The new Space Launch System (SLS) NASA is developing is useful for robotic science missions as well as human spaceflight according to the director of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI).

Testifying to a House subcommittee last week, Matt Mountain said that SLS could enable launching telescopes much larger than the Hubble Space Telescope or the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).   STScI operates Hubble and will operate JWST after it is launched in 2018.   Mountain described telescopes with primary mirrors 15-25 meters across — three or four times the size of JWST — that might be able to detect life on planets around other stars that would be enabled by a launch vehicle the size of SLS coupled with “human or robotic infrastructure to assemble such a system in space.”  Another science mission that would benefit from an SLS-type rocket is the long-awaited Mars sample return mission, he added.

That comes with two big caveats, however.  First, SLS flights would have to be relatively frequent, at least once a year, he said.  Second, the cost of using SLS could not be borne by whatever science mission needs it.  Those funds would have to come from elsewhere in NASA.   Mountain cited the two decades of Hubble history as a precedent.   Hubble was launched by the space shuttle in 1990 and five astronaut teams serviced it between 1993 and 2009.   “The cost of the space shuttle for Hubble was not fully borne by the Science Mission Directorate, but rather provided as part of NASA’s space flight infrastructure for use by the entire agency,” he explained.   Science should be an “essential and exciting partner” in NASA’s exploration activities, but “cannot drive the development of human spaceflight systems.”

The main purpose of the September 12, 2012 hearing before the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee was getting an update from NASA and industry officials on the status of the SLS and the Orion spacecraft.   The SLS/Orion system will launch astronauts to destinations beyond low Earth orbit (LEO). 

Dan Dumbacher, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development, assured the subcommittee that SLS is on track for its first test launch in 2017 and first launch with a crew in 2021.    The Orion spacecraft similarly is on schedule, he said, for a first test launch in 2014 aboard a Delta IV rocket, followed by a second test on the first SLS flight in 2017, and the first crewed flight in 2021.   Jim Chilton of Boeing, the prime contractor for SLS, and Cleon Lacefield of Lockheed Martin, prime contractor for Orion, generally agreed.

Chilton, however, called development of the SLS core stage a “challenge.”  Although the SLS engines and boosters come from the space shuttle program and the upper stage from the Delta IV program, the core stage is a “clean sheet design,” he said.  Another challenge, he added, is that NASA is being held to a flat budget profile meaning that “simultaneous development of all the elements needed to get to the final configuration … won’t be possible.”

Dumbacher expressed confidence, however, that NASA will be able to pull it all together.

Rep. Hansen Clarke (D-MI) asked what impact the Continuing Resolution (CR) for the first six months of FY2013 will have on the SLS and Orion programs.  Dumbacher said he had been given guidance to plan for 50 percent of what those programs received in FY2012, but pointed to continuing uncertainty about FY2013 funding.  He stressed that funding stability is critical.  “Changes to or instability in the funding forces replanned work, re-work … and all of that effort takes away from our ability to actually execute … and build the program.”

What level of funding SLS and Orion would receive under the CR apparently is an issue.   The day after the hearing, Reps. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) and Lamar Smith (R-TX) wrote a letter to NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Acting Director Jeffrey Zients urging them to keep the programs funded at their FY 2012 levels.  The letter says: “Unfortunately we have received indications that efforts are underway within NASA and OMB to reduce or slow down the rate of funding….This would be a major mistake.”

NASA astronaut Sunita (Suni) Williams ceremonially took command of the International Space Station (ISS) today from departing commander Gennady Padalka.  Williams is only the second woman to command the ISS in its nearly 12 years of permanent occupancy.

Russia’s Padalka and Sergei Revin and NASA’s Joe Acaba are getting ready to return to Earth in their Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft after approximately six months aboard the ISS.  They are scheduled to undock tomorrow, September 16, at 7:09 pm Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) and land in Kazakhstan at 10:53 pm EDT (8:53 am September 17 local time in Kazakshtan).  An earlier NASA press release said undocking was at 7:11 pm, but the NASA space station website today says 7:09 pm.

The traditional Change-of-Command ceremony took place today, although officially Padalka remains in command until he departs.

Williams will remain onboard with Russia’s Yuri Malenchenko and Japan’s Aki Hoshide.   They will be joined by three more ISS crew members next month — NASA’s Kevin Ford and Russia’s Oleg Novitsky and Evgeny Tarelkin.  The Williams crew is scheduled to return to Earth on November 12.

NASA’s Peggy Whitson was the first woman to command ISS in 2009.  As Itar-Tass, Russia’s official news service, noted, Whitson commanded “only” two men while Williams will have five (three Russians, an American and a Japanese) under her command.  Women do not figure prominently in Russia’s cosmonaut corps.  Although the Soviet Union launched the first woman into space, Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963, only two more female cosmonauts have gone into space since then:  Svetlana Savitskaya, the first woman to perform a spacewalk and the first woman to make two spaceflights (1982 and 1984); and Yelena Kondakova in 1995, who set a spaceflight duration record for a woman at that time.   Savitskaya’s flights were on the Soviet Salyut 7 space station; Kondakova was aboard Mir.  No Russian female cosmonauts have been part of the International Space Station crews.

