Space Oddity? China Plays 'America the Beautiful' During Space Lab Launch, Spacecom

"State broadcaster CCTV and the Chinese space agency collaborated on a short video to mark the liftoff of China's unmanned Tiangong 1 space lab Thursday night (Sept. 29), The Guardian newspaper reports. The 98-second video gives an animated look at the launch and Tiangong 1's mission -- all set, puzzlingly, to an instrumental version of "America the Beautiful."

NASA Exploration Ideas - With Added China Bashing (Update)

Keith's note: Gee, the Chinese certainly seem to like the U.S. - quite a contrast from the chart that astronaut Andy Thomas used recently within an official NASA presentatino wherein several Chinese astronauts are shown having trampled an American flag left on the Moon by Apollo astronauts.

Space Launch System Acquisition Overview

"The SLS vehicle procurements will be structured to meet the Agency's requirement for an affordable and evolvable vehicle within a schedule that supports various mission requirements. Procurements will include utilization of existing assets to expedite development, as well as further development of technologies and future competitions for advanced systems and key technology areas specific to SLS evolved vehicle needs. Detailed synopses will be issued in the near future for the individual procurements as required by regulation."

NASA Posts Space Launch System Acquisition Overview

"NASA has released the acquisition overview for the Space Launch System (SLS). SLS is an entirely new advanced, heavy-lift launch vehicle that will take the agency's astronauts farther into space than ever before, create high-quality jobs here at home and provide the cornerstone for America's future human space exploration efforts."

House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology Committee Democrats See Some Progress on JPSS, Urge Stable Funding

"The National Polar Orbiting Satellite System (NPOESS) was to be the United States' next-generation satellite system to monitor the Earth's weather, atmosphere, oceans, land and near-space environment, replacing the Department of Defense's (DOD's) and NOAA's polar orbiting satellites. However, the polar orbiting satellite acquisition program was neglected and mismanaged."

Troubled Weather Satellite's Future Uncertain, Witnesses Say

"The ability to do timely and accurate weather forecasting is not at question here, and should not be compromised," said E&E Chairman Andy Harris (R-MD). "However, given the number of problems this program has experienced, the time has come to talk about what is the best way for NOAA to obtain the necessary data to do these forecasts. And by best way, I mean the most efficient and cost effective way."

- Polar Satellites: Agencies Need to Address Potential Gaps in Weather and Climate Data Coverage, GAO
- Statement by Rep. Paul Broun
- Statement by Rep. Andy Harris
- Statement by Rep. Miller
- Statement by Rep. Donna Edwards
- Testimony by Kathryn Sullivan
- Testimony by Christopher Scolese
- Hearing Charter

Adams Looks for Answers on NASA Human Spaceflight (with YouTube clip)

"- Questions directed to Dr. Griffin: When you were Administrator at NASA did you or your deputies ever ignore one of the authorization bills?
- Did you ever get subpoenaed by a House or Senate committee for outright ignoring their requests for information?
- Were you or your deputies ever accused by a Senator in your own party of sabotaging a NASA project just because you didn't agree with Congress?
- Did you ever decide to ignore the role or will of Congress when they asked for your plans to implement the next step in President Bush's vision for NASA?
- Can you think of any reason to slow roll a project that has been authorized and demanded by Congress in Federal law?
- Can you think of any reason why it would be acceptable for a NASA Administrator or his or her deputy to ignore Congress?"

Keith's note: It would seem that Rep. Adams and her staff see her as some sort of crusader on this issue. They have gleefully posted her 5 minutes of questions on YouTube. Alas, she doesn't seem to be willing or able to directly accuse the current NASA Administrator, his staff - or the White House - of sabotage, ignoring Congress, etc. Instead, she used this odd line of questioning - one that can only elicit an answer of "No" from Griffin (or anyone else). The implication (apparently) being that if he didn't do these things then perhaps someone else (not in the room) may have. Mike Griffin seemed to be caught off guard by this line of questioning and answered curtly "no" each time - as if he was being interrogated by some snarky TV lawyer.

I guess Rep. Adams was hoping that Griffin would use the opportunity to dump on Bolden and the White House - but he did not. Indeed, Griffin went on to note that the NASA Administrator serves the Executive branch and that the Executive branch directs the agency's direction and for a NASA Administrator not to do what he was directed to do would be "mutinous". In other words, Bolden is doing what his boss wants him to do.

In the future, it might be more efficient for Rep. Adams to just fire her accusations directly at the Obama Administration and not try to do the indirect insinuation by proxy TV lawyer thing and try to get a former NASA Administrator to say the things she is reluctant to say herself.

