Category: Civil

GAO Denies Blue Origin's Protest Re NASA's Launch Complex 39A

GAO Denies Blue Origin's Protest Re NASA's Launch Complex 39A

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 12, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 12, 2013 5:11 pm ET

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) had good news and not so good news for Blue Origin today.   On the good news front, GAO agrees with the entrepreneurial space company that GAO does indeed have jurisdiction over determining whether NASA is properly applying its Announcement for Proposals (AFP) as it evaluates proposals for the future of Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center (KSC).  However, it then denies Blue Origin’s protest that NASA is misapplying the AFP.

NASA wants to establish a “Public-Private or Public-Public Venture (PPV)” through “a lease, a use permit or other form of property out-grant term” for future use of the launch pad once used for Apollo and space shuttle missions, according to the report.   NASA has two launch pads at KSC and envisions needing only one for the future Space Launch System (SLS).  It is keeping LC 39B and wants to find new users for LC 39A.

SpaceX and Blue Origin were the only two companies to respond to NASA’s AFP.   SpaceX indicated that it would be the only user of the complex while Blue Origin contemplated a multi-user approach.  NASA is still evaluating the proposals; a decision is pending.  

What Blue Origin protested was whether NASA, in fact, expresses a preference for a multi-user approach in the AFP and is misapplying the AFP in evaluating the proposals.   GAO explains that Blue Origin “reasons that, because the AFP requires additional information and analysis with regard to a proposal for an exclusive use approach … it follows that the AFP includes an inherent preference for a multi-user approach” and a multi-user approach is the “default” approach envisioned by the AFP.

After determining that it does have jurisdiction over this matter, which was disputed by NASA, GAO’s action today denies Blue Origin’s protest that the AFP has a preference for one approach over the other.   “We find that the agency’s interpretation [of the AFP] is reasonable,” GAO concluded.

In a press statement, GAO makes clear that it is not taking any position on the relative merits of the SpaceX and Blue Origin proposals.

Last Updated: Dec 12, 2013 5:11 pm ET
House Passes FY2014 Budget Deal

House Passes FY2014 Budget Deal

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 12, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 12, 2013 11:18 pm ET

The House passed the Ryan-Murray budget plan today.  It still must pass the Senate and be signed by the President.  President Obama has signaled his support for the measure.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), chairman of the House Budget Committee, and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), chair of the Senate Budget Committee, reached a two-year compromise agreement on the federal budget for FY2014 and FY2015 on Tuesday.   The budget conference committee they chaired was created by the deal that reopened the government after a two-week shutdown in October and had a deadline of December 13 to complete its work. 

Expectations were low that any agreement could be reached, but the two announced it on December 10, several days ahead of schedule, an important milestone since the House is scheduled to adjourn for the year tomorrow.  Tea Party Republicans strongly opposed the agreement because it provides more money than agreed upon in the Budget Control Act of 2011, and some Democrats opposed it because it did not extend unemployment benefits.  But enough Members on both sides of the aisle were willing to vote in favor of the plan (H. J. Res. 59) to ensure its passage on a 332-94 vote.   Of the 94 no votes, 62 were Republican and 32 were Democrats.

Questions remain as to whether the Senate will pass the measure, but this is one step forward.  If adopted by the Senate and signed by the President (who supports it), the agreement would mean budget stability at least for FY2014 and FY2015 without the Damoclean sword of a shutdown hanging over the government.

How much money it would mean for specific agencies like NASA, NOAA and DOD is yet to be determined, but the total amount available for government spending in FY2014 ($1.012 trillion) is about half way between what the House approved in its Budget Resolution ($967 billion) and the Senate’s version ($1.058 billion).

