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SpaceX announced today that it successfully conducted a test firing of all nine engines of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle at Cape Canaveral, FL. The test had been delayed several times, which is quite common in launch vehicle development programs, but attracted significant attention for a variety of reasons. One is the debate over whether commercial companies like SpaceX can take over responsibility for launching people to low Earth orbit instead of NASA. Another is that the tests are leading up to the inaugural launch of the Falcon 9, which could take place at about the same time that President Obama is in Florida to talk about his vision for the space program.

In an emailed press statement that is not yet on SpaceX's website, the company said:

"Today, SpaceX successfully completed a test firing of the inaugural Falcon 9 launch vehicle at Space Launch Complex 40 located at Cape Canaveral. Following a nominal terminal countdown, the launch sequencer commanded ignition of all 9 Merlin first stage engines for a period of 3.5 seconds.

"Just prior to engine ignition, the pad water deluge system was activated providing acoustic suppression to keep vibration levels within acceptable limits. The test validated the launch pad propellant and pneumatic systems as well as the ground and flight control software that controls pad and launch vehicle configurations. The completion of a successful static fire is the latest milestone on the path to first flight of the Falcon 9 which will carry a Dragon spacecraft qualification unit to orbit."

Congress has yet to approve President Obama's proposal to extend U.S. support for the International Space Station (ISS) to 2020, but the partners in the ISS program are working on certifying the ISS for operating eight years even beyond that -- to 2028. That year will mark the 30^th anniversary of the launch of the first ISS modules, Zarya and Unity.

There seems to be strong support in Congress for extending ISS to "at least 2020" as proposed by the President, but the cost for operating it beyond 2015 is one of factors cited by Administration officials for also proposing the cancellation of the Constellation program. In their view it is a zero-sum game. If extending ISS operations and investing in more science and technology development activities is desired, then the Constellation program has to go; there is not enough money for it all. The idea of cancelling Constellation has not been warmly received in Congress, however.

The other partners also will have to convince their political leaders to continue supporting the ISS. In the joint statement from the Heads of Agency meeting in Japan last week, the partners "emphasized their common intent to undertake the necessary procedures within their respective governments to reach consensus later this year on the continuation of the ISS to the next decade."

The Heads of Agency meeting brings together the leaders of the space agencies cooperating in the ISS program: the United States, Russia, Japan, Europe and Canada. In their joint statement, they also said that "there were no identified technical constraints" to continuing operations to at least 2020, and that they are "currently working to certify on-orbit elements through 2028."

The U.S. ISS modules have a 15-year design life, but spacecraft often operate well past their design lives. The longest operating space station, Russia's Mir, had a 15-year life. Its first module was launched in 1986 and the facility was deorbited in 2001. How engineers will certify that modules, solar arrays, robot arms and other hardware can withstand the harsh space environment for twice that time will be an interesting exercise.

SpaceflightNow.com reports that a problem with the space shuttle Discovery could threaten its scheduled launch on April 5. According to NASA, a problem was identified in a helium isolation valve in the Right Reaction Control System. Engineers will meet on Monday to discuss options and April 5 remains the targeted launch date according to NASA, but SpaceflightNow.com says that the "engineering options are limited" for resolving the problem without taking the shuttle back to the Vehicle Assembly Building.

House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science subcommittee ranking member Frank Wolf (R-VA) and other Members of the House pressed their case for an alternative to President Obama's plan for NASA this past week. At a Thursday press conference, available on YouTube, Congressman Wolf and several other Republican Members and at least one Democrat -- Rep.Gene Green (TX) - asked for an alternative to cancelling the Constellation program and turning U.S. human access to low Earth orbit over to commercial companies.

They and a total of 15 bipartisan House Members sent a letter to NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden calling for a 30-day NASA study "to review how exploration spacecraft and launch vehicle development and testing may be maintained within the proposed budget request to ensure uninterrupted, independent U.S. human space flight access to the International Space Station and beyond." The letter specifies that the members of the team be selected by the Directors of the Johnson, Marshall and Kennedy Space Centers. The 15 Members who signed the letter are predominantly, but not completely, from districts that would be negatively impacted by the cancellation of the Constellation program.

