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The House Appropriations subcommittee that funds the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) will meet tomorrow to markup the draft FY2014 Transportation-HUD (T-HUD) appropriations bill.  As drafted, the bill would reduce AST from its requested level of $16.01 million to $14.16 million.

The T-HUD subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), is scheduled to meet at 10:00 am ET tomorrow in 2358-A Rayburn House Office Building.  In total, the bill provides $44.1 billion in discretionary spending, $13.9 billion below the request. House Appropriations Committee chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) said the bill exemplifies the difficult choices that need to be made.  The bill focuses on funding "transportation infrastructure critical to our economy and maintaining housing options for our most vulnerable citizens," he said, while "reducing or eliminating funding for lower-priority programs."

One of those lower priority programs apparently is AST.  AST facilitates and regulates the commercial space transportation industry.  AST was funded at $16.27 million for FY2012, $15.4 million in FY2013 (after adjusting for the sequester), and the FY2014 request is $16.01 million.

The draft bill would cut AST to $14.16 million, $1.85 million (about 12 percent) less than the request or $1.24 million (about 8 percent) less than its current level.  An AST spokesman said the office does not comment on pending legislation, so he could not characterize the impact of such a cut if it survives the appropriations process.

Mike Gold, Director of D.C. Operations & Business Growth for Bigelow Aerospace, said "These cuts are ill-advised to say the least.  At a time when we're depending so heavily on commercial space transportation to do this to the FAA-AST will have serious consequences, causing delays throughout the industry and even potentially putting lives in danger.  It's certainly my hope that all of the AST's funding can be restored."

George M. Levin, who spent 35 years at NASA before joining the National Research Council (NRC) as Director of the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB), died yesterday after a long battle with lung cancer.  He was 72.

From 1962-1981, he worked at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center on programs including the Nimbus weather satellite, Pioneer-Venus, and the Hubble Space Telescope, for which he managed development of its first five scientific instruments.   He then moved to NASA Headquarters where he managed the development of 17 successful flight demonstrations launched on either the space shuttle or Delta II.  In 1991, he took over responsibility for managing NASA's orbital debris program and led the U.S. delegation to the Interagency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC). 

Levin retired from NASA in 1997 and became Director of the ASEB, a position he held until his NRC retirement in 2007.

A memorial service will be held at 1:00 pm ET on June 20 at Fairfax Memorial Funeral Home, 9902 Braddock Road, Fairfax, VA.

At this morning's public forum on the proposed asteroid return mission, the White House and NASA will call upon the public to help search for asteroids.

The forum begins at 9:15 am ET, but the news is already out via an article in this morning's Washington Post. Tom Kalil, deputy director for technology and innovation at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver will unveil this new "Grand Challenge."

The event will be streamed at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-hq .

The draft NASA Authorization Act of 2013 penned by the House Science, Space and Technology Committee would make the NASA Administrator a 6-year term appointment and authorize no funds for the proposed Asteroid Return Mission (ARM).  A hearing on the draft bill is scheduled for Wednesday.

According to a one-page summary of the draft bill obtained by SpacePolicyOnline.com, its provisions include the following:

