Space group disbands after failed Vandenberg project, Pacific Coast Business Times

"The California Space Authority, Inc., (CSA) has initiated the process of dissolving the non-profit corporation in accordance with state law and the by-laws of the organization," the group said in an e-mail statement to supporters. "The CSA board of directors voted unanimously on June 6, 2011, to begin the dissolution process and the members of CSA subsequently voted in favor of corporate dissolution. CSA will cease to operate effective today, June 10, 2011."

Aquarius/SAC-D Launched

"With a burst of light, the United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket carrying the Aquarius/SAC-D spacecraft lifted off June 10, 2011 at 7:20 a.m. PDT (10:20 a.m. EDT) from NASA's Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California."

NASA Launches Space-Based Saline Solution, OSTP

"Aquarius is the product of an international collaborative effort between NASA and the Argentine space agency, with contributions by Canada, France, Brazil, and Italy. This new capability will enhance and complement the European Space Agency's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellite designed primarily to measure soil moisture."

Keith's note: There is a memorial banner on the launch tower that reads "In memory of our colleague and friend Hal Chase - the ULA Team". Hal Chase was a ULA employee at VAFB and passed away recently.

"Most NASA 'insiders' rely on NASAWatch.com for timely NASA news. Run by a former NASA engineer with an attitude, Keith Cowing gives readers an unofficial [interesting] perspective on space news. Sometimes shocking, always interesting. Take a look NASA Watch."

Please visit NASAology.com for more cartoons.

Rocket Launch Completed From NASA Wallops

"The launch of a NASA Terrier-Improved Orion suborbital rocket was successfully conducted at 7:16 a.m. EDT today from NASAs Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The launch was to test several new rocket and spacecraft technologies."

Keith's 9 Jun note: NASA Wallops is trying to launch a Terrier-improved Orion suborbital sounding rocket from NASA's Launch Range at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia today. At liftoff time @NASA_Wallops Tweeted ... 7:09: "Terrier Armed" ... 7:11 "And we have no launch" ... 7:21: "We have a hang fire. The launch signal was sent, but nothing happened. Now we wait 30 minutes for safety before inspecting the craft." 7:22: "We have a launch window through 10 a.m. If everything checks out we may be able to try again."

There is a live webcast link here that was supposed to start at 6 am EDT but I cannot seem to get it to work. According to a WFF source: "A decision has been made to lower the launcher, take a look at the system and the decide if we should try again today."

It has been months since WFF PAO took the WFF Operations Schedule page offline. Here are the upcoming launches that WFF does not want to tell the public about courtesy of the latest issue of Wallop's "Inside the Gate":

June 9-11 -- 7-10:0 a.m. -- Terrier-Improved Orion
June 23-25 -- 6-9 a.m. -- Terrier Improved Orion
June 27-July 10 -- Evening -- Minotaur/ORS-1
July 5-23 -- Day -- 2 Terrier-Improved Orions/2 Black Brant Vs
July 21-23 -- Day -- Terrier-Improved Orion
August 3-5 -- Day -- Terrier-Improved Malemute

Kei9 June 9:15 am EDT update: A Wallops source reports: "launch scrubbed today - will try again tomorrow"

NBC Nightly News showcases "New Space Race", Commercial Spaceflight Federation

"NBC Nightly News recently featured the commercial spaceflight industry in a piece examining the future of spaceflight following retirement of the Space Shuttle. "With just one more shuttle mission to go before the program ends this summer, a new space race is already well underway," says NBC anchor Lester Holt."

NASTAR Center Completes First FAA Safety Approval Audit - Space Training Simulator Centrifuge

"Representatives from FAA AST, Washington, DC, conducted the audit. The audit consisted of a review of conformance to the terms of the Safety Approval as well as a review of the STS-400, including operating and safety procedures, operation and maintenance manuals, and inspection and maintenance documentation. Additionally, the use of the STS-400 in the NASTAR Center space training programs was reviewed and several training profiles were observed."

New Expedition 28 Crew Members Arrive at International Space Station

"The Expedition 28 crew has expanded to six members with the arrival of Flight Engineers Mike Fossum, Sergei Volkov and Satoshi Furukawa. The new trio docked to the International Space Station in the Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft Thursday at 5:18 p.m. EDT. The new crew members entered the station's Rassvet module to begin their stay when the hatches were opened at 8:34 p.m."