Last Updated: Dec 12, 2013 11:18 pm ET
ISS Coolant Loop Problem May Delay Orbital's Cargo Resupply Launch

ISS Coolant Loop Problem May Delay Orbital's Cargo Resupply Launch

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 12, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 12, 2013 3:28 pm ET

A problem with a flow control valve on one of the two International Space Station (ISS) coolant loops may delay the planned launch next week of Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Cygnus cargo resupply spacecraft.  The launch is currently scheduled for December 18.

Kenny Todd, ISS Mission Operations Integration Manager, said in an interview on NASA’s Space Station Live program this morning that the agency is still diagnosing the problem and determining what must be done to fix it.   Until more is known, he is delaying a “go/no-go” decision on Orbital’s launch because whenever another vehicle arrives at the ISS, certain levels of systems redundancy are required and NASA cannot meet those criteria under current circumstances.  NASA will revisit the situation on Monday and determine if a launch delay is necessary.

The launch window for this mission, designated Orbital-1 or simply Orb-1, is the company’s first flight of the Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract.  Orbital has named this specific Cygnus spacecraft in honor of C. Gordon “Gordo” Fullerton, the former astronaut who passed away in August.  At one point in his career, Fullerton flew NASA NB-52B aircraft that were used to deploy Orbital’s air-launched Pegasus rocket.

Todd said the launch window for the Cygnus launch runs through December 21 or 22, and, if necessary, the launch could be delayed until the next launch window.   None of the 3,217 pounds of cargo on this mission is critical to ISS operations, Todd said.

The coolant loop malfunctioned yesterday.  ISS has two external thermal control loops that use ammonia as a coolant.  The ammonia must be kept at the proper temperature to ensure that when it flows through a heat exchanger, water that is also in the heat exchanger does not freeze.  If the ammonia becomes too cold, the system automatically shuts off.  That’s what happened yesterday. 

Ground-based engineers began to troubleshoot the issue and traced it back to a flow control valve in one of the loops, but they are still trying to determine exactly what went wrong and what is needed to fix it.   Meanwhile, the 6-person crew is safe and ISS is in a stable configuration, Todd said.  Still, NASA would like to get the loop working “sooner rather than later.”   All critical ISS systems can operate on just one loop, but both are needed for all systems to work and for redundancy.  NASA has moved all the critical systems over to the functioning loop, but some systems in Node 2 (Harmony), Japan’s Kibo module, and Europe’s Columbus module had to be turned off.

The ISS experienced a coolant loop problem in 2010 and Todd acknowledged that at first glance people might assume this is similar.  In 2010, however, a pump failed.  In this case, it is a flow control valve that “is in the same housing, but is a different piece of hardware” that regulates the temperature of the ammonia rather than moving the ammonia through the system like the pump.  NASA does not know whether a spacewalk is needed to repair the problem this time as it was in 2010, but, if so, Todd says the “choreography” will be similar and replacement pump modules are aboard.  He stressed that NASA needs to ensure that its spacesuits are in good order.   The last time the U.S. spacesuits were used, European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano’s spacesuit filled with water because of a failure in its cooling system.

The video of this morning’s interview with Todd is posted on NASA’s YouTube channel.

Last Updated: Dec 12, 2013 3:28 pm ET
AIAA Seeks Nominations for Yvonne C. Brill Lectureship

AIAA Seeks Nominations for Yvonne C. Brill Lectureship

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 12, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 12, 2013 8:42 am ET

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), in cooperation with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), has created a new lectureship in honor of Yvonne C. Brill.  AIAA or NAE members may nominate individuals to receive the award by January 31, 2014. 

Brill passed away earlier this year after a superlative career in aerospace engineering that earned her the National Medal of Technology and Innovation among many other honors.  She was as well known for her engineering expertise as for her determination to ensure that aerospace and engineering professionals, especially women, receive due recognition for their accomplishments.   The AIAA/NAE lectureship will be presented to an individual with a “distinguished career that involves significant contributions in aerospace research and/or engineering and will be selected based on technical expertise, originality, and influence on other important aerospace issues such as ensuring a diverse and robust engineering community.”

