Some good news: Dawn has returned its first sharp close-up image of Vesta.
The image to below the fold is to me a relief, as it shows that the spacecraft’s camera is fine and that my engineering friends were correct in telling me so. Forgive me for being a skeptical and nervous reporter.
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NASA to announce on Friday the landing site of Curiousity, the next Mars rover.
And in a related note: Long, cramped road trips ahead for US astronauts.
Yesterday the House appropriations committee’s released budget numbers that included no additional funds for commercial space, limiting the subsidies to $312 million, the same number as last year and significantly less than the $850 million requested by the Obama administration.
This is what I have thought might happen since last year. The tone deaf manner in which the Obama administration has implemented the private space subsidies is leaving all funding for NASA vulnerable.
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The law is such an inconvenient thing: In a bipartisan effort, Texas lawmakers roast NASA administrator Charles Bolden for not meeting mandated Congressional deadlines for Congress’s personally designed rocket, the program-formerly-called-Constellation.
The heavy-lift rocket and capsule that Congress insists NASA build is a complete waste of money and nothing more than pork. It will never get built, mainly because Congress has given NASA less money and less time to build it than they did for Constellation under the Bush administration. Unfortunately, the reason they continue to require NASA to build it is to provide pork to their districts.
In a perfect world this funding would be cut now, especially considering the state of the federal debt.
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NASA awards a key piece of ISS management to Florida, not Houston.
The story reports that politics were not involved, but I am suspicious. Since all ISS management and operations come out of Houston, why send some of that management to Florida?
The House bill that brings NASA’s budget back to 2008 levels essentially leaves it to NASA to figure out what to cut.
If true, what this means is that NASA itself will have to choose what it considers important. The one problem is that according to this article Congress is still requiring NASA to spend $3 billion on the program-formerly-called-Constellation. which gives the agency less flexibility in doling out the cash.
Confessions of a moon rock thief.
And in a related story: Fish captain fights to keep long-missing moon rock.
It ain’t ever happening: NASA continues to stall on their final design for Congress’s mandated heavy-lift rocket.
No one should be surprised by this. Obama has never wanted NASA to build this rocket, when it was Constellation and now when it is the program-formerly-called-Constellation. Moreover, Congress hasn’t given NASA enough money or time to do it anyway. Better the program die and the money is used for something else, or cut entirely in order to reduce the crushing federal debt.
It appears that U.S. aerospace layoffs more than tripled in the first half of 2011.
The downsizing, prompted by cutbacks in defense and government contracts, jumped from 6,121 in the first six months of 2010 to 20,851 this year, based on planned layoffs announced by major employers.
Though I have always favored shutting down the government space agency and replacing it with privately-built rockets and spaceships, the manner in which this is being done now is disgraceful. George Bush declared the retirement of the shuttle seven years ago. Since then Congress, Bush, and Obama have all done an abominable job preparing the nation for that retirement.
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The transition to private space: Sierra Nevada hires former NASA engineers and astronauts.
The House today proposed cutting NASA’s budget back to 2008 levels while eliminating all funds for the James Webb Space Telescope.
As much as I’d hate to see the Webb telescope die, it has cost far more than planned, is way behind schedule, and carries a gigantic risk of failure. However, if I had a choice, I’d rather they cut the $1.95 billion for Congress’s homemade heavy-lift rocket, the program-formerly-called-Constellation. There is a much better chance that Webb will get completed, launched, and work, than there is for this improvised and impossibly costly Congressionally conceived rocket.
A former NASA official frets about the future lack of scientists to lead small planetary missions.
Seems a bit long to me: NASA foresees a two year period after the last shuttle lands to retire the program completely.
NASA is suing Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell over camera ownership.
NASA research planes to fly very low over Baltimore/Washington roadways over the next month to study air quality.
As valuable as this research might be, what the hell does it have to do with the exploration of space, and why is NASA doing it? Shouldn’t this be the work of NOAA?
The space war continues: Several senators are threatening to subpoena NASA over what they perceive as the agency’s foot-dragging in building a heavy-lift rocket.
Idiots. They give NASA less money and less time to build the program-formerly-called-Constellation, and then are surprised when things don’t go well. Of course, it doesn’t help that the Obama administration is trying to sabotage the project anyway.
Other science money troubles: NASA’s climate and astronomy programs face delays due to cost overruns and rocket failures.
NASA is about to decide on its shuttle heavy-lift replacement, and it looks like it will be almost entirely shuttle-derived.
As I have said previously, this rocket will almost certainly never fly. NASA has to start over after spending billions and years developing Constellation, and is being given less money and time to do it.
And even if I am wrong and this rocket does fly, I bet it will do only one flight and then be retired as too costly.
The debate over arsenic-based life continues.
Turf war: SpaceX has sued a NASA safety expert (with ties to the Ares rocket program) who questioned the safety of the Falcon 9 rocket.
The pork goes on: The shuttle’s end has still left NASA with a half billion dollar pension bill.
Don’t bet on it: A memo signed today by a senior NASA official marks the end of the Constellation program.
All this does is make the name change of the program-formerly-called-Constellation official. The pork continues nonetheless!
The Republican presidential candidates discussed the space program’s future at the New Hampshire debate last night.
NASA has finally released the photos of Endeavour docked to ISS, taken from a departing Soyuz.
The James Webb Space Telescope: The disaster that destroyed NASA’s astrophysics program.
