Dr. Laurie Leshin has just been named the new Deputy Associate Administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) at NASA headquaters. A geochemist, Dr. Leshin is currently Deputy Director for Science and Technology at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Dr. Leshin was a member of the President’s Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy, created by President George W. Bush as part of his 2004 Vision for Space Exploration announcement. The commission was chaired by Edward (Pete) Aldridge. At the time, Dr. Leshin was Director of Arizona State University’s Center for Meteorite Studies and the Dee and John Whiteman Dean’s Distinguished Professor of geological sciences. She then joined NASA/Goddard as director of Goddard’s Science and Exploration Directorate.

The selection of a scientist as ESMD deputy may signal a heightened recognition of the role that science can and should play in what is predominanty a human space flight program.

Dr. Leshin’s husband, Dr. Jon Morse, is Director of the Astrophysics Division in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. With two prominent women named Lori (Garver) and Laurie (Leshin) at NASA headquarters, one will have to listen carefully to determine which is the subject of conversation!

Little information has been released about what transpired in the Obama-Bolden meeting yesterday. The few glimpses suggest that the President is supportive of NASA, but not what path he wants the agency to follow.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked about the results of the meeting at the daily press briefing yesterday (see it on C-Span beginning at minute 44:15), but he made it clear that he did not yet have a “readout” from the meeting. His comment that “The President believes that NASA plays a vital role going forward” is a nice sentiment, but seemed to be a standard response about NASA rather than anything related to the meeting.

Florida Today’s Flame Trench blog quotes another White House spokesman as saying that :

“‘The President confirmed his commitment to human space exploration, and the goal of ensuring that the nation is on a sustainable path to achieving our aspirations in space,’ said White House spokesman Nicholas Shapiro. …

‘Against a backdrop of serious challenges with the existing program, the Augustine Committee has offered several key findings and a range of options for how the nation might improve its future human space flight activities,’ Shapiro said. ‘The two spoke about the Administrator’s work at NASA and they also discussed the Augustine Committee’s analysis.'”

President Obama will meet with NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden today, according to the Orlando Sentinel’s Write Stuff blog. The two are expected to discuss the Augustine committee report on the future of the human space flight program according to the report.

No word on who else will be at the meeting — Office of Management and Budget (OMB) staff, for example. It will be up to OMB to determine how to implement the financial aspects of whatever decision is made in the FY2011 budget request and its 5-year “runout” (i.e., FY2011-2015). Then, of course, the request will have to be deliberated by Congress, so there is a long way to go. But every journey starts with the first step — perhaps that Presidential decision is close at hand.

Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), ranking member of the Senate appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA, is calling for an investigation by the NASA Inspector General (IG) of the staff of the Augustine committee that recently submitted its report on the future of the human space flight program.

In a December 14 letter to NASA IG Paul Martin available on his Senate website, Sen. Shelby asserts that several members of the committee’s staff were registered lobbyists and some “have taken advantage of their temporary roles on the Commission [sic] to further their personal business.” The report, Seeking A Human Spaceflight Program Worthy Of A Nation, contains a three-page listing of “committee staff” in Appendix B, but Sen. Shebly states that there were other lobbyists who worked as committee staff that “are not even acknowledged in the report. This is both disturbing and unconscionable.”

Sen. Shelby represents the State of Alabama, home to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicle programs that are part of NASA’s Project Constellation. NASA initiated Constellation in response to a 2004 directive from President George W. Bush to return humans to the Moon by 2020 and someday send them to Mars.

The Augustine committee report was not favorable towards Ares I, whose primary function is to take astronauts back and forth to the International Space Station (ISS). The Augustine committee did not make recommendations — it only offered options — but between the words in the report and congressional testimony by the committee’s chair, Norman Augustine, the message clearly was that the comparatively routine task of delivering people and cargo to ISS should be handed off to the commercial sector while NASA focuses on more challenging destinations beyond low Earth orbit (LEO).

If that course were chosen, there would be no need for Ares I. On the other hand, the committee stressed the need for a larger “heavy lift” launch vehicle like the Ares V for the beyond-LEO missions. Defending Ares I, Sen. Shelby offered a blistering assessment of the commercial sector’s ability to assume responsibility for ISS transportation during a May 21 congressional hearing (read a SpacePolicyOnline.com summary of that hearing). His criticism of the Augustine committee has continued since then.

Representative Bart Gordon (D-TN), chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, announced today that he will not seek reelection next year. A Member of Congress since 1985, he said in a statement that “Turning 60 has led me to do some thinking about what’s next.” Noting that he has an 8 year old daughter and is the only child of his 83 year old mother, and has a wife with a demanding job, he said “They made sacrifices to allow me to do what I love by serving Congress, and now it’s my turn.” His full statement is available on the committee’s website.

The plutonium-238 (Pu-238) needed to power spacecraft that travel to the distant reaches of the solar system is in scarce supply, and Russia reportedly is taking advantage of the situation. Earlier this year, Congress refused to provide $30 million requested by the Department of Energy (DOE) to restart production of the fuel as recommended by the National Research Council (NRC). Now Russia is withholding Pu-238 it promised to sell DOE, asking for a new deal. Space News reports the story in this morning’s edition.

