Space and astronomy news
From Russia, with love. Here’s a video put together by Roscosmos of launch and mission highlights. Interestingly, in 2010, Russia has made almost a half of all launches in the world – 31 launches of 74. Next was the USA and China with 15 launches each. ESA sent 6 rockets to space, India had 3, South Korea had 1, Japan 2, and Israel 1. Four launches in the world were unsuccessful.
Via Spaceports
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Spectacular new images of a gorgeous gaping hole on Mars are streaming back to Earth from NASA’s Opportunity Mars Rover. So let’s take a 3 D stroll placing all of us at Santa Maria Crater – “On Mars”. Via the photo mosaics above and below, we will circle in three dimensions about the stunningly beautiful Santa Maria Crater. At the southeast portion of the rim, the crater also possesses a scientific goldmine of hydrated mineral deposits. These minerals are indicative of the past flow of liquid water on Mars, an essential requirement for the formation of life.
Opportunity made landfall at the western edge of Santa Maria on Dec. 15 (Sol 2450) after a long and arduous journey of some 19 km since departing from Victoria Crater over 2 years ago in September 2008. She crawled closer to the rim the next day on Dec. 16 (Sol 2451) unveiling a magnificent vista of jumbled ejecta rocks, steep sloped cliffs and undulating sand dunes across the crater floor.
“Santa Maria is a relatively fresh impact crater. It’s geologically very young, hardly eroded at all, and hard to date quantitatively. On the order of 10 million years old or less,” said Ray Arvidson in an interview from Washington University in St. Louis. Arvidson is the deputy principal investigator for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers.
“Santa Maria is the freshest big guy that Opportunity has seen and has a raised rim,” Arvidson told me. “It is much younger than Endurance Crater which Opportunity visited a few months after landing on Mars way back in 2004 and is roughly the same diameter.” See the entire Opportunity traverse map below.
“The crater is young enough that the interesting hydrate outcrops may not be coated with the nanophase iron oxide dust. There is virtually no erosion. We can see the ejecta rays and blocks,“ said Arvidson.
While sitting just five meters from the rim on Dec. 16, Opportunity imaged the football field sized crater – some 90 m wide – with both its left and right eye navigation cameras. A mosaic of these images was stitched together by NASA to create a stunning 360 degree stereo panoramic vista. The images are snapped from the same height seen by an adult to give the perspective that a human eye would see when standing “On Mars”.
The crater is the centerpiece of the stereo image above, which shows the crater’s sharp rim and rocks ejected from the impact that had excavated the crater. You will need to whip out your red-cyan stereo glasses to experience the full three-dimensional effect of the scene. Be sure to wear the red lens on the left, and try not to fall off the cliff.
Click here for the entire 360-degree high resolution stereo view – its 10 MB in all. South is at the center. North is at both ends. The view is presented as a cylindrical-perspective projection. The wheel tracks left behind in the Martian dirt – as the rover approached the crater – are seen at the far right and are also highlighted in our 2 D mosaic below.
Off in the distance, several portions of the rim of Endeavour Crater are visible as bumps on the horizon. Endeavour is the ultimate target of Opportunity’s long term trek across the Martian dunes at the Meridiani Planum region and is some 22 kilometers in diameter.
“Endeavour shows significant signatures of phylloslicates, or clay minerals, and water bearing sulfate minerals which formed in the presence of liquid water,” Arvidson explained. “The phyllosilicates formed at the crater rim about 3.8 to 4.2 Billion years ago and predate the sedimentary rocks which are younger than 3.8 billion years.”
Pictured below is a collection of stereo photo mosaics for a North to South up close tour around the rim of Santa Maria. Several of the images were created by members of unmannedspaceflight.com.
“Opportunity will drive in a counterclockwise direction around Santa Maria to reach the very interesting hydrated sulfates on the other side. We’ll make 3 stops or more depending on what we see”
“On Dec. 19 (Sol 2454) we bumped the vehicle even closer to the rim from the initial approach point, to a promontory we’ve nicknamed ‘Palos’, stated Arvidson. “Opportunity was a mere 2.5 meters from the edge. At ‘Palos’, the rover collected the first set of long baseline, high resolution stereo images for creating a 3 D digital elevation map.”
“The coves at Santa Maria will be named after the islands which Columbus visited, using the native American language. All the rocks and boulders strewn about will be named after the sailors on the voyage with Columbus,” explained Arvidson.
