The following events next week may be of interest. Check our calendar on the right menu for further details or click on the links below. Congressional schedules and space shuttle launch schedules are always subject to change. Check the websites of the House, Senate, relevant congressional committees, or NASA for up-to-date information.

During the Week

No conference committee meetings have yet been announced for either the Department of Defense (DOD) or Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) appropriations bills, but could be scheduled during the week.

Monday, November 16

• Scheduled launch of STS-129 Space Shuttle Atlantis, 2:28 pm EST

Monday-Wednesday, November 16-18

• NRC Planetary Science Decadal Survey Steering Committee meeting, Irvine, CA. Some sessions of this meeting are closed.

Tuesday, November 17

• Space and Security: Transatlantic Issues and Perspectives, sponsored by the European Space Policy Institute and George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute, 9:30 am -1:30 pm EST, 1957 E Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.

Wednesday, November 18

• Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing on Nomination of Erin Conaton to be Under Secretary of the Air Force, 9:30 am EST, 216 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.
• Senate Commerce Committee Hearing on Nomination of Philip Coyle to be Associate Director for National Security and International Affairs at the Office of Science and Technology Policy (and other nominations), 2:30 pm EST, 253 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.

Thursday , November 19

• House Science and Technology Committee hearing on “The Growth of Global Space Capabilities: What’s Happening and Why it Matters,” 10:00 am EST, 2318 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C.
• Senate Commerce Committee markup of Satellite TV Extension and Localism Act (and other legislation), 10:00 am EST, 253 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.

Thursday-Friday, November 19-20

• Space, Telecommunications and Cyber Law in the Transatlantic Arena: Comparison, Competition & Cooperation.” Sponsored by the University of Nebraska Law School. Washington Court Hotel, 525 New Jersey Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C.
• NRC Decadal Survey on Biological and Physical Sciences in Space: Panel on Human Behavior and Mental Health, Irvine, CA. Some sessions of this meeting may be closed.

Space Shuttle Atlantis remains on track for launch on Monday at 2:28 pm EST. The STS-129 mission will deliver spare parts to the International Space Station (ISS). Only five more shuttle flights remain after this one and NASA wants to get as many spare parts aboard the ISS as it can while it still has the “upmass” capability of the shuttle. Once the shuttle is terminated, only much smaller spacecraft (Russia’s Progress, Europe’s ATV and Japan’s HTV) will be available to take parts, equipment, supplies, and experiments up to the ISS. Only Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft will be able to bring anything back to Earth; Progress, ATV and HTV are not designed to survive reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. The Soyuz will be used to ferry astronauts back and forth, but with three astronauts in the Soyuz only about 50 kilograms of other cargo can be accommodated.

The House Science and Technology Committee’s Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics will hold a hearing on “The Growth of Global Space Capabilities: What’s Happening and Why It Matters.” The hearing will be held on November 19 at 10:00 am in 2318 Rayburn House Office Building. Witnesses have not been announced.

The Associated Press is reporting discouraging news about what domestic agencies, like NASA, can expect for FY2011:

“The Obama administration has alerted domestic agencies to plan for a freeze or even a 5 percent cut in their budgets, part of an election-year push to rein in record deficits that threaten the economy and Democrats’ political prospects next fall.”

The American Institute of Physics (AIP) and the John and Jane Mather Foundation for Science and the Arts are initiating a public policy internship for physics undergraduates. Dr. John Mather, senior astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for his precise measurements of the primodial heat radiation of the Big Bang.

The AIP Mather Public Policy Intern Program is funded by the Mather Foundation, which itself is funded by the Nobel award money, and expands upon the existing Society of Physics Students intern program that is administered by the AIP. According to the AIP press release: “Dr. Mather hopes that this internship program will ‘get students interested when they still have an opportunity to learn about government process in their formal education; grad schools tend to expect their technical students to concentrate on technical things.'”

Russia’s new “Poisk” module is on its way to the International Space Station (ISS). The module was launched today and is scheduled to dock with the ISS on Thursday. Its primary purpose is as another docking port, though some scientific experiments also could be conducted there.

This is the fourth Russian-built ISS module. The first, Zarya, was the very first ISS segment in orbit. Launched in 1998, it provided guidance, navigation and control for the ISS until other segments were launched. Though built in Russia, it was paid for by the United States and therefore officially is a U.S. segment. In 2000, the Russian-built, Russian-owned Zvezda module joined the space complex after a two-year delay primarily caused by funding problems in the Russian space program. Zvezda is the main crew quarters. In 2001, the Russian Pirs docking port was added.

The following events may be of interest. See our calendar on the right menu for more details, or click on the links below. Wednesday is Veterans Day and Congress will be in recess for most of the week. The Senate is only scheduled to be in session on Monday and Tuesday. The House schedule for Monday and Tuesday is yet to be announced.

Monday-Thursday: NRC Committee on Assessment of NASA Laboratory Facilities (some sessions may be closed)

• Site Visit to JPL, Nov. 9-10
• Site Visit to NASA/Ames, Nov. 9-10
• Committee Meeting, NRC Beckman Center, Irvine, CA, Nov .11-12

Monday-Friday: NRC Decadal Survey on Biological and Physical Sciences in Space: Panel Meetings (some sessions may be closed)

• Panel on Fundamental Physical Sciences, NRC Beckman Center, Irvine, CA, Nov. 9-10
• Panel on Translation to Space Exploration Systems, Keck Center, Washington, DC, Nov. 11-13

Thursday-Friday

• Second Global Space Development Summit, Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1800 K Street, N.W., Washington, DC. Registration fee: $500.

The Senate passed the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill on Thursday. The bill funds NASA, NOAA, and NSF among other agencies. A compromise now must be negotiated with the House. One major difference between the House and Senate is funding for NASA’s Constellation program to return humans to the Moon by 2020. The House held that program to its FY2009 funding level, a cut of more than $500 million from the FY2010 request, pending the results of the Augustine committee. The Senate fully funded the Constellation program. Although the Augustine committee has completed its report presenting options for the future of the U.S. human space flight program, the White House has not made a public statement about which of the options it will adopt, or if it will take yet a different route. Whether or not the lack of a clear decision from the White House will affect congressional negotiations remains to be seen.

NASA has published the newest edition of the classic Spinoffs book that “shows how NASA technology is being put to use in everyday life here on Earth…” The report is available online and in print.