Space Advocates take notice

Space advocates take notice. We must unify! The Vision depends on us to get the message out. We have to stop bickering about details and work together to make sure our future congress and presidential candidates get the message that “clearly” explains the space Vision President Bush presented. (ht SpacePolitics)

"Although the major space advocacy organizations have had similar messages over the years, they have always argued about details—almost like sects of a religion engaging in warfare over rituals. This needs to change. Although the space advocacy community has little or no control over the national and international events that could have an impact on political support for NASA (terrorism, economic problems, another space shuttle accident), they need to control the areas in which they can have an influence. They must work together to guarantee that the future president, as well as the present and future Congresses (the 2006 Congressional elections are coming up), are provided a clear and concise message, one that will explain that the Vision is not just a flight of fancy by President Bush. It is not only technically and financially feasible, but also extremely important to the future of the United States. The space advocacy community must play leading role in disseminating this message. However, it has to be undertaken in a more sophisticated and unified manner than has been attempted in the past".

Minor Repairs to Shuttle Discovery

The engineers at NASA took a replacement part from Endevor to fix the panel damaged from the window cover that fell. The Ice team is going to inspect to make sure the Ice is not a problem at launch. If all is a go, I'll be blogging it live.

The Crew of Discovery

I'm amazed of the crew of Discovery. The commander Eileen Collins reminds me of Amelia Earhart (ht OCRegistar). Gary Robbins thinks they could have been sisters. Collins looks to Earhart for insperation as she piloted a space shuttle and will lead NASA back to space.

Return to Flight

The Link to STS-114 is at Return to Flight. All systems go and good luck to the crew and flight.

Blast of a Comet

My husband and I dragged the kids to the Planetary Society's Comet Bash last Sunday night at Citrus College Performing Arts Building in Glendora. The presentation had great speakers. Louis Friedman, Executive Director of the Planetary Society talked about the Cosmos 1 Solar Sail. The Russian rocket shot out of a submarine failed about 83 seconds into flight never making it to space. Dr. Friedman was trying to be nice without saying bad things about the Volna rocket. There will be another launch (they have enough spare parts) but with another rocket. I suggest talking to Elon Musk at Space X (a board member of Planetary Society).

The second speaker was Apollo 9 Astronaut Rusty Schweickart, chairman of B612 Foundation. His topic was about Near-Earth Asteroid and Earth Impact Update. NEO's are objects that cross the earth's orbit with short period orbits. He talked about an Asteroid 2004 that will be within 3 Sigma ellipse on 4/13/2029 (Friday 13th). He talked to Congress in May about the possibility of setting up a mission to "bump" a NEO to move its orbit away from Earth. Two things that hamper this, there is no international group heading up a mission or overseeing NEO's and second, NASA is holding off the Nuclear engine program.

Bill Nye the Science Guy (Vice President of the Planetary Society) then talked about Comets and why the Deep Impact project is important. Comets are very old (more than 4.5 billon years) and contain elements present at the beginning of the solar system. He is a great speaker and the Kids loved it.

Bill Smythe, a Deep Impact Mission Scientist talked more about the mission hardware and Deep Impact probe. He worked on the imaging cameras on the spacecraft(s). He was interrupted when the first pictures came in on NASA TV.

The fantastic pictures were neat to view with other space enthusiasts. Commentary was provided by the Bills (Nye and Smythe) and Bruce Betts, the Director of Projects for the Planetary Society.

Shuttle Poll on Blogs of War

Go over to Blogs of War and take the "Return to Flight" Shuttle poll.

US Space Leadership

We have to keep the US in the forefront on Leadership in space due to our nations security. We have to be the leader just as we are leading the GWOT. Some might disagree, but I believe China will overcome the US and dominate our economy (everything is made in "China") our military (they have stolen some of our military secrets) and our freedom to explore space. China's CNOOC wants to buy UNOCAL and another Chinese company wants to buy MAYTAG. In China both commercial and military products are built at their manufacturing plants.

From the AstroExpress.com article
The U.S. must bolster the competitiveness: Report Warns of Challenges to U.S. Leadership in Spaces of its commercial space industry, expand international cooperation, and refocus on basic science in order to hold on to its traditional leadership position in space, according to the authors of a new paper from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

United States Space Policy: Challenges and Opportunities identifies three important shifts in U.S. plans for space—proposals by the military to place weapons in space, decreased funding for civilian space science, and an unwillingness to collaborate with international partners on space initiatives—as threats to the nation’s long-term scientific interests in space. The study also finds that changes in export control policies, which now require that all satellites be regulated as munitions, have led to significant market share losses for U.S. suppliers in recent years, threatening the long-term viability of the U.S. commercial satellite industry. The paper is available online at: http://www.amacad.org/publications/spacePolicy.aspx.

“America has long been considered by nations around the world to be the unchallenged leader in all aspects of its space program,” according to authors George Abbey, former head of the Johnson Space Center, and Neal Lane, former Assistant to the President on Science and Technology Policy. But, they warn, “The future vitality of America’s space program is in question.”

