The House Science, Space and Technology Committee, and the House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science subcommittee, will hold hearings on NASA’s FY2012 budget request on March 2 and March 3 respectively.

Congress may still be wrangling over how much NASA and other federal agencies will get for FY2011, but the FY2012 budget clock starting ticking on Monday when President Obama sent his request to Congress. Theoretically, Congress is supposed to pass the new budget before the next fiscal year begins on October 1. As everyone can see from the heated battles underway on FY2011 — five months after that fiscal year began — it does not always work out that way. In fact, it hardly ever works out that way.

Nonetheless, the authorization committee and appropriations subcommittee in the House are going to get the ball rolling after Congress returns from a one-week recess to reconnect with constituents face-to-face.

Following a Flight Readiness Review today, NASA confirmed February 24 as the launch date for STS-133. Liftoff is scheduled for 4:50 pm EST.

The mission originally was scheduled to launch last November, but was delayed first by a gas leak and then by problems with “stringers” on its External Tank. This is the last flight of the Discovery orbiter. At least one more shuttle mission, STS-134 (Endeavour) is scheduled, and if Congress does not cut NASA’s FY2011 budget too deeply, the agency plans one more flight of Atlantis (STS-135). Congress directed the agency to fly that “Launch-on-Need” mission and the agency is willing to do so as long as the money is available.

Currently STS-134, commanded by Mark Kelly, husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) who continues her recovery from a gunshot wound to the head last month, is scheduled for April 19. Kelly told a news conference on February 4 that he expects his wife to be at Kennedy Space Center for his launch. STS-135 is tentatively scheduled for launch in June. That would be the last flight of the shuttle program.

There is still time to register for the March 4 symposium at NASA headquarters on “State of the Space Agency: NASA Future Programs Presentation.” NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, Deputy Administrator Lori Garver and the Associate Administrators of NASA’s mission directorates will present NASA’s FY2012 budget request in some detail with plenty of time for Q&A. The event is sponsored by the NASA Alumni League, the American Astronautical Society, AIAA, Women in Aerospace, and CES. Advance registration is required, but there is no fee. RSVP to Pat Smith at margaret.p.smith@nasa.gov. Check our calendar for March 4 for more information.

NASA Inspector General (IG) Paul Martin released a report today criticizing NASA’s acquisition strategy for commercial launch vehicle services because it does not take advantage of the Minotaur rocket for medium-class missions.

“Our analysis shows that use of the Minotaur for certain NASA science missions offers significant savings when compared to the available commercially provided intermediate class launch vehicles cited in NASA’s report to Congress. Moreover, it also would be less expensive than SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which is still under development and not yet certified to carry NASA science missions. For example, if NASA used the Minotaur rather than Falcon 9 or the intermediate-class Atlas V for the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission scheduled for launch in November 2014, the Agency could save between $61 million and $156 million…”

The IG report continued that NASA’s explanation for not using Minotaur is that it “could have a negative impact on the domestic commercial rocket industry because it might discourage companies from entering the launch services market,” but the IG concludes that it is unlikely they would be ready in time for the SMAP mission. “Accordingly, while we appreciate the legal and policy reasons for promoting commercial launch providers, we believe that NASA should consider using the Minotaur as a launch vehicle for appropriate science missions until cost-effective and reliable commercial launch services are available.”

Minotaurs are based on decomissioned intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs.) The IG report says that NASA does consider Minotaur for small missions in its launch services acquisition strategy, but not for medium-class missions.

UPDATE: The hearing has started. I’m tweeting it: SpcPlcyOnline.

The House Science, Space and Technology Committee’s hearing this morning with Presidential Science Adviser John Holdren on the federal government’s FY2012 budget request for research and development has been delayed. Instead of starting at 10:00, it will start “10 minutes after this morning’s series of votes. (Last votes are expected between 11:30 – 11:45 a.m.)” according to a committee press release.

Finding the NASA and DOD FY2012 budget requests is easy, but for anyone looking for how much is being requested for the Landsat program (at USGS) or NOAA’s satellite activities, perhaps our latest fact sheet will help. FY2012 Budget Documentation: Where To Find Agency Budgets is now available on our left menu under Our Fact Sheets and Reports, or simply by clicking here .

Minutes before it was scheduled to start, NASA announced that it was rescheduling today’s Stardust-NExT press conference for 12:30 pm PST (3:30 pm EST). The spacecraft flew by comet Tempel 1 late yesterday.

Democrats today turned up the heat on House Republicans over the Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government for the rest of the current fiscal year, FY2011. President Obama threatened to veto the House version of the CR, H.R. 1, and the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI), made clear that the bill in its current form is unacceptable.

The House began debate today on the version of H.R. 1 recommended last Friday by the House Appropriations Committee. It would cut $100 billion in federal spending for the remaining months of FY2011, which ends on September 30. Although both Republicans and Democrats have publicly stated that they do not want the governnent to shut down at midnight March 4 when the current CR expires, the chasm between the two sides seems to grow wider every day. The House Republican leadership promised an “open rule” to debate H.R. 1, and hundreds of amendments are expected, many demanding even deeper cuts.

Senator Inouye complained that the House bill is using a meat axe to cut programs with no consideration of their merit. In a press release, he said “…many of the reductions … were made not because programs were ineffective or wasteful, but out of desire to meet an arbitrary dollar figure cited during a political campaign. Many of the recommendations … resulted in a ‘meat cleaver’ approach to budget cuts, when we should be using a scalpel — responsibly identifying specific programs that are wasteful or unneeded.”

Meanwhile, at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) saying that it “strongly opposes” the bill and that “If the President is presented with a bill that undermines critical priorities or national security through funding levels or restrictions, contains earmarks, or curtails the drivers of long-term economic growth and job creation while continuing to burden future generations with deficits, the President will veto the bill.”

The House expects to pass the bill this week. Both the House and Senate are in recess next week. That leaves only the week of February 28 for a resolution to be reached. Talk continues to grow that there will be another short-term CR to give both sides more time to find a compromise, as challenging as that will be.

NASA has posted its detailed budget request on its budget website. NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and Chief Financial Officer Beth Robinson are holding a press conference (watch on NASA TV).

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has released the FY2012 budget request. It can be viewed on OMB’s website. Top level information for government departments and agencies is provided. Detailed budget information is usually released by each department or agency later in the day.

NASA’s detailed budget is expected to be posted on NASA’s website at 1:30 today. The total requested for NASA for FY2012 is $18.7 billion, the same as its FY2010 level. For NOAA, the OMB documents state that $1.9 billion is requested for NOAA’s satellite programs, including geostationary and polar-orbiting weather satellites. The only mention of space systems in the brief write-up about DOD is $975 million for the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) communications satellite system. It also says that DOD will implement an “innovative satellite acquisition approach in order to reduce costs and strengthen the industrial base.”

The OMB site in general has lots of other useful budget information as well, including analytical perspectives and historical tables.