The first lectureship will be presented in September 2014.   AIAA has strict requirements for nomination submissions, which are described in the flyer below.  The flyer also provides contact information at AIAA to obtain the necessary form. 

 

Last Updated: Dec 12, 2013 8:42 am ET
House Committee Approves Bill Requiring Congressional Approval Before Terminating JWST, ISS, SLS or Orion

House Committee Approves Bill Requiring Congressional Approval Before Terminating JWST, ISS, SLS or Orion

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 11, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 11, 2013 5:36 pm ET

The House Science, Space and Technology Committee approved today a bill that changes how NASA would manage termination of four of its major programs if such a decision were made.  The committee first adopted an amendment that adds the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to the three human spaceflight programs covered in the original bill — the International Space Station (ISS), the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion crew spacecraft.

The bill, H.R. 3625, initially had two major thrusts:  to require the Administration to obtain congressional approval before terminating SLS, Orion or the ISS, and to prohibit contractors on those programs from setting aside appropriated funds to cover costs the government would have to pay in the event it did terminate any of those programs for the convenience of the government — called termination liability costs.  

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) said when he introduced the bill that contractors on SLS, Orion and ISS are reserving a total of $507 million that Congress appropriated rather than using the money to implement those programs.

The committee was scheduled to mark up the bill on December 5 at the same time it considered three other unrelated bills.   When it came time to mark up this bill, however, committee chairman Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) announced that more time was needed for Republicans and Democrats to reach agreement and recessed the markup.

The markup was scheduled to resume yesterday, but government offices in Washington, DC were closed because of a snowstorm, so it was rescheduled for today.

The markup lasted less than 10 minutes and the amendment and bill were adopted by voice vote. 

The major change made by the amendment, which was offered by Smith, is adding JWST to the list of programs covered by the bill.  Smith said in his opening remarks that JWST was added at the request of Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD), the top Democrat on the Space Subcommittee who represents a district in Maryland close to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center where JWST is managed.    One section of the amendment states that although JWST is “making steady progress,” it also “confronts a number of challenging integration tests that will stress a congressionally imposed development cost cap.”

JWST has been very controversial because of significant cost overruns and schedule slips.   In 2011, Congress imposed a cap of $8 billion for development of the spacecraft in the FY2012 appropriations act that included NASA (P.L. 112-55).   The program has encountered a number of technical problems since then, but NASA insists that it has sufficient cost and schedule reserve that they will not impact the cost cap or the 2018 launch date.  The language added by Edwards could be construed as suggesting that such optimism may not be warranted.

Another change made by the amendment replaces language that would have voided existing contract provisions that provide for payment of termination liability costs in a manner inconsistent with the bill.  The new language simply states that funds being held in reserve for termination liability “shall be promptly used” for executing the program. 

The bill also makes clear that it is the intent of Congress to authorize appropriations to cover termination liability if, in fact, Congress agrees that the Administration should terminate a contract and that it is the Administration’s responsibility to spend such funds for that purpose.

Terminating contracts for the convenience of the government is rare.  As the findings section of the bill states, in FY2010, the government terminated “28 of 16,343 active contracts and orders — a termination rate of about 0.17 percent.”

Last Updated: Dec 11, 2013 5:36 pm ET
ISS Has Another Coolant Loop Problem, Crew OK

ISS Has Another Coolant Loop Problem, Crew OK

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 11, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 11, 2013 11:24 pm ET

The International Space Station (ISS) has encountered another problem with one of its coolant pumps.  The 6-person crew is fine according to the agency.

In a statement, NASA said the pump on one of the two coolant loops shut down and flight controllers suspect a flow control valve malfunctioned.  Some non-critical systems in Node 2 (Harmony), Japan’s Kibo laboratory and Europe’s Columbus laboratory were powered down.

NASA’s Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) tweeted that one of the two external cooling loops automatically shut today because it got too cold.

Check back here for more details as they become available.

