sad anniversary for Nasa . Since Tuesday 1 st October, the day of his 55 th anniversary, the U.S. space agency idling. Without an agreement to Congress on the U.S. budget, the federal agencies have been ordered to downsize the subsistence minimum. Thus, 97% of employees of NASA had to their boxes. Until further notice, only 549 of the 18,250 employees are active. It is the staff necessary for the operation of the International Space Station (ISS ) and the safety of his crew and the staff to ensure the smooth running of some satellite missions.
Nasa tweets more. Until USA will be in the budget impasse, NASA no longer feed its website and will post or comment, or pictures on social networks. The budget deficit and private information and pictures about following his Twitter account 5 million people. In a final comment, posted Tuesday 1 st October, the space agency apologized for not being able to tweet or respond to subscribers during the “shutdown”.
ISS remains in contact with the Earth. American Karen Nyberg and Mike Hopkins were already in the area when the “shutdown” started (they are on board Space Station respectively since May 28, 2013 and September 25, 2013). It does not matter that they cut contact with the Earth, as the control center of space travel, called “Mission Control” and moved to Houston, continues to operate during the “shutdown”. While NASA has stopped feeding the social networks, but there is no reason for all the astronauts to miss. Stationed at 400 km above the Earth, Mike Hopkins posted on October 2 a nice photo of clouds taken from space. However, he made no reference to the consequences of budgetary stalemate.
astronauts may not be paid. NASA employees involved in the “shutdown” are prohibited from coming to work. Those who are traveling in a professional mission order to return home. An internal memo from NASA says they are not paid during the budget impasse, and it is not certain they are paid retroactively when the “shutdown” has ended. These provisions also apply, for those who are stuck in space? The two residents of the ISS may not be paid until the United States will not be out of the budget impasse.
deserted the station provided by the Russians. “shutdown” does not mean that the ISS astronauts are stuck there. Teams will be replaced in due course, to the extent that it is the Russians who are responsible for ensuring access to the station with their Soyuz spacecraft. Currently Nyberg and Hopkins share the scene with four teammates (three Russians and one Italian). And for security reasons, “we must consider the possibility, in case of prolonged shutdown, to send a mission to the ISS supply or relief, if necessary,” warned Elizabeth Robinson, the chief financial officer Nasa.
Curiosity is not technically unemployed. A spokesman for NASA first announced by mistake Curiosity (the robot exploring Mars) would be set day and no more data is transmitted to Earth until further notice. In reality, NASA probes (including Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Opportunity, or Cassini) continue to operate, reports the International Business Times U.S. site. They are controlled remotely by engineers on the ground at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), co-funded by NASA and a private institute, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) institution. And these experts are paid by the Caltech and not by the federal government: they are not technically unemployed
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future missions are compromised. Unless the tasks are already terminally ill, they are doomed to end when “shutdown”. The MAVEN probe designed to study the atmosphere of Mars, must undergo final testing before its launch scheduled for 18 November 2013. The mission could be delayed if the budget deficit does not stop quickly.
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