University Medical Center (UMC) doctors continued to sound optimistic about the recovery of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) today, though none has speculated on how complete that recovery ultimately will be.

Dr. Rainer Gruessner, chairman of UMC’s surgery department, began by reviewing the three phases of treatment: resuscitating, restoring, and rehabilitating. Following Saturday’s surgery where her ventilator was replaced with a tracheotomy tube and surgeons repaired “orbital roof fractures” of her right eye, the doctors said that the next milestone would be her release from the hospital into a rehabilitation facility. That could be days or weeks away, they said.

Responding to questions, Dr. Randy Friese, associate medical director, and Dr. Michael Lemole, chief of neurosurgery, gave the following update: they think she may be able to see, but a detailed opthalmologic examination has not been performed; she cannot speak yet because the tracheotomy tube they emplaced does not allow air to pass her vocal cords and she has not tried to speak; and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, told them that he thinks he saw her smile. Dr. Friese also cautioned that there always is a risk of infection after surgery and she just had surgery on Saturday, but overall he painted an optimistic outlook for her release into a rehabilitation facility, the third phase of her treatment.

Dr. Grussener ended the press conference by stressing that they cannot speculate about the future.

The following events may be of interest in the coming week. For more information, see our calendar on the right menu or click the links below. The House will be in session this week; the Senate returns on January 25.

Monday-Tuesday, January 17-18

• European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) conference on European Autonomy in Space, Vienna, Austria

Tuesday-Thursday, January 18-20

• National Research Council Decadal Survey on Solar and Space Physics (Heliophysics) Panel on Solar Wind-Magnetosphere Interactions, Santa Fe, NM. Some sessions of this meeting are closed.

Wednesday, January 19

• NASA News Conference on Preview of Stardust-NEXT comet encounter, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, 1:00 pm EST (and on NASA TV)

Thursday, January 20

• NASA News Conference on GLORY earth science mission, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, 1:00 pm EST (and on NASA TV)

Thursday-Friday, January 20-21

• NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Planetary Protection Subcommittee, NASA Headquarters, Washington DC
  • Thursday, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm EST
  • Friday, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm EST

Friday, January 21

• Book Signing for John Logsdon’s new book John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon, George Washington University Lindner Family Commons, 1957 E Street, NW, Room 602, Washington DC, 5:00-7:00 pm EST

The University Medical Center (UMC) in Tuscon reported today (Sunday) that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) has been upgraded from critical condition to serious condition because she has been taken off her ventilator and is breathing on her own. A UMC media briefing to update the press on her condition and that of the two other patients who remain at UMC will take place at 11:00 am Tucson time (1:00 pm EST) tomorrow.

Veteran space journalist Bill Harwood reports on his CBS News “Space Place” website that astronaut Tim Kopra was injured in a bicycle accident on Saturday. Kopra is a member of the STS-133 (Discovery) crew currently scheduled for launch on February 24. Among his other duties on the mission, he is scheduled to be the “lead spacewalker for a pair of excursions outside the station,” Harwood reports.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) sent a letter to NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden on Thursday in response to the report NASA submitted to Congress this week on its reference designs for a new Space Launch System — or “heavy lift vehicle” (HLV) — and multipurpose crew capsule. NASA is required to develop the launch system and crew vehicle as part of the 2010 NASA Authorization Act; the two Senators played a critical role in writing that law. The NASA report includes a cautionary statement that none of the designs it has looked at to date can be executed within the budget and schedule goals enunciated in that Act.

Congress has not reacted positively to NASA’s report. In the January 13 letter, Senators Nelson and Hutchison spell out the legal requirements that NASA must follow. For example, it says that one of the criteria NASA is using is whether the system would be affordable. The letter says “If the law directed NASA to start with an entirely new development without the use of existing contracts, technologies, and infrastructure, we can see where affordability may come into question, but this conclusion suggests a misunderstanding of the Congressional intent.”

The letter also clarifies Congress’ intent when it used the phrase “to the extent practicable” when directing NASA to use space shuttle and Constellation capabilities in that manner. The Senators quote a federal legal precedent that the phrase “does not permit an agency unbridled discretion,” and a Government Accountability Office (GAO) determination that an agency must “either provide the preference or articulate a reasoned explanation of why it is impractible to do so.”

Jeff Foust at spacepolitics.com has an interesting analysis of what the argument is all about. Keith Cowing at NASAWatch and Paul Spudis also are weighing in.