Last Updated: Dec 11, 2013 11:24 pm ET
Bolden Clarifies NASA's Position on Flagship Missions

Bolden Clarifies NASA's Position on Flagship Missions

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 10, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 10, 2013 4:23 pm ET

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden issued a statement clarifying NASA’s position on flagship missions for use by senior agency officials attending the American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference in San Francisco this week.

As reported by SpacePolicyOnline.com, at a December 4 meeting of the NASA Advisory Council’s Science Committee (NAC/Science), Bolden told the space and earth science communities that they should “stop thinking about … flagship missions” because they are unaffordable in the current budget environment.  Other news outlets including the Huntsville Times picked up on the story.

On December 10, NASAWatch.com editor Keith Cowing published a statement that had been written by Bolden that clarifies the agency’s position, which is quite different from what Bolden expressed at the NAC/Science meeting.  (H/T to Keith for publicizing its existence.)

In response to a subsequent request from SpacePolicyOnline.com for a copy of the statement and other information, NASA Associate Administrator for Communications David Weaver explained that the statement was written for agency leaders to use at AGU.  “This was prepared for use by senior leaders attending the AGU conference this week and distributed to them — and other agency leaders.” 

AGU is one of the major annual scientific conferences where results from NASA science missions, especially planetary science missions, are announced.  All four divisions of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate — astrophysics, heliophysics, earth science and planetary science — are feeling the budgetary strain, but the planetary science community has been hit particularly hard and is increasingly concerned about when they will be allowed to initiate a new flagship mission.  Flagship missions are the most expensive (over $1 billion) and risky, but offer the greatest scientific reward.  

Within planetary science, NASA is currently building the Mars2020 rover, which, based on its cost, is a flagship mission.  However, it is being built largely using heritage technology and leftover parts from the Mars Curiosity rover.  The planetary science community wants a new ground-breaking project such as a mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa, which has a liquid ocean under an icy shell.  Many also want a mission to the outer planets – beyond the asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter — since NASA’s current planetary science missions in that region of the solar system will complete their missions by 2017.  A Europa mission has the support of key members of Congress and Congress added $75 million to NASA’s FY2013 budget for concept studies.  That is quite different, however, from coming up with more than $1 billion over the next several years to actually proceed with a mission in addition to everything else NASA is currently being asked to do.

Bolden’s remarks to NAC/Science conveyed that such a mission is not in NASA’s foreseeable future — for planetary science or any of the other science disciplines.  At that time, Bolden stressed the importance of having a reliable cadence of smaller missions that could be spread over a broader set of space and earth science objectives.

The text of Bolden’s clarifying statement as provided by Weaver today is as follows:

Statement of Administrator Charles Bolden Re: NASA’s Commitment to Flagship Missions

“NASA remains committed to planning, launching and operating flagship missions that meet the challenging objectives of our science, technology and aeronautics communities as identified through decadal surveys, advisory groups, the Administration and Congress.   We are dedicated to pursuing the most cost-effective ways to accomplish this goal in order to provide balance with an increased cadence of missions that vary in size, destination and complexity.”

Last Updated: Dec 10, 2013 4:23 pm ET
House and Senate Budget Conferees Reach a Deal, a Few Days Early

House and Senate Budget Conferees Reach a Deal, a Few Days Early

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 10, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 11, 2013 12:08 am ET

House and Senate budget conferees tasked with reaching a budget deal by December 13 surprised many not only by reaching agreement at all, but a few days early.

House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Budget Committee chairman Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) announced today a two-year (FY2014-2015)  budget agreement that replaces the sequester and sets government spending approximately mid-way between the amounts earlier approved separately by the House and Senate. The total amount of government spending recommended for FY2014 in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 is $1.012 trillion.  The House had approved $967 billion while the Senate approved $1.058 trillion.

