Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA), chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA, wants the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to tell Congress where it plans to get the money to pay for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) overrun.

In a letter to OMB Director Jacob Lew today, Rep. Wolf said that if the White House does not tell his subcommittee what NASA activities it plans to cut in order to make funds available for JWST, he will have to assume that JWST is no higher a priority than NASA’s other programs. The letter says —

“While acknowledging that substantial cuts will be necessary, the Administration has so far failed to identify a single specific proposal to offset the increase in JWST spending above the levels contained in the President’s fiscal year 2012 request. Either no offsets have been proposed because JWST really isn’t a top priority, or the Administration is hoping that remaining silent will force Congress to act unilaterally and thereby take sole ownership of the cuts necessitated by the Administration’s actions. No matter which explanation is correct, continuing silence is neither fair nor acceptable to the Congress and to members of the scientific community who will be deeply impacted by the ultimate outcome of the JWST debate.”

Wolf reminded Lew that the House and Senate will be meeting “in the coming weeks” to negotiate NASA’s FY2012 appropriations level and funding for JWST “will be one of the most significant issues considered.” For Congress to make “a truly informed decision,” it needs to understand “both the value of JWST and the value of opportunities that may be precluded” by shifting money from other activities into JWST. He made clear that if OMB did not provide the information before the conference negotiations begin, “I will consider that to be an indication that JWST is no higher in priority than any other existing or planned NASA activity.”

NASA has said that it will reveal the future spending plan for JWST when it submits its FY2013 budget request in February.

The House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittee, chaired by Wolf, recommended termination of the JWST program. The full committee agreed. The Senate Appropriations Committee, conversely, voted to provide more funds than requested for JWST in FY2012 to ensure that it could be launched in 2018. Neither the House nor Senate has voted on the CJS bill, yet.

In a videotaped statement today, NASA’s orbital debris expert Nicholas Johnson announced precisely when and where the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) reentered. Earlier the agency said it might never know for certain.

Johnson said the location was 14.1 degrees South latitude, 170.2 degrees West longitude, near the Christmas Islands. The agency has received no reports from people on airplanes, ships or islands that they witnessed the reentry, which occurred at 04:00 GMT September 24 (midnight EDT).

Ed Weiler, NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate (SMD), is retiring at the end of this week.

NASA formally made the announcement today. Chuck Gay, SMD Deputy Associate Administrator, will take the helm while a replacement is sought.

Weiler is on his second tour as SMD chief. An astrophysicist who was chief scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope, Weiler rose to head NASA’s space science enterprise from 1998-2004, then was appointed Director of Goddard Space Flight Center. He returned to his previous job in May 2008 after Alan Stern resigned rather suddenly.

He joins several other NASA officials who have left or will leave the agency, including the head of SMD’s astrophysics division, Jon Morse. Morse and his wife, Laurie Leshin, who was Deputy Administrator of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD), both joined the faculty at Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute. Doug Cooke, Associate Administrator for ESMD, is retiring effective October 3. ESMD recently merged with the former Space Operations Mission Directorate to form the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate.

Yvonne Brill was selected by the White House today as one of the five recipients of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

Brill, who had a long career with aerospace and satellite communications companies including RCA Astroelectronics and Inmarsat, is being recognized “For innovation in rocket propulsion systems for geosynchronous and low earth orbit communication satellites, which greatly improved the effectiveness of space propulsion systems.”

A member of the National Academy of Engineering, and of the National Research Council’s Space Studies Board, Brill has received many honors for her pioneering work on in-orbit propulsion for communications satellites. Last year she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and she is one of only four women ever to be elected as Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

Brill is the only woman among the five individuals receiving the technology medal this year. The White House press release names those five and the seven recipients of the National Medal of Science:

National Medal of Science

Jacqueline K. Barton

California Institute of Technology

For discovery of a new property of the DNA helix, long-range electron transfer, and for showing that electron transfer depends upon stacking of the base pairs and DNA dynamics. Her experiments reveal a strategy for how DNA repair proteins locate DNA lesions and demonstrate a biological role for DNA-mediated charge transfer.

Ralph L. Brinster

University of Pennsylvania

For his fundamental contributions to the development and use of transgenic mice. His research has provided experimental foundations and inspiration for progress in germline genetic modification in a range of species, which has generated a revolution in biology, medicine, and agriculture.

Shu Chien

University of California, San Diego

For pioneering work in cardiovascular physiology and bioengineering, which has had tremendous impact in the fields of microcirculation, blood rheology and mechanotransduction in human health and disease.

