NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden had a tough message for the space science community today – forget about flagship missions, they’re not affordable these days.  At the very same time on Capitol Hill, however, the chairman of one of NASA’s key committees was expressing enthusiasm about a mission to Europa – unquestionably a flagship mission.  The disconnect could not be more stark.

Flagship missions are NASA’s most expensive (over $1 billion) and risky space science missions, but offer exceptional scientific payoff.

Bolden stopped by the NASA Advisory Council’s (NAC’s) Science Committee this morning during a break in a meeting of his Strategic Management Council, composed of NASA leaders at Headquarters and its 10 centers around the country.  By happenstance, his arrival interrupted a briefing on “lessons learned” from one of NASA’s most recent flagship missions – the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) with its Curiosity rover.  Though Curiosity is a tremendous technological, scientific and public relations success, it was two years late and significantly over budget.

Bolden’s message to the NAC Science Committee was unambiguous:  “We have to stop thinking about … flagship missions. …  The budget doesn’t support that.”  Bolden went on to explain that he and NASA Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan have talked about “the importance of cadence,” flying “more, less expensive types of missions.”   Noting that the science community has many interest groups and his job is “to find a way to be able to satisfy” them all, he said “increasing the cadence, letting them fly more, although smaller” missions is “an answer” though “it may not be the answer.”  Trying to win approval for flagship missions would mean “eternal battles” with the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), he said.

A few blocks away, by contrast, the House Science, Space and Technology Committee was holding a hearing on astrobiology — the search for life elsewhere in the solar system and the universe.  One of the witnesses, Steve Dick, responded to a question about what the goals should be for astrobiology by saying that he wants a voyage to Europa, a moon of Jupiter.  Committee chairman Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) said “I would too.”

Dick is the Baruch S. Blumberg chair of astrobiology at the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress.

Scientists believe Europa has a liquid ocean under its icy crust.  Where there’s water, there may be life.   A mission to Europa was the second priority for large missions in the most recent National Research Council Decadal Survey on planetary science.  Its $4.7 billion pricetag was one reason it was not at the top of the list.  The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has since developed a scaled down mission concept called Europa Clipper that it says will cost $2.1 billion instead.   Even then, it definitely would count as a flagship mission.

NASA has not requested funding for Europa Clipper, but Congress appropriated $75 million in FY2013 for concept studies based largely on support from Smith’s fellow Texan John Culberson and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) who serve on the subcommittee that approves NASA’s appropriations.   Today, Smith said that “I think Europa is already on the list, but we’ll have to expedite that.”

Republicans and Democrats alike were full of nothing but praise for NASA’s astrobiology program at today’s hearing.  One member, Steve Palazzo (R-MS), who chairs the Space Subcommittee, did bring up the fiscal constraints that define the federal budget debate today and asked the witnesses how to choose among priorities, but Dick and his fellow witnesses – NASA’s Mary Voytek and MIT’s Sara Seager – demurred.

Dick and Voytek also cited Enceladus, a moon of Saturn that ejects plumes of water vapor, as a preferred destination to further astrobiology studies.  That, too, would be a flagship mission.

Clearly, Congress has a strong interest in getting the scientific knowledge that comes from flagship missions.  Whether it will provide NASA with the funds to pursue them on a year by year basis over many, many years is another question.  The only way to get a new program into the budget for the long term is through the President’s budget request, which comes through OMB.  As Bolden said, that is a challenge.

Correction:  An earlier version of this story mistakenly stated the first name of the Congressman from California.  He is Adam Schiff, not Steven Schiff. 

At about 1:25 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Thanksgiving Day, Comet ISON will pass within 1 million miles of the Sun.  Whether that is its last hurrah or survives to dazzle the people of Earth for another day is literally up in the air.   Scientists are divided on the comet’s likely fate after it encounters the Sun.

During a NASA media teleconference today, Carey Lisse from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab (APL) gave the comet just a 30 percent chance of survival, but stressed “That’s one man’s opinion” and he woud be happy to be proved wrong.

