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Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco will attend Wednesday evening’s launch of the space shuttle Endeavour at the invitation of NASA administrator Mike Griffin. The invitation is designed “to thank the governor for the state’s plans to spend $20 million on improvements at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in eastern New Orleans,” the AP reported. State legislators approved the Michoud funding earlier this year. Republican presidential candidate did briefly address space policy during his visit in Florida on Monday, endorsing the Vision for Space Exploration more or less by default, according to Florida Today. Beyond the general platitudes about space (“Our future is driven in large measure by our investments in technology and innovation and learning, and that’s what the space program is,” he said in a luncheon speech) the paper asked him about the Vision. Romney said he hadn’t decided if the current plan was the one he would continue to pursue as president, but “I have no reason to change that at this point.” Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will be on Florida’s Space Coast today (right now, as a matter of fact) speaking at the Space Coast Tiger Bay Club in Melbourne; he’ll also host a town hall meeting (dubbed “Ask Mitt Anything”) in Daytona Beach this afternoon. There’s no live coverage of either event, to the best of my knowledge, so we’ll have to see from the local media there if anyone asks Mitt about space policy. Earlier this week the House passed a relatively minor bill, HR 2750, the “NASA 50th Anniversary Commemorative Coin Act”. As the name suggests, the bill authorizes the Treasury to mint a set of commemorative coins to honor NASA on its upcoming 50th anniversary. The bill was sponsored by two Houston-area representatives, Sheila Jackson-Lee and John Culberson, and had nearly 300 cosponsors; the bill passed under suspension of the rules by a 402-0 vote. Interesting news, perhaps, if you’re a numismatist, but otherwise not of much importance. Unless, though, you’re a Plutophile that’s still peeved that the International Astronomical Union passed a resolution last year that defines the term “planet” in such a way as to exclude Pluto, assigning it instead to a new grouping, “dwarf planets”, the Class AAA minor leagues of the solar system. The text of the bill notes that nine different $1 coins shall be minted, and that the front of the coins “shall bear 9 different designs each of which shall consist of an image of 1 of the 9 planets of the solar system, including Earth.” That would seem to include Pluto, and it does, with even the design of the coin mentioned in the text of the bill:
The bill is a bit confusing, since it lumps Pluto with “other dwarf planets” (which, confusingly, aren’t planets in the eyes of IAU), but then goes on to specifically mention “the planet Pluto”. Culberson, in floor debate about the bill, said that “the front of the coin is going to represent each one of the nine planets,” which would seem to include Pluto. A small victory for the Plutophiles in their quest to defend Pluto’s status? Yesterday several members of California’s House delegation, including Rep. Ken Calvert, introduced legislation to rename NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center after Neil Armstrong. The legislation, HR 3245 (not yet available in Thomas), would also rename the aeronautical test range encompassing the center and Edwards AFB after Hugh Dryden. Renaming the center and the test range are meant to not only recognize the accomplishments of Armstrong and Dryden but also “to emphasize the contributions of that center to the agency’s current space exploration mission”, according to the press release. If this development sounds familiar, it’s because Calvert discussed making the name change earlier this year, but only now introduced the corresponding legislation. Aviation Week has a letter in its July 30th issue (summarized in a blog post on Aviation Week’s web site) from Apollo lunar module manager Joseph P. Gavin who is critical of the current direction of the Vision for Space Exploration: not because of the choice of architectures, but because of the decision to go back to the Moon instead of directly to Mars:
Gavin thinks that, after the ISS, the next major priority for NASA should be enhanced robotic exploration of Mars to determine if human missions there would be “warranted”. Given NASA’s, and the administration’s, current commitment to the Vision, it seems unlikely such a reconsideration would be made before 2009, if even then. With Friday’s release of reports on astronaut health care issues, which included the bombshell allegations of intoxicated astronauts, the House Science and Technology Committee is planning a hearing on the studies and claims immediately after the August recess. Committee chairman Bart Gordon said that his interest lies beyond just the claims of alcohol usage: “you only have to read the report to know that something clearly seems to be broken in NASA’s system of astronaut oversight. I hope the agency will take the review team seriously, and not just fall back on the tired bromide that the review team’s findings are ‘unproven allegations.'” In a separate statement, Rep. Tom Feeney, ranking Republican on the space subcommittee, said he was “confident” that the administrator and his staff “will rise to this challenge”, adding, “Congress will also conduct appropriate oversight.” On a day that was pretty awful on space topics in general—be the news embarrassing, bizarre, or horribly tragic—there was a one positive development. The full House passed the Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill, which would give NASA $17.6 billion in FY2008, $300 million more than what the Bush Administration requested. There were no floor amendments to alter NASA’s funding that I found, although there was one by Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) that would “prohibit the funds made available in this Act may be used in violation of Subtitle A of Title VIII (International Space Station Independent Safety Taskforce) of the NASA Authorization Act of 2005.” The amendment was a non-controversial one, and approved by voice vote. Congressman Mark Udall (D-CO), chairman of the space subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee, called the budget “a step in the right direction” in a statement. “While this funding level does not reach the amount authorized under the 2005 NASA Reauthorization Act, it will help balance NASA’s many responsibilities and represents a step forward in tight budget times.” As for funding of the Vision for Space Exploration, specifically the Orion CEV, Udall noted the impending gap between the shuttle and Orion. “It is within the Administration’s power to send over budget requests in FY 2009 and FY 2010 to address this gap within the context of a balanced overall NASA program, and I hope that the Administration will do so.” The Senate has yet to take up its version of the budget, which is about $150 million smaller in total than the House version (and with a different distribution of funding), but also holds the promise of a “Mikulski miracle” if Sen. Barbara Mikulski and her allies are able to push through a billion-dollar increase for the agency during floor debate, However, keep in mind that earlier this week the Office of Management and Budget issued a statement of policy that strongly opposes the House version of the bill, and threatened a veto if submitted to the president in its current form. The Senate Budget Committee is holding a confirmation hearing today on the nomination of former congressman Jim Nussle as the director of the Office of Management and Budget. In an effort to get Nussle’s opinion on NASA funding, Rep. Mark Udall, chairman of the space subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee, sent a letter to Sen. Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, asking Conrad to take up the issue during the confirmation hearing. In the letter, Udall says he is “concerned about the growing mismatch between the resources being provided to NASA by the Administration and the tasks that NASA is asked to carry out.” Udall also brings up the administration’s reject of calls for a “space summit” by members of Congress earlier this year. (Udall also includes a personal, handwritten message at the end of the letter: “Kent Thanks for taking a look at this!”) Whether Conrad will follow Udall’s request isn’t clear (the hearing is ongoing and Udall’s press release didn’t go out until after the hearing started), although Sen. Bill Nelson, a major NASA supporter who also serves on the budget committee, is copied on Udall’s letter. The space and aeronautics subcommittee of the House Science Committee will hold a hearing today about the shuttle and station programs at 10 am in Rayburn 2318. Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for space operations, will be among the witnesses, along with former NASA official Tommy Holloway, who chairs the ISS Independent Safety Task Force; the other witnesses are a Georgia Tech professor and a GAO official. The hearing is intended to take on a number of issues, ranging from the ability of NASA to complete the assembly of the ISS by 2010 to the station’s post-2010 utilization to the status of the shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope next year. |
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