Smith to Bolden: Why Not Orion for Commercial Crew?, SpaceNews “If Orion could provide a redundant capability as a fallback for the commercial crew partners, why is it necessary to carry two partners to ensure competition in the constrained budget environment?” Smith asked NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in an Oct. 7 letter co-signed by Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.), chairman of the House Science space subcommittee.” 5 Years After Augustine, Florida […]

America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 is Sent to the President’s Desk “Today, the House of Representatives concurred with the Senate Amendment to H.R. 5116, America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 by a bipartisan vote of 228 to 130. The bill aims to maintain our national economic and scientific leadership by: supporting basic research; improving science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education; and fostering innovation, especially the development of new […]

ChasingAugustine, Wayne Hale “A couple of months later I was notified that I would receive a Group Achievement Award for helping with the [Augustine] committee. I told them I did not want the award and would not accept it. They didn’t know how to handle that request. I boycotted the awards presentation but they still sent me the certificate in the mail. My first impulse was to burn it. I […]

House approves NASA Reauthorization Act 2010, Nature “The sole dissenting voice during deliberations came from Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), who chairs the House space and aeronautics subcommittee. “I have no reluctance in telling you that this is a bad bill, it will do damage to NASA and must be struck down,” she said. Though she was ultimately unsuccessful in swaying her colleagues, she listed several problems with the bill, including […]

Keith’s note: The witnesses for todays’s hearing: Holdren, Bolden, Armstrong, Cernan, and Augustine. ESMD AA Doug Cooke briefed Armstrong and Cernan last week via telecon on the results of NASA’s internal exploration working group studies in advance of today’s Senate hearing. Keith’s update: Prepared statements: Charles Bolden, John Holdren, Neil Armstrong, Gene Cernan, Norm Augustine Keith’s update: Gene Cernan testified that he had a telecon last week with Bolden and […]

Beyond Augustine II, Dennis Wingo “In August of this year I wrote a missive concerning what happens after the Augustine report is released. Well, now that has happened, so what is next? The overall impression is that they did a good job technically in coming up with options and laying out the rational for the options. The concern is not there, the question is does this report provide to the […]

NASA’s future – commercial, Constellation or Russia?, Orlando Sentinel “There are a few people in the administration who want to kill Ares I and put all the money in commercial and the [Augustine] report tends to endorse that type of scenario. I think that is absolutely wrong,” said Doc Horowitz, former astronaut and Constellation architect.” Senator Discusses NASA’s Future With Obama, WFTV.com “U.S. Senator Bill Nelson told Eyewitness News Monday […]

An Astronaut Explains How We’ll Fall In Love With Space Again, Leroy Chiao, Gizmodo “The Constellation Program was a reasonable path, five years ago, when the Vision for Space Exploration was first formulated. Since then, budget shortfalls have caused significant delays. Moreover, the goals evolved into a focus on getting astronauts back to the Moon, to the development of the Ares family of rockets and the Orion spacecraft. The public […]

Brevard’s ‘Save Space’ campaign pushes for NASA funding, TCPalm.com “Brevard County officials launched a Web site, http://www.SaveSpace.us, to try to generate 500,000 letters to President Barack Obama by Oct. 31. The Save Space Web site has racked up more than 42,000 hits since its Sept. 28 launch, said Kimberly Prosser, county spokesman. The site includes six downloadable letter templates and printable posters and banners. A campaign cornerstone: Video footage of […]

5 Surprising Passages From the Full Augustine Report, Popular Mechanics “NASA released the full text crafted by its Review of Human Spaceflight Plans Committee (the so-called Augustine committee) today. The 157-page examination lacked an endorsement of an overall strategy, but there are a few passages of interest that were not included in the summary that was released in September. Here are a few passages that leapt out at us.” Throttling […]