Jim Green, Director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, broke the news to scientists at a November 16 meeting of the steering committee for the NRC’s Planetary Science Decadal Survey (his presentation is available on SpacePolicyOnline.com’s NRC page). The requirement for more Pu-238 for Radioisotope Power Systems (RPSs) needed to carry out NASA’s lunar and planetary exploration plans was highlighted by an earlier NRC report “Radioisotope Power Systems: An Imperative for Maintaining U.S. Leadership in Space Exploration.”

Pu-238 has been used since the earliest days of the space program to provide power for spacecraft systems and instruments on probes traveling too far from the Sun to rely on solar power or that will be on the Moon on planetary surfaces where extended periods without solar energy would imperil the mission. Five of the six Apollo missions that landed on the Moon left scientific packages powered by Pu-238, for example, and NASA plans to use it for future lunar landers as well.

DOE is the only federal agency authorized to produce or own nuclear fuel and provides Pu-238 to NASA. DOE signed an agreement with Russia to obtain Pu-238, but Green’s presentation to the Decadal Survey committee revealed the the Russian government is now seeking a new government-to-government level agreement and delivery of the fuel may slip beyond 2011. Space News quotes Green as saying that NASA is proceeding with its current plans expecting that DOE will resolve the situation in a timely manner. A one-year delay reportedly would not be a problem, but “If the first delivery is delayed much beyond 2011 … mission schedules could suffer….”

UPDATED to reflect the Senate Commerce Committee’s posting of the agenda for its markup session on Thursday.

Congress is still busily at work, and scientists are meeting at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) annual fall meeting, but the rest of the space policy world is refocusing its attention on the holidays.

The only space policy-related events SpacePolicyOnline.com is aware of this week are the following.

During the Week

• Congress may complete action on the Department of Defense Appropriations bill (H.R. 3326), the only one that has not yet cleared Congress. If action is not completed by December 18, another Continuing Resolution will need to be passed.
• The President is expected to sign into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 3288), which includes NASA, NOAA and NSF.

December 14-18, 2009

• The annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco is expected to be the venue for announcements about results from NASA missions, including the LCROSS mission and its search for water on the Moon’s south pole.

December 17, 2009

• Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee markup session, 10:00 am, 253 Russell Senate Office Building.

UPDATED: This article, originally published yesterday (Sunday), has been updated to correct the bill number, provide a link to the bill and report, and include the specific language in the bill that prohibits NASA from spending funds to change the Constellation program until Congress has time to consider whatever decision is made by the Executive Branch.

The Senate just passed the FY2010 Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 3288, H. Rept. 111-366), which includes the Commerce-Justice-Science bill that funds NASA, NOAA and NSF, by a vote of 57-35.

It is a package of six of the seven remaining annual appropriations bills needed to fund the government. The total package is $1.1 trillion (NASA gets $18.7 billion). The bill now goes to the White House where the President is expected to sign it. Only the Department of Defense (DOD) appropriations bill (H.R. 3326) remains to be passed by Congress. That may be concluded by the end of this week when the current Continuing Resolution (CR) expires, but because the bill is expected to contain a number of unrelated provisions, such as raising the debt limit, it could be subject to extended debate. If it is not passed, another CR will be needed to fund DOD.

The NASA portion of the bill (in Division B, Commerce-Justice-Science) includes a prohibition on spending any funds to terminate any part of the Constellation program or to begin a new program. The language is on page 90 of the bill beginning on line 9 and reads as follows:

“That notwithstanding section 505 of this Act, none of the funds provided herein and from prior years that remain available for obligation during fiscal year 2010 shall be available for the termination or elimination of any program, project or activity of the architecture for the Constellation program nor shall such funds be available to create or initiate a new program, project or activity, unless such program termination, elimination, creation, or initiation is provided in subsequent appropriations Acts.”

The bill, accompanying report language, and other documents are on the website of the House Approriations Committee.

The Senate voted today to limit debate on the Consolidated Appropriations bill that includes the Commerce-Justice-Science measure, which funds NASA, NOAA and NSF. That means the Senate is likely to complete debate on the bill and be ready to vote on passage tomorrow (Sunday).

The Senate is in session this weekend attempting to finish work on pending legislation during a lull on health care reform debate while they await Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates (“scores”) on how much the latest version of the health care reform bill will cost. Once the CBO scores are completed the Senate is expected to return to the health care debate.

Britain will create a new space agency, according to the BBC. Britian is a member of the European Space Agency, but the British government has had an on and off interest in space activities — other than remote sensing — for many years. The British National Space Centre has been the main governmental body coordinating civil space activities, but the BBC has a pretty harsh assessment of it:

” … the UK’s approach has been to devolve space policy decisions to a club of “users” facilitated by a civil service unit called the British National Space Centre (BNSC).

“These users are the government departments and research councils that have interests in space science or space-borne services.

“The arrangement was supposed to ensure that limited space funding chased “need” and “value”. But critics complained the approach only promoted self-interest and made it hard for the UK to adopt coherent positions on big international programmes – where much space activity is now directed.”

The new space agency is supposed to fix that “and drive more and better cooperation among the different space users” according to the BBC, which also notes that it is not yet clear how the agency will be funded.