May 31 is the 151st day of the year (152nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 214 days remaining until the end of the year.
No "firsts" in space news on this day.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
What Happened in Space News May 30
May 30 is the 150th day of the year (151st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 215 days remaining until the end of the year.
May 30, 1971 – Mariner program: Mariner 9 is launched to map 70% of the surface, and to study temporal changes in the atmosphere and surface, of Mars.
May 30, 1971 – Mariner program: Mariner 9 is launched to map 70% of the surface, and to study temporal changes in the atmosphere and surface, of Mars.
Friday, May 28, 2010
What Happened in Space News May 29
May 29 is the 149th day of the year (150th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 216 days remaining until the end of the year.
How much are you going to accomplish in the next 216 days?
May 29, 1999 – Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station.
How much are you going to accomplish in the next 216 days?
May 29, 1999 – Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station.
'Nasa can no longer depend on Indians'
From the Times of India: 'Nasa can no longer depend on Indians'
MUMBAI: With many Indian space scientists returning to their country post-9/11, the US space agency, Nasa, is feeling the need to focus on "homegrown brains", Nasa administrator Charles Bolden has said.
The Nasa chief made it clear during a meeting with members of Council on Foreign Relations in Washington on Monday.
"Nasa can no longer depend on expatriates", he said. Bolden remarked that after 9/11 it became tough for Indians and Asians to get into the US and stay there. He said Indian space scientists wanted to return to their country because they were keen to help develop India's space technology and lead a "hassle-free life".
He told the meeting: "What a lot of them are starting to do today is they're going back home. You know especially Indians. They're saying why should I go through this hassle? I can go back to my own country and I can really make a difference," Bolden said.
MUMBAI: With many Indian space scientists returning to their country post-9/11, the US space agency, Nasa, is feeling the need to focus on "homegrown brains", Nasa administrator Charles Bolden has said.
The Nasa chief made it clear during a meeting with members of Council on Foreign Relations in Washington on Monday.
"Nasa can no longer depend on expatriates", he said. Bolden remarked that after 9/11 it became tough for Indians and Asians to get into the US and stay there. He said Indian space scientists wanted to return to their country because they were keen to help develop India's space technology and lead a "hassle-free life".
He told the meeting: "What a lot of them are starting to do today is they're going back home. You know especially Indians. They're saying why should I go through this hassle? I can go back to my own country and I can really make a difference," Bolden said.
Lawmakers Questioning NASA Manager’s Removal
From the New York Times: Lawmakers Questioning NASA Manager’s Removal
Members of Congress have asked the inspector general for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to look into whether the NASA leadership is undermining the agency’s moon program.
The request, from Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, Democrat of West Virginia and chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, the committee’s ranking Republican, was sent Thursday, one day after NASA removed the head of the program, Jeffrey M. Hanley.
The program has spent $10 billion over the last five years in an effort to send astronauts back to the moon. However, the Obama administration has concluded that it is too expensive and has proposed canceling it in the budget for the 2011 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
Mr. Rockefeller and Ms. Hutchison asked Paul K. Martin, the NASA inspector general, to “examine whether this or other recent actions by NASA were intended or could reasonably have been expected to foreclose the ability of Congress to consider meaningful alternatives” to the president’s proposed policy, which invests heavily in new space technologies and turns the launching of astronauts over to private companies.
Congress has not yet agreed to the changes and inserted into this year’s budget legislation a clause that prohibits NASA from canceling the program, called Constellation, or starting alternatives without Congressional approval.
Mr. Hanley had been publicly supported by Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden Jr., the NASA administrator, and other NASA officials, but he may have incurred displeasure by publicly talking about how Constellation could be made to fit into the slimmed-down budgets that President Obama has proposed for NASA’s human spaceflight endeavors.
The senators’ letter cites an e-mail message from Douglas R. Cooke, NASA’s associate administrator for exploration systems, to Mr. Hanley on May 21 that told him to focus on items that could be used in the president’s proposed space policy and put less priority on other work.
“It’s enough for us to be extraordinarily concerned,” said a Congressional staff member, who was authorized to speak only anonymously. “It’s not the smoking gun, but it’s smoking. We just want the inspector general to follow the path and report back to us what he’s finding.”
In response to an earlier request from members of the House of Representatives, the General Accountability Office concluded last week that NASA study groups looking into how the proposed policy could be carried out did not violate the Congressional ban on starting new programs.
The office is still investigating a second complaint, that NASA is handicapping Constellation contractors by telling them they need to hold back money to cover costs in case the program is canceled.
Members of Congress have asked the inspector general for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to look into whether the NASA leadership is undermining the agency’s moon program.
