U.S. likely to lift ban on ISRO, DRDO soon
The Hindu
The U.S., which imposed curbs on trade with defence entities like ISRO and DRDO following India’s nuclear tests in 1998, has set in motion regulatory changes to lift the ban soon, thus fulfilling a commitment made by President Barack Obama.
A formal notification to lift the ban by the U.S. Department of Commerce for this purpose is in advanced stage, top U.S. officials said.
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NGL PRESS RELEASE
Next Giant Leap LLC (NGL) announced that it has received a second round of funding from eSpace: The Center for Space Entrepreneurship (eSpace). NGL was initially selected for the eSpace incubator program last April. Based upon NGL’s continuing progress, including their recent NASA Innovative Lunar Data Demonstrations contract award, the eSpace board approved a second round of funding.
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Texas Rep. Ralph Hall (center) poses with Eugene Cernan, Bart Gordon, Charles Bolden, A. Thomas Young and Neil Armstrong in happier times.
Texas Republican Ralph M. Hall, new chairman of the House Science Committee, doesn’t much like what NASA’s doing on heavy-lift, commercial space and the continuing resolution. Nothin’ like “You suck!” to get a relationship off on a right foot.
The NASA OIG report that found waste and abuse in the space agency’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program has prompted a quick response from the Senate.
Sen. John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (D-WV), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, issued a statement demanding the space agency to clean up its act to avoid wasting millions of dollars.
“This audit is especially timely since Congress is in the process of reauthorizing the SBIR and STTR programs,†Chairman Rockefeller said. “While this report focuses on just one federal agency, the Committee’s 2009 investigation found that SBIR and STTR programs administered by other federal agencies are also vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse. Senator Snowe and I worked hard to include strong anti-fraud language in the SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act of 2010 because we cannot – and will not – tolerate wasteful government spending. I will fight to pass this legislation as soon as possible in the 112th Congress.†[Emphasis added]
The NASA Office of Inspector General’s audit of NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program has turned up a number of problems, including millions of dollars of unallowed expenses by contractors and weak fraud detection and prevention controls.
Results
Our review found that while NASA’s initial choice of SBIR award recipients appeared objective and merit-based, its oversight and monitoring of awards was deficient. Specifically, SBIR awards in 2008 contained an estimated $2.7 million in unallowable and unsupportable costs, including travel and equipment expenses. In addition, we found that NASA officials lacked adequate procedures to ensure SBIR applicants’ past performance had been considered when selecting recipients of approximately $85.7 million in “Phase 2†SBIR funds. Federal acquisition rules require consideration of past performance. Finally, NASA has not implemented appropriate internal controls to prevent fraud and abuse in contract awards. Consequently, some SBIR award recipients may have received multiple SBIR awards from different Federal agencies for the same research or NASA may have received highly questionable research products for its contract money.
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
As Governor Susana Martinez’s administration continues to review all aspects of the state’s budget in order to ensure the best and most prudent use of taxpayer money, the Governor’s Spaceport Transition Team has begun its review of operations at Spaceport America.
ViviSat Press Release
U.S. Space LLC, a U.S.-based creator of dedicated space solutions for government and commercial clients, and ATK, an aerospace, defense, and commercial products company, today announced the creation of ViviSat, a new satellite life extension venture. ViviSat provides geosynchronous satellite operators with flexible, scalable, capital-efficient, and low-risk in-orbit mission extension and protection services that can add several years to the revenue-producing life of a satellite.
The NASA Office of Inspector General sent a letter to Congress today that lays out the issues facing the space agency as it continues to operate under its 2010 budget. Some key excerpts follow, with the full letter reproduced after the break:
We write this letter to highlight a situation at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) that we believe requires immediate action by Congress. Due to restrictive language in NASA’s fiscal year (FY) 2010 appropriation,2 coupled with the fact that NASA and the rest of the Federal Government are currently being funded by a continuing resolution (CR) that carries over these restrictions and prohibits initiation of new projects, NASA is continuing to spend approximately $200 million each month on the Constellation Program, aspects of which both NASA and Congress have agreed not to build. Without congressional intervention, by the end of February 2011 NASA anticipates spending up to $215 million on Constellation projects that, absent the restrictive appropriations language, it would have considered canceling or significantly scaling back. Moreover, by the end of FY 2011 that figure could grow to more than $575 million if NASA is required to continue operating under the current constraints and is unable to move beyond the planning stages for its new Space Exploration program….
In sum, it appears that NASA has taken steps to concentrate its spending on those aspects of the Constellation Program it believes may have future applicability, and that these efforts have helped reduce the potential inefficient use of taxpayer dollars. However, based on what we have learned from Agency officials, as NASA moves closer to making final decisions regarding how best to move forward in designing and building the next generation space system, it will become increasingly more difficult for the Agency to continue to juggle the inconsistent mandates of the Authorization Act and the appropriations legislation so as to avoid wasting taxpayer funds. As one senior NASA official described it, “There’s a point coming up soon where we would just be spending money to spend money.â€
Source: Constellation Program Managers * NASA officials noted that even if they had complete freedom to stop spending on these aspects of the Constellation Program, they still would need to expend some amount of money for infrastructure and personnel costs to maintain program readiness. The officials did not provide a breakdown of these costs. The NASA Office of Inspector General sent a letter to Congress today outlining how the space […]
USAF Revives Blackswift Hypersonic-Like Plan
Aviation Week
The U.S. Air Force is studying a hypersonic road map that calls for development of ambitious high-speed weapons and a high-speed reusable flight research vehicle (HSRFRV), slightly larger than the Darpa-led Blackswift Mach 6 demonstrator canceled in 2008.
NASA Chief Technologist Bobby Braun has announced the appointment of Michael J. Gazarik as the agency’s deputy chief technologist.
Gazarik will be a key member of the office responsible for coordination, integration and tracking of all technology investments across the agency, as well as management of NASA’s Space Technology programs.