• Authorizes $16,825,200,000, which is "consistent with the Budget Control Act and FY2013 appropriations."  If Congress replaces or repeals the Budget Control Act (which created the sequester) then funding would be added for the International Space Station (ISS), Space Launch System (SLS), and Commercial Crew.
• Human Spaceflight
  • Makes clear that missions to lunar orbit, the surface of the Moon, and Mars are NASA's human spaceflight goals. 
    • No funding for the Asteroid Rendezvous Mission [alternately called the Asteroid Return Mission or Asteroid Retrieval Mission]
    • NASA to study feasibility of extending ISS beyond 2020
    • OSTP to lead a strategic plan for ISS utilization by "all science agencies"
    • Continued commitment to SLS/Orion; reiterates that Orion is a backup to commercial crew for ISS
• Science
  • Reduces Earth Science to 2008 levels to provide better balance for planetary science programs
  • Maintains 2018 launch date for James Webb Space Telescope
  • Funds survey for potentially hazardous Earth-crossing asteroids
  • Continues search for planets around other stars and life on other worlds
• Aeronautics
  • States the importance of a robust aeronautics research program
• STEM Education
  • States there is bipartisan agreement that the Administration's STEM reorganization plan is "questionable" and maintains the current organization and funding level
• Leadership
  • Makes the position of NASA Administrator a 6-year term appointment like NSF Director. 
  • Restructures the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) to provide more stakeholder input, with appointments by both Congress and the President
• Space Act Agreements
  • Provides for greater public accountability and transparency
• Controlling Costs
  • Requires NASA to enforce more cost estimating discipline while restoring funds set aside for contract termination liability toward development work on high-priority programs

Wednesday's hearing, at 10:00 am in 2318 Rayburn, features NAC chairman Steve Squyres and retired industry executive Tom Young.

NASA is holding a half-day public forum tomorrow to talk about its proposed Asteroid Return Mission.  It is from 9:15 am - 12:00 pm in the auditorium at NASA Headquarters and will be streamed online; viewing options will be posted at www.nasa.gov/asteroid. 

NASA will discuss the selection of its latest class of astronaut candidates via a Google+ hangout social media event this afternoon at 3:00 pm Central Daylight Time (4:00 pm Eastern).

NASA says that for the first time, half of the new class is female.   There are only eight new astronaut candidates so the absolute number -- four -- is not large, but it does look good as a percentage. Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the first flight of a woman in space -- Valentina Tereshkova aboard Vostok 6 in 1963.  Tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of the first flight of an American women into space -- Sally Ride on STS-7 in 1983.

To join the hangout, visit http://go.nasa.gov/126mOLK.

The list of new astronaut candidates is as follows:

Josh A. Cassada, Ph.D., 39, is originally from White Bear Lake, Minn.
Cassada is a former naval aviator who holds an undergraduate degree from Albion College, and advanced degrees from the University of Rochester, N.Y. Cassada is a physicist by training and currently is serving as co-founder and Chief Technology Officer for Quantum Opus.

Victor J. Glover, 37, Lt. Commander, U.S. Navy, hails from Pomona, Calif., and Prosper, Texas.
He is an F/A-18 pilot and graduate of theU.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, Edwards, Calif. Glover holds degrees from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Calif.; Air University and the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif. He currently is serving as a Navy Legislative Fellow in the U.S. Congress.

Tyler N. (Nick) Hague, 37, Lt. Colonel, U.S. Air Force, calls Hoxie, Kan., home.
He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo.; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., and the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, Edwards, Calif. Hague currently is supporting the Department of Defense as Deputy Chief of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization.

Christina M. Hammock, 34, calls Jacksonville, N.C., home.
Hammock holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C. She currently is serving as National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Station Chief in American Samoa.

Nicole Aunapu Mann, 35, Major, U.S. Marine Corps, originally is from Penngrove, Calif.
She is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Stanford University and the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, Patuxent River, Md. Mann is an F/A 18 pilot, currently serving as an Integrated Product Team Lead at the U.S. Naval Air Station, Patuxent River.

Anne C. McClain, 34, Major, U.S. Army, lists her hometown as Spokane, Wash.|
She is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Va.; the University of Bath and the University of Bristol, both in the United Kingdom. McClain is an OH-58 helicopter pilot, and a recent graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at Naval Air Station, Patuxent River.

Jessica U. Meir, Ph.D., 35, is from Caribou, Maine.
She is a graduate of Brown University, has an advanced degree from the International Space University, and earned her doctorate from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Meir currently is an Assistant Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.

Andrew R. Morgan, M.D., 37, Major, U.S. Army, considers New Castle,Pa., home.
Morgan is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and earned a doctorate of medicine from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Md. He has experience as an emergency physician and flight surgeon for the Army special operations community, and currently is completing a sports medicine fellowship.

