Pentagon, NASA to spend $44 billion on space launches through 2018: GAO

Tourists take pictures of a NASA sign at the Kennedy Space Center visitors complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida April 14, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria

WASHINGTON | Mon Sep 9, 2013 7:42pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department and NASA expect to spend about $44 billion to launch government satellites and other spacecraft over the next five years, including $28 billion in procurement funding, the Government Accountability Office said on Monday.

The GAO, a congressional watchdog agency, said it was difficult to determine exact funding plans because both agencies used different accounting methods, but it arrived at the combined total by analyzing Pentagon and NASA budget documents, and looking at funding from other government agencies.

GAO said the projected funding data was an initial step toward answering a larger request from lawmakers who question the steep cost of space launches, and why efforts to inject more competition have not gotten more traction.

"Defense and civilian government agencies together expect to require significant funding, nearly $44 billion, in 'then-year' dollars that factor in anticipated future inflation, for launch-related activities from fiscal years 2014 through 2018," the agency said in a letter to the investigations subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who chairs the investigations subcommittee, and John McCain, the top Republican on the panel, had asked GAO to investigate space launch funding to get a better handle on the overall government effort.

GAO said it would continue to look into the larger question surrounding "impediments to economical procurement of government launch vehicles and launch services."

The Pentagon and NASA have sought in recent years to introduce more competition to the space launch business, which is largely dominated by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, the Pentagon's two largest suppliers.

Orbital Sciences Corp and privately held Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, are trying to break into the market for launching large government satellites into space.

In a letter to the Levin and McCain, GAO said it hoped the aggregated data would help "inform plans to lower launch costs, increase competition, and invest in new programs."

GAO said planned procurement funding of $28 billion accounted for about 65 percent of the total amount through fiscal 2018, with the Pentagon accounting for about $16 billion of that amount.

Combined research, development and testing activities accounted for about $11 billion, or 26 percent, according to the GAO letter. NASA accounts for the lion's share of that projected funding, or $10.5 billion, including about $7 billion on its work on a launch vehicle and the ground systems needed to support human exploration of deep space.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Ken Wills)

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Cold cases heat up through new approach to identifying remains

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China through David Beckham’s eyes

SINGAPORE - David Beckham’s been busy post-retirement – he’s currently on a week-long tour in China as ambassador to the Chinese Super League.

And, oh, he’s also posting selfies on his brand new Sina Weibo account.

The 38-year-old’s posts range from photos of himself looking dapper in a private jet – “Landed in Nanjing, a city I have never been to before. I’ve been told it’s 95 degrees!” – to simple observations about his trip – “Love Beijing, although not his traffic jam. Had a good day so far”.

Beckham also held a question and answer session with followers on Weibo, responding to fan queries about his trip and his favourite sports-related hobbies.

But the former England captain denied reports that he’s been approached by NFL (America’s National Football League) scouts.

“That is not true. In terms of rugby, I think I may be too old now,” he posted in reply to a fan’s question.

Even though the football superstar’s only been microblogging for two days, he already has close to half a million followers.

Beckham’s also following six other Weibo users at the moment, including the Chinese Super League and his wife Victoria Beckham, who has more than 1.3 million followers.

Click on the photos for a glimpse of Beckham’s Weibo posts.

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NASA Views Landing Site through Eyes of Future Moon Crew

This movie is a simulation of the amount of solar illumination in the south polar region of moon over a solar day generated using high resolution topography.
+ Play animation (Quicktime - 1.6Mb) February 27, 2008

PASADENA, Calif. - NASA has obtained the highest resolution terrain mapping to date of the moon's rugged south polar region, with a resolution to 20 meters (66 feet) per pixel. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., collected the data using the Deep Space Network's Goldstone Solar System Radar located in California's Mojave Desert. The imagery generated by the data has been incorporated into animation depicting the descent to the lunar surface of a future human lunar lander and a flyover of Shackleton Crater.

The mapping data collected indicate that the region of the moon's south pole near Shackleton Crater is much more rugged than previously understood. The Shackleton rim area is considered a candidate landing site for a future human mission to the moon.

"The south pole of the moon certainly would be a beautiful place to explore," said Doug Cooke, deputy associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, Washington. "We now know the south pole has peaks as high as Mt. McKinley and crater floors two and a half times deeper than the Grand Canyon. There are challenges that come with such rugged terrain, and these data will be an invaluable tool for advance planning of lunar missions."

Three times during a six-month period in 2006, scientists targeted the moon's south polar region using Goldstone's 70-meter (230-foot) radar dish. The antenna, three-quarters the size of a football field, sent a 500-kilowatt-strong, 90-minute-long radar stream 373,046 kilometers (231,800 miles) to the moon. The radar bounced off the rough-hewn lunar terrain over an area measuring about 644 kilometers by 402 kilometers (400 miles by 250 miles). Signals were reflected back to two of Goldstone's 34-meter (112-foot) antennas on Earth. The roundtrip time, from the antenna to the moon and back, was about two-and-a-half seconds.

"I have not been to the moon, but this imagery is the next best thing," said Scott Hensley, a scientist at JPL and lead investigator for the study. "With these data we can see terrain features as small as a house without even leaving the office."

Previously, the best topographic resolution of the moon's south pole was generated in 1997 by a team lead by Cornell University scientist Jean-Luc Margot also using Goldstone. Margot's team produced topographic maps of the lunar south pole with spatial resolution of 150 meters (490 feet) and a vertical accuracy of 50 meters (165 feet). The new resolution generated by JPL provides more than three times finer spatial resolution and 10 times finer vertical accuracy than the 1997 data.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will provide the next generation of lunar imaging and data. The spacecraft is scheduled to launch in late 2008. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera will retrieve high-resolution images of the moon's surface and lunar poles with resolutions to 1 meter (3.3 feet). These images will provide knowledge of polar illumination conditions, identify potential resources and hazards, and enable safe landing site selection. Other instruments aboard the orbiter will return data such as temperature maps, ultraviolet images, characterization of radiation on the moon and a high-resolution 3-D map. NASA's quest for up-to-date imagery of the moon also will benefit from international missions such as Japan's Selene robotic probe.

Funding for the program was provided by NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate.

To view animation, terrain maps of the moon's south pole and images from this story, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/exploration/mmb/022708.html .

Video animation developed from the high-resolution imaging also will air on NASA Television. For NASA TV downlink and schedule information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv .

JPL manages the Goldstone Solar System Radar and the Deep Space Network for NASA. To learn more about them, visit: http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn .

For information about NASA's exploration program to return humans to the moon, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration .

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle@jpl.nasa.gov

Stephanie Schierholz/Beth Dickey 202-358-4997/2087
NASA Headquarters, Washington
stephanie.schierholz@nasa.gov, beth.dickey-1@nasa.gov

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