Comet ISON was first observed in September 2012 by two Russian astronomers and immediately got the attention of the astrophysics, heliophysics, and planetary science communities.  An analysis of its orbit shows that it is a rare comet coming in towards the Sun for the first time ever in the history of the Solar System, Lisse said.   It is from the Oort cloud at the outer boundary of the Solar System where comets left over from the formation of the Solar System exist in a rather haphazard collection of different orbits.  What makes this one so special is that it is pristine, until now untouched by solar forces that will change it forever.  Karl Battams, an astrophysicist at the Naval Research Lab, said that whatever happens to ISON after it grazes the Sun it “has already been a huge victory for science.”

Comet ISON, November 19, 2013, three minute exposure taken with 14-inch telescope at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.  Image credit:  NASA/MSFC/Aaron Kingery.

Part of the reason the scientific community has learned so much is because the comet’s trajectory took it past a surprising number of spacecraft that could take a look.  NASA planetary science division director Jim Green listed NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft (also known as EPOXI), the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in orbit around Mars, and MESSENGER, which is orbiting Mercury.  The newly-launched MAVEN spacecraft also may be able to sudy ISON with its ultraviolet (uv) spectrometer once that instrument is activated in a few weeks if ISON survives the solar encounter.  Michael Garcia from NASA’s astrophysics division and  Battams added a list of ground, air and space-based astrophysics and heliophysics assets being used to study it in a variety of wavelengths:  Hubble (optical), Chandra (x-ray), Spitzer (infrared), and SWIFT (gamma ray/x-ray/optical/uv) space telescopes; the NASA/ESA SOHO and NASA’s SDO and STEREO-A heliophysics satellites; sounding rockets; and the airborne Stratospheric Observatory For Intrared Astronomy (SOFIA).   Green called ISON “perhaps the most observed comet from a NASA perspective ever.”

Despite all that observing, scientific opinion is split on ISON’s fate.   The loose collection of dust and ice, which is about 1.5 miles in diameter, “has been in a deep freeze for 4.5 billion years” and will go from that “to the furnace of the Sun” on Thursday, Lisse said.  It has been “behaving oddly” compared to other comets, Battams explained, but it is important that people understand “We’ve never seen a comet like this that is both dynamically new from the Oort cloud and in a Sun-grazing orbit.  So we’ve seen plenty of Oort cloud comets, lots and lots of Sun grazers.  We’ve never seen the combination.”

The close approach to the Sun on Thursday will not be visible by people without special equipment because it is so close to the Sun.  NASA will host a Google+ Hangout that will be broadcast on NASA TV from 1:00-3:30 pm ET as Battams and other scientists follow the encounter.

If it survives, Lisse says it should be visible in the Northern Hemisphere about 10 days – 2 weeks after November 28 just before sunrise or just after sunset in the direction of the Sun.  APL will hold a meeting on December 6, 2013, which will be livestreamed, to discuss what scientists have gleaned to date.  They hope to learn more about how the solar system formed as well as about the Sun as it interacts with the comet, which could be important to understanding space weather.

The White House nominated Dave Radzanowski to be NASA’s new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) today.  If confirmed, he would succeed Beth Robinson who is awaiting confirmation herself as Under Secretary of the Department of Energy.

Radzanowski, or Radz as he is often called, is currently NASA Chief of Staff.  Prior to that, he was Deputy Associate Administrator for Program Integration for the Space Operations Mission Directorate.

Prior to joining NASA in 2006, Radzanowski was Branch Chief for Science and Space at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).  Before that, he was a space policy analyst at the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the non-partisan research and analysis arm of the U.S. Congress.  He holds a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an M.S. from Carnegie Mellon University.

In a statement, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said “having come from the worlds of both budget and space exploration, Radz is uniquely suited to stepping into the role of NASA CFO.”

In a controversial move, the Senate voted today to change its rules so nominations like this one can be approved with a simple majority vote (51 votes) rather than a filibuster-proof 60 votes.  That could make it easier for the Robinson and Radzanowski nominations to be confirmed, but a single Senator still can place a hold on any nomination for any reason, so the timing remains up in the air.