December 29, 2018

Union Rep: NASA Workers Not Supportive of Shutdown as Trump Claims (Source: Houston Chronicle)
The more than 16,000 NASA employees still out of work as the federal government shutdown stretched into day five do not support it, a union representing federal workers said Wednesday -- despite President Donald Trump's claims that they do. "We have not heard from a single member who supports the president's inaction," the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers said in a statement Wednesday. "Most view this as an act of ineptitude."

On Saturday, a partial government shutdown -- which includes NASA, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security -- went into effect as Trump held firm on his demands that Congress provide funds for a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. The shutdown impacts 800,000 of the 2.1 million federal workers nationwide, including 16,700 NASA employees, which accounts for 96 percent of the workforce.

Trump has argued that federal workers support the shutdown, saying Tuesday, "Many of those workers have said to me and communicated, 'stay out until you get the funding for the wall.' These federal workers want the wall, " according to an ABC News story published on Christmas Day. In its statement, the union said Trump needs to stop "gambling with the lives of federal workers." (12/26)

What is SpaceX Doing in South Texas? (Source: The Hill)
Something is happening at the SpaceX space port in Boca Chica in far South Texas that could change the world. Space News reports that a test article of the Big Falcon Rocket’s upper stage, dubbed “Starship,” is under construction at the SpaceX launch facility. The test rocket will be as wide as the operational Starship rocket but not as tall.

Piecing together the test vehicle in late 2018 is significant because test flights, essentially hops into the air and back, may happen earlier than expected. Previously, SpaceX had announced that the hop-test flights would occur in late 2019. Now the Starship test article may fly as early as April 2019. Another interesting detail is that the test Starship is being fabricated from stainless steel and not a carbon composite, which modern rocket ships tend to be made of.

“That metal,” the CEO of SpaceX Elon Musk told Space News, “is stainless steel, in particular a family of alloys called 300 Series, known to maintain its strength at high temperatures.” Despite being heavier than carbon composites, Musk said that stainless steel offered ‘slightly better’ strength-to-weight performance at cryogenic temperatures, needed for the vehicle’s liquid oxygen propellant tanks, and was “vastly better” at high temperatures. He acknowledged that steel was worse than carbon composite at room temperatures. Click here. (12/28)

Disruptive, Disappointing, Chaotic: Shutdown Upends Scientific Research (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
A week after President Trump rejected a bipartisan spending deal because it did not allocate billions of dollars for a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, the government shutdown continues. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees and contractors must stay at home without pay. The furlough will probably persist into the new year, which would mean a rocky start to 2019 for American science.

Just after midnight on New Year's Day, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is scheduled for a historic encounter with a faraway space rock called ultima Thule, the most distant object ever explored by humans. At the time, about 95 percent of NASA employees -- everyone except those deemed essential -- will be at home, furloughed without pay.

The partial shutdown has also affected operations at NOAA, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Agriculture Department. In Washington and around the country, thousands of furloughed government scientists are prohibited from checking on experiments, performing observations, collecting data, conducting tests or sharing their results. Not only does the government employ researchers, but many scientists at academic and private institutions depend on federal funding for their jobs. If the budget impasse extends into the new year, scientists say, it will harm critical research. (12/28)