How those figures filter down to the 12 appropriations subcommittees and the individual agencies — like DOD, NASA and NOAA — they fund remains to be seen, but the fact that agreement was reached at all is a positive sign.   Senate Appropriations Committee chair Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) lauded the agreement, saying it means “we can meet national security needs while meeting compelling human needs like education, health and housing.”  Mikulski’s House counterpart, Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY), similarly praised the deal, saying it took “courage and resolve.”

The budget conferees had a December 13 deadline based on the agreement that reopened government in October.   Few expected they would meet that deadline, much less beat it.  The House and Senate still must agree to its recommendations.   Then the House and Senate appropriations committees must agree on how to allocate those funds and get the approval of their respective chambers.  That step must happen before January 15, 2014 when the current Continuing Resolution (CR) expires.

While the agreement is good news on gridlocked Capitol Hill, it is only for two years rather than 10, does not raise the debt limit (the current agreement on that expires on February 7), and does not reform either entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid or the tax code.  If approved by the House and Senate, however, it should avoid another government shutdown and provide a framework for the appropriations committees to make funding decisions for two fiscal years.

Last Updated: Dec 11, 2013 12:08 am ET
Space Policy Events for the Week of December 9-13, 2013 – UPDATE

Space Policy Events for the Week of December 9-13, 2013 – UPDATE

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 8, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 9, 2013 3:21 pm ET

The following events may be of interest in the week ahead.  The House and Senate both are in session. 

During the Week

The House is scheduled to adjourn for the year on Friday; the Senate plans to be here one more week after that.  If those schedules hold, this is the last week in 2013 that they both will be in session and thus able to get legislation passed and to the White House.   Many Senators say that of all the pending legislation, they really want to get the FY2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed, but they didn’t make much progress before the Thanksgiving break because of partisan disputes over amendments.  The House passed its version in June.  This is the one authorization bill that always gets through no matter how tough the political times — a 51-year record.  Will this year be the exception? 

Friday, December 13, is not only the last scheduled day for the House to meet this year, but is also the deadline for the budget conference committee to reach agreement on federal funding for FY2014, at least.   The conference committee was created as part of the deal to reopen the government in October and even at the time few were optimistic it would meet that deadline.   Nothing has changed.  

Lots of interesting events this week, including a Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing on “weather readiness” that includes Tom Young reporting on his Independent Review Team that is watching over NOAA’s weather satellite programs.  That’s on Thursday at 10:30 am.  Note that It’s not in the committee’s regular hearing room in the Russell Building, but in G-50 Dirksen.  The previous day, a House subcommittee will hold a hearing on “A Factual Look at the Relationship Between Climate and Weather.”   The witnesses have not been announced yet, so it’s not clear how much if any of that deals with satellite issues.

Separately, the House Science, Space and Technology Committee may resume its markup of the bill that affects how NASA handles termination liability for its major human spaceflight programs (SLS, Orion and ISS).  The committee approved three bills on Thursday, but when it came to this one, chairman Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) said more time was needed for Republicans and Democrats to work out their differences so the bill has bipartisan support.  He tentatively set Tuesday at 2:00 pm EST to resume the markup, but it is not definite.  At stake is how $507 million in the hands of contractors will be spent — to execute the programs or held in reserve in case the government terminates the contracts.

Across the country in San Francisco all week, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) annual meeting is certain to be chock full of fascinating scientific findings.   Many press conferences are scheduled and will be livestreamed.   We created a list of those that are probably most interesting to the space community, but the full list is on the AGU website, so you can pick your own.  That website has a tab labeled “Webstreaming.”  Click on that to listen in.

Meanwhile, the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) and several of its committees are meeting down in Florida, at Kennedy Space Center.  NASA is restructuring NAC, getting rid of three committees and merging a fourth (Commercial Space) into one of the remaining committees.   The way NASA and NAC chairman Steve Squyres describe the situation it’s a done deal, but there might be some discussion of why the decision was made and its implications.   NAC itself meets on Wednesday and Thursday.   The NAC meeting and most NAC committee meetings are available via WebEx and telecom.  See our calendar entries for instructions on how to tune in.  NASA has not posted an agenda for the NAC meeting yet.  Hopefully it will before the meeting takes place.  If so, it should be posted on the NAC website.

