NASA Acting Administrator Christopher Scolese will hold a press briefing on NASA’s detailed FY2010 budget request on May 7, 2009 at 2:30 pm. It will be held in the James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, 300 E Street, SW, Washington, DC. To watch the event on the Web, go to http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.
“Launching a New Mission: Michael Griffin and NASA’s Return to the Moon” by Syracuse University’s W. Henry Lambright assesses Mike Griffin’s years as NASA Administrator from a public administration perspective.
This is the third in series of studies about the management styles of NASA Administrators.
“He won some battles and lost others. … Griffin’s experience thus illuminates the possibilities and limits of leadership in getting a major new fed_eral initiative underway, with limited time, in a harsh political and financial environment.”
This is the third in a series of monographs about the management styles of NASA Administrators by Dr. Lambright from research sponsored by the IBM Center for the Business of Government. The previous reports are:
Transforming Government: Dan Goldin and the Remaking of NASA
Executive Response to Changing Fortune: Sean O’Keefe as NASA Administrator
NASA has submitted three reports required by the 2008 NASA Authorization Act (P.L. 110-422) related to the space shuttle. The first responds to language directing NASA to take no action that would preclude the continued safe and effective flight of the space shuttle after FY2010 before April 30, 2009 in order to give a new President an opportunity to decide the shuttle’s fate. View PDF .
The second responds to direction that NASA study the impacts of extending the shuttle to support International Space Station operations for either a 1-2 year term, or a 3-6 year term. View PDF .
The third responds to direction that NASA report on the lack of a human spaceflight system to replace the shuttle upon its retirement. View PDF .
Eilene Galloway, one of the first and foremost experts in space policy and space law, lost a long battle with cancer on May 2, 2009, two days short of her 103rd birthday. She passed away in the Washington, D.C. home in which she had lived since 1941, surrounded by family.
On the day the Space Age began with the Soviet launch of Sputnik, October 4, 1957, Dr. Galloway was a senior specialist in national defense and international relations at the Legislative Reference Service (now the Congressional Research Service), Library of Congress. Leaders of the Senate and the House both turned to her to help determine how the United States should respond to this startling development. Dr. Galloway worked with then-Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson and the Senate Armed Services Committee to hold a series of hearings. Dr. Galloway often commented on how those hearings, and the testimony of scientists and engineers engaged in the International Geophysical Year (IGY), “turned fear into hope” as everyone came to understand the tremendous potential of using space for peaceful purposes.
She also worked with then-Speaker of the House John McCormack and others in the House and Senate in drafting the law that created NASA.
She was instrumental especially in drafting Section 205, which allows NASA to engage in international space activities. Dr. Galloway was passionate about international cooperation, and was closely involved in the formation of the International Institute of Space Law and the International Academy of Astronautics and was an active participant in those organizations.
Dr. Galloway was similarly passionate about preventing weapons from being launched into space, and the need for human exploration of space.
Dr. Galloway retired from CRS in 1975, but continued to write and speak about space policy and space law. Her most recent op-ed article — Space Law for a Moon-Mars Program — was published in Space News on March 30, 2009.
She leaves her son, Jonathan, currently a Vice President of the International Institute of Space Law, six grandchildren and five great grandchildren. A memorial service will be held in Washington, DC, probably in June.
To see three short videoclips of a NASA interview as she turned 100 in 2006, click here.
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee’s Subcommittee on Science and Space has POSTPONED a hearing that had been scheduled for May 7 on the Consequences of a Gap in Human Spaceflight. A new date will be announced in the future. Check with the committee for the most up-to-date information: http://commerce.senate.gov.
The House of Representatives passed (233-193) the conference report (H. Rept. 111-89) on the FY2010 Budget Resolution (S. Con Res. 13) on April 29, adopting most of a Senate provision that recommends an additional $2.5 billion for NASA in FY2011 to pay for shuttle flights in case the current schedule for slips. The budget resolution sets budget targets for Congress to follow and the language does not have the force of law. It does represent the sense of Congress that 2010 should not be a hard date for terminating the shuttle.
The Senate-passed version stated that a fixed date of 2010 for retiring the shuttle might create “dangerous scheduling pressures” and that there was a possibility that shuttle flights might be needed in 2011, for which $2.5 billion in FY2011 therefore was provided. It also noted the expected 5-year gap between termination of the space shuttle and availability of the new Ares/Orion system and the consequent need to purchase crew launch services from Russia to take astronauts to and from the Internatonal Space Station (ISS), and that the Senate “recognizes the strategic importance of uninterrupted access to space and supports efforts to reduce or eliminate this five-year gap in U.S. human space flight.” The House had no similar provision. The conference agreement includes the additional $2.5 billion but is more specific that the additional funds are for the currently scheduled remaining eight shuttle flights to complete the ISS (not for additional flights). It includes similar language about the strategic importance of the space program.
The House Science and Technology Committee’s Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics held a hearing on Keeping the Space Environment Safe for Civil and Commercial Users on April 28 2009. Hearing Charter.
Chairwoman Giffords’ Opening Statement
Witnesses:
Lt. Gen. Larry D. James, Commander, 14th Air Force, Air Force Space Command (written statement)
Nicholas Johnson, NASA Johnson Space Center (written statement)
Richard DalBello, Intelsat General Corp. (written statement)
Scott Pace, George Washington University (written statement)
The House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science has scheduled a hearing on NASA for April 29 at 10:00 am in Room 2359 Rayburn House Office Building. Christopher Scolese, Acting NASA Administrator, is the scheduled witness. Note: times and witnesses for congressional hearings are subject to change. Check with the committee for the most up-to-date information: http://appropriations.house.gov.
On April 23, the House Science and Technology Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and Environment held a hearing on NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) program. Hearing Charter
Witnesses were:
Mary Ellen Kicza, Assistant Administrator, Satellite and Information Services, NOAA Written statement
David Powner, GAO Written statement
George Morrow, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Written statement
NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) released its 2008 annual report. Among its recommendations, the ASAP “strongly endorses the NASA position on not extending Shuttle operations” beyond what is currently planned. The panel also “is not convinced that the Ares I and Orion initial operating capability (IOC) date can be improved appreciably by additional resources.” Nor can the private sector be expected to field capabilities to improve the expected 5-year gap between when the shuttle is scheduled to be terminated and the new Ares/Orion system will be available, according to the panel.