Mars Mission May Be In Jeopardy, NPR

"NASA's inspector general issued a significant list Wednesday of items that need to be resolved before the next mission to Mars can be launched in November. Some say the challenges won't be resolved in time, causing the Mars team to miss their launch window. That's a problem because the next window for sending a craft to Mars isn't for two years -- and the cost of rejiggering the program to fit that window might be too high for NASA to stomach."

Mars rover faces contamination issues, Nature

"Furthermore, the report notes concerns with the way that the rover's plutonium-238 power supply has degraded in the two years since the rover's launch was delayed from 2009 to the current window, between October and December of this year."

Next Mars rover faces bumpy ride to launch, New Scientist

"Hundreds of unsolved problems could delay the launch of NASA's ambitious new Mars rover by two years and add more than $500 million to its budget, according to a report from the agency's inspector general. But NASA is downplaying the concerns, saying it is "very confident" that it will meet its intended launch window, which begins in November."

Keith's note: According to NASA HQ PAO a movie compilation of Dawn approach imagery for Vesta will be released on Monday. The original plan had been to release this video on Friday but the delay in the launch of Aquarius pushed this back until next week. A plan is also being assembled whereby JPL releases one image per week until Dawn arrives at Vesta. This is a great start - but given that Cassini [example] - and MER [example] teams post raw stuff - warts and all - almost the instant they get it, one would hope that JPL PAO could be internally consistent and do the same with Dawn imagery as they do for other missions. The more they release, the more the public will come to understand just how it is that NASA does what it does - and do so by looking over robotic shoulders as a new world comes into view for the very first time.

Why is JPL Sitting on Dawn Images? (Update: Still Waiting), earlier post

NASA OIG: Final Report: NASA's Management of the Mars Science Laboratory Project

"Our analysis of the Project's current estimate to complete development indicates that even the $537 million figure may be too low. Our analysis is based on the earned value management system budget data and estimates of the additional work that will be needed to address unknowns. We estimate that $581 million may be required - $44 million more than management's latest estimate. Based on our calculations, unless managers request additional money the Project may have insufficient funds to complete all currently identified tasks prior to launch and may therefore be forced to reduce capabilities, delay the launch for 2 years, or cancel the mission."

Keith's note: A media teleconference is now getting underway with NASA PAO and SMD's Dave Lavery.. Replays of this conference will be available at 888-567-0444. Notes below.

SMD concurs with report and has begun to implement reccommendations. Lavery: Contamination issues with manufacturing have been dealt with and the process now meets requirements. We are fully on schedule to make a launch this Fall. Software developement will continue during cruise to Mars. The original intent was to have it done before launch but this approach has been done before with MER. There may be some software updates as well once the rover is on Mars and surface and vehicle conditions have been fully understood. There is no plan to descope any of the capabilities of MSL due to software issues. Final mission cost: $1.8 billion - add in operations and the total life cycle cost is $2.5 billion.

Editors note: it is important to note that software updates to spacecraft en route to - and after arrival at - destinations is a capability NASA has demonstrated for decades. One look at the regular updates to Voyager spacecraft bears testimony to this approach.

Lavery: If we were to miss this launch opportunity we would need a larger launch vehicle and have to redesign the interface with the launcher. We'd need to add costs for the team to stay engaged and replan the mission since we'd be landing at a time when dust levels would be higher.

An Open Letter to Neil Armstrong, Gene Cernan, and James Lovell, Dennis Wingo, SpaceRef

"Recently, a joint letter was penned by three legendary Apollo lunar astronauts berating the Obama Administration for "Grounding JFK's Space Legacy" and declaring that a coherent plan for maintaining America's leadership in space exploration is no longer apparent. While it may be that the current administration's plans are not perfect - and a new national debate on space appropriate - these plans stand head and shoulders over the plan that was the latter implementation of the Constellation program. Furthermore, these space veterans have been misinformed pertaining to the reasons for the demise and cancellation of the Constellation program."

NASA Spending Shift to Benefit Centers Focused on Science & Technology

"Euroconsult, the leading international consulting and analyst firm specializing in the space sector, along with the consulting firm Omnis, today announced the findings of a study today foreseeing a significant shift in NASA spending toward Earth science and R&D programs and away from legacy spaceflight activities. According to the report "NASA Spending Outlook: Trends to 2016," NASA's budget, which will remain flat at around $18.7 billion for the next five years, will also be characterized by significant shifts from space operations to technology development and science."

