The National Research Council (NRC) has approved the appointment of an additional member of the Mars Panel of the Decadal Survey on Planetary Science. Philippe Lognonn , Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, is the 13th and final member of the panel, one of five organized under the aegis of the Survey Committee. The Mars panel will hold its first meeting on September 9-11 at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.

Three other panels have been meeting this week in Washington, DC — Giant Planets, Inner Planets, and Satellites.

The fifth panel, Primitive Bodies, will hold its first meeting in Washington, D.C. on September 9-11. For more details on the study, the members of the Survey Committee and the panels, and agendas for meetings, see the Planetary Science Decadal Survey’s website.

NASA has again delayed the launch of space shuttle Discovery on its STS-128 mission. The delay is just shy of 24 hours. The new launch date is still tomorrow, Friday, August 28, but instead of 12:22 am EDT it is 11:59 pm EDT. According to NASA’s press release, “NASA managers decided Thursday that more time is needed to analyze the test data and develop alternative procedures for confirming that the valve is closed if the valve fails to provide the proper closed indication during Discovery’s next launch attempt.” According to NASA, the weather tomorrow is 40% no-go for tanking and 40% no-go for launch.

NASA’s lunar impact mission, LCROSS, suffered an anomaly over the weekend that could threaten its mission, according to media sources.

The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) was launched together with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on June 18 (see our previous story). LCROSS remains attached to the Centaur upper stage. The mission plan calls for LCROSS to correctly position itself and the Centaur over a site on the Moon, then the two will separate and the Centaur will be commanded to impact the Moon. LCROSS will take readings of the material ejected from the impact and then itself crash into the Moon. The project is managed by NASA’s Ames Research Center.

According to Spaceflightnow.com and other media sources, while LCROSS was in a communications black-out period over the weekend, an anomaly caused the Centaur to burn a significant amount of fuel, leaving barely enough to accomplish the mission. Apparently a problem developed in LCROSS’s Inertial Reference Unit attitude sensor causing the spacecraft to switch to a backup star tracker, which required additional fuel to maintain orientation. Mission managers remain optimstic that LCROSS will achieve its basic objectives, but worry about how little propellant margin remains should any other problems arise.

NASA has again postponed the launch of space shuttle Discovery on its STS-128 mission. The launch had been rescheduled to 01:10 EDT Wednesday, Aug. 26, after a weather-related scrub earlier today (Tuesday). At a news briefing at 10:00 pm EDT today, NASA officials explained that a failure of a liquid hydrogen inboard fill and drain value caused the postponement. Two days are needed to troubleshoot the problem. NASA is hoping to be able to launch very early Friday morning at 00:22 EDT, but will not know until they better understand the problem. Weather and range-availability issues will also factor into choosing a new date. If the launch does not happen before August 30, it will have to slip to mid-October.

The New York Times has a story today about the possible results of the Augustine committee report, which it says will not be released until mid-September. Among others quoted in the story are Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ):

“‘Unless the president is willing to step up and take a bold step like President Kennedy did, the manned spaceflight program is going to go in the ditch,’ said Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida.”

“The first decision is a stark one: whether to increase the money for the human space program to at least $130 billion over the next decade, the level the panel said would be needed, or to pull back the grander ambitions and keep astronauts to low-Earth orbit for the next couple of decades.

‘That is not a choice the White House wanted,’ Ms. Giffords said.”

Thunderstorms delayed the launch of space shuttle Discovery on its STS-128 mission. A new attempt is currently scheduled for Wednesday at 01:10 EDT.

Meanwhile, the taped video message from Stephen Colbert can be watched here.

As everyone anticipates the final report of the Augustine committee, NASA’s FY2010 budget awaits action in Congress and the FY2011 budget request is being formulated. Although Congress Daily reported earlier this month that the appropriations bill that includes NASA (Commerce, Justice, Science) could be among the first action items for the Senate when it returns in September, Space News reported today in its print edition that “The White House is expected to submit an amended 2010 budget request for NASA’s exploration program by mid-September…” Nothing is impossible, but it would seem odd for the Senate to move an appropriations bill to the floor if an Administration amendment is expected imminently.

Some news outlets already are projecting that the Obama Administration will choose not to increase NASA’s budget markedly. That would leave the agency as it is now — with too much program for its budget — or with a reduced portfolio that more closely matches the resources that will be made available. Neither is quite what space program advocates expected from an Obama presidency.

On a cheerier note, White House guidance regarding the FY2011 budget formulation process for science and technology specifically notes the importance of the space program. After listing four “practical challenges,” the August 4 memo from OMB Director Orszag and OSTP Director Holdren identifies four requirements for addressing them. The fourth is: “Enhancing our capabilities in space, which are essential for communications, geopostioning, intelligence gathering, Earth observation, and national defense, as well as for increasing our understanding of the universe and our place in it.” The extent to which the latter goal is dependent on human space exploration rather than robotic is open to interpretation. At the very least, there is no indication that the White House lacks an appreciation of the space program’s potential. The question is whether it will provide the money needed to realize it.

NASA is loading fuel into the space shuttle Discovery’s tanks for a scheduled liftoff of STS-128 in the wee hours of tomorrow morning — 1:36 EDT. The weather forecast is 80% favorable for launch.

At approximately 7:15 pm EDT tonight (Monday) after fueling is completed, NASA plans to air a special message from comedian Stephen Colbert on NASA TV. A treadmill being taken to the International Space Station (ISS) on this flight is named after him. NASA conducted a contest to select a name for its most recent ISS module. Mr. Colbert urged viewers of his Comedy Central show, The Colbert Report, to vote to name it after him. He won the most votes, but NASA decided to name the module Tranquility in honor of the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landing at Tranquility Base on the Moon in 1969. In recognition of Mr. Colbert’s winning the most votes, NASA named the treadmill after him, coining the name Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill for it.