NASA Statement on Today's House Hearing Featuring Testimony by Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan

According to a statement by NASA Associate Administrator for the Office of Communications, David Weaver: "We respect the contributions Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan have made in service to our country, and thank them for helping to pave the way for our exciting future forward. Just as their ambitious missions captivated the nation's attention nearly a half-century ago, today's American space explorers are leading the way to even farther destinations that will one day allow the first astronauts to set foot on Mars. ...

Top NASA official 'rooting for' China's success in space exploration, Daily Caller (with audio)

"We haven't talked about the Chinese," Bolden said. "We can't work with the Chinese right now. But I'm rooting for them. They're probably going to put a spacecraft called Shenzhou into orbit here, hopefully by the end of the year. It's going to be the first capsule of their space station. And the reason they are doing that is that we are not allowing them to be partners right now. So they're going alone. They need to be successful to drive us."

Keith's note: Bolden's comments are in stark contrast to the picture that astronaut Andy Thomas included in an official NASA presentation recently that showed Chinese astronauts trampling on a U.S. flag on the lunar surface.

NASA Posts Global Exploration Roadmap

"NASA is releasing the initial version of a Global Exploration Roadmap (GER) developed by the International Space Exploration Coordination Group. This roadmap is the culmination of work by 12 space agencies, including NASA, during the past year to advance coordinated space exploration. The GER begins with the International Space Station and expands human presence throughout the solar system, leading ultimately to crewed missions to explore the surface of Mars."

Committee Democrats Urge Sustained Support for Renewed Human Space Exploration Program

"Today the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology held a hearing entitled, "NASA Human Spaceflight Past, Present, and Future: Where Do We Go From Here?" The purpose of the hearing was to assess NASA's human space exploration goals, plans and capabilities, and examine related issues affecting the Nation's leadership in space and the state of the aerospace industrial base."

Apollo Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan Testify

"The witnesses agreed that a robust human spaceflight effort is vital to the strength of our nation now and in the future. Human spaceflight serves a number of important purposes, including building a strong economy, supporting a high-skilled workforce, ensuring our national security and inspiring the nation. A national commitment to this effort, led by the President and Congress, is essential, particularly in an era of budget austerity. The witnesses further agreed that NASA's recent announcement that it had selected a design for the Space Launch System (SLS) is an important step forward."

- Statement by Rep. Jerry Costello
- Statement by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson
- Testimony by Neil Armstrong
- Testimony by Eugene Cernan
- Testimony by Maria Zuber
- Testimony by Michael Griffin

House Hearing NASA Human Spaceflight Past, Present, and Future: Where Do We Go From Here?

"- Mr. Neil A. Armstrong, Commander, Apollo 11
- Captain Eugene A. Cernan USN (ret.), Commander, Apollo 17
- Dr. Michael D. Griffin, Eminent Scholar and Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Alabama in Huntsville"

Keith's note: Once again Rep. Hall has stacked the deck without even the slightest attempt at being objective and allowing opinions that differ from his own. Oh well, at least we know what Griffin, Armstrong, and Cernan will say since they keep saying the same thing over and over again - all pre-coordinated with each other. And Rep. Hall will ask them the same questions he has asked them a dozen times before. This is nothing more than pre-staged political theater.

Keith's update: Maria Zuber from MIT has been added to the panel. Odds are she will be the only one not drinking Mike Griffin's Koolaid.

Hearing charter

"Neither the administration nor NASA provided Congress with any plans or programs to accomplish those goals. In fact, the funding available for human space exploration in the administration's FY2011 budget request was essentially the same as the FY2010 budget that was deemed "not viable" by the Augustine committee just months earlier."

Live webcast

- Cernan Calls On Bolden To Resign, earlier post
- Bolden Vs Armstrong and Cernan: Clash of the Titans Round 2, earlier post
- Mike Griffin, Master Manipulator, earlier post
- Today's Senate Hearing on Space Policy, earlier post

Letter from Hundreds of College Students to Neil Armstrong, President Obama, and Congress About Space Policy

"We strongly believe that NASA and the nation both benefit greatly from investing in commercial spaceflight programs that will allow astronauts to fly on commercial vehicles; and we urge you to fully fund and support those programs. They offer a win-win situation: we ensure that the nation has a way--or, better yet, several independent ways--to get its astronauts into space following the impending retirement of the Space Shuttle, while the commercial sector will benefit from the support of NASA to grow faster and to hire more of us future graduates."

