NASA Inspector General Paul Martin has been added to the witness for tomorrow’s commercial crew hearing.

The House Science, Space and Technology Committee is holding the hearing in 2318 Rayburn House Office Building at 10:00 tomorrow morning. The complete witness list currently is:

Panel One

• Mr. John Elbon, Vice President & General Manger, Space Exploration Division, The Boeing Company
• Mr. Steve Lindsey, Director, Space Exploration, Sierra Nevada Space Systems
• Mr. Elon Musk, CEO & CTO, Space Exploration Technologies
• Mr. Charles Precourt, Vice President and General Manager, ATK Space Launch Systems
• Mr. George Sowers, Vice President, Business Development and Advanced Programs, United Launch Alliance

Panel Two

• The Honorable Paul K. Martin, Inspector General, NASA
• Mr. Bill Gerstenmaier, Associate Administrator, Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, NASA

The following events may be of interest in the week ahead. For more information, check our calendar on the right menu or click the links below. The House is in session this week; the Senate is in a State Work Period and meets only in pro forma session on Monday and Friday.

Monday, October 24

• HASC hearing on Defense Industrial Base, 2212 Rayburn House Office Building, 3:00 pm EDT

Monday-Wednesday, October 24-26

• American Astronautical Society von Braun Symposium Huntsville, AL

Wednesday, October 26

• HSS&T Commercial Crew Hearing, 2318 Rayburn House Office Building, 10:00 am EDT

Thursday, October 27

• NASA Advisory Council Planetary Science Subcommittee, virtual, 2:00-4:00 pm EDT (see the Federal Register notice for dial-in instructions)

Thursday-Sunday, October 27-30

• SPACEVISION 2011, Boulder, CO

Friday, October 28

• Scheduled launch of NASA’s NPP earth observing satellite from Vandenberg AFB, CA, 2:48-2:57 am PDT (5:48-5:57 am EDT).

UPDATE: Here is a link to the video on YouTube.

ORIGINAL STORY:

President Obama is on stage right now presenting the National Medals of Science and, imminently, the National Medals of Technology and Innovation. Yvonne Brill is one of the awardees. Watch live.

The House Science, Space and Technology Committee today released the witness list for its hearing next week on commercial crew.

The October 26 hearing is entitled NASA’s Commercial Crew Development Program: Accomplishments and Challenges and will begin at 10:00 am in 2318 Rayburn House Office Building. The witnesses are:

Panel One

Mr. John Elbon, Vice President and General Manger, Space Exploration Division, The Boeing Company
Mr. Steve Lindsey, Director, Space Exploration, Sierra Nevada Space Systems
Mr. Elon Musk, CEO and CTO, Space Exploration Technologies
Mr. Charles Precourt, Vice President and General Manager, ATK Space Launch Systems
Mr. George Sowers, Vice President, Business Development and Advanced Programs, United Launch Alliance

Panel Two

Mr. Bill Gerstenmaier, Associate Administrator, Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, NASA

The expected reentry of Germany’s ROentgen SATellite (ROSAT) has been narrowed to October 22-23 according to the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

DLR’s website notes that the time of reentry will further narrow as the date approaches, but “even one day before re-entry, the estimate will only be accurate to within plus/minus five hours.”

The German-US-UK x-ray astronomy satellite could reenter anywhere between 53 degrees North latitude and 53 degrees South latitude.

The House Science, Space and Technology (HSS&T) Committee’s next space-related hearing will be held next week. The topic is the commercial crew program.

The hearing is on Wednesday, October 26, at 10:00 am in 2318 Rayburn House Office Building. The witnesses have not been publicly announced, but the precise title of the hearing is NASA’s Commercial Crew Development Program: Accomplishments and Challenges.

This will be the committee’s sixth hearing this year on issues affecting the human spaceflight program. In March, it held a hearing reviewing NASA’s exploration program in transition. In May, it looked at commercial cargo issues and in July at NASA’s Space Launch System. In September, the committee heard from Neil Armstrong, Gene Cernan, Mike Griffin and Maria Zuber about the past, present and future of human spaceflight, and last week held a hearing on lessons learned from Russia’s Soyuz launch failure for operations of the ISS.

NASA has delayed the launch of the NPP satellite another day. The current schedule is to launch on October 28.

The agency said the delay will allow “time to complete the necessary engineering review before the payload fairing is installed around the spacecraft.”

