House Appropriations Committee Introduces CR Containing Largest Spending Cuts in History (With detailed chart)

"The House Appropriations Committee today introduced a Continuing Resolution (H.R. 1) to fund the federal government for the last seven months of the fiscal year while cutting spending by over $100 billion from the President's fiscal year 2011 request. This CR legislation represents the largest single discretionary spending reduction in the history of Congress. ...

"NASA Budget reduction compared to FY 2010 enacted: $303.0 million. Compared to FY 2011 Request: $578.7 million."

House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology Oversight Plan for the 112th Congress

"The Committee will continue to provide oversight of NASA's human spaceflight program as it undergoes a period of uncertainty and transition following various Administration proposals. Specific attention will be paid to the feasibility of NASA's plans and priorities relative to their resources and requirements."

House members may come see Discovery launch, Florida Today

"[Rep. Ralph] Hall, one of NASA's most vocal supporters in Congress, said the committee would have to work together to support the agency amid tight budgeting that will force cuts throughout the government. "My goal is to keep our position in space, keep our leadership in space and keep our national and international partners," Hall said. "I'm not urging anybody to go to Mars right now or back to the moon, or any place when people can't go to the grocery store. The economy has to be good. But we've got to continue to work toward it and plan for it."

Lockheed Martin Ships Out First Orion Spacecraft

"The Lockheed Martin Orion team shipped out the first Orion crew module spacecraft structure today from NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La. The spacecraft is headed to Lockheed Martin's Denver, Colo. facilities where it will undergo a series of rigorous tests to confirm Orion's ability to safely fly astronauts through all the harsh environments of deep space exploration missions."

ATK moving forward with Liberty rocket, Salt Lake Tribune

"Regardless of whether the government agrees to help fund Alliant Techsystems' rocket that would take astronauts to the International Space Station, the Utah company intends to move forward with its project because it believes there will be no shortage of commercial customers. ATK and a partner on Tuesday unveiled the two-stage Liberty rocket that they want NASA to use as the next launch vehicle for the U.S. space program. And they are hoping the space agency will see fit to award it at least a portion of a $200 million pool of money set aside for promising projects."

Keith's 10 Feb note: Of course U.S. taxpayers have already made a huge down payment on Ares-1 development. I wonder how ATK gets to use the Ares 1 modified transporter, launch pad, VAB, etc - also modified with lots of tax dollars. That won't cost ATK money? Isn't the use of these designs and facilities using NASA money?

Keith's 11 Feb 12:42 pm update: According to ATK's George Torres, who called and left me a voicemail statement: "The ATK spokesperson spoke out of line. What we're really about is to meet goal of CCDev to acclerate commerical program and to try and mature the program and working on the integrate these two systems as part of the deveopment. CCDev funding would acclerate this by 2 years." He said that he'd sent me a statement by email at some point.

Keith's 11 Feb 2:14 pm update: Here is ATK's statement: "These comments were inaccurate and from someone who didn't have full insight into the business model as presented for the CCDev2 acquisition. Specifically, our proposal is focused on the goals of CCDev-2, which are to "further advance commercial Crew Transportation System (CTS) concepts and mature the design and development of elements of the system such as launch vehicles and spacecraft." Overall, it really responds to the main goal of the procurement, which is to "accelerate the development of commercial crew systems." If we do win a CCDev-2 contract we can accelerate our first flight two years from 2015 to 2013. With the payload capabilities of Liberty and its low price, we believe it will be a strong competitor for CCDev-2. As for use of KSC facilities, we are responding to NASA's request on how we would utilize KSC facilities (just like other potential contractors) on a leased basis."

NASA OIG Testimony: Major Challenges Facing NASA in 2011

"At the present time, NASA finds itself in a state of significant uncertainty, particularly with respect to its human space program. The final Space Shuttle flights are scheduled for later this fiscal year and construction of the International Space Station is essentially complete; however, the Agency has not achieved significant momentum on space exploration directives contained in 2010 authorizing legislation because of funding and technical questions.

The most immediate challenge facing NASA's leadership is to manage the Agency's portfolio of space and science missions amid the continuing lack of clarity caused by conflicting legislative directives in the Authorization Act and a holdover provision in NASA's fiscal year (FY) 2010 appropriations law. The latter provision prevents NASA from terminating any aspect of the Constellation Program or from initiating any new program."

From the U to NASA, prison and back again, Daily Utah Chornicle

Convicted moon rock thief Thad Roberts: "(We) came out with a 600-pound safe, (estimated by the government to be worth $7 million to $21 million) sawed it open in a hotel room and sorted all the moon rocks, which included a meteorite from Mars," Roberts said. "I definitely knew at this point that I had the best rock collection in the world." Within a week, rumors spread, inevitably revealing Roberts' and the women's guilt. This resulted in an eight-year sentence for him, and only house arrest for the two women because he took the "leadership position" in the crime."

Keith's note: So Thad - you aren't at all sorry that you stole and damaged these invaluable research specimens? The author of this article doesn't seem to be interested in this obvious aspect of the story - indeed she writes: "In such a short time, Roberts has lived an unimaginable life, but he is continuing to complete his goals and hopes to see success in his future."

Boeing Still Seeking $356M from Sea Launch Partners, SpaceNews

"Boeing has not abandoned its effort to collect $356 million from its former Sea Launch commercial launch service partners in Russia and Ukraine despite an initial setback at a Swedish arbitration panel, saying the companies in question "have the wherewithal to pay," Boeing said Feb. 9."

