Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), vice-chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, is calling for a “better space program.”
In an op-ed in today’s Space News, Rep. Smith says that “America deserves to be inspired by the heavens again.” As others in Congress have done, he criticized the Obama Administration for not complying with the 2010 NASA Authorization Act.
UPDATE: NASA has refined the landing time to 5:56 am EDT on Thursday, which is reflected below.
STS-135 (Atlantis), the final space shuttle mission, closed the hatches with the International Space Station (ISS) today as it readies to return home.
The hatches were closed at 10:28 am EDT. The shuttle crew went to sleep at 1:59 pm EDT this afternoon to get ready for an early morning undocking tomorrow, Tuesday, July 19, at 2:28 am EDT.
Landing is currently scheduled for 5:56 am EDT at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday.
Among the agencies whose budgets would be cut by the House Appropriations Committee in the FY2012 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) bill is the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). The cut of more than 50 percent of its budget request is the result of congressional unhappiness with OSTP’s continued efforts to engage with China despite language in the final FY2011 Continuing Resolution that it refrain from doing so.
The committee’s report on the FY2012 CJS bill says the following:
“The Committee recommends $3,000,000 for the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), which is $3,647,000 below fiscal year 2011 and $3,650,000 below the request.
“Coordination with China.-OSTP has chosen to disregard a strong and unambiguous legislative prohibition on bilateral engagement with China or Chinese-owned companies that was included in the Department of Defense and Full Year Continuing Resolution Act, 2011 (Public Law 112-10). OSTP and the White House raised no concerns about this language while it was under consideration. Only after the Committee asked OSTP about its compliance with the provision did OSTP claim that the language infringed on Constitutional prerogatives and acknowledge an intention to proceed with prohibited activities. Even then key information about a scheduled bilateral event was omitted. OSTP’s behavior demonstrates a lack of respect for the policy and oversight roles of the Congress.”
The report goes on to say that the remaining OSTP funding is to be prioritized to coordinate and improve government programs for STEM education.
The Associated Press ran a story about it yesterday.
Yesterday, National Public Radio’s Science Friday host Ira Flatow interviewed Michael Turner of the University of Chicago and science writer Ron Cowan about the plight of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
The audio of the program is available on Science Friday’s website.
Turner defended the program, using the age-old argument that NASA’s programs push the envelope of science and technology and that “once in a while” there is an overrun. Not all would agree with Turner on the frequency of cost overruns. A 2004 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report found an average of 45 percent cost growth for the 72 NASA programs it analyzed.
Cowan pointed out that supporters of the project were not forthright about its costs in the beginning, and Turner agreed that was one of the lessons learned from last year’s Casani report on JWST — that one must be upfront about the costs. As for now,Turner argued that the program was about 75 percent done and ending it now would be “penny wise and pound foolish.”
Cowan said he is concerned that NASA is not saying how much more JWST will cost if the launch slips to the early 2020’s. Turner countered that NASA has come up with a new plan for completing it and is negotiating with the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and some things have to be done behind closed doors.
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) continues to assail the Obama Administration for “foot-dragging” on its legislated requirement to build a new space launch vehicle.
In her weekly column on her website, Sen. Hutchison again blamed the Obama Administration for failing to implement the 2010 NASA Authorization Act of which she was a primarily author: “Despite overwhelming Congressional support when this legislation was approved, the Obama Administration unfortunately is dragging its feet in implementing the new law. This foot-dragging is more than just failing to carry out the law, as the Constitution requires. The Administration’s delays put current and future American jobs and industries at risk, and hand over to competing nations a golden opportunity to take the global lead in technology.”
After listing some of benefits of past investments in space activities broadly, not just NASA, she states: “The contributions our space program has made to science, our national security, and our economy illustrate why we can’t abdicate our leadership role in the world.”
NASA and the United Launch Alliance (ULA) will announce a new commercial crew agreement on Monday, July 18, 2011.
ULA is jointly owned by Boeing and Lockheed Martin and offers launch services on the Delta IV and Atlas V families of launch vehicles. It won one of the awards in NASA’s first CCDev competition in 2010.