Rudolf Jaenisch

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Massachusetts Institute of Technology

For improving our understanding of epigenetic regulation of gene expression: the biological mechanisms that affect how genetic information is variably expressed. His work has led to major advances in our understanding of mammalian cloning and embryonic stem cells.

Peter J. Stang

University of Utah

For his creative contributions to the development of organic supramolecular chemistry and for his outstanding and unique record of public service.

Richard A. Tapia

Rice University

For his pioneering and fundamental contributions in optimization theory and numerical analysis and for his dedication and sustained efforts in fostering diversity and excellence in mathematics and science education.

Srinivasa S.R. Varadhan

New York University

For his work in probability theory, especially his work on large deviations from expected random behavior, which has revolutionized this field of study during the second half of the twentieth century and become a cornerstone of both pure and applied probability. The mathematical insights he developed have been applied in diverse fields including quantum field theory, population dynamics, finance, econometrics, and traffic engineering.

National Medal of Technology and Innovation

Rakesh Agrawal

Purdue University

For an extraordinary record of innovations in improving the energy efficiency and reducing the cost of gas liquefaction and separation. These innovations have had significant positive impacts on electronic device manufacturing, liquefied gas production, and the supply of industrial gases for diverse industries.

B. Jayant Baliga

North Carolina State University

For development and commercialization of the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor and other power semiconductor devices that are extensively used in transportation, lighting, medicine, defense, and renewable energy generation systems.

C. Donald Bateman

Honeywell

For developing and championing critical flight-safety sensors now used by aircraft worldwide, including ground proximity warning systems and wind-shear detection systems.

Yvonne C. Brill

RCA Astro Electronics (Retired)

For innovation in rocket propulsion systems for geosynchronous and low earth orbit communication satellites, which greatly improved the effectiveness of space propulsion systems.

Michael F. Tompsett

TheraManager

For pioneering work in materials and electronic technologies including the design and development of the first charge-coupled device (CCD) imagers.

The awards will be presented at the White House later this year.

NASA will hold a press conference on Thursday (September 29) to reveal new findings about asteroids from its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission.

The press conference is at 1:00 pm EDT at NASA Headquarters and it will be aired on NASA TV. Panelists are:

— Lindley Johnson, NEO program executive, NASA Headquarters

— Amy Mainzer, NEOWISE principal investigator, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

— Tim Spahr, director, Minor Planet Center, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

— Lucy McFadden, scientist, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

National Journal, The Hill, and Politico are reporting that a deal has been struck in the Senate that will keep the government operating after Friday.

The complete details are still emerging, but the key that broke the deadlock was news from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that its funds would last through the end of this week instead of running out tomorrow. That means the agency does not need more money in FY2011, which ends Friday.

FEMA had said it needed $1 billion to get through the rest of FY2011 and House Republicans had demanded offsets for that $1 billion of the $3.5 billion included in the Continuing Resolution (CR) it passed on Friday. The Senate killed that measure.

The Senate has now agreed to provide the same amount of disaster relief funding ($2.65 billion) for FEMA from the beginning of FY2012, which starts on Saturday, as what was provided in the House-passed bill. Since FEMA does not need the $1 billion for FY2011, then the House-passed offsets are moot and the two sides can agree on that issue. The House tied together the FEMA funding with the CR to fund the government through November 18. A CR is needed because none of the 12 appropriations bills that would fund the government in FY2012 has passed Congress yet.

The House is scheduled to meet only in pro forma session this week — today and Thursday. Members are in their districts or otherwise out of town. Ordinarily they would want to vote on these measures instead of passing a bill like this by unanimous consent. Thus, the Senate also passed a CR to fund the government through Tuesday until the House returns to regular business and can vote on the CR that lasts until November 18. The House could pass that bill by unanimous consent.

The upshot of all this complicated political maneuvering is that a government shutdown on Friday likely has been averted.

Until November 18, at least.

UPDATES: NASA’s press conferences about asteroids and, separately, about Mercury, both on Thursday, have been added.

The following events may be of interest in the coming week. For more details, check our calendar on the right menu or click the links below.

