Joanne Padr n Carney, Director of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s (AAAS’s) Center for Science, Technology and Congress, said today that the results of the mid-term Congressional elections would bring a number of new faces to the House Science and Technology Committee. Congressman Ralph Hall (R-TX) and Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), have reportedly expressed interest in assuming the leadership spots in the Committee, a change that Padr n Carney said could mean NASA will become a “high priority” for Congress in the next session.

Her comments were made during a AAAS webinar Election 2010: What Do the U.S. Mid-term Elections Mean for Science?, which covered issues such as R&D funding, energy, and biomedical policy and research. Padr n Carney identified several issues impacting the legislative process, including increased oversight, which Representative Hall has said would be one of his priorities. This could have a direct impact on the future of NASA human spaceflight, she suggested.

On a related issue, Padr n Carney said that “the scientific community [will] lose a number of champions,” including Representative Brian Baird (D-WA) and Representative Bart Gordon (D-TN). Gordon currently chairs the House S&T Committee and Baird chairs its Energy and Environment subcommittee. Both are retiring this year. Representative David Foster (D-IL), a physics PhD, is another loss. He lost his seat in the Illinois race.

With deficit reduction an important priority for the next Congress, budget cuts will probably begin next year, pointed out Patrick Clemins, Director of the AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program. With funding questions still undecided, debate over the recently enacted 2010 NASA Authorization Act will continue “despite its passage,” said Padr n Carney in response to a SpacePolicyOnline.com question. “We don’t know yet whether there will be funding for another [Shuttle] flight,” she added.

At the end of the day, while NASA may well be the focus of renewed debate in Congress, its status will still depend on how much money it receives to carry out its programs – whatever those may be. An archived version of the webinar will be available on the AAAS Member Central website (membership required).

An independent review of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) demanded by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) has concluded that the program’s cost has grown to $6.5 billion and the earliest it can launch is September 2015. This compares to the current projected cost of $5.1 billion and launch date of 2014. The report was released by NASA today (November 10, 2010). The head of the review team, John Casani, summarized the findings in a letter to NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, faulting the project’s “budgeting and program management, not technical performance.”

In response, Mr. Bolden issued a statement that he is reorganizing the management of the program both at NASA headquarters and at Goddard Space Flight Center:

“No one is more concerned about the situation we find ourselves in than I am, and that is why I am reorganizing the JWST Project at Headquarters and the Goddard Space Flight Center, and assigning a new senior manager at Headquarters to lead this important effort. The new JWST program director will have a staff of technical and cost personnel provided by the Science Mission Directorate and report to the NASA associate administrator. This will ensure more direct reporting to me and increase the project’s visibility within the agency’s management structure. Additionally, the Goddard Space Flight Center’s project office has been reorganized to report directly to the center director. That office is undergoing personnel changes to specifically address the issues identified in the report.”

The overruns and schedule slips are problematic not only in and of themselves, but because NASA’s Science Mission Directorate has made clear that there will be no new major astrophysics projects until this telescope is launched. The National Research Council recently issued its Decadal Survey for astronomy and astrophysics, recommending projects for the next decade based on the assumption that JWST would be launched in 2014 and that about $2 billion would be available for new projects in the next decade. The additional funds now needed to finish JWST could very well upset those plans.

Senator Mikulski represents Goddard Space Flight Center and chairs the Senate appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA. She has been a strong supporter of JWST, but was alarmed by reports of new cost growth this year, which led to her insistence that NASA create the independent review team.

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) will chair a hearing next week to look at how NASA can pay for the program outlined in the newly enacted 2010 NASA Authorization Act if the agency does not get more funding. The hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee’s subcommittee on Science and Space is on November 18, 2010 at 10:00 in 253 Russell Senate Office Building.