The request, from Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, Democrat of West Virginia and chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, the committee’s ranking Republican, was sent Thursday, one day after NASA removed the head of the program, Jeffrey M. Hanley.
The program has spent $10 billion over the last five years in an effort to send astronauts back to the moon. However, the Obama administration has concluded that it is too expensive and has proposed canceling it in the budget for the 2011 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
Mr. Rockefeller and Ms. Hutchison asked Paul K. Martin, the NASA inspector general, to “examine whether this or other recent actions by NASA were intended or could reasonably have been expected to foreclose the ability of Congress to consider meaningful alternatives” to the president’s proposed policy, which invests heavily in new space technologies and turns the launching of astronauts over to private companies.
Congress has not yet agreed to the changes and inserted into this year’s budget legislation a clause that prohibits NASA from canceling the program, called Constellation, or starting alternatives without Congressional approval.
Mr. Hanley had been publicly supported by Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden Jr., the NASA administrator, and other NASA officials, but he may have incurred displeasure by publicly talking about how Constellation could be made to fit into the slimmed-down budgets that President Obama has proposed for NASA’s human spaceflight endeavors.
The senators’ letter cites an e-mail message from Douglas R. Cooke, NASA’s associate administrator for exploration systems, to Mr. Hanley on May 21 that told him to focus on items that could be used in the president’s proposed space policy and put less priority on other work.
“It’s enough for us to be extraordinarily concerned,” said a Congressional staff member, who was authorized to speak only anonymously. “It’s not the smoking gun, but it’s smoking. We just want the inspector general to follow the path and report back to us what he’s finding.”
In response to an earlier request from members of the House of Representatives, the General Accountability Office concluded last week that NASA study groups looking into how the proposed policy could be carried out did not violate the Congressional ban on starting new programs.
The office is still investigating a second complaint, that NASA is handicapping Constellation contractors by telling them they need to hold back money to cover costs in case the program is canceled.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
NASA Finds New Criticism and Skepticism Before Congress
From the New York Times: NASA Finds New Criticism and Skepticism Before Congress
The head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was buffeted with more criticism and skepticism before Congress on Wednesday as he sought to defend the Obama administration’s proposal to revamp the space agency.
Representative Bart Gordon of Tennessee, the Democrat who is chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology, said Congress had still not been told enough to make informed decisions about the president’s plan to cancel the space agency’s Constellation program that would send astronauts back to the moon and turn, instead, to private companies for transportation into orbit.
“So far we have not seen any hard analysis from the administration that would give us confidence that it can be done for the amount budgeted,” he said.
In President Obama’s budget request for the 2011 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, he called the Constellation program too expensive. The spending request added $6 billion over five years to NASA’s budget, but the increase was directed to other areas of NASA like aeronautics research, climate research and robotic science missions.
In a speech last month, Mr. Obama described ambitious goals for NASA: to send astronauts to an asteroid by 2025 and then to Mars a decade later.
But Mr. Gordon noted that the administration’s budget projections for what would be spent through 2025 on human spaceflight were far below what a blue-ribbon panel said last year was necessary for any program sending astronauts beyond low Earth orbit.
“It does no good to cancel a program that the administration characterizes as ‘unexecutable’ if that program is simply replaced with a new plan that can’t be executed either,” Mr. Gordon said.
Additional turmoil surrounded the Constellation program on Wednesday when its program manager, Jeffrey M. Hanley, was removed. In an e-mail message to his team, he said NASA headquarters had told him his services “are no longer required, effective immediately.”
The deputy program manager, Dale Thomas, was named acting program manager, and Mr. Hanley’s new position is as associate director for strategic capabilities at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
At the hearing, Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona, said the reassignment of Mr. Hanley made her “personally very dubious” of the pledge by NASA’s head, Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden Jr., that the agency would diligently continue work on Constellation until Congress approves any changes.
In his April speech, Mr. Obama tried to assuage criticism that he was not interested in human spaceflight by announcing the continued development of the Constellation program’s Orion crew capsule. It was to take astronauts to the moon, but is now envisioned as a lifeboat for the International Space Station.
General Bolden said at the hearing that the Orion lifeboat would cost $4.5 billion over five years to develop, not including the cost of launching it to the space station.
A NASA spokeswoman said later that none of the financing for the Orion lifeboat would come from the $6 billion allocated to the commercial crew program, and that the offsetting funds would come from elsewhere in the human spaceflight program.
The head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was buffeted with more criticism and skepticism before Congress on Wednesday as he sought to defend the Obama administration’s proposal to revamp the space agency.
