The exciting impact of the LCROSS spacecraft and its Centaur upper stage at the Moon’s South Pole this morning apparently left some members of the press, and perhaps the public, dissatisfied with the outcome because scientists could not provide an instant answer to what was discovered.

At a 10:00 am EDT press conference at NASA’s Ames Research Center near San Francisco, which managed the mission, exhausted LCROSS scientists patiently explained that more than three hours are needed to analyze the data. An array of ground- and space-based assets were trained on the Moon to observe the impact and an expected plume of “ejecta.” Media sources reported public disappointment that they did not see a promised “flash” at the time of impact. That part of the video – or lack thereof – was indeed puzzling.

Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS principal investigator, said that results from the data analysis will be presented at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in December. At that time, answers may be known about whether or not water exists in the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar south pole, the major question LCROSS was designed to investigate. AGU is only a short two months away. Stay tuned. In the meantime, check the LCROSS website for any breaking news.

NASA announced today that the likelihood of the Apophis asteroid colliding with Earth in 2036 is significantly less than earlier thought. The new estimate is that the chance of an “encounter” with Earth in 2036 is four in a million instead of one in 45,000. The findings will be presented at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division of Planetary Sciences meeting in Puerto Rico tomorrow.

In a public teleconference held today, the Augustine Committee discussed updates to the scoring of the exploration strategy options outlined in its Summary Report. After reiterating that ranking the options themselves was beyond their mandate, committee members briefly explained the evaluation method and criteria they used to designate values between the options.

The committee’s task today was to assign scoring values to the baseline option (Option 3 – Program of Record with less constrained funding), which it had not done at its last public meeting. Three of the eight criteria in particular required additional discussion in order to ensure that all the options were evaluated on the same basis.

The committee members agreed to give a (-2) value on the Global Partnerships criterion since failure to extend the life of the International Space Station beyond 2015 would discourage further involvement from international partners. The baseline option was also assigned a (-1) value on the Mission Safety Profile criterion, taking into account the added risk associated with a Moon landing (the same value applied to any option that included lunar landings). The committee clarified that the parameters for risk assessment are based only on mission profile and do not include an evaluation of the risks associated with specific launch vehicles, for example Ares 1 versus an alternative. Finally, it was also decided to assign the baseline option a (-1) value on the criterion of National Skill, based on the impact of the “Shuttle-gap” between decommissioning of the Space Shuttle and the availability of a new system and the resulting inability to utilize the nation’s skilled space transportation workforce fully.

The committee also decided that the Science Knowledge criterion will include the ability for humans to service space-based science observatories, a beneficial capability that was highlighted in the August 5 presentation to the committee by Marcia Rieke representing the ongoing National Research Council astrophysics Decadal Survey (Astro2010).

A link to a recording of NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden’s talk to the Space Transportation Association this morning is available on NASAWatch. Thanks, Keith!

Congress Daily (subscription required) reports that the Senate is not likely to complete its consideration of the FY2010 Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill (H.R. 2847) today. The controversial issues that slowed action are not related to the space program. The publication quotes Senator Mikulski as saying that action probably will not be completed until next week.

The full text of today’s debate will be available in the Congressional Record that will be published tomorrow, but Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) issued a press release with the text of his floor statement. He called on President Obama to provide $3 billion more for NASA in FY2010 from stimulus funding, a position taken by most of the Texas congressional delegation in a letter to the President earlier this week. He also expressed support for commercial space companies.

During Senate debate on the FY2010 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) appropriations bill (H.R. 2847) yesterday (October 7), Senator Mikulski (D-MD), who chairs the CJS subcommittee, added a personal element to the discussion. From her wheelchair, she extolled the benefits of the “space boot” she is wearing to protect a fractured ankle. She cited it as an example of technologies that have come from the space program.

Overall, the portion of the floor debate that concerned NASA (see the Congressional Record) was strongly supportive of NASA’s existing Constellation program and fully funding the President’s FY2010 request for it. By contrast, the House cut the funding by about $600 million in its version of the CJS bill pending the Augustine committee report. The Senate will continue debate on the bill today.

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) teamed with The Space Show to host a panel discussion on the Augustine committee report. A podcast of the discussion is available at: http://www.thespaceshow.com/detail.asp?q=1236.

Panelists were former astronaut Frank Culbertson, currently Senior Vice President of Orbital Sciences Corp; Elliott Pulham, CEO of the Space Foundation; Scott “Doc” Horowitz, former astronaut and former NASA Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems; John Klineberg, former Director of NASA/Goddard, former President of Space Systems/Loral and former CEO of Swales Aerospace; Jim Muncy, President of PoliSpace and a long-time proponent of entrepreneurial space; and Bob Dickman, Executive Director of AIAA.

The Senate is scheduled to resume consideration of the FY2010 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) appropriations bill today (Wednesday) at approximately 10:30 am under a unanimous-consent agreement that was reached yesterday. The bill was brought to the floor on Monday, but only two opening statements were made–by Senator Shelby (R-AL), ranking member of the CJS subcommittee, and Senator Conrad (D-ND), who presented the Budget Committee’s scoring of the bill.

As part of his remarks (available in the Congressional Record), Senator Shelby once again defended the Constellation program as he did during a hearing on NASA’s budget earlier this year. The Senator, addressing the President of the Senate, said “Mr. President, I am baffled by NASA’s path forward on the Constellation program.” Criticizing the Augustine committee, he said that some of its findings “would guarantee that other nations, such as Russia, China and India will be waving to us as they fly by the space station on their way to the moon and other planets.” He wants NASA to continue with the Constellation program — “the program that has the greatest likelihood of success.” The text of his floor speech is also available on the Senator’s website.

Most members of the Texas congressional delegation sent a letter to President Obama urging him to spend up to $3 billion more in stimulus funding on NASA for FY2010. Congress already allocated $1 billion for NASA when it passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (“the stimulus bill”) earlier this year.

In the letter, Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn along with 26 of the 32 House members who represent Texas noted that only 15% of the $787 billion in stimulus funds had been spent as of last month. Citing the Augustine committee’s summary report, the congressional delegation argued that “a robust space program that enables us to explore new frontiers is critical to maintain America’s proud tradition of exploration and its leadership in space.” They also highlighted the importance of the NASA civil servant and contractor workforce “in today’s global competitive economic environment.”

As reported in the Houston Chronicle, “The two senators and 19 Republican House members who signed the letter voted against the economic stimulus in February; the seven Democrats who signed the letter voted for it.”

President and Mrs. Obama will host an event at the White House on Wednesday night, October 7, in celebration of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA). The “White House Star Party” will begin with the President speaking at 8:00 pm EDT (to be streamed live on the White House website — whitehouse.gov). More than 20 telescopes will be set up on the White House lawn and middle-schoolers will be shown “the beauty and mysteries of the night sky.” The event is by invitation only.

Don’t forget the Friday event at the National Academies, also in celebration of the IYA.