“This past weekend we drove about 20 meters southeast towards the second location named ‘Wanahani’. On Tuesday of this week (Dec. 28) we bumped to the edge. The plan is to photograph the ejecta rocks and collect the next set of long baseline, high resolution stereo images.”
The third stop – which must be reached before Solar Conjunction in mid January 2011- will take Opportunity to the science hot spot detected by the powerful CRISM mineral mapping spectrometer circling above Mars aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
“With CRISM we are trying to cover all the rim segments to better understand the nature and geologic setting of the iron and magnesium smectite clay mineral exposures. The southeast portion of Santa Maria is generally the location of the CRISM spectra that show hydrated sulfates. Opportunity will go to the southeast rim and try and find a nice outcrop on the rim side to do measurements to field verify the expected mineralogy,” explained Arvidson.
“We might do a toe dip with the wheels but there is no plan to go inside.”
“We will use the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) to drill into a selected target. That spot will be named after ‘Columbus’.
The exposures of hydrated sulfates have a bright toned appearence in the images.
“With the sun over the camera’s shoulder there is a phenomenon called opposition effect in which rocks and soils become particularly bright when the sun-camera-surface line up, Arvidson told me. “But, it also may be that the bright looking rocks are intrinsically bright and not coated with the nanophase iron oxide coatings we have seen on previous outcrops. All in the realm of testable working hypotheses.”
“On Dec. 30 we are planning another CRISM spectral mapping campaign with MRO over Santa Maria,” said Arvidson. “Using a new technique which gimbals, or swivels, the CRISM optics we hope to use a pixel overlap technique to improve the ground resolution from 18 meters across to 6 meters across. This data will be used in tactical decisions about where to drive on Mars.”
Read more of my interview with Ray Arvidson in the next feature story describing the exciting plan for science exploration at Santa Maria and Endeavour, the outlook for Spirit and more – along with new mosaics from “Wanahani”.
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With the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera constantly snapping images of the lunar surface, we have been able to see most of the Apollo landing sites with better and better detail. Image editing wizard Nathanial Burton-Bradford has now “3-D-ified” all the landing sites except Apollo 16, and by viewing these images with 3-D glasses (the ones with red and cyan lenses) the lunar landers are easily visible and really stand out. Other features such as tracks and experiments left by the Apollo astronauts become more visible as well. See more images below, and click on the images for larger versions, or see Nathanial’s Flickr page for more!
And for good measure, here’s one of the impact crater created by the Apollo 17 Saturn booster.
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Once, the field had only had few entries, but now there are several companies vying to send American astronauts into orbit. With NASA’s Commercial Crew Development program, or CCDev 2, and the encouragement of commercial space firms to produce their own vehicles, the number of potential ‘space-taxis’ has swelled, with virtually every established and up-and-coming aerospace company either producing – or proposing one.
One of the first firms to unveil a potential means of transportation to the International Space Station (ISS) was Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). SpaceX launched the first of its Dragon spacecraft on Dec. 8, and shortly thereafter became the first private company to safely recover a spacecraft after it returned from orbit.
Not to be out done by the ‘new kid on the block’ Boeing unveiled its version of a space taxi this past September. Boeing’s Crew Space Transportation-100 (CST-100) spacecraft which it described could be used for missions to the space station or other ‘LEO platforms.’ One potentially exciting prospect about this endeavor is that any excess seating capacity will be available for purchase through Space Adventures.
A step away from what most of these companies are doing, Orbital Sciences has proposed producing a ‘mini-shuttle’ to ferry passengers to and from orbit. Most aerospace companies that have submitted designs and ideas have stepped away from the space plane concept as it is now viewed as too complicated and expensive. However, the U.S. Air Force recently successfully demonstrated the viability of its unmanned X-37B space plane. It was perhaps with this in mind that emboldened Orbital to go a step further and produce a man-rated mini space plane. Orbital images show their spacecraft proposal being lifted to orbit atop a Delta IV Heavy.
Just this month Virgin Galactic also announced its plans to produce a space plane (the company uses a space plane in its sub-orbital commercial efforts – this new space plane appears to be an extension of that).
Lastly Sierra Nevada Corp also has thrown its name into the ring proposing a winged spacecraft. Their ‘Dream Chaser’ spacecraft is similar to Orbital’s proposal, a winged spacecraft that would be launched to orbit atop an expendable launch vehicle.
These companies are all vying for the $200 million that NASA has placed into a program to promote ease of access to orbit. While the Orion spacecraft, produced by Lockheed Martin, is part of a NASA program – these other organizations are hoping that by demonstrating the viability of their technology – that they can also secure a strong position in the emerging commercial space market.
