Legislation that would extend liability indemnification to suppliers of vehicles operating from Spaceport America is now awaiting the signature of the governor of New Mexico. On Monday the New Mexico House passed unanimous a bill that previously passed in the state Senate. The bill, long sought by state officials and Virgin Galactic alike, would extend liability indemnification protections to suppliers of vehicles operating from the spaceport, instead of the just the vehicle operators themselves. New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, who advocated for the bill, is expected to sign it.
In response to budget sequestration, NASA is pulling back on conference participation and other travel. In a memo issued Wednesday, NASA administrator Charles Bolden issued new guidelines on training, hiring, and travel in light of sequestration. Attendance at conferences within the US is limited to those cases where the event “is essential and/or necessary”, with no more than 50 NASA civil service and contractor employees participating. Singled out in the memo are the National Space Symposium and the Goddard Memorial Symposium and Dinner as examples of cases where NASA-funded participation is not allowed; Bolden said in the memo that neither he nor deputy administrator Lori Garver will be at the National Space Symposium in Colorado next month. In addition, participation in foreign conferences is prohibited.
The next head of the French space agency CNES is likely to be a familiar face to the commercial space industry. Space News reports Jean-Yves Le Gall, chairman and CEO of launch services company Arianespace, “is all but certain” to be picked as the next head of CNES in the new few weeks. The current president of CNES, Yannick d’Escatha, will formally retire on March 18.
The former president of the Canadian Space Agency and Canada’s first man in space won’t be seeking higher office any time soon. Marc Garneau announced Wednesday that he will no longer seek the leadership of the Liberal Party, which would have put him in line to become prime minister if the party took power in a future election. Garneau said he made the decision after polling indicated another candidate, Justin Trudeau, had an overwhelming lead.
NASA administrator Charles Bolden issued new guidelines on training, hiring, and travel in light of sequestration.
This isn’t management, it’s reaction, an overt show of faux austerity. NASA managers, downsize your agency to match the available funding!
dbn is correct, Windy. NASA’s between a rock-et and a hard place. It takes the heat for policies beyond its control. It’s a sitting duck in this era. If Congress directs them to stop recycling office supplies due to a little polliticking by way of a generous Office Depot check showing up with some PAC, there’s nothing they can do.
“NASA managers, downsize your agency to match the available funding!”
They can’t. The 2010 NASA Authorization Act prohibits reductions-in-force or even displacements at NASA’s field centers.
Blame Congress, not NASA.
In response to budget sequestration, NASA is pulling back on conference participation and other travel.
Poor babies. Back in the Apollo days, the NASA brass endured a pretty austere travel budget. In ’89, top brass comiserated over it at an Apollo reunion conference– particularly the lousy fleet of government cars at their disposal.
NASA needs to close one of it’s 11 Centers (APL is #11). Does anyone realistic see that happening? The more money that is spent keeping roads and commodes open, in a climate of shrinking program budgets, means less of the meat and potatoes for NASA.
Close- no. Consolidation- sure.
“Close- no. Consolidation- sure.”
They mean the same thing. You close one facility and consolidate its critical functions at the remaining facilities.
“NASA needs to close one of it’s 11 Centers (APL is #11).”
APL is actually a Navy University-Affiliated Research Center (UARC). Only the Space Department at APL has significant NASA business.
But you’re right in that, thanks to Mikulski, APL’s Space Department has become a JPL East/GSFC North that has to be fed just like JPL West and GSFC South. I think Solar Probe is going to be APL’s JWST or Mars Curiousity Rover in terms of signature budget overruns and schedule delays.
“Does anyone realistic see that happening?”
The military has successfully closed hundreds of facilities through Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) commissions, who forward a long list of recommended closures to Congress for one up-or-down vote on the entire list.
With only ten field centers (not hundreds of bases), it’s difficult to replicate that “every congressman feels the pain” BRAC process at NASA. When only one or two states/districts feel the pain, their local congressmen will skunk the entire process.
To get enough facilities in the pot, you’d probably have to do an R&D BRAC that includes DOE, DOD, NASA, and other federal research facilities. But however much an R&D BRAC is needed, nothing like that is on the horizon.
Unfortunately Congress won’t let NASA close much of anything. As we all know, trying to shutter a NASA center is as hard or harder than trying to close a no longer needed military base.
Yuo might want to take that up with the towns around El Toro. A base that’s kaput.
The effect of sequestration in not that there are sensible cuts, but that every item in the budget is shrunk just a little. Unfortunately this does not flow down easily into the actual hardware.
Now if sequestration would only shrink SLS from 70t to 68t.
(sigh)