considers Wallops for military launches
WVEC, of Washington D.C. (3/17): The U.S. Air Force considers Wallops Island, Va., a potential site for the launching of military spacecraft, Gen. John Hyten, head of the U.S. Air Force Space Command, told a Congressional hearing on Wednesday. Kodiak, Alaska could join a list of military launch sites that already includes Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., Hyten said the advent of smaller spacecraft and security are behind the change.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Bridenstine urges appropriators to increase budget for FAA space office
Spacepolicyonline.com (3/18): Jim Bridenstine, an Oklahoma congressman, has been joined by 17 of his colleagues in a call to U.S. House appropriators for an increase in the budget of the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space, which is responsible for regulating as well as facilitating the commercial space industry. The proposed 2017 budget calls for $19.8 million, a $2 million increase.
NOAA administrator skeptical about commercial weather data
Space News (3/17): NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan questions the promise of commercially furnished satellite weather date in testimony before a Congressional panel on Wednesday. “In the weather domain, we believe it is a promising but still quite nascent prospect to actually have data flows from private sector satellites,” said Sullivan.