Those and many more meetings of interest are in the list below.  These are the ones we know of as of Sunday morning.  We’re posting this a bit early today because there’s a nasty ice storm coming this afternoon and there’s a chance of losing power, so we wanted to get this up on the website before anything bad happens.

Monday, December 9

Monday-Tuesday, December 9-10

Monday-Friday, December 9-13

  • American Geophysical Union (AGU) annual meeting, San Francisco, CA.  Note there are press conferences each day that will be webcast.  Here are three examples that may be of interest:
       
    • Monday — Update from Gale Crater:  Results from the Mars Curiosity Rover, 9:00-10:00 am PST (12:00-1:00 pm EST)
    • Tuesday — Science from Juno’s Earth Flyby, 10:30 – 11:30 am PST (1:30-2:30 pm EST)
    • Thursday — Titan as You’ve Never Seen it Before:  New Results from the Cassini Mission to Saturn, 11:30-12:30 pm PST (2:30-3:30 pm EST)

Tuesday, December 10

Tuesday-Wednesday, December 10-11

Wednesday, December 11

Wednesday-Thursday, December 11-12

Thursday, December 12

Friday, December 13

Last Updated: Dec 09, 2013 3:21 pm ET
House Committee Delays Vote on NASA Termination Liability Bill

House Committee Delays Vote on NASA Termination Liability Bill

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 5, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 5, 2013 9:58 pm ET

The House Science, Space and Technology Committee delayed its planned markup today of a bill that would affect how NASA handles termination liability for three of its major human spaceflight programs — Orion, the Space Launch System (SLS), and the International Space Station (ISS).   The committee did approve three other bills, but committee chairman Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) said that committee Republicans and Democrats needed more time to work on this one.  The markup was rescheduled for Tuesday.

The bill, H.R. 3625, was introduced by Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) earlier this week.   The language originally appeared as sec. 702 of the committee’s version of the 2013 NASA Authorization Act (H.R. 2687), which was approved by the committee on a party line vote in July, but has not been reported from the committee yet.   The chances of that bill passing anytime soon is rather slim, and committee Republicans apparently are anxious to deal with this one issue sooner rather than later.

Early in today’s markup session, Smith said that he supported an amendment to the bill by Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD), the top Democrat on the Space Subcommittee, which gave the bill bipartisan support and he urged all members to vote for it.   However, after completing action on the three other bills, Smith announced that more time was needed to iron out the language and the committee would recess for 10 minutes.   When he returned, he said that Edwards and Brooks needed still more time and the committee would recess “likely” until Tuesday at 2:00 pm ET.   Smith said he was confident Brooks and Edwards would reach agreement “because they have the same goals.”

In a statement explaining the intent of the bill, Brooks said that a total of $507 million is being held by the Orion, SLS and ISS contractors against the possibility that the government might terminate the contracts.  Government contracts include a provision that the contract can be cancelled at the convenience of the government and under Federal Acquisition Regulations the government is liable to pay certain costs if it does.  In some cases funds are set aside to pay for those costs.  Brooks wants that money spent on executing the programs rather than being held in reserve.  The bill would also prohibit NASA from unilaterally cancelling the programs without congressional consent.

“According to NASA reports to Congress, as of October 2013, $192 million from SLS, $226 million from Orion, and $89 million from the Space Station are being held to cover termination liability costs that would otherwise be used to timely complete these scientific efforts,” Brooks asserted.   He added that “the issue of limiting funding for potential termination liability costs contributed to the Obama Administration’s decision to cancel the Constellation program.”

Last Updated: Dec 05, 2013 9:58 pm ET

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