Planet Hunters Finds Extrasolar Planets Via Crowdsourced Effort

- Planet Hunters: The First Two Planet Candidates Identified by the Public using the Kepler Public Archive Data, MNRAS
- From the Comfort of Home, Web Users May Have Found New Planets, Yale University

Think about this: One would think that with this announcement - one that comes on the heels of the Tatooine discovery last week - that the Kepler team would be working overtime on a way to throw more of its data out - sooner - such that they can harness the crowd-sourced power of interested citizens motivated to make a contribution to the discovery of worlds circling other stars. Not only does this help in times of limited budgets, it allows the citizenry a chance to truly participate in their space agency's exploration of the universe - and therein transform that formerly distant, lofty activity into a personal one. When things get personal, people tend to want to stand up and fight for those things.

Florida raises concern over Wallops expansion, Orlando Sentinel

"The most pressing issue for the Florida workforce is the sense of betrayal that their tax dollars might be used in establishing a competing orbital human spaceflight launch capability in another state when they have so well and ably done the job here in Florida," wrote Lynda Weatherman, president and CEO of the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast. Added Frank DiBello, president of Space Florida, suggested the work could be "duplicative" and raised the possibility of holding a public meeting down in Florida."

Keith's note: Why shouldn't every state in the union have a chance to participate in human space flight? People who live in other states pay tax dollars too - and they have watched their tax dollars go to Florida for half a century for human space flight activities.

James Webb Space Telescope Q&A Session: A Town Hall Webinar

Astronomers Plead for Space Telescope's Life, Wired

"Initially estimated to cost approximately $1 billion in 1996, recent calculations for the telescope peg its price tag at nearly $8.7 billion. An independent panel last year placed the blame for these cost increases on delays and mismanagement by NASA officials. These problems have even created a congressional scuffle, with the House of Representatives voting to zero out the telescope's budget while the Senate produced a bill to fully fund it. The two are currently trying to reconcile the discrepancy."

Controversy over Hubble telescope successor rages on, space.com via MSNBC

"We just really don't know exactly what's going to happen," said planetary scientist Melissa McGrath, chairwoman of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences. "I think people are really fearful right now because of the bigger context in which this is happening. There's a very budget-conscious feeling right now. There's a lot of pressure on the budget external to NASA and JWST, and that just exacerbates the problem. It's just sort of a worst-case scenario."

Keith's note: At one point today the panelists stated that "no one is talking about canceling Webb". Obviously they are unaware of what House Appropriators have been saying. Also, planetary scientist Jon Lunine stated that he did not think that social media was the place to be having discussions about space policy matters. Alas, Lunine was responding to a question I posted via Twitter and did so on a webinar heavily promoted via social media by its organizers. Rick Howard from NASA could not say where the cost overruns (final cost now pegged at $8.7 billion) would be taken from at NASA other than that half would come from SMD and the rest would come from, well, he did not know exactly where other than it would come from within NASA. And of course no one (including AURA, STScI, and AAS) really wanted to talk about differing opinions withing the space and planetary science community about Webb other than to suggest that internal squabbling was to be discouraged. Instead they repeatedly offered up happy talk about how the world loves Webb. The whole thing is online here. Watch for yourself.

Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite Reentry Update #6 Wed, 21 Sep 2011 08:03:34 AM EDT

"As of Sept. 21, 2011, the orbit of UARS was 120 mi by 130 mi (195 km by 210 km). Re-entry is expected Sept. 23, United States time. The time reference does not mean that the satellite is expected to re-enter over the United States. It is simply a time reference. Although it is still too early to predict the time and location of re-entry, predictions of the time period are becoming more refined."

Download the Sounds of NASA

Some of the most historic and interesting sound bites from NASA space missions are now available for download as ringtones on your phone, or on your computer for alarms and notifications.

You can hear the roar of a space shuttle launch or Neil Armstrong's "One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind," every time you get a phone call. A new NASA Web page has more than 35 different sounds, including “Houston, we've had a problem," and segments from President Kennedy’s historic Moon speech.

The NASA sounds are available in both MP3 and M4R (iPhone) files. NASA will update the collection as new sounds become available. To listen to and download the sounds, click here.

Draft Environmental Assessment for Issuing an Experimental Permit to SpaceX for Operation of the Grasshopper Vehicle at the McGregor Test Site,Texas

"The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) proposes to issue an experimental permit to Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) to conduct suborbital launches and landings of the Grasshopper reusable launch vehicle (RLV) at the McGregor, Texas test site. ... The Grasshopper RLV consists of a Falcon 9 Stage 1 tank, a Merlin-1D engine, four steel landing legs, and a steel support structure. Carbon overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs), which are filled with either nitrogen or helium, are attached to the support structure. The Merlin- 1D engine has a maximum thrust of 122,000 pounds. The overall height of the Grasshopper RLV is 106 feet, and the tank height is 85 feet."