The movie trailer for Transformers 3 came out over a week ago, and seeing it is a facepalm moment for any true human spaceflight follower, fan, aficionado, or historian. I mean really, — and yes, I know this is a movie — but how could they portray what they call “a generation’s greatest achievement” so inaccurately? I originally decided I wasn’t going to post it, because it basically re-writes history and I can only imagine how the conspiracy theorists will run with this. Plus getting this kind of thing into the public mindset, I fear, will be another “Capricorn 1” moment where people construe the movie as proof that NASA is hiding things. But Robert Pearlman over at collectSPACE posted an article today, basically tearing apart the trailer, discussing every inaccuracy in detail. So watch the trailer, above, and then go check out Robert’s article — its great.
And then, while you’re at it, go read Robert Krulwich’s article on NPR’s website, where he gets a unusually lengthy response from Neil Armstrong about what really happened on the Apollo 11 moon walk, and why it was so short.
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NASA is using its powerful science surveyor orbiting more than 241 kilometers above Mars to target the surface explorations of the long lived Opportunity rover to compelling science targets on the ground. Opportunity is currently on a long term trek to the giant crater named Endeavour, some 22 kilometers in diameter, which shows significant signatures of clays and water bearing sulfate minerals which formed in the presence of flowing liquid water billions of years ago.
An armada of orbiters and rovers from Earth are carrying out a coordinated attack plan to unlock the mysteries of the red planet, foremost being to determine whether life ever arose on Mars.
On Dec. 15 (Sol 2450), Opportunity arrived at Santa Maria crater which is just 6 km distant from the western rim of Endeavour. Over the past 2 years, the rover has traversed more than two thirds of the 19 km distance from Victoria crater -her last big target – to Endeavour.
High resolution spectral and imaging mappers aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) are enabling researchers on the rover team to prioritize targets and strategically guide Opportunity to the most fruitful locations for scientific investigations.
The on board CRISM mapping spectrometer has detected clay minerals, or phyllosilicates, at multiple locations around Endeavour crater including the western rim closest to Opportunity. CRISM is the acronym for Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars. Images from MRO’s HiRISE camera are utilized to scout out the safest and most efficient route. See maps above and below.
“This is the first time mineral detections from orbit are being used in tactical decisions about where to drive on Mars,” said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis. Arvidson is the deputy principal investigator for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers and a co-investigator for CRISM.
Clay minerals are a very exciting scientific find because they can form in more neutral and much less acidic aqueous environments which are more conducive to the possibility for the formation of life. They have never before been studied up close by science instruments on a landed mission.
Opportunity may soon get a quick taste of water bearing sulfate minerals at Santa Maria because spectral data from CRISM suggest the presence of sulfate deposits at the southeast rim of the crater. Opportunity has previously investigated these sulfate minerals at other locations along her circuitous traverse route – but which she discovered without the help of orbital assets.
“We’ve just pulled up to the rim of Santa Maria, and the workload is very high,” Steve Squyres informed me. Squyres, of Cornell University, is the Principal Scientific Investigator for NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers.
Opportunity drove to within about 5 meters of the crater rim on Dec. 16 (Sol 2451). JPL Mars rover driver Scott Maxwell tweeted this message ; “Today’s NAVCAM mosaic of Santa Maria Crater. Woo-hoo! Glorious and beautiful!” and this twitpic
The rover will conduct an extensive science campaign at Santa Maria by driving to different spots over the next several weeks and gathering data to compare observations on the ground to those from CRISM in orbit.
Santa Maria crater appears to be relatively fresh and steep walled and was likely created by a meteor strike only a few million years ago. Endeavour is an ancient crater with a discontinuous rim that is heavily eroded at many points. By exploring craters, scientists can look back in time and decipher earlier geologic periods in Mars history.
Scientists believe that the clay minerals stem from an earlier time period in Martian history and that the sulfate deposits formed later. Mars has experiences many episodes of wet environments at diverse locations in the past and climate-change cycles persist into the present era.
After the upcoming Solar Conjunction in February 2011, Opportunity will depart eastwards for the last leg of the long march to Endeavour. She heads for a rim fragment dubbed Cape York which spectral data show is surrounded by exposures of water bearing minerals. Cape York is not yet visible in the long distance images because it lies to low. See maps below.