Meanwhile, Representatives Suzanne Kosmas (D-FL) and Bill Posey (R-FL) and about a dozen other Members introduced H.R. 4804, the "Human Space Flight Capability Assurance and Enhancement Act," a companion bill to the one introduced by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (S. 3068) on March 3.

President Obama has scheduled a meeting in Florida for April 15 to discuss his vision for NASA. Referred to by the Administration as a "conference," not a summit as it is often described in the media, details are pending. Latest rumors are that it will be by invitation only.

After years of struggling with cost growth and schedule slips in most of its satellite acquisition programs, the Department of Defense (DOD) is poised to see the launches of the first satellites in four new spacecraft series in 2010 according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Testifying before the Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, GAO's Cristina Chaplain credited DOD for taking the "important step of acknowledging the acquisition problems of the past and ... action to address them, including better management of the acquisition process and oversight of its contractors." Several programs have gotten past "technical and other obstacles and are close to begin delivering capability." This year, the first satellites in the Global Positioning System (GPS) IIF, Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF), and Space Based Surveillance Satellite (SBSS) series are expected to be launched. In addition, the first launch for the geostationary component of the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) is scheduled, but GAO was not quite convinced that the December 2010 launch date will be met.

Challenges do remain, GAO stressed, especially in aligning space system components (satellites, ground systems and user terminals), and a crowded launch manifest that could mean longer delays for missions that miss their original launch date. Perhaps most importantly, while congratulating DOD on the progress it has made on reforming its acquisition practices, GAO also said that "Lastly, DOD needs to decide how best to organize, lead, and support space activities. If it does not do so, its commitments to reforms may not be sustainable."

A webcast of the hearing and the statements of GAO and other witnesses are available on the committee's website.

In presentations to the National Research Council (NRC) and the American Astronautical Society's (AAS) Goddard Memorial Symposium this week, Dr. Robert ("Bobby") Braun, NASA's new Chief Technologist, outlined plans for his new office. Braun is a highly respected space technologist from Georgia Tech who started his career at NASA's Langley Research Center.

In his presentation to the NRC's Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB) on Tuesday and later in the week to AAS, Braun talked about the need to conduct research on low TRL (Technology Readiness Level) technologies. NASA's low TRL efforts have suffered in recent years because of budget constraints. Reestablishing the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) is one step in that direction, he said. Braun co-chaired a 2009 NRC study on why the original NIAC was dissolved in 2007 and whether the research conducted under its auspices had been worthwhile.

The report, Fostering Visions for the Future: A Review of the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts, found that NIAC was "effective in achieving its mission and accomplishing its stated goals" and recommended creating a NIAC2 to "seek out visionary, far-reaching, advanced concepts with the potential of significant benefit to accomplishing NASA's charter and to begin the process of maturing these advanced concepts for infusion into NASA's missions." The new NIAC would have some differences, according to the report, such as allowing NASA employees to compete for its grants in addition to those outside the agency, and funding grants not only for revolutionary technologies, but for concepts that are "innovative."

Braun emphasized that he would coordinate technology development efforts across the agency, but would not manage programs funded by the four Mission Directorates. The President's budget request includes a sizable budget for the Chief Technologist's office to manage itself on top of those other agency activities. The FY2011 budget request is for $572 million for the Chief Technologist (in a budget line designated Space Technology under "Aeronautics and Space Research and Technology"), rising to over a billion each year for FY2012-2014. All of this is, of course, subject to congressional approval.

Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA), ranking member of the House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittee and five other Republican Congressmen tomorrow will hold a press conference calling for NASA Administrator Bolden to appoint a team to report back before President Obama's April 15 "space conference" on how to maintain uninterrupted human access to space.

According to a press statement from Congressman Wolf's office, Bolden will be asked to appoint a team of "NASA experts to review how exploration spacecraft and launch vehicle development and testing may be maintained within the proposed budget request to ensure uninterrupted, independent U.S. human space flight access to the International Space Station and beyond. The team should report back within 30 days in order to provide the administration and Congress with this necessary information - before the President's space summit in Florida on April 15."

The press conference is scheduled for noon tomorrow (Thursday) in room HVC-201A Capitol. The other Members are: John Culberson (R-TX), Pete Olson (R-TX), Rob Bishop (R-UT), Michael McCaul (R-TX), and Bill Posey (R-FL). Culberson also is a member of the CJS subcommittee.

