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

Monday-Tuesday, February 7-8

• NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Audit, Finance and Analysis Committee, NASA Headquarters, room 8D48
  • Monday, 9:00 am – 12:15 pm, 1:15 pm-5:00 pm EST
  • Tuesday, 9:00 am – 11:15 pm EST

Tuesday, February 8

• NAC Space Operations Committee, NASA Headquarters, room 7C61, 8:00 am – 5:00 pm EST
• NAC Education and Outreach Committee, NASA Headquarters, room 1Q39, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm EST
• NAC Commercial Space Committee, NASA Headquarters, room 1Q39, 2:00 – 3:30 pm EST (apparently this is joint with the Education and Outreach Committee, which lists an agenda item of “joint recommendation with the NAC Commercial Space Committee”)

Wednesday-Thursday, February 9-10

• FAA/AIAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference, Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC

Thursday, February 10

• Space Enterprise Council/Marshall Institute, OUTSOURCED: The Role of Commercial and International Space Capabilities in America’s National Security Space Portfolio, TechAmerica, 601 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 600-North Building, 9:00 – 11:00 am EST
• House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science subcommittee hearing, oversight of NASA and NSF (witnesses are the Inspectors General of the two agencies), 10:00 am, H-309 Capitol. (This hearing is not yet posted on the committee’s website, but is listed in the National Journal’s Daybook. Note that the NASA legislative affairs website lists a March 3 hearing before this subcommittee at which NASA Administrator Bolden will testify on the FY2012 budget request.)
• House Science, Space and Technology Committee organizational meeting, 2:00 pm EST, 2318 Rayburn House Office Building

Thursday-Friday, February 10-11

• NAC, NASA Headquarters, room 9H40
  • Thursday, 8:00 am – 5:00 pm EST
  • Friday, 8:00 am – 12:00 pm EST

The Senate Appropriations Committee announced subcommittee assignments today. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) will remain as chair of the Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittee that handles NASA and NOAA. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) will replace Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) as the ranking Republican on the subcommittee.

Senator Hutchison is a strong NASA supporter, particularly of its human spaceflight program, and was instrumental in passage of the 2010 NASA authorization act last year as the top Republican on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.

Shelby will become the ranking member of the Labor-HHS appropriations subcommittee and remains as a member of the CJS subcommittee. A list of all subcommittee assignments is available on the commitee’s website.

Astronaut Mark Kelly responded to a reporter’s question today by enthusiastically saying that he expects his wife, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), to be at Kennedy Space Center for the launch of STS-134 on April 19. Kelly is resuming his duties as commander of STS-134 while his wife recuperates from being shot in the head on January 8.

In explaining his decision to return to work, Kelly told reporters that Giffords is busy all day every day, seven days a week, with speech, occupational and physical therapy. He declined to provide any specifics about her current condition, but said she makes progress every day. He remarked on how fast she is recovering, and quoted one of her doctors as saying that she is in the one percentile group for recovering from this type of injury.

Kelly said that her family and his family are unanimously supportive of his decision. He also said that he knows his wife very well and she is strongly supportive not only of his career, but of NASA, and would want him to fly.

Peggy Whitson, chief of the astronaut office, and Brent Jett, chief of flight crew operations, emphasized that they have been observing Kelly for the past week while he resumed training to ensure that he is, in fact, ready to focus fully on a shuttle commander’s responsibilities. The decision to let him command the mission went all the way up to NASA Administrator Bolden, they said.

No need to wait for the press conference this afternoon to find out if astronaut Mark Kelly will command STS-134 or not. NASA released a press statement this morning announcing that he is resuming training as commander of the mission.

Kelly is married to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) who is recovering from a gunshot wound to the head suffered on January 8 during a constituent event in Tucson. She is in rehabilitation at a Houston facility. Kelly has been spending almost full time with her since the shooting and there was a question as to whether she would be sufficiently recovered in time for him to return to his astronaut duties.

Astronaut Mark Kelly, commander of STS-134 and husband of wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), will hold a press conference tomorrow to discuss his plans regarding the mission. A backup commander, Rick Sturckow, was named on January 13 in case Kelly is unable to fly the mission. Final word on which astronaut will be commander has been anxiously awaited. The press conference is at 2:00 pm CST (3:00 pm EST) and will be carried on NASA TV.

Astronaut office chief Peggy Whitson and Brent Jett, chief of the Flight Crew Operations Directorate, will also participate in the briefing. Kelly tweeted yesterday that his wife’s rehabilitation from a gunshot wound to the head on January 8 is going well “Today was a huge day for GG. Lots of progress.” Rep. Giffords was shot while she was holding a constituent event in Tucson, AZ. Six people were killed and 12 others were wounded.