The following space policy events may be of interest in the week ahead.  The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the Week

Among the highlights this week is a tribute to Sally Ride on Tuesday at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.  Tuesday is the 30th anniversary of Ride becoming the first American woman in space.   Today (Sunday, June 16) is the 50th anniversary of Valentina Tereshkova becoming the first woman in space, and though the Soviets put a woman in space 20 years before the United States, they have launched only two other women since that time while female U.S. astronauts have become so commonplace that few take notice.  Ride died last year, but she and other countries' first women in space, including Tereshkova, are being highlighted in events and the media in a celebration of 50 years of women in space.

Separately on June 18, NASA will hold a half-day forum on its proposed Asteroid Return Mission (ARM) where White House and NASA officials will explain what they plan to do.  On Wednesday, June 19, the House Science, Space and Technology Committee will hear from NAC Chairman Steve Squyres and veteran industry expert Tom Young on the NASA Authorization Act of 2013, which may decide whether the ARM is approved by Congress or not.

Monday, June 17

• SWF Panels on Radio Frequency Interference and Space Sustainability, Carnegie Building for International Peace, 1779 Mass. Ave. NW, Washington, DC, 12:00-4:00 pm ET

Monday, June 17 - Sunday, June 23

• Paris Air Show, Le Bourget (near Paris) FR

Tuesday, June 18

• NASA Forum on Asteroid Return Mission, NASA HQ, Washington, DC, 9:15 am - 12:00 pm ET
• Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee, Dept, of Commerce, 14th and Constitution NW, Washington, DC, 1:00-4:00 pm ET
• MSBR Luncheon Featuring Bill Wrobel, Greenbelt, MD, 11:30 am - 1:30 pm
• Senate Commerce Cmte Hearing on Thomas Wheeler to be Chairman of the FCC, 253 Russell, 2:30 pm ET
• Tribute to Sally Ride (on the 30th anniversary of her becoming the first American woman in space), Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles, CA, 7:30 - 9:00 pm PT

Tuesday-Thursday, June 18-20

• IAA Low Cost Planetary Exploration Missions Conference (LCPM-10), CalTech, Pasadena, CA

Wednesday, June 19

• House SS&T Cmte Hearing on NASA Authorization Act of 2013, 2318 Rayburn, 10:00 am ET

Thursday, June 20

• NASA JSC Memorial Service for Neil Armstrong, Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, 10:00 am CT (11:00 am ET)

Friday, June 21

• IAA Von Karman Symposium, CalTech, Pasadena, CA

At a June 13 event at the National Archives, space policy expert John Logsdon described how President Nixon’s policy toward space exploration was rooted in framing it as a “normal” part of national life, not something special – a legacy that has influenced the U.S. space program for the last 40 years.

Logsdon, professor emeritus at George Washington University, joined NASA Chief Historian Bill Barry and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Roger Launius in an event that considered the space program under the presidential administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

Logsdon recounted how when Nixon arrived at the White House, there was a “clear need for decisions” when it came to the space program: what to do in the post-Apollo era. To inform this decision, Nixon created the Space Task Group in 1969, chaired by Vice President Spiro Agnew, that recommended a variety of timelines for an aggressive effort that included development of a space shuttle, a space station, and human spaceflight missions to Mars by 1986, at the latest.

Yet despite having “wrapped himself up” in the euphoria of the Apollo 11 mission, Nixon was not interested in spending money at the pace required to achieve such an ambitious program, Logsdon said.  Instead, he assumed a policy that turned space from being something special to a part of normal life – a policy that Logsdon argues has guided the space program for the last 40 years.

Nixon’s attitude is best captured in a statement he made in March 1970: "we must think of [space activities] as part of a continuing process…and not as a series of separate leaps…what we do in space from here on in must become a normal and regular part of our national life and must therefore be planned in conjunction with all of the other undertakings which are important to us."

