Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education will be the subject of three House hearings next week: a two-parter by a House Appropriations subcommittee and one by a House Science and Technology subcommittee.

• The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce-Justice-Science will hold a two-part hearing on February 3 and 4.
  • Part 1: February 3, 10:00 am, H-309 Capitol. Witnesses are Dr. Oliver Hill, Virginia State University and Dr. Eleanor Miele, Brooklyn College
  • Part 2: February 4, 10:00 am, H-309 Capitol. Witnesses are Dr. Julie Luft, Arizona State University and Dr. Craig Strang, Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California-Berkeley
• The House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Research and Science Education will hold a hearing on “Strengthening Undergraduate and Graduate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Education” on February 4 at 10:30 am in 2318 Rayburn House Office Building. Witnesses are:
  • Joan Ferrini-Mundy, NSF Directorate for Education and Human Resources
  • Noah Finkelstein, University of Colorado, Boulder
  • Karen Klomparens, Michigan State University
  • Robert Mathieu, University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • Rick Stephens, The Boeing Company and chair of the Aerospace Industries Association Workforce Steering Committee

Times, dates and witnesses for congressional hearings are subject to change. Check with the relevant committee for up to date information.

Not that we aren’t just as curious as everyone else, but SpacePolicyOnline.com is exhausted by all the media stories speculating on NASA’s FY2011 budget. We will actually know what is in NASA’s budget on Monday. That is soon enough. We will be delighted to report any publicly-releasable news that comes out between now and Monday, but will leave the rumors to others.

The KEY POINT is that whatever comes out on Monday is just the opening shot. NASA’s budget and its future have a long way to go after the President sends his budget request to Congress. As we have noted before, it is only a request. Congress must decide what to do with it. Readers who have strong points of view about what NASA’s future should be — whatever that viewpoint is — are well advised to write to their elected representatives to let them know. Congress is where the action will be after Monday.

Members of Congress really do listen to the people who elected them and, for those running for reelection this fall, hopefully will do so again. If you don’t know who your Congressperson and Senators are, well, shame on you, but you can find out by going to the websites of the House and Senate where you need only type in your zip code (for the House) or state (for the Senate) to find out. Don’t bother writing to anyone else’s Congressperson or Senator, just your three (two Senators, one Congressperson).

NASA has given the go-ahead for the next launch of the space shuttle while a key Congressman issued a strong defense of the Constellation program as the successor to the space shuttle, which is rapidly approaching retirement.

STS-130 (Endeavour) is scheduled for launch at 4:39 a.m. EST on February 7, 2010. It will be the last night launch of the space shuttle. Endeavour will take the Tranquilty module and its European-built Cupola to the International Space Station. Only four more shuttle launches remain after this one unless the Obama Administration or Congress decides to extend the program, which appears very unlikely with the possible exception of a “launch on need” mission, STS 135.

Meanwhile, with media sources ramping up speculation that the FY2011 Obama budget request will not support the ongoing Constellation program as the successor to the space shuttle, Representative Pete Olson (R-TX) issued a biting press release today defending Constellation. Saying that the President and congressional Democrats had wasted money on a stimulus bill that failed to create jobs, he asserted that Constellation is “the best means for America to remain the global leader in human space flight.” He vowed to work with his congressional colleagues to ensure that any attempt by the Obama Administration to “reduce the role of human space flight at NASA” is “not the final answer on the future of NASA.” Rep. Olson is the ranking Republican on the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee. His district encompasses NASA’s Johnson Space Center where the Constellation program is managed.

On this day in 1967, three brave astronauts lost their lives in the Apollo 204 tragedy. Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chafee were killed when a fire erupted in their Apollo capsule during a pre-launch test of what was to have been the first Apollo launch. Hence this is sometimes referred to as Apollo 1, but it had the designation Apollo-Saturn 204 (AS-204) and traditionally is called Apollo 204.

Fate ordained that the three tragedies that have taken the lives of astronauts in mission-related accidents occurred within a few days of each other on the early winter calendar: Apollo 204 on January 27, 1967; the space shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986; and the space shuttle Columbia on February 1, 2003. NASA has a “Day of Remembrance” for all three jointly on January 29, but it seems fitting to mention each of them individually here.