Representative Bart Gordon of Tennessee, the Democrat who is chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology, said Congress had still not been told enough to make informed decisions about the president’s plan to cancel the space agency’s Constellation program that would send astronauts back to the moon and turn, instead, to private companies for transportation into orbit.
“So far we have not seen any hard analysis from the administration that would give us confidence that it can be done for the amount budgeted,” he said.
In President Obama’s budget request for the 2011 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, he called the Constellation program too expensive. The spending request added $6 billion over five years to NASA’s budget, but the increase was directed to other areas of NASA like aeronautics research, climate research and robotic science missions.
In a speech last month, Mr. Obama described ambitious goals for NASA: to send astronauts to an asteroid by 2025 and then to Mars a decade later.
But Mr. Gordon noted that the administration’s budget projections for what would be spent through 2025 on human spaceflight were far below what a blue-ribbon panel said last year was necessary for any program sending astronauts beyond low Earth orbit.
“It does no good to cancel a program that the administration characterizes as ‘unexecutable’ if that program is simply replaced with a new plan that can’t be executed either,” Mr. Gordon said.
Additional turmoil surrounded the Constellation program on Wednesday when its program manager, Jeffrey M. Hanley, was removed. In an e-mail message to his team, he said NASA headquarters had told him his services “are no longer required, effective immediately.”
The deputy program manager, Dale Thomas, was named acting program manager, and Mr. Hanley’s new position is as associate director for strategic capabilities at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
At the hearing, Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona, said the reassignment of Mr. Hanley made her “personally very dubious” of the pledge by NASA’s head, Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden Jr., that the agency would diligently continue work on Constellation until Congress approves any changes.
In his April speech, Mr. Obama tried to assuage criticism that he was not interested in human spaceflight by announcing the continued development of the Constellation program’s Orion crew capsule. It was to take astronauts to the moon, but is now envisioned as a lifeboat for the International Space Station.
General Bolden said at the hearing that the Orion lifeboat would cost $4.5 billion over five years to develop, not including the cost of launching it to the space station.
A NASA spokeswoman said later that none of the financing for the Orion lifeboat would come from the $6 billion allocated to the commercial crew program, and that the offsetting funds would come from elsewhere in the human spaceflight program.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Space shuttle Atlantis lands for final time
From the AP: Space shuttle Atlantis lands for final time
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space shuttle Atlantis returned from its final voyage Wednesday, closing out a quarter-century flying career and safely bringing back six astronauts from a successful space station mission.
"Twenty-five years, 32 flights and more than 120 million miles traveled. The legacy of Atlantis now in the history books," Mission Control's commentator announced at touchdown.
About 1,200 guests — the maximum number allowed — lined the Kennedy Space Center runway for the conclusion to NASA's third-to-last shuttle flight. Employees wore white ribbons with the name "Atlantis" and its picture embossed in gold. Even the lead flight directors came in from Houston for the event.
"That was pretty sweet," Mission Control radioed after Atlantis glided through a clear morning sky. "That was a suiting end to an incredible mission."
Commander Kenneth Ham replied that he was ready to turn Atlantis over to the ground teams and get the ship "back in the barn for a little bit." He and his crew faced a longer receiving line than usual, after emerging into the sunshine.
Only two shuttle missions remain, by NASA's two other spaceships. Barring a reprieve from the White House, Atlantis will stand by as a rescue ship for the very last shuttle flight, then head off to a museum somewhere.
Atlantis' all-male crew accomplished everything they set out to do after rocketing into orbit May 14, installing a new Russian compartment, six fresh batteries and an extra antenna at the International Space Station.
Atlantis — the fourth in NASA's shuttle series — is ending its run after having spent an accumulated 294 days in orbit and circled Earth 4,648 times. It's carried 189 astronauts and visited the International Space Station 11 times. It also flew seven times to Russia's old Mir station and once to the Hubble Space Telescope.
The shuttle added another 4.8 million miles this time around, for a grand total of 120,650,907 miles over its lifetime. The 120-millionth mile was logged shortly after midnight.
At the space station, the residents managed to catch a glimpse of Atlantis' final re-entry. "Most impressive," observed astronaut Timothy Creamer.
As a tribute to their ship, the astronauts flew a small U.S. flag that accompanied Atlantis into orbit on its maiden voyage in 1985, as well as a couple tool bins full of shuttle mementos.
Sir Isaac Newton even got in on the act, albeit posthumously. British-born astronaut Piers Sellers flew a wood chip from the actual tree from which an apple fell nearly 350 years ago and inspired Newton to discover the law of gravity.
