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NASA officials this morning said the agency is not retreating from human space flight. The agency was responding to critics who contended that President Barack Obama's proposed 2011 budget, released yesterday, would end all such programs and thus result in a serious decline in the US space program.
The space agency had announced yesterday that Obama's plan would scrap NASA's latest plan to return humans to the moon by 2020. The budget instead aims to turn NASA's immediate attention to developing new engines, in-space fuel depots and robots that can venture out into space, paving the way for future missions that would return humans to the lunar surface.Bolden said he supports the new Obama administration budget plan, which calls for NASA to hire private companies to build space taxis that would shuttle astronauts to the International Space Station. The old Constellation plan, which already has cost $9 billion, was behind schedule, and was projected to ultimately be over budget.Bolden also publicly thanked the people who worked for several years on the Constellation project.

In cold-weather cities such as Denver and Chicago, de-icing airplanes is as ubiquitous as the season's blizzards and freezing temperatures.
But the frost and ice that has delayed a number of flights out of San Jose and other Bay Area airports this week are so uncommon that airports here are left scrambling to dust off little-used equipment. And one airline, Southwest in San Jose, dealt with frost California Style: It towed planes to sunny spots and let them soak up the sun, a process one official described as "solar de-icing."
"If we use it more than once a year, it's a busy year," San Francisco International Airport spokesman Mike McCarron said of de-icing equipment. "Most airlines rely on solar de-icing.Delta and American have de-icing equipment at San Jose Mineta International Airport, and other airlines lease the equipment.No records were broken Wednesday but in San Jose, the low was a frigid 30 degrees that caused a second day of flight delays at area airports when "de-icing" entered the Bay Area weather lexicon like the unwelcome cold.In San Francisco, Delta and American airlines are the only carriers that have their own equipment. Tuesday and Wednesday, both carriers de-iced their early morning flights, McCarron said. Delays were less than an hour for no more than six flights at the airport, McCarron said.
The process of de-icing planes is relatively easy, Smith said. The equipment used by American Airlines is similar to a bucket truck used to repair telephone poles, and is attached to a tank filled with a heated ethylene glycol solution. Workers blast the plane with a high-pressure hose, a process that typically takes between 15 to 20 minutes, Smith said. In cities where snow and colder temperatures are the norm, a thicker, gel-like anti-icing fluid is applied to the plane.Vossbrink said airlines spend about $1,500 to de-ice a plane.

As the first of six episodes, Science for a Hungry World: Part 1 sets the groundwork for explaining why NASA data is critical to ensure a stable global food system.which allows scientists and governments to see the health of crops on a global scale. This video reinforces the idea that a unique perspective from space is essential for continuous global agricultural monitoring and accurate forecasting.