Thereafter, Opportunity alters direction and turns south towards her next goal –
Cape Tribulation – which is even more enticing to researchers because CRISM has detected exposures of the clay minerals formed in the milder environments more favorable to life. Cape Tribulation has been clearly visible in rover images already taken months ago in early 2010.
Opportunity could reach Endeavour sometime in 2011 if she can continue to survive the harsh environment of Mars and drive at her current accelerated pace. Opportunity arrived at Mars in January 2004 for a planned 90 day mission. The rover has far surpassed all expectations and will soon celebrate 7 earth years of continuous operations on the red planet. Virtually all the data from Spirit and Opportunity are relayed back to Earth via NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter.
Opportunity used its panoramic camera in a super-resolution technique to record this view of the horizon on Sol 2298 (July 11, 2010) which shows the western rim of Endeavour Crater, including the highest ridge informally named “Cape Tribulation”. CRISM data revealed exposures of clay minerals at Cape Tribulation.
Opportunity’s Path on Mars Through Sol 2436
The red line shows where Opportunity has driven from the place where it landed in January 2004 — inside Eagle Crater, at the upper left end of the track — to where it reached on the 2,436th Martian day, or sol, of its work on Mars (Nov. 30, 2010). The map covers an area about 15 kilometers (9 miles) wide. North is at the top. Subsequent drives brought Opportunity to Santa Maria Crater, which is about 90 meters (295 feet) in diameter. After investigating Santa Maria the rover heads for Endeavour Crater. The western edge of 22-kilometer-wide (14-mile-wide) Endeavour is in the lower right corner of this map. Some sections of the discontinuous raised rim and nearby features are indicated with informal names on the map: rim segments “Cape York” and “Solander Point”; a low area between them called “Botany Bay”; “Antares” crater, which formed on sedimentary rocks where the rim was eroded down; and rim fragment “Cape Tribulation,” where orbital observations have detected clay minerals. The base map is a mosaic of images from the Context Camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
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With the success of the first and second launches of the Falcon 9 rocket as well as the successful recovery of the Dragon spacecraft, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has stated its intent to accelerate the pace of the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program that the private space firm has with NASA. The company has been inspecting various elements of the Dragon spacecraft that launched to orbit on Dec. 8, to make potential changes to the next Dragon – in preparation for its flight.
The company became the first private organization in history to launch a vehicle into orbit and then have it successfully return safely to Earth. The company has, for some time, been working to step up the pace of the COTS program. Under this program the first three flights of the Dragon would be demonstration flights with the third, and final demonstration flight docking with the International Space Station (ISS).
SpaceX is, if anything, a young and restless company, a company on the move and as such they want to combine the mission requirements of the second and third flights – into one. In short, SpaceX is hoping to send their next Dragon – to the space station itself, cutting out one demonstration flight in the process. However, while officials at SpaceX and the company’s CEO and CTO Elon Musk are attempting to relive the golden age of manned spaceflight (this effort is somewhat similar to the accelerated launch of the Apollo 8 mission) – NASA appears uncertain about speeding up the process. NASA has stated that if all went well with the first flight of the Dragon that it would consider speeding up the program.
The next flight of the Dragon spacecraft could take place as soon as the middle of next year. According to Musk, there are few differences between the maneuvers that Dragon conducted on Orbit this past Wednesday – and those that would be required if the craft were to rendezvous with the ISS. For a mission to the orbiting outpost, the Dragon would need to be equipped with solar arrays and certain equipment on board the craft would need to be upgraded.
To date, NASA has only stated that it is assessing the possibility of accelerating the program and that it recognizes the successes that SpaceX has enjoyed. Those within the space community note that NASA has a risk-averse philosophy and that the agency will likely want to see the company complete the requirements of the initial contract and fully demonstrate the Dragon’s capabilities.
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NASA recently celebrated the anniversary of the historic Apollo 12 lunar landing mission with another history making craft – the long lived Opportunity Mars rover. Opportunity traversed around and photographed ‘Intrepid’ crater on Mars in mid November 2010. The crater is informally named in honor of the ‘Intrepid’ lunar module which landed two humans on the surface of the moon on 19 November 1969, some forty one years ago.
Apollo 12 was only the second of NASA’s Apollo missions to place humans on the Earth’s moon. Apollo astronauts Pete Conrad and Gordon Bean precisely piloted their lunar landing spacecraft nicknamed ‘Intrepid’ to a safe touchdown in the ‘Ocean of Storms’, a mere 180 meters (600 feet) away from the Surveyor 3 robotic lunar probe which had already landed on the moon in April 1967. The unmanned Surveyor landers paved the way for NASA’s manned Apollo landers.