The University Medical Center in Tucson announced today that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) was taken off her ventilator, another step forward in her recovery from the attack last Saturday that left six dead.

Of the 10 victims brought to UMC last Saturday, three remain. The rest have been discharged. Rep. Giffords remains in critical condition; the other two patients are in good condition. Doctors performed a tracheotomy on Rep. Giffords this morning and inserted a tube in her windpipe to protect her airway, freeing her from the ventilator, and also inserted a feeding tube, according to the hospital’s report.

Friends and supporters of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) have established a Gabrielle Giffords Earth and Space Leadership Fund in her honor as she recovers from the attack last Saturday. Tax deductible contributions are being sought through a website and Facebook page. Organizers say the fund will be administered by Rep. Giffords (“Gabby”) to help develop leadership in earth and space sciences, and technology innovations and public policy that benefit the nation.

Editor’s Note: Everyone hopes that Rep. Giffords will recover sufficiently to return to a normal life and do so many things, such as administering this fund as the organizers pledge. The medical news has been so encouraging that it is easy to forget the gravity of her situation. The doctors at UMC have always been cautious to not make any promises about how she will fare in the long run.

NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) released its annual report today, saying that “lack of clarity and constancy of purpose among NASA, Congress, and the White House is a key safety concern.”

The panel, created by Congress after the 1967 Apollo fire that killed three astronauts, advises NASA on how to improve its safety performance. Chaired by Vice Adm. Joe Dyer (Ret.), the panel concluded that despite the signing into law of the 2010 NASA authorization act, NASA’s future human spaceflight program remains “uncertain.” The lack of a defined mission, the panel says, “can negatively impact workforce morale and the ability to attract and maintain the necessary skill sets for this high-technology venture.” A consensus position on “the Agency’s future and our Nation’s future in space” is needed quickly, they said.

Other issues identified in the report include the connection between acquisition strategy and safety in human spaceflight systems, knowledge transfer from the Constellation program to whatever replaces it, “how safe is safe enough,” the relationship between NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in providing oversight for commercial crew operations, the robustness of NASA’s Safety and Mission Assurance workforce, safety implications of aging NASA infrastructure, standardization of approaches to dealing with a variety of issues within the agency, astronaut health and longitudinal health study data, challenges with extending the International Space Station (ISS) to 2020, and the risks inherent in depending on a single source — Russia — for crew access to the ISS.

The report NASA delivered to Congress earlier this week in response to section 309 of the 2010 NASA Authorization Act has not gotten a warm welcome. The report informs Congress of the agency’s current reference designs for a new Space Launch System (also called a Heavy Lift Vehicle) and a Multi-purpose Crew Vehicle as required by that Act, but cautions that the designs cannot meet the Act’s budget and schedule goals.

The bipartisan leadership of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and its Space and Science Subcommittee replied that producing a heavy lift vehicle and a crew capsule is “not optional. It’s the law.” They go on to say that “NASA must use its decades of space know-how and billions of dollars in previous investments to come up with a concept that works.” The statement was made by Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Senator David Vitter (R-LA), the main architects of the law.

Representative Ralph Hall (R-TX), the new chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee and a long-time supporter of the human spaceflight program, called the report “only the beginning of a long conversation” between Congress and NASA over the future of that program. Reiterating a sentiment he expressed during hearings last year on the Obama Administration’s “commercial crew” proposal, Rep. Hall said that a U.S. capability to take astronauts to and from the International Space Station must be restored and “I’m not convinced that the commercial market is ready to fill that role.”

The NASA Advisory Council’s Exploration Committee met on Tuesday, January 11, and received briefings from Doug Cooke, Associate Administrator for Exploration, and others. The presentations are posted on the Exploration Committee’s website. Some of the file sizes are rather large so we reduced the size — only slightly in some cases, unfortunately — for convenience and they can be accessed by clicking on the links below. Adobe Acrobat couldn’t reduce the size of Doug Cooke’s presentation for some reason, so that remains the same as what is posted on NASA’s website. Note that Tom Jones’ presentation is dated October 2010.

• Doug Cooke, Exploration Program Status
• John Olson, Human Exploration Framework Summary
• Phil McAlister, Status of COTS and Commercial Crew
• Tom Jones, Final Report of the Ad-Hoc Task Force on Planetary Defense