Women in Aerospace (WIA) will honor this year’s award recipients on October 26, 2010 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Arlington, VA. The winners of the 25th annual WIA awards are:

• Achievement Award: Jill Lynette Hanna Price, NASA Langley Research Center
• Aerospace Awareness Award: Elizabeth Beck, NASA Headquarters
• Aerospace Educator Award: Prof. Alison Flatau, University of Maryland, College Park
• International Achivement Award: Donna Collins, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, TX
• Leadership Award:
  • Lesa Roe, Director, NASA Langley Research Center
  • Mina Samii, Computer Sciences Corporation, Lanham, MD
• Lifetime Achivement Award: Nancy Grace Roman, NASA (retired)
• Outstanding Member Award: Lori Garver, Deputy Administrator, NASA

For more details on the awards ceremony, visit WIA’s website.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) included the NASA authorization bill on his list of legislation the House plans to consider before it breaks for the mid-term elections according to news reports.

ABC News called Hoyer’s list “ambitious.” It also includes the Child Nutrition Bill and the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act — not to mention a Continuing Resolution to keep the government operating past September 30 when fiscal year 2010 ends. None of the FY2011 appropriations bills has passed Congress yet. Congress Daily (subscription required) added that an extension of Bush-era tax cuts also may come up.

Speculation is growing that both the House and Senate will adjourn at the end of next week rather than October 8 as earlier expected. Hoyer denied rumors that the House might go home at the end of this week.

NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) audited the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) program to determine if it was being effectively managed and came away primarily with praise. Its few qualifications had to do with how NASA charges non-NASA customers for using the system, but in terms of procuring the next two satellites in the series, K and L, the agency got a tip of the hat.

“Development of TDRS K and L is on schedule and meeting its planned budget. We found that NASA has managed the Project within cost, schedule, and performance requirements and Project managers implemented risk and earned value management (EVM) processes to monitor and mitigate programmatic risks associated with TDRSS development efforts. NASA also effectively administered the TDRSS development and support service contracts. However, we found that NASA has not revised the reimbursable rates it charges TDRSS customers since 2006 and that NASA officials did not know what factors were used to formulate the 2006 rates. Accordingly, NASA does not know whether the rates it has been charging customers during the past 4 years reflected current operating costs. We also found that internal controls for continuity of operations were not established, which led to the possible loss to NASA of reimbursable dollars.”

The report noted that it had received a complaint that Boeing low-balled its bid to build the TDRSS satellites and later raised the price through contract modifications. The OIG determined that although Boeing received 13 waivers after the contract was awarded, they “did not alleviate Boeing from performing any of the technical requirements and did not affect the price of the contract.” The cost of the contract did, indeed, increase, the OIG found, but only because of changes sought by NASA. “Accordingly, we found no evidence to support the allegation that Boeing ‘low bid’ the contract in order to win the award and subsequently increased the cost through contract modifications.”

NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has cleared NASA Administrator Bolden of violating ethics laws or regulations regarding a phone call he made to an official of Marathon Oil, a company in which he has a financial interest. However, the IG report said that Bolden’s actions “raised concerns about an appearance of a conflict of interest” and disagreed “with the determination made by NASA attorneys that it was not necessary to report Bolden’s contact with Marathon to OIG.”

The matter involved a conversation Bolden had with a Marathon Oil official regarding algae-based fuels while NASA was considering whether to fund a project called Offshore Membrane Enclosure for Growing Algae (OMEGA). The OIG report says that Bolden has $500,000-$1 million of Marathon stock and had served on its Board of Directors for six years prior to becoming Administrator. The report noted that “When interviewed by the OIG about this matter, Bolden readily acknowledged that he had erred in contacting Marathon. Bolden said he has since recused himself from issues involving OMEGA and has received supplemental training regarding his ethical responsibilities.”

