News NASA's Future: The News and Updates Thread

[orb]

Spaceflight Now: NASA to set exploration architecture this summer

 

[Belisarius]

Great interview on the Stephen Colbert show with Andrew Chaikin, the writer of "A Man on the Moon", a highly recommendable book for general readers. Haven't read his new book on Mars exploration, but I will...

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-co...5/april-04-2011/andrew-chaikin?xrs=share_copy

He is highly critical of the lack of overall long-term NASA strategy for manned spaceflight.

 

[orb]

Spaceflight Now: Rising launch costs could curtail NASA science missions:

Already faced with a potentially flat budget over the next half-decade, scientists and managers overseeing NASA's robotic science probes worry rising and volatile rocket launch prices could further limit the agency's ability to explore the solar system and maintain crucial climate research.

Rising launch costs could claim a larger slice of a mission's budget, increasing the price of projects geared for planetary science, astrophysics and Earth observations, according to senior NASA officials.

With the federal government's spotlight on spending cuts, it isn't likely NASA will get a budget boost to offset the launch costs, which experts say are triggered by inefficient rocket buying practices, an eroding commercial market, and uncertainty about the future of the space program.

That leaves NASA with just one option: fly fewer missions.

{...}

 

[orb]

SPACE.com: NASA Braces for Possible Government Shutdown

TCU Daily Skiff: NASA will have no goal after shuttle program

 

[Star Voyager]

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

http://www.floridatoday.com/article...ill-snag-shuttle?odyssey=tab|topnews|img|Home

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

http://www.floridatoday.com/article...ill-snag-shuttle?odyssey=tab|topnews|img|Home

My predictions:

• Discovery - National Air & Space Museum, Washington DC.
• Atlantis - US Air Force Museum, Dayton, Ohio.
• Endeavour - Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center, Florida.
• Enterprise - Museum of Flight, Seattle.

I'd like to see Atlantis go to Houston, since that would better distribute the orbiters around the US - but I don't think it's gonna happen.

 

[Star Voyager]

That's because Houston, like the Smithsonian, has no money. Although, I would love to see Enterprise go back to Edwards AFB.

 

[orb]

Space News: Budget Compromise Includes $18.5 Billion for NASA:

WASHINGTON — The 2011 budget compromise Congress and the White House reached April 8 to avert a government shutdown includes $18.485 billion for NASA, or about 1.3 percent less than the $18.724 billion the U.S. space agency was given for 2010.

Details of the proposal, which includes a $38 billion reduction in nondefense spending, were posted April 12 on the House Appropriations Committee website.

Most of the NASA savings were achieved by funding Space Operations — an account that includes the international space station and soon-to-be-retired space shuttle — at about $600 million below the 2010 level and denying increases the White House sought for Science, Aeronautics and Education. There's also no funding specified for Space Technology, a roughly $300 million account NASA hopes to boost to $1 billion next year.

Exploration is the big winner in the NASA portion of the spending bill Congress intends to enact this week to keep the federal government funded for the remainder of fiscal 2011, which runs through September.

The bill, H.R. 1473, carves out $3.8 billion for Exploration, including $1.2 billion for a multipurpose crew vehicle based on NASA's in-development Orion capsule and $1.8 billion for a heavy-lift vehicle "which shall have a lift capability not less than 130 tons and which shall have an upper stage and other core elements developed simultaneously."

Exploration was funded at $3.625 billion in 2010, a sum that would rise to $3.7 billion under the agency's spending plan for 2012.

H.R. 1473 also frees NASA to formally cancel the Constellation program under which it has been developing the Ares family of rockets and an Orion spacecraft optimized for manned lunar missions.

Another policy provision prohibits NASA and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from engaging in bilateral activities with China.

{...}

 

[ky]

Anybody hear about NASA's proposal for a new spacecraft?It';s called liberty and is a combination of the 5 segment srb's from the ares 1 and the first stage of the araine 5

 

[Star Voyager]

Yes:

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1102/08liberty/

 

[orb]

Yes:

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1102/08liberty/

We have a thread for it too:

• [News] ATK & Astrium Liberty™ Launch Vehicle

 

[orb]

Spaceflight Now: Budget pessimism may drive JWST launch date to 2018

 

[Zachstar]

Spaceflight Now: Budget pessimism may drive JWST launch date to 2018

I guess we can be glad Hubble was repaired.

 

[N_Molson]

Spaceflight Now : Spending bill will put an end to the Constellation program

 

[orb]

Space News: Congress Approves $18.45 Billion for NASA

NASA: NASA Administrator Charles Bolden's Statement On The 2011 Spending Bill

Florida Today - The Flame Trench: Congress approves cut to NASA budget

 

[orb]

The Space Review: NASA’s continuing problems

 

[Belisarius]

Interesting report in today's New York Times on how the NASA astronauts are responding to the imminent end of their space careers:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/24/science/space/24astronaut.html

“Morale is pretty low,” said Leroy Chiao, a former astronaut who now works for a company that wants to offer space flights for tourists. “This is a time of great uncertainty.”

Another astronaut for whom the new realities presented a problem was Capt. Scott D. Altman of the Navy, who has flown four missions for NASA. But at 6-foot-4, he does not fit into a Soyuz capsule.

After his last shuttle flight in 2009, Captain Altman, 51, saw the writing on the wall. As he wrestled with the decision over whether to leave NASA, the Obama administration made the decision to scrap Constellation and Ares I. He announced last August that he would depart.

There are some new astronauts - or should we say NASA cosmonauts? - still being recruited, but these must of course comply with Soyuz requirements for height.

NASA will still be hiring astronauts... the agency will recruit a new class of 6 to 12 astronauts, Dr. Whitson said. If NASA decides to reduce tours of duty at the space station from six months to four, that would mean a need for even more astronauts.

Opportunities there for smaller-size Russian-speaking Orbinauts with US citizenship!

 

[Star Voyager]

My old school is here on this list (Edgewood Jr. Sr. HS):

http://cramsession.flatoday.net/2011/04/thirty-schools-will-close-early-on.html

 

[anemazoso]

USA Today: Column: Is Obama grounding JFK's space legacy?


This column is very sad to me because it is so one sided. It's like Karl Rove wrote it. There is no technical merit in the opinions stated by these former heroes and I find it disturbing.

 

[orb]

NASASpaceflght: SLS configuration nears decision point – Two-phase approach rejected