UPDATE: We now have updated our NASA FY2012 budget request fact sheet, and an article with more info on NOAA and FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation is available as well.

All things considered, NASA, and NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) program, fared pretty well in the final version of the “minibus” appropriations bill (H.R. 2112), which is now posted on the website of the House Appropriations Committee.

The final numbers are very close to what the Senate approved. NASA would get $17.8 billion for FY2012, and while that is $924 million less than the $18.7 billion request, it is about $1 billion more than the House Appropriations Committee approved. The Senate approved $17.9 billion. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be funded with the additional amount approved by the Senate, instead of terminated as recommended by the House committee.

NOAA’s JPSS environmental satellite program will get $924 million, compared to the $1.07 billion request. The House committee had approved $901 million, while the Senate approved $920 million.

We will have more details and an updated fact sheet later today.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee has announced the witnesses for its hearing on Thursday concerning NASA’s human space exploration program. All are from NASA.

The hearing, “NASA’s Human Space Exploration: Direction, Strategy, and Progress,” is being convened by the Science and Space subcommittee chaired by Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL). According to the committee’s website: “At this hearing, the Subcommittee will consider NASA’s plans for human exploration, including the programs, projects, and activities for developing the Space Launch System, crew vehicle, and ground support. This hearing will provide an opportunity to articulate NASA’s goals for human exploration and how they complement International Space Station support and utilization, technology development, international collaboration, and commercial activities.”

Panel 1 consists only of NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. Panel 2 consists of three NASA center directors: Robert Cabana, Kennedy Space Center; Michael Coats, Johnon Space Center; and Robert Lightfoot, Marshall Space Flight Center.

The hearing begins at 10:00 am EST and will be webcast on the committee’s website.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transporation committee’s hearing on Wednesday about the need for innovation in weather forecasting and prediction will feature a broad cross-section of witnesses from federal and state government and the private sector.

The committee released the witness list today:

Witness Panel 1

The Honorable Mary M. Glackin
Deputy Under Secretary for Operations
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The Honorable Todd J. Zinser
Inspector General
U.S. Department of Commerce

Mr. David C. Trimble
Director, Natural Resources and Environment
Government Accountability Office

Rear Admiral Cari B. Thomas
Director of Response Policy
U.S. Coast Guard

Witness Panel 2

Mr. Tom Iseman
Program Director, Water Policy and Implementation, Climate Adaptation
Western Governors’ Association

Dr. Peter P. Neilley
Vice President, Global Forecasting Services
The Weather Channel Companies

Mr. Robert Marshall
President and CEO
Earth Networks

The hearing starts at 10:30 on Wednesday, November 16, and will be webcast on the committee’s website.

UPDATE 2: The House Rules Committee meeting on the “minibus” appropriations bill on Wednesday has been added, along with the opening of an exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York on Saturday.

UPDATE: USSTRATCOM’s Cyber and Space Symposium on Tuesday-Thursday has been added.

The following events may be of interest in the coming week. For more information, check our calendar on the right menu or click the links below. The House and Senate both are in session this week.

During the Week

This is another “government-shutdown watch” week. The FY2012 Continuing Resolution (CR) that has been keeping the government operating since October 1 expires on Friday. Funding for NASA, NOAA and the FAA (including the Office of Commercial Space Transportation) is included in a package of three appropriations bills (H.R. 2112) that passed the Senate two weeks ago. If agreement can be reached with the House before Friday, those agencies, and the others included in that package, will know their FY2012 funding levels for the rest of the year. Another CR will be needed for all the other agencies (including DOD) in any case.

The November 23 deadline for the supercommittee is fast approaching. How much progress they will make this week is up in the air. Opinions among Washington pundits vary widely as to their chances of success in reaching agreement on how to reduce the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years. If they do not, automatic spending cuts are supposed to go into effect, an outcome so dire that it was included in the deal as a deterrent against partisan bickering preventing agreement. Some Members of Congress already are suggesting that the deal be changed if the supercommittee fails, but President Obama said that he would not accept any changes.