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

Monday (Sept. 20)

• NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Education and Public Outreach Committee, Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm CDT

Monday-Tuesday (Sept. 20-21)

• NAC Heliophysics subcommittee, Room 3H46, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC
  • Monday, 9:00 am – 5:30 pm EDT
  • Tuesday, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm EDT

Tuesday (Sept. 21)

• The Senate is slated to vote on a motion to bring up the FY2011 Department of Defense authorization act. At last report, the Senate leadership plans to attach the DREAM immigration reform act to the DOD bill and other measures also may be added. This is a procedural vote. Debate over the underlying bill and any other measures attached to it is expected to take some time. Congress Daily (subscription required) cites Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) as saying that final passage of the bill is not expected until after the November elections.
• NAC Exploration Committee, Glennan Conference Room, NASA Headquarters, Washington DC, 1:00 – 6:30 pm EDT

Thursday (Sept. 23)

• Marshall Institute Seminar on Hosted Payloads, Reserve Officers Association, One Constitution Ave., N.E., 4th Floor, Washington DC, 8:15 am – 10:30 am

Thursday-Saturday (Sept. 23-25)

• Space Generation Congress, Prague, Czech Republic (in conjunction with the International Astronautical Congress, which formally begins on Monday, Sept. 27)

Discovering the nature of dark energy is the top scientific priority for astronomy and astrophysics as indicated in the National Research Council’s Astro2010 Decadal Survey released last month. It set both a space mission, the Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope (WFIRST), and a ground-based telescope, Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), as the top priorities for space- and ground-based astronomy respectively. Both would search for answers about dark energy, a mysterious force that is causing the universe to expand at an accelerated rate. At the same time, the European Space Agency (ESA) is set to decide next summer on whether its dark energy probe, Euclid, will get the nod for one of its upcoming space missions.

Today, members of the NASA Advisory Council’s Astrophysics Subcommittee heard from Astro2010 chairman Roger Blandford, as well as from NASA Astrophysics Division Director Jon Morse and Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Jason Rhodes about the space-based dark energy missions and raised questions about potential overlap between them. The Astrophysics Subcommittee reports to NAC’s Science Committee, which in turn makes recommendations to NAC and the NASA Administrator.

Subcommittee members asked penetrating questions about why WFIRST and Euclid could not be combined, with 50-50 participation by each side. Dr. Morse told the subcommittee that current ESA-NASA discussions envision NASA as a one-third contributor to the Euclid mission if ESA proceeds with it. However, he stressed that while top level descriptions of WFIRST and Euclid indicate the two have similar goals in dark energy studies, a more detailed understanding of the instruments might show significant differences in the approaches being taken. Dr. Blandford also emphasized that dark energy is only one of three scientific objectives for WFIRST. The other two are looking for Earth-like planets (exoplanets) and an infrared sky survey, neither of which would be addressed by Euclid.

In a cost constrained environment made all that more difficult due to cost overruns on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), subcommittee members clearly were looking for ways to address the highest priority scientific questions in the most cost-effective manner. JWST and WFIRST are both “flagship” missions within the purview of the NASA Astrophysics Division. Dr. Morse emphasized repeatedly that flagship missions must wait their turn and WFIRST cannot proceed until JWST is launched.

The current launch date for JWST is 2014, but Dr. Eric Smith of NASA’s Astrophysics Division briefed the subcommittee on JWST and intimated that the date is likely to slip. The program is currently scheduled to go before an agency Program Management Council (PMC) at the end of November where a decision on its schedule is expected. Repeated cost overruns and schedule slips have led to a number of JWST program reviews, including one demanded by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), who chairs the Senate appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA.

A strong supporter of NASA and especially its Goddard Space Flight Center in her state of Maryland, which manages JWST, Sen. Mikulski nonetheless became concerned about additional problems with JWST identified during its mission Critical Design Review (CDR) earlier this year. She wrote a sharp letter to NASA in June telling the agency to create an independent panel to look at several issues including the root causes of JWST’s problems. That review is due to NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden next month. Dr. Smith was unable to answer most of the questions posed by subcommittee members about JWST pending completion of that review and the agency PMC.

The subcommittee meeting continues tomorrow.

NASA continued to woo the U.S. space astronomy community today hoping that it will agree to NASA’s proposal to increase its potential participation in the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) proposed Euclid mission from 20 percent to 33 percent. The second day of discussion at the NASA Advisory Council’s (NAC’s) Astrophysics Subcommittee meeting reiterated many of the points from yesterday, but participants were joined today by NASA Associate Administrator for Science Ed Weiler. They also were briefed by phone by ESA’s Fabio Favata on ESA’s process for choosing science missions and where they stand today. Euclid is one of three ESA missions vying for two spots in ESA’s science program; a decision will be made next summer.

