NASA is looking for a chief historian at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. It’s a quick turnaround, though. The position was posted today and applications are due by next Tuesday, July 13. Visit USA Jobs for more details.
Jeff Foust has a really good write-up about the new national space policy in The Space Review this morning.
And for anyone who missed it (given its unique title, No Place for Jingoism, that does not quite convey that it’s about the space program), the New York Times did an editorial about the policy on Friday.
It’s a relatively quiet week in Washington with Congress in recess and most people at the beach, but for those who want to venture out into our horrid weather, here are a few events that are going on. Also, a NAC task force will be meeting in beautiful Boulder, CO. For more details, see our calendar on the right menu or click the links below.
Wednesday-Thursday, July 7-8, Washington DC
Thursday, July 8, Washington, DC
Thursday-Friday, July 8-9, Boulder, CO
Russia’s Progress M-06M spacecraft successfully docked at the International Space Station (ISS) today. The first attempt, on Friday, failed because of a radio interference problem.
This time NASA says the docking was “executed flawlessly by Progress’ Kurs automated rendezvous system.” NASA calls the mission “ISS Progress 38” because it is the 38th Progress to visit ISS, but there have been many more Progress flights than that in the history of the program, which dates back to 1978 and Russia’s (then the Soviet Union) Salyut 6 space station. Progress 1 was the first spacecraft to execute automated in-space propellant transfer, refilling Salyut 6’s tanks.
The Russian space agency and NASA will make a second attempt to dock a Progress spacecraft with the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday. The scheduled docking time is 12:10 pm EDT. The spacecraft, which NASA calls Progress 38 but is formally designated Progress M-06M, aborted its first attempt at docking on Friday.
NASA reports that Russian specialists determined that radio interference caused the Progress automated rendezvous system, Kurs, to abort the docking or “cancel dynamic operations.” The interference was between Kurs and a backup manual docking system aboard the space station designated TORU. The abort occured when the TORU television system was activated, as it usually is in case a manual docking is required. The report did not say why the two systems interfered this time, but stated that the Kurs system itself did not fail. Instead, it did what it should have done under the circumstances.
For the second attempt tomorrow, NASA says that the TORU system will not be activated.
As expected, NASA has reset the dates for the final two scheduled space shuttle missions. STS-133 (Discovery) is now expected to be launched on November 1, 2010 (instead of in September) and STS-134 (Endeavour) on February 26, 2011 (instead of November 2010).
With the slip into the second quarter of FY2011, additional funds may be needed for the shuttle program above what is requested in the President’s FY2011 budget. That shuttle funding request included $600 million to cover shuttle operations only for the first quarter of FY2011.
Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) supporters undoubtedly are pleased with the news. Many have wanted to spread out the remaining shuttle flights both to keep more of the workforce employed and to allow more logistical flexibility.
Meanwhile, Senator Bill Nelson continues to press for the addition of one more shuttle flight, the so-called “launch on need” mission.
A Russian Progress spacecraft failed to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) today. According to tweets by NASA, the spacecraft lost its telemetry lock on the space station and safely flew past at a distance of 3 kilometers. NASA and the Russian space agency are examining options, but NASA says no further docking attempts will be made today.
In 1997, a Progress spacecraft collided with Russia’s Mir space station while two Russians, Vasily Tsibliyev and Alexandr Lazutkin, and American Michael Foale were aboard. The Mir crew successfully secured the space station, although the module that was impacted, Spektr, could never be used again.
The near-catastrophe caused great anxiety especially in the United States and led to questions in Congress about whether the “shuttle-Mir” program should continue. At that time, U.S. astronauts were serving as members of long-duration Mir crews, and Russian cosmonauts were serving on U.S. space shuttle missions that visited Mir. The program did continue despite the collision and an unrelated fire aboard Mir earlier the same year. The incidents illustrated both the dangers of spaceflight and the skill, resilience and determination of the crews.
Everyone else may be on vacation next week, but the National Research Council will be hard at work!
On Wednesday and Thursday, July 7-8, the Committee on Earth Studies of the Space Studies Board (SSB) will meet and hear from NOAA, USGS and NASA officials on the status of their activities, as well as experts at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) on the Total Solar Irradiance Sensor (TSIS). See the agenda for details. It will be in room 105 of the NRC’s Keck Building at 500 Fifth Street, NW, Washington, DC.
On Thursday, unfortunately at the same time as the CES meeting but just down the hall for anyone who wants to run back and forth, the NRC will hold a workshop on improving satellite data of the Gulf oil spill and other disasters. It’s from 9:00 am – 1:15 pm in room 100 Keck. Sponsored by the NRC’s Disasters Roundtable, the agenda is here. Entitled “From Reality 2010 to Vision 2020: Translating Remotely Sensed Data to Assets, Exposure, Damage, and Losses,” the press release explains that it will “explore how satellite images and data are and can be effectively used before, during, and after these disasters and how the flow, understanding, and utility of such data could be improved. In addition, the workshop aims to see how remotely sensed data could be used more effectively in disasters 10 years from now.”
So for everyone who’s NOT at the beach, these should be very interesting meetings to attend.
Space News has a thought-provoking op-ed by John Logsdon this week. Dr. Logsdon, professor emeritus at George Washington University, is the “dean” of space policy analysts and the Apollo era is a particular speciality. He also was a member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.
Here are links to the new national space policy and official comments by government officials.
– Statement by President Obama: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-
– White House Summary Fact Sheet: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-
– Detailed White House Fact Sheet: http://www.whitehouse.gov/
– Statement by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton: http://www.state.gov/
– Statement by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates: http://www.defense.gov/
– Statement by Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke: http://www.commerce.gov/news/
– Statement by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden: http://www.nasa.gov/home/
– Statement by U.S. Department of Interior: http://www.doi.gov/news/