During the Week

Congress has once again put itself in the position of “brinksmanship” where the House and Senate are at odds and keeping the government running hangs in the balance. As many of you will recall from this spring when Congress dealt with a succession of Continuing Resolutions (CRs) because the 12 regular appropriations bills had not passed, in April they finally passed a CR that funded the government for the remainder of FY2011. FY2011 ends on Friday (September 30). Although Republicans criticized Democrats (who then controlled the House) last year for not passing any of the bills, they now are in the same position. None of the appropriations bills that would fund the government for FY2012 has passed. Thus, another CR is needed or a government shutdown will occur on October 1. On top of that, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) disaster relief account is expected to run out of money on Tuesday to deal with all the natural catastrophes that have hit the United States this year, so Congress must appropriate more money into that account or federally-funded disaster relief efforts will end.

Details on how Congress got itself into this situation are explained in a previous SpacePolicyOnline.com article. Basically, the Senate passed a bill to provide $6.9 billion to FEMA. The House passed a bill to give FEMA only about half that much ($3.5 billion) and required “offsets” — cuts to balance the expenditures — which historically is not required for disaster relief funds. It wrapped that action into the CR to keep the government operating. The Senate objected and tabled the House bill both because of the offsets and the fact that the House provided only half the FEMA funds.

Both the House and Senate were scheduled to be in recess this week as some members observe Rosh Hashanah, but now both are scheduled to be in session on Monday at least. What other matters might be considered as negotiations over the CR proceed has not been announced.

Tuesday-Thursday, September 27-29

• AIAA Space 2011 Conference, Long Beach, CA

Thursday, September 29

• Space Launch System (SLS) Industry Day, Huntsville, AL
• SpaceX’s Elon Musk speaks at National Press Club, Washington, DC, 12:30 – 2:00 pm EDT (event will be webcast beginning at 12:50)
• NASA press conference on new findings about asteroids, NASA Headquarters, 1:00 pm EDT (watch on NASA TV)
• NASA media teleconference on new findings about Mercury from the MESSENGER spacecraft, virtual, 2:00 pm EDT (listen at http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio)

Thursday-Saturday, September 29-October 1

• 10th Annual Space Generation Congress, Cape Town, South Africa (in conjunction with the International Astronautical Congress, which beings October 3)

Friday-Sunday, September 30-October 2

• DARPA 100-Year Starship Symposium, Orlando, FL

NASA does not know — and may never know — exactly where debris from the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) landed.

That was the message from NASA’s orbital debris expert, Nicholas Johnson, during a media teleconference this afternoon.

NASA has posted a map of the ground track for UARS’s final orbit. The vast majority of its final journey was over the ocean. NASA and Department of Defense specialists at the Joint Space Operations Center (JSPoC) estimate that the satellite reentered at 04:16 GMT (12:16 am EDT), although that is not known for certain. If that is correct, UARS would have been in the part of the ground track off the west coast of North America going up and over parts of Canada. Johnson said that if the satellite had survived that part of the trip, observers in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and Canada would have seen it, and there were no sightings. The nominal reentry point is shown on the map as a circle with a dot in the middle over the Pacific Ocean.

Essentially, if there was no one to see it, and it was out of range of the sensors that were tracking it, there is no way to know where the pieces fell. Johnson said that NASA is open to hearing from people — perhaps passengers on airlines flying over the Pacific at that time — who may have seen something, but otherwise, it will remain a mystery.

Johnson stressed that satellite or orbital debris reentries occur every day, and there are significantly sized pieces that come down each week. Something the size of UARS comes down about once a year. Unless there is some reason to do so, analysts do not bother to go back and try to determine the exact reentry times or places. In fact, he said, the usual procedure is for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to look for the object on three passes and if it is not located, they assume that it reentered.

NASA has not received any reports of injuries or debris being found. Johnson said that NASA routinely is contacted by individuals who believe they have found a piece of space debris and NASA checks out every one. Few actually are reentered space objects, he added, but if someone believes they have found a piece of UARS debris, they are welcome to contact the space agency (though NASA warns that the object should not be touched since it may be sharp). When asked if NASA wants the pieces returned, Johnson said that under existing agreements the pieces must be returned to NASA if requested, but NASA must pay the transportation costs and often does not request their return.

Twelve countries work together through the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordinating Committee (IADC) to track and monitor reentries of space objects. Ten of the 12 participated in tracking the UARS reentry, Johnson said. Each has its own method of calculating expected reentry times, and over a decade of working together, they have found that one way is not clearly bettter than the others. All of the participants calculated about the same reentry time of 04:16 GMT, giving more credence to that as the most likely time.

An audiocast of the media briefing is available for one week by calling toll free in the United States: 866-516-0666.