It is Saturday again! Yay! And that means a new edition of This Week In Space! I hope you have as much fun reading this diary as I do writing it. Among my Top Ten choices is the debate raging across the space and NASA blogosphere about the next NASA administrator and it is starting to take a very partisan tone. Also, a corruption scandal brewing in Florida concerning a state government supported economic development agency may bring down Governor Charlie Crist. Check out Weird Space and find out why planetary scientists think Mercury is more fascinating than Mars. And visit NASA and space diaries posted by fellow Kossacks.
Space Radar
Number of Rocket Launches this week: 1 (Russian - military satellite)
Number of remaining Space shuttle launches: 9
Nella's Top Ten Space Stories
- New NASA Admin Rumors NASA Watch Last weekend the space blogosphere heated up with the debate over the next NASA administrator taking a decidely partisan tone. Kossack FerrisValyn bravely defended President Obama against some of the more insidious lies. I took a few hits as well. Over at Space Politics, even Alan Ladwig, a mover and shaker in the space world and now a senior NASA advisor, weighed in with a clear crisp response (You will have to scroll down to his comment) that cowed more than a few of the naysayers.
- NASA Begins Job Cuts for Shuttle Retirement Space.com and NASA will slash 900 space shuttle jobs in Florida by September Huntsville Times The April 30 deadline has passed and the Congressional hold on space shuttle operations shutdown is over. The layoffs begin. Democratic Rep Suzanne Kosmas managed to get an amendment removing the arbitrary shuttle retirement deadline and increasing NASA's budget by $2.5 billion for FY2011 to continue shuttle launch operations into the Congressional conference bill, but as noted in Space Politics this may be more symbolic than real since NASA are shutting down manufacturing facilities and Obama's White House has reiterated its commitment to retiring the shuttle.
- NASA Awards Contract For Support At Michoud Assembly Facility NASA This little noticed item may have some significant ramifications. While the Michoud complex in Louisiana, responsible for building the external fuel tanks for the space shuttle, will be expecting some layoffs, a contract for continued operations at the facility was awarded recently. The plant other major manufacturing enterprise? The components for the Constellation program, particularly Ares I. Interesting.
- New gamma-ray burst smashes cosmic distance record Penn State As noted in a recent diary by Vladislaw an cosmic explosion was observed 13.1 billion light years from Earth by the SWIFT X-ray satellite. It lasted all of 10 seconds.
- The space giant is coming BBC Science And the James Webb Space Telescope scheduled to be launched in 2013 would have made that distant explosion seem like it was next door relatively speaking. This article gives some indepth details of the new space telescope that just makes me salivate for the images that the telescope will capture.
- LANL criticized over lax accountability for plutonium-powered fuel elements for NASA New Mexico Independent Once again, Los Alamos seems to be having problems keeping track of its radioactive materials. We are talking plutonium here. Since JIMO has been cancelled, my question is what NASA missions are the plutonium fuel rods for? Inquiring minds want to know!
- Constellation versus everything else in NASA Orlando Sentinel This opinion piece is everything that is wrong with the attitudes espoused by many people like O. Glenn Smith. These opinions were spurred in part by acting NASA administrator Chris Scolese who hinted that a permanent lunar outpost may be off the table according to this article: NASA may abandon plans for moon base New Scientist. Returning to the Moon and developing a heavy lifter like Ares V is not about rehashing the thrill of the Apollo landings. The Vision for Space Exploration is about returning to the path that NASA was diverted from in 1972 by Congress and Presient Nixon, establishing a framework of permanent human outposts in space, initially in Earth orbit and on the Moon with regular human and cargo transport. These permanent outposts will create markets on which commercial enterprises can invest in developing cheaper space launch systems allowing greater access to large numbers of people. In short, creating a spacefaring society. A review of the history of transportation systems development supports this concept. Go watch Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. ;)
- COTS D - Commercial Human Spaceflight to get at least $80m Orlando Sentinel Some other major news that seemed to have gotten little notice this week: COTS D is being funded! This means that companies like SpaceX can compete for ISS passenger transports contracts with their Dragon/Falcon concept.
- Star Trek-like technology offers noninvasive monitor for patients and athletes NSBRI This ones for Trekkies like Vladislaw. A case of life imitating art?
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Space Florida gets its budget slashed Florida Today
Space Florida gave no-bid deal to founding board member Orlando Sentinel
Senate leader softens cuts to Space Florida Florida Today
Governor Charlie Crist already under fire for refusing to follow the advice of his own Inspector General and appoint a special counsel to launch an ethics probe into how Brice Harris was able to set up a private sector job with government funding while working as the governor's aide is now facing questions about the corruption scandal surrounding Space Florida. A great deal of Republican cronyism is is going on behind closed doors when it comes to this economic development agency. Remember Blagojevich?
Astronomy Corner
Telescopes that could see the future The Independent
Galactic X-ray Ridge: Resolving A Galactic Mystery NASA
Weird Space
Nearby asteroid found orbiting sun backwards New Scientist
Mysterious spokes found in crater on Mercury New Scientist
Fun Space
Rocket Men: The largest model-rocket launch in history happens on the Eastern Shore Baltimore City Paper
Space Photo of the Week
This will be the last time that two space shuttles will sit on adjoining launch pads at the same time. Atlantis is taking off for the last Hubble repair mission and Endeavor is playing backup.
NASA and Space Diaries by fellow Kossacks
Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Happy Birthday to Hubble edition) Neon Vincent
Swine Flu 2009 vs. NASA's 1979 SkyLab Reentry vets74
NASA may scrap plans to go to the Moon. Let's go to Ceres instead. Mithridates
theBCI10: the 10 questions FOX didn't get to ask theBCI (this diary really isn't about NASA, but it had a NASA tag and it bashes FOX News so it can't be all that bad!)
Zero G Experiment Wins Cash Prize. Vladislaw
Sen Bill Nelson (D-FL) urges the President to hurry. Vladislaw
Most distant object in the universe spotted. Vladislaw
Private Moon Rover Aims for Apollo 11 Landing Site. Vladislaw
Did stars eat the missing planets? New Poll. Star Trek News. Vladislaw
NASA to begin layoffs as shuttle retirement nears. Vladislaw