Many in the space community wistfully remember the Apollo era for its “can do” spirit and its successful accomplishment of a seemingly impossible task — landing men on the Moon and returning them safely to Earth within just 8 years of President John F. Kennedy announcing that goal. The memory of the sacrifices made to achieve that goal — especially of these lives lost — seems to have faded for many. It should not.

The cause of the fire was never conclusively determined, but is thought to have been electrical arcing that ignited combustible materials in the capsule. The test was conducted in an atmosphere of 100% oxygen at 16.7 pounds per square inch (psi) pressure, an environment perfect to feed a fire. The hatch was designed to open inward and could not be opered with the pressure inside higher than that outside. The crew could not escape and died from asphyxiation by toxic gases and from burns. Subsequently, the hatch was redesigned to open outwards and ground tests were no longer conducted in 100% oxygen, along with many other changes.

While his colleague Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX) is aiming to keep the Constellation program on track, Congressman Bill Posey (R-FL) is continuing his fight to keep the space shuttle operating beyond its current planned retirement this year. He wants to close the multiyear “gap” between the end of the shuttle and the availability of Constellation by filling it with occasional shuttle flights.

Posey’s press release today reminded readers that during the Presidential campaign, then-Senator Obama promised Floridians that he would close that gap. If media reports are even “half accurate” about the President’s plans for human space flight, said Posey, Obama’s plan would be a “devastating reversal of that commitment” that is “bizarre and misguided.” He added:

“My biggest fear is that this amounts to a slow death of our nation’s human space flight program; a retreat from America’s decades of leadership in space, ending the economic advantages that our space program has brought to the U.S., and ceding space to the Russians, Chinese and others. I will do all that I can to stop this ill-advised plan.”

Rep. Posey’s congressional district includes NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The area stands to lose thousands of jobs when the shuttle is terminated. He introduced legislation last year (H.R. 1962) to authorize shuttle flights through 2015 and wrote a letter to the President last week advocating an extension of the program.

NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) warned against extending the shuttle program unless the shuttle goes through a recertification process as recommended by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board after the Columbia tragedy in 2003. ASAP chair Joe Dyer is scheduled to testify to the House Science and Technology Committee next week.

Release of President Obama’s FY2011 budget request is just days away and speculation over what it will hold for NASA is heating up. Whether NASA will get no increase or a small increase (less than the $1 billion earlier rumored) and what it will say about the future of the human spaceflight program remain topics of conjecture. The budget is scheduled to be sent to Congress on Monday (February 1).

The New York Times quotes an unnamed source as saying that a technical review is being planned to put “meat on the bones” of the options identified by the Augustine committee last year. It also quotes White House spokesman Nicholas Shapiro as saying that “The President is committed to a robust 21st-century space program” and the budget request “will reflect that dedication to NASA.”

Whatever is in the request on Monday, it is only a request. Congress holds the purse strings and the fate of NASA and the human spaceflight program will not be known until it completes action on NASA’s FY2011 appropriations bill.

As the FY2011 budget nears release, the staff at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) who handle NASA’s budget are going through some changes. Paul Shawcross remains as Branch Chief for Science and Space, but most of the other staff positions involved with NASA are in flux.

Amy Kaminski, program examiner for NASA’s space and earth sciences programs, is headed over to NASA’s Science Mission Directorate on February 1 for a one-year detail.

Meanwhile, Brian Dewhurst of NASA’s Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation (PA&E) arrived at OMB on Monday for his own one-year detail. Brian’s portfolio includes earth science, education, and the Holocaust Museum. (The Science and Space Branch encompasses NASA, NSF, the Smithsonian and other federally-supported museums.)

NASA’s space science activities will be covered by Celinda Marsh, who is already at OMB. A new program examiner, Brooke Owens, currently with the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation, will start at OMB on Monday. Which agencies or parts of agencies she will handle is TBA.

As we always note here at SpacePolicyOnline.com, dates, times and witnesses for congressional hearings are subject to change. And so it is today. The Senate Commerce Committee’s hearing on pending nominations no longer includes Timothy McGee, the President’s nominee to be Assistant Secretary of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for Environmental Observation and Prediction. No explanation was offered on the committee’s website or as the hearing for the other nominees began.