As Conrad and Bean walked on the moon and collected lunar rocks for science, the third member of the Apollo 12 crew, astronaut Dick Gordon, orbited alone in the ‘Yankee Clipper’ command module and collected valuable science data from overhead.
On the anniversary of the lunar landing, the rover science team decided to honor the Apollo 12 mission as Opportunity was driving east and chanced upon a field of small impact craters located in between vast Martian dune fields. Informal crater names are assigned by the team to craters spotted by Opportunity in the Meridiani Planum region based on the names of historic ships of exploration.
Rover science team member James Rice, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., suggested using names from Apollo 12 because of the coincidental timing according to NASA. “The Apollo missions were so inspiring when I was young, I remember all the dates. When we were approaching these craters, I realized we were getting close to the Nov. 19 anniversary for Apollo 12,” Rice said. He sent Bean and Gordon photographs that Opportunity took of the two craters named for the two Apollo 12 spaceships.
Bean wrote back the following message to the Mars Exploration Rover team: “I just talked with Dick Gordon about the wonderful honor you have bestowed upon our Apollo 12 spacecraft. Forty-one years ago today, we were approaching the moon in Yankee Clipper with Intrepid in tow. We were excited to have the opportunity to perform some important exploration of a place in the universe other than planet Earth where humans had not gone before. We were anxious to give it our best effort. You and your team have that same opportunity. Give it your best effort.”
On November 4, Opportunity drove by and imaged ‘Yankee Clipper’ crater. After driving several more days she reached ‘Intrepid’ on November 9. The rover then traversed around the crater rim and photographed the crater interior from different vantage points, collecting two panoramic views along the way.
The rover team assembled the initial tribute panoramic mosaic taken on Sol 2417 (Nov. 11) and which can be seen here in high resolution along with ‘Yankee Clipper’.
Opportunity soon departed Intrepid on Sol 2420 (Nov. 14) to resume her multi-year trek eastwards and took a series of crater images that day – from a very different direction – which we were inspired to assemble into a panoramic mosaic (in false color) in tribute to the Apollo 12 mission (see above).
Our mosaic tribute clearly shows the rover wheel tracks as Opportunity first approached Intrepid on Nov. 9 – which is fittingly reminiscent of the Apollo 12 astronauts walking on the moon 41 years ago as they explored a lunar crater. By comparison, the arrival mosaic from Sol 2417 shows distant Endeavour crater in the background.
Intrepid crater is about 16 meters in diameter, thus similar in size to ‘Eagle’ crater inside which Opportunity first landed on 24 January 2004 after a 250 million mile ‘hole in one shot’ from Earth. Eagle was named in honor of the Apollo 11 mission.
“Intrepid is fairly eroded with sand filling the interior and ejecta blocks planed off by the saltating sand”, said Matt Golembek, Mars Exploration Program Landing Site Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif. Asked about the age of Intrepid crater, Golembek told me; “Based on the erosional state it is at least several million years old, but less than around 20 million years old.”
Opportunity is blazing ahead towards a huge 22 km (14 mile) wide crater named ‘Endeavour’, which shows distinct signatures of clays and past wet environments based on orbital imagery thus making the crater a compelling science target.
“Intrepid is 1.5 km from Santa Maria crater and about 7.5 km from Endeavour.”
“We should be at Santa Maria crater next week, where we will spend the holidays and conjunction. Then it will be 6 km to Endeavour,” Golembek said.
The road ahead looks to be alot friendlier to the intrepid rover. “The terrain Opportunity is on is among the smoothest and easiest to traverse since Eagle and Endurance. Should be smooth sailing to Endeavour, averaging about 100 meters per drive sol. We should easily beat MSL to the phyllosilicates,” Golembek explained.
Phyllosilicates are clay minerals that form under wet, warm, non-acidic conditions. They have never before been studied on the Martian surface.
MSL is the Mars Science Lab, NASA’s next Mars lander mission and which is scheduled to blast off towards the end of 2011. Golembek leads the landing site selection team.
The amazing Opportunity rover has spent nearly seven years roving the Martian surface, conducting a crater tour during her very unexpectedly long journey at ‘Meridiani Planum’ on Mars which now exceeds 26 km (16 miles). The rovers were designed with a prime mission “warranty” of just 90 Martian days – or sols – and have vastly exceeded their creators expectations.