Saying he was neither attacking nor defending the Obama Administration's new plan for NASA, Jeff Greason said that there are no good options: "They all suck. Tough. Deal with it." Mr. Greason is President of XCOR and was a member of the Augustine committee on the future of the human space flight program. He spoke at the American Astronautical Society's Goddard Memorial Symposium today.

Mr. Greason's message was that everyone needs to be realistic in looking at where the human space flight program was headed under the previous plan and debate on their merits the issues about its future. Whatever the answer is, it is likely to be painful for someone. Stressing that he was expressing his own views and had no special knowledge of the Obama plan other than what he reads in the media, he recounted some of the discussions that transpired in the Augustine committee deliberations that led to the conclusion that the Constellation program was not executable. "Constellation was designed for a budget twice what it got. That's what unexecutable means," he said, adding that it would require "four, five, six billion dollar increases every year for the rest of time" to be successful, including operations.

Arguing that "we can't take our eyes off of Mars" as a long term goal, he emphasized that such a journey is not yet feasible and if that were to become the single focus it would be as unsustainable as the Apollo program, with perhaps one crew journeying there before that program would end: "Flags and footprints are supposed to lead to settlement, not be an end in itself." Intermediate missions to the Moon and "deep space" destinations like asteroids are prerequisites to Mars in his view. Together they are an "ensemble" of destinations and the order in which they should be visited cannot be determined today, he argued. Instead, those decisions should made over time based on available technology and funding.

He asserted that a "lot of lies are being spun" about the concept of commercial crew and it is "silly" to say that commercial companies cannot provide such services, but it is likely to happen first with established launch vehicles, not entrepreneurial ventures. He expects Falcon 9 and Taurus 2 to be successful someday, but Delta 4 and Atlas 5 already are proven. As for what capsule should go on top, he urged the aerospace community to be honest with itself that the Constellation program would have produced a crew capsule that cost $500 million each, far too expensive. "Constellation would have been cancelled," and while it is regrettable that so much money has been spent on it already, it was time to "stop digging," he said.

Ultimately, however, he concluded that "I don't know the right answer," but that if people think the Obama plan is the death of human space flight they are kidding themselves because "it already had died." That is why the community needs to honestly debate the issues and not pretend that Constellation could have succeeded within the budget resources it was likely to obtain, he said.

The quarterly journal Space Policy and the Secure World Foundation have announced the 2010 Maxim Tarasenko Essay Contest for law school students or graduate students in space policy for a publishable article on a topic of current debate. The contest offers a prize of 500, publication of the essay, a certificate, and a one year subscription to Space Policy. Essays are due to Frances Brown, editor of Space Policy, by December 31, 2010. Complete rules are available in the announcement. The contest honors Maxim Tarasenko, a highly respected Russian space policy analyst and member of Space Policy's Editorial Board who tragically died in 1999.

Commercial human space flight is the topic of the day, but what about commercial human flight to the edge of space -- a jump from a very high altitude balloon.

At some point this year, aeronaut Felix Baumgartner, the first person to cross the English Channel on a carbon wing, will attempt to free fall out of a stratospheric balloon at a height of 36 km, potentially becoming the first human to break the speed of sound.

As part of the Red Bull Stratos initiative, Baumgartner will challenge three additional records:

• freefall altitude (the equivalent of four times the cruising altitude of commercial airplanes)
• human piloted balloon flight altitude (current record is 113,740 feet)
• longest freefall duration (expected to last approximately 5 minutes and 35 seconds)

According to the initiative's website, this "mission to the edge of space will attempt to transcend human limits that have existed for 50 years." But the goal goes beyond just making it into the record books. If Baumgartner is successful (there is the possibility he may not survive), important medical and scientific information is expected to come out of this experiment, with benefits to the future of human activities in space.

One probable offshoot cited by the event's sponsors is the development of "next generation of aerospace crew protective equipment," which may prove useful for the development of human-rated space vehicles for travel to low Earth orbit. The development of the balloon, pressure suit, ascent capsule, and retrieval system required for the mission may also yield insights into future aerospace technologies.

The exact date or location of the jump has not been announced.