Once Atlantis is back in the hangar, it will be prepped for a potential rescue mission for what's currently slated to be the final shuttle flight by Endeavour. Endeavour's trip is targeted for November, but NASA managers will reassess the date in another week or two.
The only other flight on the books is a supply run to the space station by Discovery in September. That date also is being evaluated.
Both of those missions have payload issues that are threatening to cause delays.
NASA would like to fly Atlantis again in June 2011 — just two months past the shuttle program's 30th anniversary — provided no rescue mission is needed for Endeavour's flight. It would be one last supply run with a four-person crew that could camp out at the space station in the event of serious shuttle damage and return to Earth in Russian Soyuz capsules.
The space station — 98 percent complete now in terms of living space — will lose half of its six-person crew in another week. Three astronauts will return to Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz on June 2, and their replacements will fly up two weeks after that.
Americans will keep hitching rides on Russian rockets until U.S. private enterprise is able to take over. That's one of the goals set forth earlier this year by President Barack Obama, who wants astronauts aiming for asteroids and Mars in the next few decades.
Another in a series of congressional hearings on NASA's future got under way in Washington, just as Atlantis' beaming crew and shuttle workers were admiring the shuttle on the runway for the last time.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space shuttle Atlantis returned from its final voyage Wednesday, closing out a quarter-century flying career and safely bringing back six astronauts from a successful space station mission.
"Twenty-five years, 32 flights and more than 120 million miles traveled. The legacy of Atlantis now in the history books," Mission Control's commentator announced at touchdown.
About 1,200 guests — the maximum number allowed — lined the Kennedy Space Center runway for the conclusion to NASA's third-to-last shuttle flight. Employees wore white ribbons with the name "Atlantis" and its picture embossed in gold. Even the lead flight directors came in from Houston for the event.
"That was pretty sweet," Mission Control radioed after Atlantis glided through a clear morning sky. "That was a suiting end to an incredible mission."
Commander Kenneth Ham replied that he was ready to turn Atlantis over to the ground teams and get the ship "back in the barn for a little bit." He and his crew faced a longer receiving line than usual, after emerging into the sunshine.
Only two shuttle missions remain, by NASA's two other spaceships. Barring a reprieve from the White House, Atlantis will stand by as a rescue ship for the very last shuttle flight, then head off to a museum somewhere.
Atlantis' all-male crew accomplished everything they set out to do after rocketing into orbit May 14, installing a new Russian compartment, six fresh batteries and an extra antenna at the International Space Station.
Atlantis — the fourth in NASA's shuttle series — is ending its run after having spent an accumulated 294 days in orbit and circled Earth 4,648 times. It's carried 189 astronauts and visited the International Space Station 11 times. It also flew seven times to Russia's old Mir station and once to the Hubble Space Telescope.
The shuttle added another 4.8 million miles this time around, for a grand total of 120,650,907 miles over its lifetime. The 120-millionth mile was logged shortly after midnight.
At the space station, the residents managed to catch a glimpse of Atlantis' final re-entry. "Most impressive," observed astronaut Timothy Creamer.
As a tribute to their ship, the astronauts flew a small U.S. flag that accompanied Atlantis into orbit on its maiden voyage in 1985, as well as a couple tool bins full of shuttle mementos.
Sir Isaac Newton even got in on the act, albeit posthumously. British-born astronaut Piers Sellers flew a wood chip from the actual tree from which an apple fell nearly 350 years ago and inspired Newton to discover the law of gravity.
Once Atlantis is back in the hangar, it will be prepped for a potential rescue mission for what's currently slated to be the final shuttle flight by Endeavour. Endeavour's trip is targeted for November, but NASA managers will reassess the date in another week or two.
The only other flight on the books is a supply run to the space station by Discovery in September. That date also is being evaluated.
Both of those missions have payload issues that are threatening to cause delays.
NASA would like to fly Atlantis again in June 2011 — just two months past the shuttle program's 30th anniversary — provided no rescue mission is needed for Endeavour's flight. It would be one last supply run with a four-person crew that could camp out at the space station in the event of serious shuttle damage and return to Earth in Russian Soyuz capsules.
The space station — 98 percent complete now in terms of living space — will lose half of its six-person crew in another week. Three astronauts will return to Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz on June 2, and their replacements will fly up two weeks after that.
Americans will keep hitching rides on Russian rockets until U.S. private enterprise is able to take over. That's one of the goals set forth earlier this year by President Barack Obama, who wants astronauts aiming for asteroids and Mars in the next few decades.
Another in a series of congressional hearings on NASA's future got under way in Washington, just as Atlantis' beaming crew and shuttle workers were admiring the shuttle on the runway for the last time.
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