Space News Update

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is in the midst of great change these days, and yet many of its ways are remarkable and wonderfully the same. In a very quick turnaround, the space shuttle Endeavor will launch June 13 with Mission STS-127. It was moved to a different launch pad after being readied for a rescue if needed ot the repair of the Hubble Space Telescope, a landmark mission completed recently. To quote NASA News on STS-127:

The 16-day mission will feature five spacewalks and complete construction of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory. Astronauts will attach a platform to the outside of the Japanese module that will allow experiments to be exposed to space.The STS-127 crew members are [Commander Mark] Polansky [@Twitter], Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Christopher Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Tim Kopra and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette. Kopra will join the space station crew and replace Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata. Wakata will return to Earth on Endeavour to conclude a three-month stay at the station.

A panel of experts is beginning an independent review of NASA's plans for the future of the space program. And the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee has invited the public to give its input via a special new interactive website, according to NASA News (6/5/09). The Committee will be chaired by Norman Augustine. About the site he said, "The human space flight program belongs to everyone. Our committee would hope to benefit from the views of all who would care to contact us." Those interested will be able to ask questions, upload documents or comment about the committee's operations. The first meeting will be held June 17 in Washington, D. C and will be free and open to the public. Members of the Augustine review committee with whom you might be familiar include former astronauts Dr. Leroy Chiao and Dr. Sally Ride. Others are all leaders in their fields associated with space flight. Quoting from the story:

During the course of the review, the panel will examine ongoing and planned NASA development activities and potential alternatives in order to present options for advancing a safe, innovative, affordable and sustainable human space flight program following the space shuttle's retirement. The committee will present its results in time to support an administration decision on the way forward by August 2009.

. . . The committee will hold several public meetings at different U.S. locations. The first public meeting will take place June 17 from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. EDT at the Carnegie Institution, located at 1530 P Street NW in Washington. Topics on the agenda for the meeting include previous studies about U.S. human space flight; national space policy; international cooperation; evolved expendable launch vehicles; commercial human space flight capabilities; and exploration technology planning.

. . . NASA Acting Administrator Chris Scolese signed the charter for the committee Monday, enabling it to begin operations.

New administrator to be appointed -- It was announced in late May that President Obama will name a former astronaut, space shuttle commander Charles Bolden to lead NASA, as I reported in a previous post.

Decades since we landed a man on the moon, space programs around the world are interested in sending humans back to the moon, or in unmanned lunar exploration. The NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, spacecraft are set to launch together to the moon aboard an Atlas V rocket on June 17. This exciting dual spacecraft mission will send a very sophisticated and powerful orbiter around the poles of moon, in preparation for NASA's human return to the moon in a few years. And four or five months from launch the LCROSS will slam into the moon to send up a debris plume that can be studied to determine lunar composition and the presence of water ice or hydrated minerals, according to NASA News.

Every Monday you can look forward to another "space news update" at this website. I am a "space junkie" living not too far from NASA in Houston, and I am so very pleased to have this new blog for a more concentrated focus on our Southwest news.

Blogs: My news and political blog is at South by Southwest. This article is cross-posted at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites.

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