NASA honors martyred Sally Zahran by putting name on spacecraft, Al-Masry Al-Youm

"This is the least we could provide to Egyptian youth and revolutionaries. This step represents transferring the dreams of Egyptian youth from a small stretch of earth to the enormous expanse of space," said Haji to Al-Mary Al-Youm."

NASA to name space ship after Egyptian martyr, Bikyamasr

"The United States' space agency, NASA, has okayed naming one of its spaceships after Sally Zahran, a young Egyptian woman killed during the first few days of anti-government demonstrations in Egypt. Essam Mohamed Haji, a researcher at NASA, told the Egyptian independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm he had received approval to put the young woman's name on a spaceship heading for Mars."

NASA rocket to bear name of Egyptian woman killed in protests, NDTV

"The paper quoted Essam Mohamed Haji, a young researcher at NASA, as saying Thursday that he had received approval to put the young woman Sally Zahran's name on a spaceship heading for Mars."

Keith's note: I am assuming that this is not true - but it does speak to what people think of NASA around the world - i.e. that being associated with it - and its missions - is something special.

NASA Announces Plan To Win The Future With Fiscal Year 2012 Budget, NASA

"NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will brief reporters about the agency's fiscal year 2012 budget at 2 p.m. EST on Monday, Feb. 14. The news conference will take place in the James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, located at 300 E St. S.W., in Washington.

Chief Financial Officer Elizabeth Robinson will join Bolden. The news conference will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's web site. Questions will be taken from news media representatives at headquarters and NASA field centers."

Keith's note: I will be sitting through the NASA Advisory Council Meeting [agenda] at NASA HQ today and posting updates here and on Twitter at @NASAWatch

Keith's note: As much as I loathe the overuse of the word "awesome" by Gen Y, the NASA Advisory Council took an informal vote during lunch break and asked me to post this video. Tip of the hat to NASA PAO. Direct link for those of you that have YouTube blocked by NASA.

Keith's update: A Carnegie astronomer notes: "While brimming with enthusiasm, this video makes a major error by claiming that JWST will be able "to see the Earth" if it was 25 light-years away. Sadly, this is not true. Here is what the JWST web page states is the true capability of JWST: "Webb can only see large planets orbiting at relatively large distances from the parent star. To see small Earth-like planets, which are billions of time fainter than their parent star, a space telescope capable of seeing at even higher angular resolution will be required. NASA is studying such a space mission, the Terrestrial Planet Finder." This quote is from the JWST web page located at: http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/faq.html#basic JWST will do fantastic science, but if someone says that it will do things that are impossible for it to do, the entire project is likely to suffer.

It's oversight season: 'Hundreds' of hearings to tackle funding cuts, The Hill

"House appropriations oversight season starts in earnest this week as subcommittees hold the first of "hundreds" of oversight hearings to trim funding for federal agencies and programs. On Wednesday, two of the 12 appropriations subcommittees are set to review budget numbers with key officials from the Justice Department, Commerce Department, NASA and Securities and Exchange Commission."

House Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Hearing: Oversight of the National Science Foundation and NASA

Diagnostic models provide significant analytical and operational benefits to improve the dependability and efficiency of NASA systems.

The Constellation Program and the Exploration Technology Development Program (ETDP) funded the development of diagnostic models using the TEAMS (Testability Engineering and Maintenance System) tool for the Ares, Orion, and Ground Operations Projects to demonstrate operational uses for ground processing and launch operations. These models were found useful not only for operational pre-launch checkout, but also for analysis of failure effects, failure detection coverage, and fault isolation effectiveness. TEAMS, a commercial model-based tool from Qualtech Systems, Inc. (East Hartford, CT), performs fault diagnostics (isolation and identification). Fault isolation means identifying the location of the fault (cause) that is compromising system functions. Fault identification means identifying the failure mode (mechanism) that is causing system failure. Diagnostics refers to both fault isolation and identification functions.

A company is interested in licensing a film material that can be printed, sprayed, or transferred onto an anodized aluminum surface, such that the applied layer prevents oxygen from reaching and reacting with copper or other colored metals that are electro-deposited into the alumina pores. The abrasion-resistant barrier must withstand temperatures up to 800 °F for 10-15 minutes, and endure continuous heating up to 500 °F.

Enterprise application and information technology services
Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC)
McLean, VA
703-676-4300
http://www.saic.com

SAIC was awarded the Enterprise Applications Service Technologies (EAST) contract by NASA to provide a broad range of information technology (IT) services in support of the NASA Enterprise Applications Competency Center. Work will be performed at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, AL.

Dr.
Jim Green began his NASA career in 1980 at Marshall Space Flight
Center’s Magnetospheric Physics Branch where he developed and
managed the Space Physics Analysis Network (SPAN), NASA’s precursor
to the Internet. From 1985 to 1992 he served as Head of the National
Space Science Data Center at the Goddard Space Flight Center,
followed by a 13-year stint as Chief of the Space Science Data
Operations Office. In 2005 he was named Chief of the Science Proposal
Support Office, where he served until August 2006 when he was
appointed Director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division.

Just in time for summer, NASA-developed wireless sensor technology is giving recreational boaters safer and more accurate readings of how much fuel is in their tanks. The magnetic measuring system also has potential uses in planes, trains, and automobiles.