Florida Today quotes Senator Nelson as saying that he wants to find out from NASA’s Chief Financial Officer, Beth Robinson, what NASA will do if the agency is level-funded next year — “‘We want to know: Is she going to follow the law instead of them going off on their own making decisions that are contrary to the law?'” The newspaper reports that other witnesses will be Presidential science adviser John Holdren and someone from the Government Accountability Office. The committee’s website does not list the witnesses as of yet.

The Space Show, hosted by Dr. David Livingston, will interview SpacePolicyOnline.com correspondent Laura Delgado on November 19, 2010 at 9:30 am PST (12:30 pm EST). The hour and a half show will focus on Ms. Delgado’s recent paper for AIAA’s Space2010 conference and an associated Space News blog on differing perceptions of space commercialization.

Her analysis points to a “gap” between the space policy community’s generally accepted notion of a bright space future that combines government and commercial efforts (though not all agree on timing) and a very different perception the public may hold based on the depiction of corporations in science fiction movies.

As she says in her Space News blog post: “In several science fiction movies our commercialized future in space signals a point of self-destruction, with individual freedom, the role and influence of governments, and the values of life we hold dear as its casualties. In these movies space commercialization is part of the problem, not a solution.”

Listen live to the show on the web and call in or email questions. The Space Show’s website provides access to archived versions of all of its shows, too.

Space Shuttle Discovery’s last flight will wait until the next launch window, which opens on November 30. The current window closes on Monday and NASA needs more time to analyze the gas leak that scrubbed yesterday’s launch attempt as well as a crack in the foam of the external tank that developed as the tank was being emptied after the scrub.

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.

Sunday, November 7

• NRC Panel on Implementing the Astro2010 Decadal Survey Recommendations, NRC Beckman Center, Irvine, CA, 12:30 – 5:15 pm PDT

Monday-Wednesday, November 8-10

• NRC Space Studies Board Workshop on “Sharing the Adventure with the Public: Grand Questions in Space Science and Exploration, NRC Beckman Center, Irvine, CA

Space shuttle Discovery’s last launch will wait until Monday at least due to a gaseous hydrogen leak, NASA announced. Monday is the end of the current launch window, dictated by sun angles at the International Space Station with which Discovery will dock. The next launch window opens on November 30.

Today’s launch was scrubbed because of the gas leak at an attachment point between the shuttle’s external tank and a 17-inch pipe that vents the gas away from the shuttle orbiter. NASA reported that “Shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach characterized the leak as ‘significant,’ similar to what was seen on STS-119 and STS-127, although today’s rate was higher in magnitude and occurred earlier in the fueling process.”

Here are links to other views about the impact of the election on NASA on various websites and other news sources.

• Space News: Election Brings New Leadership to NASA Oversight Committees by Amy Klamper
• Bill Adkins, Center for Strategic Space Studies, in Space News: Space News Asks the Experts
• Aviation Week and Space Technology: Election Adds To Space Policy Uncertainty by Frank Morring
• UPI (via NASAWatch): GOP to gain control of NASA oversight
• WFTV 9 Orlando (via NASAWatch): Does GOP Control Of House Jeopardize NASA’s Future?
• Jeff Foust, Spacepolitics.com: Future budget battles
• Florida Today: Extra NASA Funds Unsure After Election, by Bart Jansen
• Florida Today: Our views: GOP deficit-cutting plan could put NASA funding at risk
• MSNBC: How Politics Will Spin Science by Alan Boyle
• Space.com: Election Results Could Put NASA’s Future Under Fire, by Clara Moskowitz

Scientists from the EPOXI team will discuss what they saw during this morning’s flyby of Comet Hartley 2 at a press conference scheduled for 4:00 pm EDT (1:00 pm PDT) today, November 4. Watch live on NASA TV.

Mother Nature is the latest impediment to the launch of STS-133. Discovery’s last mission now is scheduled for tomorrow, Friday, at 3:04 pm EDT, delayed because of rain. The forecast for tomorrow is 60% “go” according to NASA.