The Planetary Society and 11 other science and space organizations issued a statement yesterday supporting the “topline” FY2011 NASA budget request,. The statement stops short of explicitly endorsing President Obama’s plan — it makes no mention of commercial crew, for example — but praises the increases in science. aeronautics and technology initiatives and supports a “high cadence exciting program.”

Some of the language is rather obscure (“destinations, milestones, engagement and story matter”), but the bottom line appears to be general support for President Obama’s overall plan, even though it avoids engaging on the most controversial issue of what to do with the human space flight program other than saying:

“We believe this is an opportunity for NASA to craft the exploration strategy in partnership with science and applied science that includes the International Space Station, safe and cost-effective access to low Earth orbit, robotic precursors, and other missions.”

The full list of signatories is:

American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Astronomical Society
American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics
American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology
Associated Universities, Inc.
Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy
Commercial Spaceflight Federation
Maryland Space Business Roundtable
National Space Society
The Planetary Society
Space Frontier Foundation
Universities Space Research Association

Whether Republicans have substantive issues with the bill to reauthorize the America COMPETES Act or are just trying to disrupt the Democratic agenda, the bill went down to defeat today. The bill does not directly affect the space program, but the episode provides a sobering reminder that even popular programs that support STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education and research and development (R&D) are vulnerable in today’s highly charged political and economic environment.

The legislation, championed by House Science and Technology Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN), had been pulled from floor consideration last week after Republicans succeeded in winning passage of an amendment to recommit the bill to committee. Included in the amendment was a provision prohibiting any funds from being spent to pay the salaries of federal employees who view pornography at work. Not wanting to be viewed as soft on pornography-watching civil servants, Democrats had little choice but to vote in favor of the amendment.

Although some news accounts intimated that this was an obstructionist tactic, Republicans did have some substantive complaints against that version of the bill (H.R. 5116). It provided a 5-year authorization of $85 billion for the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and two agencies within the Department of Commerce, along with loan guarantees for small and medium businesses conducting technology development work, and funds for STEM education programs. Republicans argued that was too much money and strayed too far from the original America COMPETES Act passed in 2007. Rep. Gordon wondered aloud as to why these concerns were not raised during markup of the bill at subcommittee or full committee level.

Rep. Gordon modified the bill, reducing it to a 3-year authorization for $47 billion, and including the anti-pornography language the Republicans wanted. The new bill number is H.R. 5325. But it wasn’t enough. The Democratic leadership brought the bill up under suspension of the rules today, which does not allow amendments, but requires a two-thirds vote instead of a simple majority. It fell short of the two-thirds required, although it did get a majority. Rep. Gordon said that he was “disappointed, but not deterred,” and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) vowed to bring the bill back to the floor before the Memorial Day recess.

NASA will host a “spinoff day” tomorrow on Capitol Hill to highlight NASA”s contribtions to technology development and innovation. As Keith Cowing at NASAWatch points out, there hasn’t been much publicity about this, though NASA may be targeting Members of Congress and their staffs instead of the general public. Neverthelless, it is open to everyone. The event is from 11:00-3:00 in 2325 Rayburn and reportedly features NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, NASA’s Chief Technologist, Bobby Braun, and Doug Comstcok, head of NASA”s Innovative Partnerships Program, though the fyer does not list participants.

The first man and the last man to walk on the Moon — Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan — will make another trip to Capitol Hill next week to testify about President Obama’s plan for human space flight. The House Science and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on May 26 at 10:00 am in 2318 Rayburn House Office Building with Armstrong, Cernan, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, and aerospace industry iconTom Young. All four have testified to House or Senate committees at least once already. Armstrong, Cernan and Young all oppose the President’s plan, which will be defended by Bolden.

Former NASA Chief of Staff George Whitesides will join Virgin Galactic as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) according to a company news release. Before joining the Obama transition team and NASA, Mr. Whitesides was Executive Director of the National Space Society.

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) will host a discussion on Capitol Hill this Thursday, May 20, on human rating of commercial spacecraft. The meeting will be in room 208/209 of the Senator Visitors Center (in the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center), East Capitol Street and First Street, S.E., Washington, D.C. beginning at 1:00 pm. For more information, visit AIAA’s website. The event is free and open to the public, but an RSVP is required.

UPDATE 2: Adds a hearing of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on China’s aerospace capabilities on Thursday, May 20. NOTE THAT THE START TIME HAS BEEN DELAYED TO 9:20 AM INSTEAD OF 9:00 AM.

UPDATE: Adds the AIAA seminar on human rating of commercial spacecraft on Thursday, May 20.

ORIGINAL STORY: The following events may be of interest this week. Check our calendar on the right for more information or click the links below. Times, dates and witnesses for congressional hearings are subject to change. Check the relevant committee’s website for up to date information.

Tuesday, May 18

• Women in Aerospace “Aerospace 2010” one-day conference, Hyatt Regency-Washington, 400 New Jersey Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 9:00 am – 6:00 pm

Tuesday-Wednesday, May 18-19

• FAA Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) meeting, National Housing Center, 1201 15^th St., N.W., Washington, DC. Meeting starts at 8:00 am each day.

