Senate Majority Leader Reid got the 60 votes he needed today to invoke cloture on the Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) appropriations bill. The Senate is now considering amendments that are germane to the bill and could complete action today. The Vitter-Bennett census amendment previously had been ruled non-germane, so will not be considered.
Christopher Shank is joining Honeywell as Director, Civil Space Sales, beginning November 9.
Mr. Shank was NASA’s Chief of Strategic Communications and a key advisor to then-NASA Administrator Mike Griffin. He left the agency early this year to join the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab (APL). Previously he was on the staff of the House Science Committee.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) wants the Department of Defense (DOD) to do a better job of ensuring that all three aspects of their space systems — satellites, ground control systems, and user terminals — are synchronized to ensure that full capabilities are provided to warfighters in a timely manner. In a report released on October 30, GAO said:
“DOD does have several efforts in place to help achieve better synchronization. The Air Force has also made some attempts to improve acquisition management and increase oversight of contractors by separating the acquisition of satellites and their ground control systems. However, the outcomes of these efforts are still pending. Moreover, there is a lack of guidance needed to help plan for and coordinate the development of satellite and ground systems and a lack of transparency into costs for ground control systems and user terminals.”
Masten Space Systems was declared the official winner of First Place in Level 2 of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge today. Masten’s landing accuracy of 19 cm beat out Armadillo Aerospace’s 87 cm. First place carries a $1 million prize. Armadillo Aerospace wins $500,000 for Second Place. The prizes will be presented on Thursday, November 5, at noon in room 2325 Rayburn House Office Building.
Masten and Armadillo also won Level 1 of the competition, but in that case their positions were reversed. Armadillo won the $350,000 First Place prize, while Masten won $150,000.
NASA announced new members and additional committees for the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) today.
The four new committees and their chairs are:
The Primitive Bodies Panel of the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Planetary Science Decadal Survey met on October 28-30, 2009 at the NRC’s Beckman Center in Irvine, CA. Most of the meeting was closed, but on October 28-29, the following presentations were made in open session. Titles are from the agenda for the meeting.
The following events next week may be of interest. Check our calendar on the right menu for more details or follow the links below. Congressional activities are always subject to change.
During the week:
Monday-Wednesday, November 2-4, Omaha, Nebraska
Monday, November 2, Washington, DC
Tuesday-Wednesday, November 3-4, 2009, Irvine, CA
Wednesday-Friday, November 4-6, 2009, Pasadena, CA
Masten Space Systems qualified for the Level Two prize of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Landing Challenge. The prize is administered for NASA by the X-prize Foundation. There are prizes for Level One (First Place, $350,00; Second Place, $150,000), and Level Two (First Place, $1 million; Second Place, $500,000).
Masten’s successful flight on the third try overcame problems on two previous days that included a small fire. Masten qualified for the $150,000 Level One Second Place prize earlier in the month. The First Place Level One prize was won by Armadillo Aerospace last year.
Judges allowed Masten a third day instead of the two that are normally permitted, a decision that prompted a protest from Armadillo Aerospace. Armadillo qualified for the Level Two prize in September. The decision on who will be awarded first or second place is based on landing accuracy and apparently Masten did better on that score. Thus, Masten could win the first place $1 million prize and Armadillo would be awarded $500,000 for second place, a half million dollar difference.
In a press release posted on SpaceRef but not yet on Armadillo’s website, Armadillo Founder John Carmack challenged the decision to allow Masten a third attempt, but also admitted that he should have insisted on improving the accuracy of his own rocket: “I have been kicking myself for not taking the competition more seriously and working on a better landing accuracy.” But he stressed that “the current situation, where Masten was allowed a third active day of competition, after trying and failing on both scheduled days, is different. … The rules have given the judges the discretion to do just about anything up to and including awarding prize money for best effort if they felt it necessary, so there may not be any grounds to challenge this, but I do feel that we have been robbed.”
Another team, Unreasonable Rocket, did not qualify. A fourth team, BonNovA, withdrew.
Media reports are noting two anomalies with the Ares I-X test launch on Wednesday. The two minute powered flight prior to separation of the two stages is judged to be a success. After the first stage separated from the dummy second stage, however, the latter went into a flat spin instead of continuing on an upward course before ultimately falling into the ocean. That stage was not powered and not intended to be recovered. The first stage was recovered and showed signs of damage because it hit the water too hard. One of the three parachutes deflated, resulting in the harder than expected impact. Spaceflightnow.com has good pictures of the dent in the tank.
A New York Times editorial this morning praises NASA’s Swift satellite for finding the “afterglow” of the explosion that ended the life of star GRB 090423 13.1 billion light-years away.
“It’s one thing to explore such remote recesses of time in theory. It’s something else again to witness their afterglow. And GRB 090423 is an invitation for all of us to unfetter our imaginations. We imagine looking outward from that distant point knowing that our own exploration still lies some 13 billion years in the future.”