NASA Internal Memo: Transformation of Agency Information Technology (IT) Services

"The Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) is integrating and consolidating many IT services throughout the Agency. This new effort is called the IT Infrastructure Integration Program, or I3P. It will affect every employee who uses IT services such as: desktops, laptops, networks, etc.  The scope of I3P is broad, entailing consolidation, improved governance, and central management of IT services in the areas of service desk and ordering, Web services and technologies, enterprise business and management applications, integrated communications/network services, and end-user services.  Roll-out schedules will vary by each Center. Each Center's Chief Information Officer will send out more detailed information, but below you'll find a high-level summary of the new program."

Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) Meeting 24, NASA

Marc's note: For the first time NASA's community-based forum, the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG), will be holding its meeting outside the U.S., and in this case in Lisbon, Portugal. This is significant in the context of tighter budgets for all concerned where future Mars missions will see greater international cooperation to share costs while at the same time achieving mutual desired science and exploration results. The era of NASA doing Mars mission wholly or mostly on its own appears to be ending. At least for the foreseeable future.

Some of the key topics of the meeting include:

- Discussion of NASA's and ESA's Mars program status, budget, current missions, and forward planning.
- First MEPAG meeting that can respond to the Decadal Survey results.

12 Space Shuttle Missions That Weren't, IEEE Spectrum

"The U.S. space shuttle fleet is set for retirement following the launch of Atlantis, scheduled for mid-July. In all, the fleet will have flown 135 missions, the first in 1981, but there were many more on the drawing board. With scrubbed missions that included daring rescues, in-orbit satellite snatches, and dangerous explosives, you can see why some of these didn't make the cut. But just imagine if they had."

NASA Solicitation: Flight and Payload Services for Suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicles

"This notice is issued by the NASA/DFRC to post a draft RFP via the internet, and solicit responses from interested parties. This document is for information and planning purposes and to allow industry the opportunity to verify reasonableness and feasibility of the requirement, as well as promote competition."

Amazing Wide Angle Photo Taken Outside of the Space Station

According to @Astro_Ron: "On today's spacewalk @Astro_Taz took the most amazing #ISS px ever Can't wait to see @Astro_Paolo 's from Soyuz"

Keith's note: More photos have been added. I wonder why they never tried to take shots like this before!

Challenge.gov: Mapping Dark Matter

"The aim is to measure the shapes of galaxies to reconstruct the gravitational lensing signal in the presence ofnoise and a known Point Spread Function. The signal is a very small change in the galaxies'ellipticity, an exactly circular galaxy image would be changed into anellipse; however real galaxies are not circular. The challenge is to measure the ellipticity of 100,000 simulated galaxies."

Aussie student finds universe's 'missing mass', AFP

"A 22-year-old Australian university student has solved a problem which has puzzled astrophysicists for decades, discovering part of the so-called "missing mass" of the universe during her summer break. Undergraduate Amelia Fraser-McKelvie made the breakthrough during a holiday internship with a team at Monash University's School of Physics, locating the mystery material within vast structures called "filaments of galaxies".

Keith's note: According to the ISS National Lab Management Entity CAN the "anticipated selection announcement" is 31 May 2011. NASA never wanted to go down this path to begin with. As such, it will be interesting to see what team NASA picks and whether the agency will ever truly yield any control of the ISS to an external entity - or allow any creative thinking to enter into the management of the ISS. Given the way that this CAN was formulated, we are probably just going to see more of the same old 20th century mindset that has dominated ISS management since the 1990s.

- ISS National Lab CAN Provides Old, Incomplete Documents, earlier post
- NASA's Slow Motion Reluctance To Truly Open Up The ISS, earlier post
- The Primary Purpose (Today) of the ISS is Operations, Not Science, earlier post
- Using the ISS: Once Again NASA Has Been Left in the Dust, earlier post

Zero Gravity Corporation Awarded Safety Approval from the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation

"The Safety Approval, granted on April 20, 2011 and in effect for five years, allows ZERO-G to offer reduced gravity parabolic flight profiles to prospective suborbital launch operators to meet the applicable components of the crew qualification and training requirements outlined in the Code of Federal Regulations (14 C.F.R. S 460.5). These regulations require crew members to complete training on how to carry out their roles on board or on the ground and to demonstrate the ability to withstand the stresses of spaceflight, which may include high acceleration or deceleration, microgravity, and vibration."