NAC astrophysics subcommittee members are chosen by NASA to represent the broad space-based astrophysics community and they expressed a wide range of views about the wisdom of U.S. participation in Euclid and at what level. Euclid would search for answers to the mystery of dark energy, an unknown force accelerating the expansion of the universe. The recent U.S. National Research Council Decadal Survey for astronomy and astrophysics, Astro2010, identified a multidisciplinary project, WFIRST, as its top priority for space missions. WFIRST also would study dark energy, along with searching for earth-like planets (exoplanets) and performing an infrared sky survey. Astro2010’s top priority for ground-based astronomy, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), also would search for dark energy.

Many subcommittee members wondered why NASA would support two space missions that they view as having very similar science objectives when resources are so constrained. ESA-NASA discussions prior to the release of Astro2010 centered on NASA participating in Euclid at a 20 percent level, but more recently the two agencies have been discussing a 33 percent U.S. share. That would cost NASA $260 million over 10 years according to Dr. Weiler.

He and Jon Morse, Director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division, tried to downplay that amount, saying it was only $26 million per year, but subcommittee members clearly viewed it as a threat to funding for technology development or other activities. Several subcommittee members were inclined to limit NASA participation in Euclid to a minimum level. Others wanted more NASA participation, perhaps even a merging of Euclid and WFIRST with the two agencies sharing the costs on a roughly equal basis.

Dr. Weiler reminded them of the history of NASA-ESA discussions about working together on a dark energy mission. He said that two years ago, the agencies agreed to cooperate on a program where the United States would have had the lead in the program, but the plan was scuttled because “some people in the community didn’t like that.” At the time, NASA was working with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on the Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM) and his reference may have been to members of that community, although he was not specific.

In any case, he emphasized that ESA now is well along in its planning for Euclid and does not want to make any major changes – like adding new requirements – lest the mission lose its place in the ongoing selection. Increasing the U.S. share to 50 percent was suggested to ESA recently, he said, and rejected. He spelled out two options for the space astronomy community: 33 percent participation in Euclid, which would put four U.S. scientists on the program’s science definition team and give them access to data about dark energy in 2018 when the probe is launched; or no participation in Euclid and U.S. scientists would have to wait until 2022, the notional launch date for WFIRST under NASA’s budget assumptions, for dark energy data. After spirited repartee with committee members, he added a third option, to keep U.S. participation at the 20 percent level.

Subcommittee discussions are continuing, but they have little time to reach agreement on what to recommend to their parent NAC Science Committee, which meets on September 28. Dr. Weiler and Dr. Morse told them they need an answer by the end of this month. Dr. Weiler also noted that the astronomy community is not the only voice that needs to be heard. Congress, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy all have a say, he stressed.

With only about $2 billion available for new missions in NASA’s astrophysics budget over the next decade, $260 million is a sizeable investment. Dr. Morse dangled the prospect of ESA contributing a like amount to WFIRST if an agreement can be reached, but that would not happen until at least next year so there are no guarantees. In fact, there is no guarantee that Euclid will even be picked by ESA, as the NASA officials repeatedly pointed out.

Astro2010 just set priorities for astronomy and astrophysics research for the next decade, but this issue of increasing U.S. participation in Euclid arose after its report was complete. Astro2010 chair Roger Blandford declined to hypothesize on what the Decadal Survey committee might have thought about increasing participation in Euclid, reminding the group that the study is completed and in any case only sets priorities. Implementation is NASA’s responsibility, he said. Yesterday he reminded the subcommittee about exactly what Astro2010 said about Euclid in the context of its WFIRST recommendation: “Collaboration on a combined mission with the United States playing a leading role should be considered so long as the committee’s recommended science program is preserved and overall cost savings result.”

U.S. leadership in dark energy research appears to be one of the factors in decisions about how to move forward. Although WFIRST is indeed the acronym for Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope, it could also be a play on words. The search for dark energy is in part a quest to measure a dark energy parameter designated “w.” WFIRST might then be taken to mean that U.S. astronomers want to be sure they are the first to determine the value of w. (An excellent discussion of dark energy and w can be found in a 2007 NRC report NASA’s Beyond Einstein Program: An Architecture for Implementation.)

Correction: an earlier version of this article misstated when the NAC Science Committee is scheduled to meet. Its next meeting is September 28, not next week. It will meet by telephone and WebEx; see our calendar on the right menu for a link to the Federal Register notice about the meeting. Also, the NRC Beyond Einstein report was published in 2007 not 2008 — how time flies!