Wednesday, May 19

• House Armed Services Committee, full committee markup of the FY2011 DOD authorization bill (H.R. 5136), 2118 Rayburn House Office Building, 10:00 am
• House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing on Defense Acquisitions: One Year After Reform, 2154 Rayburn House Office Building, 10:00 am

Thursday, May 20

• U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission hearing on China’s Emergent Military Aerospace and Commercial Aviation Capabilities, 562 Dirksen Senate Office Building, 9:20 am (DELAYED FROM 9:00 AM)
• House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on FY2011 DOD budget request, public witnesses testify, H-140 Capitol, 10:00 am
• AIAA seminar on human rating of commercial spacecraft, SVC-208/209, 1:00 pm
• Confirmation hearing for Carl Wieman to the Associate Director for Science of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Senate Commerce Committee, 253 Russell Senate Office Building, 2:30 pm

Thursday-Friday, May 20-21

• Space Security and Defense Conference, Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites, Alexandria, VA

The Senate Appropriations Committee added language to a supplemental appropriations bill yesterday restating the prohibition on cancelling the Constellation program that already is in the FY2010 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 111-117). Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), ranking member of the Commerce-Justice-Science subcommittee that funds NASA, issued a statement saying that “NASA is now attempting to undermine current law … by slow rolling contracts and pressuring companies to self terminate. It is disappointing that the political appointees at NASA have so much trouble following the letter and spirit of the law.”

The bill otherwise is not about NASA. It funds operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and provides aid for recovering from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The bill could be debated on the Senate floor next week. The House passed a supplemental appropriations bill for FEMA disaster relief and youth jobs initiatives in March (H.R. 4899) and the two could be combined.

Senator Shelby co-sponsored the amendment with Senator Bob Bennett (R-UT). Senator Bennett said that he remains “confident that this administration has made a critical mistake in cancelling the Constellation and Ares programs.” He vowed that reversing that decision would be a top priority for him this year. The solid rocket motors for the Ares program are made in Utah. Senator Bennett focused on the potential impact of cancelling Ares on jobs in Utah and on the Department of Defense’s need for solid rocket motors. He raised the latter point at a hearing on the Air Force budget before the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee on Wednesday as well. Senator Bennett is up for reelection this year and lost the backing of the Utah Republican party last week in what many view as an anti-incumbent mood in the nation.

UPDATE: The shuttle lifted off on schedule.

ORIGINAL STORY: Space Shuttle Atlantis is on track for launch at 2:20 pm EDT this afternoon on its last scheduled mission, STS-132. Weather remains 70% favorable for launch. Live coverage is available on NASA TV and Spaceflightnow.com.

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden told the Senate Commerce Committee today that he will do “everything in my power” to ensure that the commercial launch companies at the heart of President Obama’s new plan for NASA succeed. The magnitude of that commitment was the source of some contention at the hearing.

Senator David Vitter (R-LA) asked Gen. Bolden if he had said in a telephone briefing to Apollo astronauts Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan last week that he would “do whatever it takes” to make the commercial option work including “bailing them out” even if that meant “a bigger bailout than Chrysler and GM.” Bolden responded that he did not recall saying those words, but had always said that he would do “everything in my power” to make commercial access to low Earth orbit successful because he needs it, the defense department needs it, and the intelligence community needs it: “I have to look at the possibility that the commercial sector will have difficulty” and “I will do everything in my power to facilitate their success.” However, he insisted that he did not remember saying the words Senator Vitter quoted.

Testifying later in the hearing, Captain Cernan revealed that those quotes were from his notes. Cernan said that Bolden expressed concern during the telephone briefing about the commercial sector’s ability to succeed and said the government might have to subsidize them significantly and it “may be a bailout like GM and Chrysler, as a matter of fact it may be the largest bailout in history.” Cernan told the committee that he had written the word “Wow” in the margin of his notes at that statement.

The degree to which the government would be dependent on the commercial companies is one of the major objections to President Obama’s plan to turn responsibility for crew and cargo missions to low Earth orbit over to the commercial sector. At a February hearing before the House Science and Technology Committee, for example, Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN) asked if it would make those companies “too important to fail,” akin to the financial companies that received government bailouts because they were “too big to fail.”

President Obama’s plan has been the subject of many op-ed articles and congressional hearings, so the viewpoints of most of the Senators and witnesses at the hearing already were well known. However, Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) made it clear that the issues that have concerned him about NASA over many years remain. They include fundamental philosophical questions such as why human spaceflight is necessary and how it helps the “human condition,” as well as more prosaic questions about NASA’s management abilities. While his statements were not quite a ringing endorsement of the Obama plan, he made it clear that he thinks NASA has to change.

Famed Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the Moon, focused on the lack of analysis that went into developing the Obama plan and rued what he sees as the U.S. abandoning its leadership in space: “If the leadership we have acquired through our investment is simply allowed to fade away, other nations will surely step in where we have faltered. I do not believe that would be in our best interest.” Cernan, who commaned the final Apollo mission to the Moon, called the plan “a blueprint for a mission to nowhere.”

Armstrong and Cernan said that there are rumors that neither Presidential Science Adviser Holdren nor NASA Administrator Bolden knew the plan in advance. Holdren and Bolden were asked about this during their appearance on the previous panel, and both dismissed such talk, insisting that they did know at least two weeks prior to the budget release what it would contain.

Norm Augustine explained once again that his committee developed options rather than making recommendations, but agreed that the President’s plan is close to the committee’s option 5B. He added that one significant difference is that his committee felt the human spaceflight budget had to increase by $3 billion over the next four years and by inflation thereafter, and “we could find no interesting human spaceflight program” for less than that. The President’s proposal does not provide that level of funding. Mr. Augustine stressed that NASA’s “goals [must] match the budget” or 10 years from now this same discussion will be held again.