Politifact.com gives President Obama a “Promise Kept” grade for using the private sector to improve spaceflight. The website — a project of the St. Petersburg Times — is tracking 18 promises made about the space program by the President during the campaign. So far they score him as having kept three promises (the other two are adding another shuttle flight and enhancing earth mapping) with two more “in the works” (improve climate change data records, and revise regulations for export of aerospace technologies) and the rest with “no action.” Many of the latter decisions are awaiting the Augustine committee report.

Results from the freshly refurbished Hubble Space Telescope are about to be put on display along with the STS-125 space shuttle crew that made it all possible. NASA will hold two press conferences next week, at 11:00 am and noon EDT on September 9, to show off new images and the crew. See NASA’s press release for details.

Space.com is reporting today that the new target date for testing the Ares rocket motor is September 10 at ATK’s facilities in Promontory Utah. The first attempt was scrubbed 20 seconds prior to ignition on August 27. Indications were that there was a problem with an Auxiliary Power Unit (APU), but engineers have determined that the problem was not hardware or software on the booster itself, according to the report. They are now looking at ground test hardware as the possible source of the problem.

The fate of the Ares program remains in the hands of the Augustine committee that is looking at options for the future of the human space flight program and the policy makers who will determine the path forward based on those options.

UPDATE: 6:30 PM EDT, Wednesday, September 2

According to the Associated Press, Mt. Wilson isn’t out of the woods yet, but the situation is improving. Observatory Director McAlister continues to post updates, but the web address has changed again. Currently they are being posted at http://www.chara.gsu.edu/CHARA/MWO/fire.php. The UCLA Towercam is not operating any longer, apparently a victim of severed lines when a backfire was lit yesterday. Dr. McAlister sounds increasingly optimistic about the situation and draws attention to an interesting op-ed by Tim Rutten that appeared in the LATimes this morning.

UPDATE: 8:00 PM EDT, Tuesday, September 1

Firefighters had a comparatively successful day fighting the fire and it is now 22% contained and growing at a slower rate. The LATimes is reporting that Mt. Wilson remains in danger, however. Observatory director McAlister has switched to the alternate server mentioned in his message above. Go to http://joy.chara.gsu.edu/CHARA/fire.php for his updates. Earlier today he was expressing guarded optimism based on the reports he was receiving

Original post, September 1 am

A photo from UCLA’s Towercam taken this morning (Tuesday, September 1) shows the fire near the Mount Wilson Observatory. Meanwhile, Hal McAlister, Director of the Observatory, has been posting updates on the observatory’s website. The most recent is from yesterday, August 31, at 5:30 pm PDT:

“Monday, 31 Aug 09, 5:30 pm PDT – As I mentioned earlier, we have lost the new backup power to the mountain. In anticipation of a possible loss of all power to the Observatory, where the MWO webserver is located, this update site will be relocated to http://joy.chara.gsu.edu/CHARA/fire.php. I will continue posting material on the current server, but if and when it goes dark, please make a note now to try the other URL if you are interested in keeping in touch with this situation from our perspective. In this event, the Towercam will also go dark. In the meantime, please keep coming to this site.”

The LATimes has an article this morning outlining the observatory’s scientific achievements to date.

One option for human exploration of Mars that gets little attention or discussion is whether these new explorers should plan on a one-way trip. Lawrence Krauss, director of the Origins Initiative at Arizona State University and author of “The Physics of Star Trek” advocates this approach in an op-ed for the August 31, 2009 New York Times. Here are some of his points:

” While the idea of sending astronauts aloft never to return is jarring upon first hearing, the rationale for one-way trips into space has both historical and practical roots. Colonists and pilgrims seldom set off for the New World with the expectation of a return trip, usually because the places they were leaving were pretty intolerable anyway. Give us a century or two and we may turn the whole planet into a place from which many people might be happy to depart.”

[snip]

“Moreover, if the [cosmic] radiation problems cannot be adequately resolved then the longevity of astronauts signing up for a Mars round trip would be severely compromised in any case. As cruel as it may sound, the astronauts would probably best use their remaining time living and working on Mars rather than dying at home. “

NASA’s Orion spacecraft has successfully completed its preliminary design review (PDR), according to the agency.

Orion and its Ares launch vehicle are part of NASA’s Constellation program to replace the space shuttle and ferry crews to the International Space Station (ISS) and return humans to the Moon by 2020. Reminiscent of an Apollo capsule, Orion is designed to sit atop its Ares booster, rather than on its side like the space shuttle orbiter.

The Orion design is considered superior from a safety standpoint in at least two ways. First, it would not be affected by foam or other debris that might fall from the Ares. Foam shedding from the space shuttle’s external tank caused the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy. Second, the crew could use an emergency abort system to propel the spacecraft away from the Ares if there was a serious launch vehicle malfunction during launch. The 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger tragedy occurred because of the failure of a component (an O-ring) in one of the shuttle’s Solid Rocket Boosters.

The fate of the Orion and Ares programs remains up the air, however, as everyone awaits the report of the Augustine committee and White House and congressional action thereafter. There are rumors that an Executive Summary of the report may be released very soon, but no official word from NASA about that.

The fire raging near Los Angeles, CA now threatens Mount Wilson and the astronomical observatory and bevy of cell phone and television and radio transmission towers atop it, according to the Associated Press.

“Fire crews set backfires and sprayed fire retardant at Mount Wilson, home to at least 20 television transmission towers, radio and cell phone antennas, and the century-old Mount Wilson Observatory. The observatory also houses two giant telescopes and several multimillion-dollar university programs. It is both a historic landmark and a thriving modern center for astronomy.”

As reported on NASAWatch, the fire earlier had threatened the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), but the immediate danger there appears to have passed.

Politifact.com, which describes itself as a project of the St. Petersburg Times “to help you find the truth in American politics,” has begun updating its entries on whether President Obama is upholding his campaign promises about the space program.

Four recently updated entries give the President two “promises kept” and two “in the works.” The two “kept” are adding another space shuttle flight for the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and enhancing earth mapping. The two “in the works” are improving climate change data records and revising regulations for export of aerospace technology.

Politifact’s updating process for space program promises reportedly is a work in progress itself. Look for more updated entries in the near future. Disposition of quite a few of the President’s promises, of course, will have to wait until the White House responds to the Augustine committee report, so “no action” or “in the works” is likely to pervade Politifact’s assessment of the President’s performance for a while yet.

No official word on when news may be forthcoming about the Augustine report. The Write Stuff blog cited NASA’s liaison to the Augustine committee this morning as saying that the report would be released in mid-September, but that an executive summary might be provided to the White House today or tomorrow. As for the committee itself, its website has only an entry from last week (August 24) saying that the printed report probably would not be available until the end of September.