When the time came to decide on the post-Apollo space program, this attitude had a definite influence.  According to Logsdon, Nixon had been “traumatized” by the near-tragic accident of Apollo 13, which turned him away from the idea of return trips to the Moon.  As the 1972 elections loomed, Nixon made the decision to approve the Space Shuttle, a decision that resulted from his belief that the United States should strive for something new in space as well as wanting to avoid the electoral risk of post-Apollo aerospace unemployment.

"Nixon was certainly not going to be the person that took the United States out of the human spaceflight business," said Logsdon.  His decision to move forward with the Shuttle – the sole element that survived from the ambitious program contained in the Space Task Group’s recommendations, and which was integral to what became the International Space Station -- would come to define the direction of the U.S. human spaceflight program.

Before the Shuttle made its first flight in 1981, however, a hallmark event of international cooperation took place: the July 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP).  Barry focused on the developments on the Soviet side that explained the shift from competition to cooperation following the race to the moon.  ASTP took place during the Ford administration, but was a Nixon initiative, and represented the end of an era, rather than a beginning, Barry said.  The next cooperative flight would not happen until after the end of the Cold War in the 1990s.  Interestingly, Barry noted that the cooperative practices developed for ASTP were resurrected 20 years later.

Considering the legacies of the Nixon-Ford years is more than just an interesting historical exercise.  According to Launius, who spoke about the role that space has had in U.S. culture, there is now a need to revisit and move on from the decisions made 40 years ago. With the last Shuttle flight already two years in the past and the debate over what to do next still open, Launius argued that the core question facing this generation is why to go into space. With fiscal constraints looming far into the future and a U.S. general public that has never been supportive of expensive human spaceflight missions – even during the Apollo era, as Launius demonstrated based on his research of public opinion polls over the decades -- perhaps a related and important question is just how special space will be in the next several decades.

The event was part of the National Archives’ celebration of the centennials of both Nixon and Ford.   An exhibit on “Nixon and the U.S. Space Program” will be on display at its main building in Washington, D.C. through the end of June. 

Today the House passed its version of the FY2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Among its provisions, the House rejected DOD's request to terminate the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) office and provided direction or requested reports on a number of other national security space issues.

The bill, H.R. 1960, passed 317-107. Among the many amendments adopted during floor debate, and the only one directly related to national security space, was a Lamborn (R-CO) amendment that restricts funding for the SBIRS space modernization initiative wide-field-of-view-testbed until DOD certifies that it is carrying out the ORS program as directed in last year's NDAA. DOD wanted to terminate ORS last year. Congress rejected the request and directed DOD to provide a strategic plan for how it would implement the mission of ORS. Instead, DOD is again proposed terminating ORS this year. This bill rejects that request as well. In its report (H. Rept. 103-102), the House Armed Services Committee said it was "disappointed with the Department's de facto proposal to terminate ORS, and is concerned that there is no enduring plan to address urgent military operational requirements for space support and reconstitution." It "notes" that the strategic plan has not been submitted and rejects the proposal to terminate ORS.

Other national security space-related provisions include the following:

