The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission will be delayed for several months following the conclusion of yesterday’s Flight Readiness Review (FRR). 

A NASA statement on NuStar’s website explains that the FRR concluded that more time is needed to ensure that a new flight computer for the Pegasus launch vehicle will issue commands as intended.  Consequently, the launch will slip past the end of March and thus must wait until the Kwajalein range is available again. The NASA statement said the next opportunity is “anticipated to be within the next couple of months.”

Orbital Science Corp’s Pegasus rocket is dropped from an aircraft that can take off from a number of locations. The Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands is the site of a U.S. missile testing range and was chosen because NuSTAR is headed for an equatorial orbit.

A postponment of the launch was announced by NASA earlier this week,  but its extent was uncertain until after the FRR was completed.  NuSTAR is an x-ray telescope.  Fiona Harrison of CalTech is the principal investigator.

The Commerce-Justice-Science subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee will hear from NASA and NOAA about their FY 2013 budget requests next week.

The NOAA hearing will be on March 20 at 2:30 pm ET in H-309 Capitol.   It was postponed from March 13 because NOAA’s detailed budget justification documents were not ready. NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco is the witness.

NASA’s hearing is on March 21 at 9:00 am in 2359 Rayburn, with NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden as the witness.

The committee earlier had announced an “outside witnesses” hearing for March 22 beginning at 9:00 am in H-309 Capitol. 

Editorial Commentary:   In a news story today, the New York Times bemoans the cut to robotic Mars exploration plans, adding that “There are still a few tidbits left.”   It identifies the “tidbits” as the Mars Curiosity rover currently enroute to Mars and the MAVEN mission scheduled for launch next year.

Curiosity hopefully will make a successful landing on Mars in August, though the novel “sky crane” landing system will have everyone biting their nails during descent.  Twice as long and five times as heavy as the Spirit and Opportunity rovers already on Mars, Curiosity is the size of a mini Cooper and designed to roll over obstacles up to two feet high. Its scientific equipment is 10 times more massive than the earlier rovers. Not to mention — and the New York Times does not — that its life cycle cost is $2.5 billion, a 56 percent overrun according to NASA’s Inspector General.  That’s quite a tidbit.

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission is indeed a less ambitious mission.  An orbiter rather than a lander, it will try to determine what caused “the Martian atmosphere — and water — to be lost to space.”   GAO reports that MAVEN will cost $671 million.  That may be a tidbit in comparison to Curiosity, but certainly not to the average American taxpayer.

Across the land, everyone wants to cut the deficit — as long as it’s not THEIR program that suffers as a result.   It is certainly fair for the Mars community to fight for their program; that’s how the game is played.  One would hope, however, that the news media would refrain from picking favorites except on their editorial pages.   For that matter, what program(s) would the New York Times prefer to have cut instead, or does it believe that NASA should be exempt from cuts?  That is a weighty question on which the esteemed newspaper probably should comment. 

In the meantime, with all due respect, calling a $2.5 billion Mars rover a “tidbit” is laughable.