ATK, which is already reeling due to cuts in defense programs and the pending end of the space shuttle program, stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars if President Obama’s new plan for NASA is approved. Space News reports:

In a conference call with investors, ATK Chief Financial Officer John Shroyer spelled out how much Ares’ cancellation would cost ATK — some $650 million would be removed from the company’s backlog — and said Ares and the rest of the Constellation program can only be terminated with congressional approval.

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PRESS RELEASE
January 28, 2010

Today, team Part-Time-Scientists announced Xilinx Inc. as an official sponsor of the team. The semiconductor industry leader is the world’s biggest provider of programmable platforms. As inventor of the first commercially viable field programmable gate array (FPGA), Xilinx provides the Part-Time-Scientists with technology and know how that put rovers on Mars and help create ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) at CERN.

Team Part-Time-Scientists, headquartered in Berlin, Germany with 38 team members is among 21 teams from 18 countries that are competing for their share of the $30 million prize purse.

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International Space Station

PRESS RELEASE (VIA ROSKOSMOS)

At a meeting on February 3, 2010, the representatives of the International Space Station (ISS) Multilateral Coordination Board (MCB) unanimously reaffirmed their strong interest in maximizing the benefits from utilization of the ISS. Consistent with previous direction from the ISS Heads of Agency regarding the future of the ISS, the MCB also confirmed that there are no identified technical constraints to continuing ISS operations beyond 2015 and the MCB representatives are prepared to begin implementation of such a decision when it is taken.

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Anatoly Perminov

ROSKOSMOS PRESS RELEASE

Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov held a telephone conversation with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. Mr. Bolden informed Russian party about the changes planned in the NASA’s programs. According to NASA Administrator, these changes are reflected in the agency’s budget request for 2011.

In particular, Mr. Perminov commented upon cancellation of the US lunar program:

“Russian program didn’t imply any lunar outpost in the nearest future. Concerning cancellation of the US lunar program, this is internal approach of the sovereign state.”

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Next Generation Exploration Conference (NGEC-3) NASA Ames Research Center April 5-8, 2010 A gathering of emerging global space leaders to design the future of space exploration through direct input at NASA’s highest levels. The third Next Generation Exploration Conference (NGEC-3) will apply a business theory tool called an “Industry Structural Analysis” to characterize three emerging commercial space sectors: suborbital cargo transportation, suborbital crewed transportation, and orbital cargo transportation. NGEC-3 is […]

NASA UPDATE

NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden named Robert D. Braun the agency’s Chief Technologist, effective Wednesday, Feb. 3. Braun serves as the principle advisor and advocate on matters concerning agency-wide technology policy and programs.

The appointment comes as NASA launches a bold new initiative that targets technologies that could be transformational in their ability to improve the capability, reduce the cost, and expand the reach of future human and robotic missions.

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Robonaut2 is a joint project of NASA and General Motors designed for use on the assembly line and in outer space.

NASA IPP COMMERCIAL SPACE MEETING Tuesday, February 9, 2010 Starting at 2:00 pm Ending at 5:00 pm Salon 2 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott, Arlington, VA The NASA Commercial Space Initiatives Team will give a status review and will hold an open discussion of commercial space development activities at NASA: – Charles Miller, the Senior Advisor for Commercial Space at NASA HQ, will give the latest status of commercial space […]

NASA's Ares I rocket lifts off in this artist's conception. (Credit: NASA)

House Panel Sees Pros and Cons in NASA Plan
The New York Times

Congressional reaction to President Obama’s budget for NASA was divided more along geographical than political lines Wednesday, as members of a House subcommittee debated the merits of scrapping the agency’s plans to return to the moon by 2020 and shift, instead, to developing new launching technologies.

Representative Pete Olson, a Republican member of the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics whose Texas district includes NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, was sharply critical of Mr. Obama’s plan, which would also outsource the launching of astronauts to private enterprise.

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ProSpace Press Release

For more than a decade, participants in ProSpace’s annual March Storm have advocated for NASA’s use of commercial crew and cargo service providers to access the International Space Station and low-Earth orbit.

This week, we got what we’ve been asking for. President Obama’s budget would cancel NASA’s Ares launch vehicles and allocate $5.8 billion to commercial crew services over the next five years. This signals a paradigm shift in how NASA accesses Earth orbit — one that will spur a new era of innovation and exploration.

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LOCKHEED MARTIN STATEMENT

We are keenly disappointed in the Administration’s budget proposal for NASA that would cancel Project Orion as part of an elimination of NASA’s Constellation Program. Orion’s maturity is evident in its readiness for a first test flight in a matter of weeks. In fact, Orion can be ready for crewed flights to low Earth orbit and other exploration missions as early as 2013, thus narrowing the gap in U.S. human space flight capability when the shuttle is retired later this year.

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Miles O’Brien talks to NASA Deputy Director Lori Garver, Sen. Bill Nelson, CSF President Brett Alexander, Scott “Doc” Horowitz and others about the space agency’s new direction. Parts 2 and 3 after the break.

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