By comparison, women have flown on U.S. space missions routinely since 1984 when Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.   Kathy Sullivan was the first U.S. woman to make a spacewalk, soon after Savitskaya’s in 1984.   The fact that Sullivan would be making a spacewalk was known well in advance and it is widely believed that the Soviets arranged one for Savitiskaya so they could claim another space “first,” a signature feature of the Cold War era space race.

Women from Canada, Japan, France, and China also have flown into space as part of their countries’ astronaut corps.   Other women have flown as payload specialists on the U.S. space shuttle or as paying “tourists” — from the United States (one of whom is Iranian-American and is sometimes counted as Iranian), United Kingdom, and South Korea.

Williams currently holds the record for spacewalk duration by a woman: 44 hours and two minutes accumulated over six spacewalks — four on a previous ISS tour of duty and two on this one.   Whitson is second, with 39 hours 46 minutes also over six spacewalks.

Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the Moon, was buried at sea today.

Armstrong’s cremains were committed to the sea aboard the USS Philippine Sea in the Atlantic Ocean by a Navy honor guard.

Photo credit:  Bill Ingalls, NASA

Armstrong was commemorated at a public memorial service yesterday at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.   NASA has posted the video on YouTube.   

The six-month FY2013 Continuing Resolution (CR) Congress is getting ready to pass would allow NOAA to fully fund the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R (GOES-R) system, but other programs in NOAA’s Procurement, Acquisition and Construction (PAC) account would have to pay the price.  The CR will fund the first half of FY2013.

The CR allows NOAA to shift money within its PAC account that includes the funds to build JPSS and GOES-R, but does not increase the amount of funding to match the request for FY2013.   CRs typically continue an agency’s funding at its previous year’s level, a distinct disadvantage for programs that are ramping up.   The FY2013 request for JPSS is little different from its FY2012 funding level ($916 million for FY2013 compared to $924 million in FY2012), so is not much of an issue.  GOES-R however, needs a substantial boost to begin acquisition of a launch vehicle for the first in that series.  GOES-R got $616 million in FY2012, while the FY2013 request is $802 million.  

Under the CR, NOAA could take money from other programs in the PAC account to keep JPSS and GOES-R on schedule.  NOAA received $1.81 billion for PAC in FY2012, the level to which it will be held under the CR, compared to the $1.97 billion requested for FY2013.   Satellites are far and away the lion’s share of the PAC funding already:  $1.7 billion in FY2012 and $1.85 billion in the FY2013 request.   In addition to JPSS and GOES-R, that funds two other satellite programs, DSCOVR and Jason-3.   DSCOVR, formerly called Triana, will provide space weather data considered critical to the Air Force, NASA and NOAA who are splitting the costs of getting it ready and launching it.  It is scheduled for a slight decrease in FY2013 anyway, but Jason-3, a joint ocean altimetry mission with Europe, is due for a $10 million increase to its $20 million FY2012 budget.

The CR also requires the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to submit a report to Congress within 30 days of the bill becoming law that sets out a plan for the two satellite programs to maintain their schedules and life cycle cost estimates and options for reducing those costs, including management costs.

That language appears to respond to the recommendation of the Senate Appropriations Committee in its version of the FY2013 Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations bill that NOAA’s weather satellite programs be transferred to NASA.  That committee is concerned about rising costs and shortcomings it sees in NOAA’s management of satellite programs.   With passage of the FY2013 appropriations bills delayed for at least six months, the language in the CR keeps a focus on the underlying problems without changing which agency is in charge.   NASA already is the acquisition agent for NOAA’s satellites, but NOAA sets the requirements and is the program manager.

NASA will broadcast the public memorial service for Neil Armstrong tomorrow at 10:00 am ET.  Armstrong died last month at the age of 82.

The service is being held at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.   The program for the service shows that Mike Collins, command module pilot on the Apollo11 mission, and Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan both will speak.   NASA administrator Charlie Bolden also will speak.

On July 20, 1969, Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon while Collins orbited overhead.  In 1972, Cernan commanded the last Apollo lunar landing mission, Apollo 17, and was the last human being to walk on the Moon.

NASA’s TV coverage will begin at 9:45 am ET.  NASA chief historian Bill Barry will conduct an online chat on Ustream during the service providing more information about the speakers at http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv.

A private memorial service was held earlier.

Jim Chilton from Boeing and Cleon Lacefield from Lockheed Martin are joining the list of witnesses at tomorrow’s House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee hearing.

The hearing is on the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft.  NASA’s Dan Dumbacher and the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Matt Mountain are the other witnesses.   The hearing is at 10:00 am ET tomorrow in 2318 Rayburn House Office Building.