“What a ride. This still does not seem real,” Rob Manning told me. Manning headed the Entry, Descent and Landing team at JPL for both the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. “That would be fantastic if Opportunity could get to the phyllosilicates before MSL launches.”
Stay tuned.
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CAPE CANAVERAL –Engineers with the commercial space company SpaceX have analyzed two small cracks in the rear segment of the second stage engine nozzle. These cracks are located near the end of the nozzle extension where there is very little stress and so it is thought that they in themselves would not cause a flight failure. SpaceX decided that they did warrant further investigation to make sure that these cracks are not symptoms of a far larger problem.
SpaceX must have liked what they saw because the company has decided to go ahead with the launch, now scheduled for Wednesday. The launch window will open at 9 a.m. EDT and will close at 12:22 p.m. EDT.
The bell shaped Merlin Vacuum nozzle is made out of niobium sheet alloy, and is approximately 9 feet tall and 8 feet at the base. This nozzle thins out to approximately twice the thickness of a soda can near the end. Although it is composed of a refractory alloy metal and has a melting temperature high enough to boil steel, this component is, in geometric terms, the simplest component of the engine.
The niobium nozzle extension works to increase the overall efficiency of the Merlin engine while on-orbit. For this first flight of the Dragon, this efficiency is not required, but the component was placed on the rocket’s second stage by default.
SpaceX is launching the first of its Dragon spacecraft on the first demonstration flight under the $1.6 billion Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contract that the space firm has with NASA. Under this contract SpaceX is required to fly three demonstration flights before conducting 12 supply missions to the International Space Station (ISS).
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CAPE CANAVERAL – When we think of NASA, the first thing that most Americans picture is the men and women of the astronaut corps. It turns out that the White House has been thinking about them as well – as maybe something that might need to be cut down. The Obama administration has requested a 10-month long study be held to determine the appropriate ‘size’ of NASA’s astronaut corps.
There are only two (and a potential third) shuttle flights remaining on the current manifest.
Right now, NASA has 64 astronauts, which some might consider a bit much if very few will be flying to space. However, if three NASA astronauts are part of each 6-member, 6-month Expedition on the International Space Station from 2011-2017 (the projected time period when NASA will be unable to launch their own astronauts) that still is 36 astronauts with a mission to space.
But the proposal to cut NASA’s astronaut corps comes on the heels of numerous successive cuts that the space agency has endured over the past year. Many view the loss of the corps as one more blow to both spaceflight experience as well as national prestige.
The White House hopes that commercial space companies such as SpaceX, which is slated to launch the second of its Falcon 9 rockets sometime this week, will emerge to fill the void created by NASA’s absence. However, to date, none of these firms have launched an astronaut into orbit. During the interim, and until NASA can build its own heavy lift vehicle, the US space agency is relying on — and paying — the Russians to bring US astronauts to the ISS via the Soyuz.
There has never been more than 150 astronauts at any given time (the most ever was 149 back in 2000). Although most Americans assume that NASA has a massive budget, for what the agency does and provides, it is incredibly small, about one-seventh of a penny out of every tax dollar helps to pay for the ISS, the shuttle program, the probes and rovers to the planets and the astronaut’s salaries. The agency’s budget is currently $18.7 billion a year. The 47 civilian astronauts earn between $65,000 and $100,000 annually, with the remaining military astronauts being paid through the Department of Defense (DoD) which NASA reimburses.
The National Academies is the organization that will conduct the review of the astronaut corps and they are leaving no stone unturned, even the T-38 ‘Talon’ jets that the astronauts fly in, are coming under scrutiny. These jets are not state-of-the-art fighters, but rather training aircraft that date back to the beginning of the space age. These planes, equipment and facilities used to train astronauts and the current number of astronauts will all be reviewed.
“I still don’t know how many folks are in the queue and were not selected for shuttle, ” said two-time shuttle astronaut Robert Springer. “If you are in the program and there is little or no chance to fly in the next 4-8 years that’s too bad, but it’s not the first time this has happened, and if you like the environment, working with some of the greatest people in the business, it can lead to challenging working on the next great enterprise.”
But some have a different idea of how NASA could cut costs.
“You know, if Obama really wanted to cut waste at NASA – he’d start with headquarters,” said a long-time NASA employee who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. “That place is stocked with GS-15s – who really don’t do much of anything!” He said referring to the government pay grade of many of the high-level officials that work at NASA’s headquarters in Washington D.C.