“Government leaders are making decisions about U.S. space policy that will affect not only national security, but also the ability of the United States to successfully compete with other countries in the commercial use of space and to maintain a leadership role in space exploration, science and engineering, and technology.” Though their assessment reveals significant obstacles to the continued success of the U.S. space industry and space science, Abbey and Lane believe these obstacles are surmountable, and offer recommendations for realigning U.S. space policy to advance U.S. interests.

Our schools and Universities must stress the importance of science, engineering, and physics degrees. We must keep the knowledge base in America. Space will empower Americans in the workforce as some of our technologies are transferred to other nations, space will keep us in the forefront and leader in the world.

Ed. note: The full report is at Space Policy.

Shuttle ready or not?

Last friday NASA said it is ready for Launching the Shuttle in July. Yesterday the panel that oversees the return to flight say's NASA failed the toughest standards, Ice falling from the liquid fuel tank. I say we go with what the engineers and Chief Griffin at NASA say, when its ready they'll fly.

Space Ring to stop global warming

I really don't buy into the Global Warming theory, but this article came to my attention from a link on Drudge Report .

Update: Rush mentioned today on his show about the article from Drudge.

Cosmos 1 in the drink

It seems that Cosmos 1 landed in the Barnets Sea with the first stage failing to fire. Better luck next time! I suggest using another launch company...

Update: Glenn Renyolds Tech Central Station article Nobody's Perfect, sums up the Planetary Society's failure on Cosmos 1 launch. Space is risky business but we must learn from our mistakes and continue on exploring.

Juno 2010

Arthur C. Clark will be proud to know we are sending a probe to Jupiter in 2010. Juno will explore Jupiter's magnetic field, investigate its core and find out how much water the planet has. The orbit will be a polar and oblong in shape. I hope Juno visits Europia!

Weapons in Space

USA today has an article on "Hyperventilating over 'space weapons'" by James Oberg. (HT to Instapunit) Oberg stresses the Russians placed weapons into space well before Reagan came along with "Star Wars" or SDI.

Potential Threat to American Space Operations

Hat tip to Blogs of War on this article in SIGNAL Magazine. Since the War of Terror and 9/11 attacks my main fear has been the venerability of USA space communications and military operations to terrorist attacks. The likelihood that terrorists will disrupt or destroy US Space assets is low. But as a nation we have to keep space a priority, as it is important to our security and freedom to explore the unknown.

Comet Bash

My family and I will attend The Planetary Society's Comet Bash on Sunday, July 3, 2005. I can't wait for Deep Impact's smack down with Comet Tempel 1! Check here for more information at the Planetary Society's site.

Cosmos 1 Launch

The Planetary Society will launch a solar sail from a Russian submarine on June 21, 2005. Once it is deployed it will be visable in the evening sky. Solar sails will provide propulsion for space craft exploring the solar system without carrying large amouts of fuel.

Russa's warning on Militarization of Space

I guess we have to watch our guard.......


BAIKONUR, June 2, 2005 - /RIA Novosti/ - Russia will take adequate measures in case of attempts to militarize space, defense minister Sergei Ivanov told journalists at the Baikonur space center on Thursday. "If some state is nurturing plans or begins to orbit weapons, we will react adequately," the minister said.

Ivanov stressed that for decades Russia's stand on the matter was openly negative and remains negative.

Russia does not plan to curtail its defense and security operation in Baikonur, whose 50th anniversary is marked today.

"The Baikonur space center is not the only Russian spaceport [by agreement with Kazakhstan, Russia leased the center for 49 years]. We have recently launched many military spacecraft from other spaceports [such as Plesetsk in the north of European Russia and Svobodny in the Amur region in the Far East]. But this does not mean that we will curtail defense and security operation in Baikonur, Ivanov said.

According to him, there are no plans to withdraw the regiments or battalions of the Space Force from Baikonur.

"There should be as many servicemen here as would suffice to ensure security," the defense minister said.

Russia will be ready to discuss agreements on tactical nuclear weapons only when the countries that have them will withdraw these weapons to their national territory, Ivanov said commenting on the US Senators' offer of a treaty to ban tactical nuclear weapons.

The minister stressed that now Russia is the only country that keeps its tactical nuclear weapons on the national territory. "As you know, the other countries do not do this," Sergei Ivanov said.

Hurricane watch

NASA has a new website devoted to Hurricanes. Great place to get satellite pictures of storms. Since this is the start of Hurricane season, a good place to bookmark at Hurricane Resource Page.

Moon Rocks at Discovery Science Center

Moon Rocks will be on display starting June 17 at the
Discovery Science Center.

Near Earth Objects

Tip from Spacepolitics with an article on former Apollo astronaut Russell Schweickart's proposal for NEO policy and legislation written by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher. Read the Wired article on the subject here.

Tom Delay say's NASA fully funded

NASA Chief Griffin and House Majority Leader Tom Delay say for now NASA and Moon-Mars projects are fully funded. Griffin believes there is a balance between robotic and manned missions. Delay said "NASA is a priority, even in a time of war and tightening budgets." Funding will be provided to expedite programs to get to "were we want to go."

Update--OC Register has the article about the Moon-Mars and NASA Funding. I agree with NASA Chief Griffin in that the US must be in the forefront in expanding into space. IF the Chinese start to develop military space programs the US has to dominate Earth orbit.