How did we ever get along without Twitter? And Tweeters like Jeff Foust from Spacepolitics.com, Miles O’Brien from This Week in Space, and NASA’s own Wayne Hale? Their tweets from the Space Foundation’s National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs makes it seem like being there yourself! Here are a few samples from today’s events featuring NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, Commander of Air Force Space Command Gen. Robert Kehler, and a space investment industry panel. Check Twitter or these guys’ blogs for more of their news and views.

jeff_foust: Bolden: this is a big week for space. More people will be thinking about it than perhaps ever before

jeff_foust: Bolden: the new plan features incremental, measured progress based on heritage and building upon milestones

jeff_foust: Bolden: can’t express just how passionate Obama and I are about education, why it’s an impt part of the plan

jeff_foust: Bolden ends with call to work together to fully realize NASA’s goals. Leaves without taking any questions

jeff_foust: Gen. Kehler: in plans we used to put a big red circle around launch day. Now we put it around the day that capability enters service

jeff_foust: Kehler: we’re using the same strategy for milspace programs as we did in Cold War. Have to realize that 1 strategy doesn’t fit all.

jeff_foust: Next panel as #nss10 features Wall St analysts talking about space industry. Mass exodus from the room

jeff_foust: Good news for the space industry: investors have short memories and have forgotten the disasters of a decade ago

this_week_in_space: At the space syposium in CO – Charlie Bolden trying to sell skeptical/angry crowd on Obama space plan. Tough crowd

wayne_hale: At the NSS, Gen Kahler is giving a great, thoughtful, heartfelt speech that clearly explains goals and issues. We could learn from him.

wayne_hale: Listening to Charlie Bolden at the National Space Symposium. He’s doing his best to make the case.

The following events may be of interest in the coming week. For more information, see our calendar on the right menu or click on the links below. Times, dates, and witnesses for congressional hearings are subject to change; check with the relevant committee for up to date information.

The BIG event, of course, is President Obama’s space conference at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), FL on Thursday. The few details that have been made public so far are that the President will make a major space policy address and meet privately with some Members of Congress, and there will be four panel sessions on various topics. SpacePolicyOnline.com will post further information as it becomes available. According to NASA Administrator Bolden, the event will be broadcast on NASA TV. Florida Today reports that the President will arrive at KSC at 1:45 pm, speak at 3:00 pm, and depart at 3:45 pm.

Monday-Thursday, April 12-15

• 26^th National Space Symposium, Broadmoor Hotel, Colorado Springs, CO

Monday, April 12

• NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Astrophysics subcommittee, by telephone and WebEx, 2:00-5:00 pm EDT. Any interested person may call the USA toll free conference call number 800-779-1627, passcode APS.

Tuesday, April 13

• NAC Space Operations Committee, Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, 3:00-5:00 pm CDT.

Wednesday, April 14

• House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science subcommittee hearing with outside witnesses and Members of Congress, 9:00 am EDT, H-309 Capitol

Thursday, April 15

• President Obama’s Space Conference, Kennedy Space Center (KSC), FL. Florida Today reports that the President will arrive at KSC at 1:45 pm. speak at 3:00 pm, and depart at 3:45 pm.

Thursday-Friday, April 15-16

• NAC Information Technology Infrastructure Committee, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. – April 15: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm EDT; April 16, 11:00 am -5:0 pm EDT
• NAC Planetary Defense Task Force, Boston Marriott Cambridge Hotel, Cambridge, MA – April 15: 11:30 am – 5:30 pm EDT; April 16: 9:00 am – 1:00 pm EDT

President Obama will make a major space policy address and meet privately with Members of Congress at the space conference he has scheduled for April 15 at Kennedy Space Center. Those are the first formal public tidbits about what will happen that day, revealed by NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden during a media teleconference this afternoon. He said that the event will be by invitation only, but will be broadcast on NASA TV. It will also feature four panel sessions where NASA hopes to obtain input from a variety of individuals, though who they are was not announced. Gen. Bolden said that he was not in charge of the invitation list. He said that NASA would rely on the media to get the word out about what transpires at the meeting, but it remains unclear as to who from the media will be allowed in.

NASA officials are currently conducting a media briefing on “workforce breakdowns” for each NASA center for the new NASA program announced in the FY2011 budget request. Documents have been posted on NASA’s budget website with much of the information being briefed. So far, there is lots of information about how many dollars will be spent at the centers, but not the number of people needed to accomplish the tasks.

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and Deputy Administrator Lori Garver will hold a media teleconference at 2:00 pm EDT today (Thursday) “about the next steps in implementing the agency’s new exploration initiatives outlined in the new fiscal year 2011 budget.” Joining them will be the four Mission Directorate Associate Administrators (Bill Gerstenmaier, Doug Cooke, Ed Weiler and Jaiwon Shin) and Chief Technologist Bobby Braun. Information on how news media representatives can call in is provided in the NASA press release.

The Ku-band antenna on Space Shuttle Discovery is not working, according to NASA. Among other things, the antenna is used to downlink high data rate communications, including television. That means images being taken today of Discovery’s thermal protection system (TPS) will have to be recorded and transmitted back to Mission Control after the shuttle docks with the International Space Station (ISS) using the ISS antenna. Imaging the TPS to check for damage is a routine precaution since the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy. Spaceflightnow.com reports that the antenna also is used as a radar dish during rendezvous operations, but that the crew has other instruments it can use and the loss of the antenna should not be a major problem.

UPDATE: Discovery is off on its mission to the International Space Station with a successful launch at 6:21 am..

ORIGINAL STORY: Space Shuttle Discovery has come out of its last planned hold and is GO! for launch at 6:21 am this morning — in less than 9 minutes. Live on NASA TV and Spaceflightnow.com.

With Congress still in recess and most people in Washington out enjoying the stunning beauty of the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin, it will be another quiet week for space policy aficionados. The only event we have on our calendar is a NAC subcommittee meeting at the end of the week.

Thursday-Friday, April 8-9

• NASA Advisory Council, Planetary Science Subcommittee, NASA Headquarters
  • April 8, 8:00 am – 5:00 pm EDT
  • April 9, 8:00 am – 3:00 pm EDT

Soyuz TMA-18 successfully docked with the International Space Station early today (Sunday). The hatches were opened at 3:19 am EDT according to NASA. The ISS crew complement is now back up to six.

Who will be invited to President Obama’s space “conference” in Florida on April 15 and what will happen there remains a mystery, but at least we know it’s not the only reason he’ll be in Florida. Jeff Foust at SpacePolitics.com notes that the President will be attending two fundraisers in Miami that day, one at the home of rock singer Gloria Estefan and her husband for $30,400 a couple.

And while not a mystery, there had been some anticipation that SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch might take place about that time as a demonstration of the potential of commercial crew. However, SpaceX has announced that the first flight of Falcon 9 will occur no earlier than May 8. In an emailed message very late on April 2, company spokeswoman Emily Shanklin said that Space X was working with the supplier of key components of the Falcon 9’s flight termination system to supply final data to SpaceX and the Air Force for “review and acceptance.”

Meanwhile, SpacePolicyOnline.com was worried that its invitation to the April 15 conference had been lost in the mail, but Representative Bill Posey (R-FL) apparently has not received his either. In a March 30 letter to the President, Rep. Posey said that he had not been invited yet and would “very much appreciate the opportunity to participate in the event with you.” Rep. Posey is a strong supporter of the space shuttle program and a co-sponsor of H.R. 4804 that would prohibit terminating the shuttle until certain conditions are met to ensure the continued operation of the ISS until at least 2020.