NASA Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite Reentry Update #16 Sat, 24 Sep 2011 11:37:25 AM EDT

"NASA's decommissioned Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite fell back to Earth between 11:23 p.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 23 and 1:09 a.m. EDT Sept. 24. The Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California said the satellite entered the atmosphere over the North Pacific Ocean, off the west coast of the United States. The precise re-entry time and location of any debris impacts are still being determined. NASA is not aware of any reports of injury or property damage. This is your source for official information on the re-entry of UARS. All information posted here has been verified with a government agency or law enforcement. NASA will conduct a media telecon at 2 p.m. ET to discuss the re-entry. The telecon will be streamed live at http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio."

More information

Keith's note: NASA PAO's Beth Dickey, who has a history of playing favorites with the media and denying access to those she does not like, refused to allow Nick Johnson to answer my second question. Let me summarize it:

While Johnson made constant references to the "success" of his international effort to track UARS, in all honesty, they still do not know where or when it landed. Various media outlets have shown the animations of orbital debris - produced by NASA - a problem that is only going to get worse in the future. Alas, attempts have been made to cut Johnson's budget in the past. Based on his own comments, it seems that NASA had to rely on amateurs and volunteers to look for the satellite and indeed, the only ground-based video taken of UARS in orbit was taken by a gifted amateur in Europe.

I was wondering why Johnson (i.e. NASA) does not seek to enlist more participation from the public in future activities since its resources seem to be stretched. They might want to do this for no other reason than this would help further a better understanding among the public of what these re-entries (which occur at a rate of one per day) entail and maybe cut back on the crazy "it landed in my back yard and hit my cat" reports that have been swirling around.

But Beth Dickey refused to allow Johnson to answer stating that the telecon was about UARS. Well, DUH Beth, did you even listen to my question? The audio from this teleconference will be posted around 3:45 pm EDT. Lets see if they edit out the second question I asked.

Space Satellite UARS Adrift and Heading for Earth, ABC

"A nearly 6-ton satellite is heading toward Earth and could crash into the planet as early as Sept. 23, NASA officials said."

Keep Sept. 23 open: A satellite is heading our way, CBS

"NASA has been watching the 6-ton satellite closely. On Friday officials moved up their prediction for its arrival to Sept. 23, give or take a day. Scientists have calculated that the satellite, named the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, will break into 26 pieces as it gets closer to Earth. The agency will offer the public more detailed information early next week."

NASA Studying Shuttle Retrieval of Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) (2001)

"EVA Project Office personnel supported a concept review for the possible Space Shuttle retrieval of the UARS on May 3, 2001. At this point, several different options are still under consideration. The mission would require at least one scheduled EVA to secure various deployable components on the spacecraft. UARS was originally designed to be compatible with EVA operations, so most of the tasks appear to be feasible. An EVA splinter meeting is scheduled for May 10, 2001, to further discuss the EVA requirements for this proposed mission."

NASA commercial crew program shifts contracting strategy, Florida Today

"NASA today told industry partners it would abandon the use of Space Act Agreements in the next phase of the program developing commercial crew taxis, despite many companies' preference for them. "We've made our decision and we recognize that not everyone will agree with it, but we're at the point where we had to make one and move forward," Brent Jett, deputy director of the Commercial Crew Program office, said during a meeting at Kennedy Space Center."

Keith's note: I love it when people with no apparent commercial experience in the real world make decisions like this regarding commercial partnerships. And then they wonder why companies are increasingly wary of entering into new ways of doing "business" with NASA when NASA is constantly changing the rules.

You can download slides from the NASA Commercial Crew Program Forum presentations here. There will be a Commercial Crew Transportation Technical Requirements Workshop on 4 October 2011 and an Industry Day on 5 October. Location TBA.

In the 21st Century, How Do You Show What You Know?, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

"... the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, HASTAC and Mozilla today announced a $2 million Digital Media and Learning Competition for leading organizations, learning and assessment specialists, designers and technologists to create and test badges and badge systems. The competition will explore ways digital badges can be used to help people learn; demonstrate their skills and knowledge; unlock job, educational and civic opportunities; and open new pipelines to talent. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and high-level business, technology, civic engagement, philanthropic and other leaders participated in the announcement at the Hirshhorn Museum this morning."

Keith's note: There was yet another stealth Bolden appearance yesterday. They just beam him in and then out of these events. NASA PAO made no advance notice, there is nothing posted on NASA.gov - or on NASA's education webpage. Nothing as to what Charlie Bolden said either. Charlie, why do even bother attending these events if you do not let anyone know you were there - or what your agency will be doing inconnection with what was being announced?