Russia’s effort to contact the Phobos-Grunt (Phobos-soil) spacecraft stranded in Earth orbit are expected to continue. The window to Mars closes on November 21. They have that long to determine what went awry shortly after the spacecraft and its Fregat upper stage successfully separated from the Zenit booster last Tuesday. The spacecraft has been silent since. If they cannot resurrect it, the fully fueled Phobos-Grunt would make an uncontrolled reentry sometime in December.

Everyone is hoping for a nominal launch TONIGHT (Sunday) at 11:14 pm EST (Monday morning local time at the launch site in Baikonur) of the next International Space Station crew. The launch of the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft with two Russians and one American aboard a Soyuz rocket was delayed by an August 24 launch failure of a similar Soyuz rocket, but Russian and American space program managers appear confident that the rocket is fit for duty.

Sunday, November 13

• Launch of Soyuz TMA-22 with a three person crew for the International Space Station at 11:14 pm EST (watch on NASA TV)

Monday, November 14

• Space Transportation Association seminar on China Space & Cyber Challenges, 2318 Rayburn House Office Building, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm EST (RSVP required — check our calender for more details)
• ABC TV interview with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, 10:00 pm EST

Monday-Wednesday, November 14-16

• NASA Human Space Exploration Community Workshop, San Diego, CA (watch via webcast)

Tuesday, November 15

• HSS&T Hearing on “Exploring Mars and Beyond : What’s Next for U.S. Planetary Science?”, 2318 Rayburn House Office Building, 10:00 am EST

Tuesday-Wednesday, November 15-16

• American Astronautical Society National Conference “Celebrating Achievements, Celebrating the Future,” NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX

Tuesday-Thursday, November 15-17

• U.S. Strategic Command 2011 Cyber and Space Symposium, Omaha, NB

Wednesday, November 16

• Marshall Institute seminar on “Returning to Fundamentals: Deterrence and U.S. National Security in the 21st Century,” Capitol Hill Club, 300 First St, S.E., Washington, DC, 8:30 – 11:00 am
• Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing on Weathering Change: Need for Continued Innovation in Forecasting and Prediction, 253 Russell Senate Office Building. 10:30 am EDT
• Congress honors Apollo 11 astronauts and John Glenn with Gold Medal Ceremony, Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, 11:00 am EST
• House Rules Committee meets to consider a rule for the conference report to accompany H.R. 2112, the minibus appropriations bill that includes NASA. NOAA and the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, H-313 Capitol, 2:00 pm EST

Thursday, November 17

• Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing on “NASA’s Human Space Exploration: Direction, Strategy, and Progress,” 253 Russell Senate Office Building. 10:00 am EST
• FAA Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee’s (COMSTAC’s) Space Transportation Operations Working Group (STOWG), teleconference, 11:00 EST

Friday, November 18

• NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Technology & Innovation Committee, NASA Headquarters, room 6H45, Washington, DC, 8:00 am – 3:15 pm EST

Friday-Saturday, November 18-19

• National Air & Space Museum (NASM) symposium “Moving Beyond Earth: Innovations in Space,” NASM, 600 Independence Ave., SW, Washington DC
  • Friday night, November 18, 8:00 – 9:00 pm EST, movie “Orphans of Apollo”
  • Saturday, November 19, 9:30 am – 5:30 pm, panel discussions and family activities

Saturday, November 19

• Opening of exhibit at New York City’s American Museum of Natural History on “Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration,” which is open until August 12. See Dennis Overbye’s review in the New York Times.

Two Russians and an American are getting ready to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) Sunday night Eastern Standard Time (Monday morning at the launch site). At the same time, the current three ISS crew members will be coming home soon.

Anatoly Ivanishin, Anton Shkaplerov and Dan Burbank are scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft at 11:14 pm EST (11:14 am Monday at Baikonur). The three will join a Russian, an American and a Japanese who have been aboard the ISS for nearly six months. Both the spacecraft and the rocket used to launch it are named Soyuz.