NASA issued a press release today that there will be press conference on Monday at 11:00 am Mountain Time (1:00 pm EDT) at ULA’s Colorado headquarters to announce a new agreement. The press release did not indicate if the press conference would be streamed live or not, but if so it will probably be at http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio.
In case you missed it, the video of President Obama’s chat with the STS-135 and International Space Station (ISS) crews is now on NASA’s YouTube channel.
The President said that he watched the STS-135 launch on TV there at the White House. He thanked everyone who has worked on the shuttle and space station programs.
He inquired about the robotic refueling demonstration the crews will perform and commented on the flag that was brought to the ISS. It was flown on the first shuttle mission and will stay on ISS until the next crew launched from American soil arrives — a “capture the flag moment” according to the President.
The President also acknowledged the anniversary of the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), the first time American and Soviet cosmonauts met in space.
Watch the video of the President’s chat with the astronauts on YouTube.
In case you missed it, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart did a segment about the final space shuttle launch.
Daily Show reporter John Oliver was at the launch, and does a really funny piece about it. Though it’s meant for humor, he actually has a good interview with Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell. Two sound bites:
But do remember, this is a comedy show.
As August 2 gets closer and closer, Republicans and Democrats do not appear to be closing the gap in their ideas on how to reduce the deficit, which at the moment is an integral part of a deal to raise the debt limit. The President held another press conference at 11:00 am EDT today to bring the issue to the American public.
To recap: The U.S. Government has debt –the amount of money it owes creditors, and a deficit — the difference between the amount of money it collects and how much it spends. The bigger the deficit, the more money needs to be borrowed, increasing the amount of debt.
Congress must pass a law allowing the debt limit to increase above its current $14.3 trillion level. If the debt limit is not raised by August 2, most economists, including the Secretary of the Treasury and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, assert that it will be catastrophic for the United States. The government will not be able to pay all of its bills and will have to choose between paying creditors, like China, or paying for current operations, like salaries for government workers — including those who work on space programs. It would also affect the govenrment’s ability to pay for everything it buys from office supplies to spacecraft.
Republicans are using the need to raise the debt limit as a lever to force Democrats to accept deep spending cuts to reduce the deficit. They will not approve a debt limit increase unless the defict is dealt with at the same time. Democrats agree that the deficit must be reduced, but they want a combination of spending cuts and tax increases. To date, Republicans have not been willing to compromise and accept any tax increases. Democrats insist that both sides must compromise, it cannot be one-sided deal.
Talks have been going on for months, but recently have suffered setbacks. No talks are currently scheduled.
The President reiterated in his press conference today that all the congressional leaders — Republicans and Democrats — agree that the United States cannot default on its obligations. He said he wants to “seize the moment” and cut a deal that, over the next 10 years, would take government spending down to the lowest level since Dwight Eisenhower was President in the 1950s. That will require tax increases as well as spending cuts, he said, adding that even a majority of Republicans agree that this “balanced approach” is needed. However, an influential and vocal group of Tea Party Republicans in the House do not. They want only spending cuts.
The President called on Republicans to come to him with a “serious plan” for deficit reduction. For their part, today’s news is that House Republicans are pushing a “cut, cap, and balance” plan that would cut spending, put a cap on future spending, and pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. The latter would require ratification by three-quarters of the 50 states. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is proposing a different plan that would essentially let the President raise the debt limit himself for the next year so he would shoulder the blame in the eyes of American voters. Although House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) did not reject the idea, many House Republicans reportedly are strongly opposed to it.
Updated versions of our fact sheets on NASA’s FY2012 Budget Request and on a Legislative Checklist of Major-Space Related Legislation in the 112th Congress are now available.
The NASA FY2012 Budget Request fact sheet includes the funding recommendations adopted by the House Appropriations Committee Wednesday in marking up the Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) bill.
The Legislative Checklist fact sheet shows House passage of the Department of Energy (DOE) appropriations bill today, and committee markup of the Commerce-Justice-Science and the Interior-Environment appropriations bills earlier this week. The CJS bill includes NASA and NOAA; the Interior-Environment bill includes the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which operates the Landsat satellites.