Former NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe and his son both survived the airplane crash in Alaska, according to the New York Times. Former Senator Ted Stevens did not. News reports say that of the nine passengers on the private plane, four survived and five did not. Mr. O’Keefe reportedly is one of three survivors airlifted to an Anchorage hospital.
UOPDATE: The New York Times reports that Mr. OKeefe and his son survived, and Mr. O’Keefe was one of three persons airlifted to a hospital in Anchorage.
UPDATE: The Associated Press cites Shannon O’Keefe as confirming that her brother and his son were on the plane but “their status was not immediately known.”
UPDATE: NASAWatch now identifies the son as Kevin rather than Jonathan.
UPDATE: Keith Cowing at NASAWatch reports that Mr. O’Keefe and his son Jonathan both survived but are “rather banged up/”
UPDATE: AP now is also reporting that Senator Stevens died, but similarly had no word on Mr. O’Keefe.
UPDATE: Anchorage Alaska’s CBS affiliate KTVA reports that it has confirmed that Senator Stevens was killed. No word on Mr. O’Keefe.
UPDATE: No news yet on who survived, but here are links to statements from the NTSB, Louisiana State University (where Mr. OKeefe was chancellor), and EADS North America (where he is CEO).
UPDATE: At the NASA NEO workshop, a NASA spokesman just announced that one of Sean O’Keefe’s sons also was on the plane. Still no word on who survived.
UPDATE: The Associated Press is citing a National Transportation Safety Board spokesman as saying that there were nine people on the plane and there are five fatalities and four survivors. The condition of Mr. O’Keefe and Sen. Stevens has not been reported yet.
The New York Times is reporting that former NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe and former Senator Ted Stevens are believed to be among the eight passengers on a plane that crashed in southwest Alaska last night. The condition of the passengers is unknown, but the newspaper cites an Alaska National Guard spokesman as saying there may be fatalities. It also states that EADS North America, Mr. O’Keefe’s current employer, confirmed that he was on the plane.
This article will be updated as more information is obtained.
UPDATE: The NRC briefing on Astro2010 has been added for Friday.
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.
Monday-Thursday, August 9-12
Tuesday, August 10
Tuesday-Wednesday, August 10-11
Thursday, August 12
Friday, August 13
In an editorial yesterday, the Washington Post said that “U.S. space policy is on a collision course with itself.”
The part of U.S. space policy the Post is talking about is the human space flight program. It compares the Obama plan with those put forth in the House and Senate NASA authorization bills and concludes that —
“All three plans for space have in common an unwillingness either to abandon the dream of human spaceflight or to confront the budget reality. But with the funding for NASA set around $19 billion and not likely to change, bold plans for humans in space are simply not feasible. Something must give. If the administration and Congress truly want human spaceflight, they need to fund it adequately…..”
The National Research Council (NRC) will release the Astro2010 Decadal Survey for astronomy and astrophysics at a public briefing on Friday, August 13, at 11:00 am. Roger Blandford, a Stanford professor and chairman of the NRC study committee that wrote the report, will lead the briefing along with several other members of the committee. The report prioritizes ground- and space-based research in astronomy and astrophysics for the next decade. The briefing will be at the NRC’s Keck Center, 500 Fifth Street, N.W., Washington, DC.
Spacewalkers Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson set a new record for the length of an International Space Station (ISS) spacewalk yesterday, but their efforts were stymied by a “quick disconnect” (QD) fitting that wouldn’t cooperate. The 8 hour 3 minute spacewalk may be only the first of three, rather than two, needed to replace a failed pump that is part of the ISS cooling system.
Four ammonia coolant lines and five electrical lines need to be disconnected in order to replace the pump. The QD fittings worked properly on the other coolant lines, but on the so-called M3 line, ammonia began leaking out. Eventually Wheelock was able to secure the line and install a “spool positioning device” to maintain proper pressure in the ammonia line until NASA can determine how to proceed.
The second spacewalk is currently scheduled for Wednesday, but NASA is evaluating the situation and detemining the best path forward. Check back here or go to NASA’s ISS website for updates.
The defense authorization bill may have hit a snag in the Senate, but the NASA authorization bill sailed through yesterday. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) praised passage of the legislation and called on the House to “take up this crucial bill in order to get NASA on track to continue its proud heritage of innovation and exploration.”
NASA has delayed the two spacewalks needed to repair one of the two cooling loops on the International Space Station (ISS). They now will take place on Saturday and Wednesday instead of Friday and Monday as earlier reported. The extra time is needed for preparations on the ground and on the ISS. Both spacewalks are still expected to begin at 5:55 am Central Time (6:55 am EDT) and will be covered on NASA TV.
The Hill newspaper reports that the House may interrupt its summer recess and reconvene briefly, perhaps early next week, to pass a bill that would provide funds to states to avoid teacher layoffs.
With schools around the nation set to begin classes before the House is currently scheduled to return on September 14, there is pressure for the House to come back into session to deal with this issue. The Senate is expected to pass the bill this week, having succeeded in voting to end debate earlier today according to The Hill. The bill gives states $10 billion for teachers as well as $16 billion in Medicaid funding.
Previous efforts to pass it as part of larger measures have failed because of opposition to legislation that would increase the deficit. The Hill quotes an aide to House Minority Leader John Boehner as opposing the bill and the idea of the House returning to pass it, saying that Democrats should listen to their constitutents’ concerns about jobs and not “vote for more tax hikes and special-interest bailouts.” The vote in the Senate to end debate was 61-38, with all Democrats and two Republicans (Maine’s Sen. Olympia Snowe and Sen. Susan Collins) voting in favor. The Hill reports that the two Republican votes were secured after the bill’s sponsors found offsets for the full cost of the bill.
Congress Daily (subscription required) reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced via Twitter that she will indeed call the House back into session next week “to save teachers’ jobs and help seniors and children.”
Editor’s Note: This story is not directly related to space policy, but we thought you would be interested to know about this breaking development anyway.
NASA has set Friday, August 6, as the day for the first of two spacewalks to fix a broken ammonia pump for one of the two International Space Station’s cooling loops. As reported earlier, the pump blew a circuit breaker on the station Saturday night and it could not be reset. Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson were preparing for a spacewalk on Thursday already for an unrelated task and now will shift their attention to solving this problem instead.
A second spacewalk will take place on Monday, August 9, to complete the repairs. The pump is located on the exterior of the space station, on the S1 truss, and spare pumps are stored there. NASA stresses that space station systems are stable and the crew is in no danger.
NASA TV will broadcast the spacewalks. They both are scheduled to begin at 5:55 am Central Time (6:55 am EDT). Press briefings are scheduled for approximately two hours after the end of each spacewalk.
Correction: An earlier posting of this article misspelled astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson’s name.