The launch of Soyuz TMA-22 was delayed for several weeks while Russia investigated the cause of an August 24 launch failure of a Soyuz rocket that doomed the Progress M-12M (or Progress 44 in NASA’s numbering system) cargo spacecraft intended to take supplies to the ISS. Consequently, the ISS has had only three crewmembers instead of six aboard for a longer than usual time.

Russia launched three Soyuz rockets in October demonstrating that the basic vehicle appears fit for duty. One of those sent another Progress cargo craft to the ISS. There are several versions of the Soyuz rocket, and the one that will be used for Soyuz TMA-22 tomorrow is somewhat different from those that flew in October, but Russian and American space program managers clearly are convinced that the rocket is flight ready. The August 24 launch failure was traced to a clogged fuel line.

Each Soyuz spacecraft can accommodate three people. ISS crews rotate three-at-a-time on roughly six month schedules that coincide with the on-orbit lifetime of the Soyuz spacecraft that take them back and forth and serve as “lifeboats” in case there is an emergency. A Soyuz spacecraft can remain in orbit for about 200-210 days, meaning that the three crew members who are already aboard ISS must return very soon as their Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft reaches that limit. Those three — Mike Fossum, Satoshi Furakawa, and Sergei Volkov — will return on November 21.

The new crew will dock with ISS on at 12:33 am EST on Wednesday, November 16, providing only a few days to hand over operations from one crew to another.

ISS will then be back to a three-person crew until normal operations are expected to resume with the launch of another three-person crew (one Russian, one American and one European) on December 21. The number of crew aboard the ISS directly affects how much time is available for conducting scientific experiments in the three international laboratories — the U.S. Destiny module, Europe’s Columbus module, and Japan’s Kibo module — that comprise part of the orbiting facility. Scientific research in the microgravity environment of space was one of the primary rationales for building the space station.

Tomorrow’s launch begins a week of human spaceflight related events. On Monday-Wednesday, NASA is hosting a “community workshop” on long term plans for human spaceflight where it will introduce the results of the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG). On Thursday, a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee will hold a hearing on NASA’s human space exploration program.

A Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee will hold a hearing next week to get an update on NASA’s human spaceflight program.

The hearing by the Science and Space subcommittee is scheduled for November 17 at 10:00 am in 253 Russell Senate Office Building. The witnesses are not yet listed on the committee’s website. The title of the hearing is “NASA’s Human Space Exploration: Direction, Strategy, and Progress.”

A NASA astronaut is scheduled to be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) tomorrow (November 13 EST, November 14 local time at the launch site) along with two Russian cosmonauts aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on a Soyuz rocket. The launch was delayed by several weeks while Russia investigated the cause of an August 24 Soyuz launch failure that doomed a Progress cargo spacecraft headed to the iSS. Russia has conducted three launches of various versions of the Soyuz rocket since then to demonstrate its flight readiness.

The August launch failure and its consequences on ISS crew rotations drove home the point that with the space shuttle program terminated, Soyuz is the only way to get crews back and forth to ISS. Even if the space shuttle was still flying, the Soyuz is needed as a “lifeboat” for the ISS to bring crews home in an emergency. If the shuttle was still available, crews could remain on the ISS only while the shuttle was docked there, limiting missions to about two weeks. U.S. dependence on Russia for the ISS program likely will be discussed at the November 17 hearing.

The hearing comes immediately after a three-day NASA “community workshop” on human spaceflight in San Diego, CA where it plans to introduce the Global Exploration Roadmap developed through the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG). The agency says that it is “seeking industry and academic feedback to shape strategy, assist with investment priorities and refine international exploration scenarios for human exploration and operations through the 2020’s.” Although NASA says the workshop is part of an effort “to engage the broader space community,” it apparently does not count reporters as part of that community. Reporters are asked not to attend the workshop, but to watch the webcast and submit questions by email.