Mark Kelly’s twin brother, Scott Kelly, is currently one of the crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS). STS-134 is currently slated for launch in April.

Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told the National Journal (subscription required) today that he expects a need for another short-term Continuing Resolution (CR) instead of a CR to cover the remaining seven months of FY2011. The Senator made his comments after the chairmen of the House Budget and Appropriations committees revealed the level of cuts they are proposing for the rest of the current fiscal year.

Senator Inouye pointed out that the Senate will have to carefully consider the House proposals, but will not be in session the week of February 21. The House is not in session this week, but will return next week and is expected to vote on a 7-month CR during the week of Feb. 14. With the Senate in recess the following week, however, it would not have time to consider and vote on it in time to avoid a government shutdown on March 4 when the current CR expires, Inouye explained. The top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Thad Cochran (R-MS), told the publication that he needs to study the House proposal more, too.

Other Democratic and Republican Senators quoted by the publication were skeptical about the House cuts being able to pass the Senate or said they needed to see the specifics before making any judgments. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), ranking Republican on the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs appropriations subcommittee, was quoted, for example, as supporting “exploring” the budget for cuts, while adding that it was necessary to “look carefully at where we can cut right now.”

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) released the details of how much money each of his subcommittees will have to cut for the remainder of FY2011 this afternoon. The Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittee that includes NASA and NOAA will have to cut 11 percent from the President’s FY2011 request for all the agencies in that bill, or 16 percent from current (FY2010) levels.

The announcement follows action by the House Budget Committee Chairman, Paul Ryan (R-WI), earlier today setting the overall spending limits by which the appropriations committee must abide in writing a Continuing Resolution (CR) to cover the rest of FY2011. The current CR expires on March 4 and Congress must pass a new appropriations bill before then to avoid a government shutdown. The cuts will have to be absorbed by the agencies in the seven remaining months (March-September) of FY2011.

The so-called “302(b) allocations” call for an 11 percent cut to the total for the CJS subcommittee, which also includes the Departments of Commerce and Justice, the National Science Foundation, and several smaller commissions and offices. It does not specify what will happen with NASA and NOAA, but it is difficult to imagine they will not be impacted. The subcommittee will send a recommendation to the full committee and eventually the bill will have to be voted on by the full House. That vote may come next week.

CJS is not the hardest hit subcommittee. Compared to the FY2011 request, five other non-security subcommittees will have to make deeper cuts, and one other also is at 11 percent. The three subcommittees that deal with security spending (Defense, Homeland Security and Military Construction/Veterans Affairs) also must make cuts in the 2-3 percent range compared to the President’s request for FY2011. When compared to current funding (FY2010), it is second only to the Transportation-Housing and Urban Development subcommittee, however, in the percentage of cuts that must be made.

Chairman Rogers made a statement that says in part:

“…I am instructing each of the twelve Appropriations subcommittees to produce specific, substantive and comprehensive spending cuts. We are going go line by line to weed out and eliminate unnecessary, wasteful, or excess spending – and produce legislation that will represent the largest series of spending reductions in the history of Congress. These cuts will not be easy, they will be broad and deep, they will affect every Congressional district, but they are necessary and long overdue.”

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) announced today the budget limits he is setting for the rest of FY2011. The Republican-led House passed a resolution last month giving the Budget Committee chairman the power to set those limits himself without need of legislation that would have to pass though the Budget Committee and on the House floor.

His decision cuts $58 billion from the President’s request for non-security domestic discretionary spending for the rest of the current fiscal year. NASA and NOAA are both in this category. How much each of the appropriations subcommittees will have to cut to amass that total was not announced. NASA and NOAA both are part of the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations subcommittee. Chairman Ryan also mandated that security spending be reduced by $16 billion, for a total of $74 billion that must be cut from the President’s FY2011 request.

Earlier, Republicans pledged to cut $100 billion from non-security domestic discretionary spending in FY2011, so today’s action does not meet that target. The Hill newspaper cites Republican aides as saying the cut is pro-rated to take account of the fact that five months of the fiscal year will have passed by the time the funding is appropriated, although Chairman Ryan’s statement did not assert that.

This is just one step in a long process that ultimately will have to find agreement in the Senate and on the President’s desk. The government is operating under a Continuing Resolution (CR) that expires on March 4; Congress must pass another appropriations bill by then or the government will have to shut down. As many point out, the FY2011 cuts will especially difficult for agencies to bear since they will have to be absorbed over seven months instead of 12.

Rep. Ryan’s action is also a harbinger of the harsh fiscal environment facing government agencies as debate begins soon on the FY2012 budget request, which will be submitted to Congress on February 14.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly indicated that Rep. Ryan was a Democrat not a Republican. We are mortified by our error.