• Commercial Communications Satellite Services
  • requires the Secretary of Defense (SecDef) to brief the congressional defense committees by Oct. 1, 2013 explaining why DOD uses commercial satellite communications services from "certain foreign providers" subject to sanctions and laws such as section 1261(c)(2) of the FY2013 NDAA and the Iran, North Korea, Syria Nonproliferation Act (INKSNA). Further, DOD would be prohibited from entering into leases with such countries unless the SecDef, in consultation with the Director of National Intelligence, waives the prohibition based on an a national security assessment that is provided to the committees. (DOD Deputy Assistant Secretary for Space Doug Loverro revealed at a hearing in April that DOD was leasing satellite capacity from a Chinese-owned communications satellite.)
  • requires DOD to develop a strategy to lower the cost, through multi-year procurement, of commercial satellite services.
• Launch and Propulsion
  • requires the Secretary of the Air Force to develop and implement a plan for a fair evaluation of competing contractors in awarding a contract to a certified evolved expendable launch vehicle provider.
  • requires the Secretary of the Air Force, in consultation with the Director of the National Reconnaissance Office, to brief several congressional committees by Dec. 15, 2013 on the current and planned efforts to use Solar Electric Propulsion technology for national security space missions and the investments across government to further develop that technology.
  • requires a study by the DOD Executive Agent for Space on responsive, low-cost launch efforts and to present a consolidated plan for development of an operationally responsive, low cost launch capability within the Department.
  • commends the Air Force and NASA for working together in rocket engine technologies calling the partnership "a model for maximizing limited taxpayer dollars in an austere fiscal environment."
  • laments the state of the solid rocket motor industrial base and believes a healthy base is needed, states that it is aware of commercial launch systems that use surplus ICBM motors, and directs the SecDef to brief the congressional defense committees on the status of those surplus motors including a cost-benefit analysis of using those motors for space launch versus acquiring new motors.
• Space Control, Space Situational Awareness
  • requires DOD to contract with the National Research Council to review near- and long-term threats to national security space systems.
  • requires the SecDef to submit a report on the space control mission of DOD.
  • requires the SecDef to notify Congress of each attempt by a foreign actor to disrupt, degrade or destroy a U.S. national security space capability.
  • directs the Secretary of the Air Force to certify that the acquisition strategy for the Joint Space Operations Mission System program fully incorporates existing, mature technology products, based on warfighter requirements, to replace the legacy system expeditiously.
• Navy UHF Communications
  • requires the Secretary of the Navy to brief the committee by Oct. 1, 2013 on a review of existing, high altitude near-space technologies that could augment Ultra High Frequency (UHF) capacity since the UHF Follow-on satellites are aging and the replacement Multiple User Objective System (MUOS) is delayed.
• SBIRS
  • expresses concern about the schedule for full performance of SBIRS, which is not expected until 2018 even though the first geosynchronous satellite was launched in 2011, urges DOD to make further efforts to accelerate that schedule, and adds $20 million (for a total of $42.5 million) for further data exploitation of SBIRS.

NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Chairman Steve Squyres and retired industry executive Tom Young will testify to the House Science, Space and Technology (SS&T) Committee next week.  The topic of the hearing is the NASA Authorization Act of 2013.

Congress passed the most recent NASA authorization act in 2010 (P.L.  111-267).  The funding provisions expire at the end of this fiscal year, though the policy provisions remain law until and unless Congress changes them.  Both the House committee and its Senate counterpart have indicated that they want to pass a new authorization bill for NASA this year.   This hearing is part of that process.

The hearing is on Wednesday, June 19, at 10:00 am in 2318 Rayburn House Office Building.   Squyres is the Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University and is best known as the Principal Investigator of the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity.   Young is a former Executive Vice President of Lockheed Martin.

GenCorp announced today that it has completed acquisition of "substantially all operations" of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne from United Technologies.   It will be combined with GenCorp's Aerojet subsidiary and called Aerojet Rocketdyne.

Rocketdyne has gone through several corporate mergers and acquisitions.  It has been part of North American Aviation; North American Rockwell; Rockwell International; Boeing; and Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies.

United Technologies agreed to sell Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne to GenCorp in July 2012 for $550 million.  The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved the sale on Monday despite concerns that it would create a "monopoly in the market for a type of advanced missile defense interceptor propulsion system."  The FTC said that it was approving the sale "primarily because the Department of Defense wishes to see the transaction go forward for national security reasons."

GenCorp President and CEO Scott Seymour said that the addition of Rocketdyne "almost doubles the size of our company and provides additional growth opportunities as we build upon the complementary capabilities of each legacy company, including their talented people and innovative technologies."