UPDATE:  The static test fire was successful on the second attempt at about 4:15 pm ET.

SpaceX will conduct a static fire engine test at 3:00 pm ET today in preparation for its scheduled test launch to the International Space Station (ISS) next week.  The company’s webcast of the engine test begins at 2:30 pm.

It is a 2-second test of the nine Merlin engines on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and is part of a complete dress rehearsal for the next Falcon 9 launch scheduled for May 7. 

If all goes according to plan, SpaceX will launch the Falcon 9 with a Dragon spacecraft at 9:38 am ET on May 7 as the second test launch in NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.  The COTS program is funding two companies, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp., to develop launch vehicles and spacecraft that can deliver cargo to the ISS.

Three SpaceX test launches were planned as part of the COTS program.  The first was successfully conducted on December 8, 2010 when the Falcon 9 delivered a Dragon spacecraft to orbit and was then deorbited and recovered at sea.  SpaceX convinced NASA to let it combine the objectives of the last two test launches into this flight, which NASA calls C2+ — the second COTS test flight plus the additional objectives that had been planned for the third.  Under the type of agreement NASA and SpaceX have — a Space Act Agreement — the company is paid only when it successfully completes milestones.  However, NASA cannot set requirements and has more limited insight and oversight of the company’s activities than with a traditional procurement method such as a fixed price or cost plus contract.

A lot is riding on this launch and the COTS program overall.  NASA has no way of its own to send cargo — or people — to the ISS now that the space shuttle program has ended.   Russia, Europe and Japan, all of whom are partners with NASA in the ISS program, have cargo spacecraft that deliver supplies to the ISS crews, but the volume of cargo required to support six crewmembers 365 days a year exceeds their capacity.  When the ISS program was planned, it assumed that the space shuttle would be available throughout the ISS’s utilization period.  President George W. Bush’s decision to terminate the space shuttle program as soon as ISS construction was completed changed those plans and the COTS — or “commercial cargo” — program emerged.

SpaceX is planning to evolve its Dragon spacecraft to carry people as well as cargo as part of NASA’s commercial crew program to take astronauts to and from the ISS.  Today, only Russia can launch and return ISS crews.

Demonstrating commercial cargo is the first step.  NASA and SpaceX are cautioning everyone to keep their expectations in check for this flight, stressing that it is a test flight.  In fact, this flight has been postponed several times, mostly recently from April 30, as SpaceX strives to ensure it goes well.  Today’s test is another step in that process.

The House Appropriations Committee completed markup of the FY2013 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) appropriations bill that funds NASA and NOAA today and favorably reported the bill to the House.  The chairman of the committee, Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY), announced that it will be the first FY2013 appropriations bill to be debated on the House floor this year.  Debate is set to begin on May 8.

Rogers applauded the fact that the bill is proceeding through committee and floor consideration in “regular order” this year.  Last year, the appropriations process was caught up in high stakes political battles.   The CJS bill made it through full committee markup in the House and Senate, but no further.  The final numbers were negotiated behind closed doors and wrapped into a “minibus” appropriations bill that passed in November.

The appropriations committees on both sides of the Hill are trying to return to regular order this year, and the CJS bill is one of the first to move through subcommittee and full committee markup in both the House and the Senate.  Most Washington pundits still do not believe that the appropriations process will be finalized by October 1 when FY2013 begins, however.   Negotiations are still needed on many issues and the House adopted a budget resolution that gives most of its appropriations subcommittees less money to spend than their Senate counterparts. In total, the House CJS bill provides $51.1 billion for the agencies under its jurisdiction.  The House CJS subcommittee had $731 million less to spend than its Senate counterpart because the House passed a budget resolution with lower spending thresholds than agreed to last year in the Budget Control Act (BCA).  The Senate is using the BCA figures.

For civilian space activities, the biggest difference between the House and Senate is that the Senate wants to transfer NOAA’s satellite activities to NASA.

Much larger political issues loom over the entire federal spending debate, starting with the threat of a sequester beginning on January 1, 2013 if the House, Senate and White House do not reach agreement on how to avoid it.  Coupled with an expected debate over extending the Bush-era tax cuts that are due to expire at the end of this year and election year politics, the alacrity and civility in moving the CJS and some of the other appropriations bills may not stand the test of time.

Today, however, civility and regular order were the watchwords.  The House committee adopted a manager’s amendment offered by CJS subcommittee chairman Frank Wolf (R-VA).  The text of the amendment has not been posted on the committee’s website yet so whether it affects NASA or NOAA is not clear.  The committee states only that it “makes technical changes to the bill and report, as well as adjustments and additions to various non-controversial language provisions.”   Several other amendments were offered, but none was directed at NASA or at NOAA’s space activities.

One member, Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA), engaged in a colloquy about the need for more money to study the oceans, complaining that too much money is spent on atmospheric and space science and not enough on the oceans.  He did not offer an amendment, however.

The House bill provides NASA with $17.574 billion, which it says is $138 million below the request of $17.711 billion.   The Senate bill (S. 2323), which was marked up by the full Senate Appropriations Committee last week, provides NASA with $19.4 billion, but the increase is because it transfers NOAA’s satellites activities to NASA.  Without the transfer, the Senate committee said the bill cuts NASA’s budget by $41.5 million compared to its FY2012 enacted level.  Congress appropriated $17.800 billion to NASA for FY2012, but also included an across-the-board rescission that brought the figure down to $17.770 billion.  Thus, the Senate recommendation for NASA for FY2013 would be $17.729 billion, $155 million more than the House.  (The House committee report says that its recommendation of $17.574 billion is a $226.2 million reduction from the enacted level for FY2012, but that must not include the rescission since $17.574 billion plus $226 million is $17.8 billion.)

The House bill gives NOAA $4.962 billion, which it says is $92.877 million less than the President’s request for FY2013 ($5.1 billion), and $67.994 million above the FY2012 enacted level.    It does not call for NOAA’s satellite programs to be transferred to NASA, and fully funds NOAA’s request for the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) at $916 million.   The Senate bill cuts NOAA’s request to $3.4 billion by transferring JPSS and NOAA’s other satellite programs to NASA.