The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) is a NASA earth science mission that will also serve an operational role for NOAA’s polar-orbiting weather satellite system.

The launch window that day is 2:48:01 – 2:57:11 PDT (5:48:01-5:57:11 EDT).

The Senate is beginning debate on the “minibus” appropriations bill, H.R. 2112, that combines the bills for Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS), and Transportation-HUD (T-HUD). The Obama Administration said today that it “strongly supports” passage of the bill.

The CJS bill includes NASA and NOAA. In its Statement of Administration Policy (SAP), the Administration supported the Senate Appropriations Committee’s actions. For NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System, which would receive $920 million instead of the $1.07 billion requested, the SAP notes that it is less than what is needed to maintain the current launch date of 2017 for JPSS-1 and “encourages” the Senate not to cut any further.

For NASA, the SAP “appreciates” support for the Space Launch System, Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, and James Webb Space Telescope. Although the committee significantly cut funding for space technology, the SAP simply “urges” the full Senate to provide that level of funding ($637 million instead of the $1.02 billion requested). Similarly for commercial crew, which would be cut from $850 million to $500 million, the SAP “encourages” the Senate to provide sufficient funding to prevent delays in the program.

The FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation is not mentioned in the T-HUD part of the SAP. Its FY2012 request of $26.5 million was cut in half by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The following events may be of interest in the coming week. The Senate is in session this week; the House is having a Constituent Work Week and meets in pro forma session only on Tuesday and Friday.

During the Week

The Senate is scheduled to take up the CJS appropriations bill, which includes NASA and NOAA, and the T-HUD bill, which includes FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, as part of a package that also includes the Agriculture appropriations bill.

The German-US-UK ROentgen SATellite (ROSAT) will make an uncontrolled reentry between October 21 and 25 based on current projections by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

Sunday-Wednesday, October 16-19

• GEOINT, San Antonio, TX

Tuesday-Thursday, October 18-20

• National Research Council Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB), Board meeting, Irvine, CA (no details are posted on the ASEB website, presumably the meeting is at the NRC’s Beckman Center)

Wednesday-Thursday, October 19-20

• NASA Advisory Council Astrophysics Subcommittee meeting, NASA HQ, Washington DC
  • Wednesday, 8:30 am – 5:30 pm, room 9H40
  • Thursday, 8:30 am – 4:00 pm, room 7H45
• International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS), Las Cruces, NM

Thursday, October 20

• AIAA National Capital Section lunch with NASA’s Lindley Johnson, Pier 7 restaurant, Washington, DC, beginning at 11:30 am EDT

Friday, October 21

• NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), Johnson Space Center, TX, 12:30-2:00 CDT (1:30-3:00 EDT)

Republicans on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee (HSS&T) sent in their recommendations on how to cut the budget deficit to the congressional “supercommittee” today. For NASA, the committee recommended $177 million in cuts to NASA’s earth science program, including cancellation of OCO-2.

The supercommittee, composed of 12 members of Congress (six from the House, six from the Senate; six Republicans and six Democrats) are charged with finding $1.2-1.3 trillion in cuts over 10 years from the federal budget. Today was the day for congressional committees to submit their recommendations to the supercommittee. HSS&T Democrats sent a separate letter yesterday. The committee authorizes NASA’s activities and sets policy.

The letter from ten of the HSS&T Republicans, including full committee chairman Ralph Hall (R-TX) and four of the five subcommittee chairmen, supported the actions of the House Appropriations Committee on the FY2012 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) bill that includes NASA, and also recommended reductions of $177 million compared to the FY2012 request as follows:

• Cancellation of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2), which is being built as a replacement for OCO, lost in a launch failure in 2009;
• Reducing “Other Missions and Data Analysis” within the Earth Systematic Missions by 20 percent; and
• Reducing “Venture Class Missions” within Earth System Science Pathfinder Missions by 20 percent.

Changes made by the House Appropriations Committee that specifically received endorsement in the letter were cuts to space technology and commercial crew, and increases for the Space Launch System and Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.

Yesterday’s letter from HSS&T Democrats, signed by Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), began by saying that it was her understanding from Chairman Hall that the committee would not be providing recommendations to the supercommittee. Her letter spoke in general terms of the need for the supercommittee to support federal science and technology and STEM education, and to consider “serious revenue enhancements” as well as spending cuts.

The supercommittee, formally called the Joint Select Committee on Defiict Reduction, is due to make its recommendations to the House and Senate by November 23.