As of 12:00 am this morning , the American Government is offline . Federal employees , besides those deemed absolutely necessary to the essential operations of cabinet - level departments and Union agencies , have been furloughed indefinitely . Amongthe federal divisions deemed unessential during the shutdownis NASA . Here ’s a breakdown of how the Agency is weather this governmental sh*tstorm ( and on its birthday , no less ) .
http://gawker.com/as-of-midnight-the-federal-government-has-shut-down-1431768798
OFFLINE: 97% of NASA’s 18,134 Employees
Yesterday , Obama said NASA would“shut down almost entirely”if Congress failed to evade the budget impasse . That translates to all but a few hundred of the Agency ’s employees being put on furlough .
http://observationdeck.io9.com/nasa-will-shut-down-almost-entirely-1429576762/@charliejane
ONLINE: The International Space Station
NASA flight engineersKaren NybergandMike Hopkinsremain on the job aboard the ISS .
ONLINE: Mission Control in Houston
The government is n’t so hardhearted as to forget Nyberg , Hopkinsand their fellow space - farersfending for themselves up there . Of the few hundred NASA employees not on furlough , most of them will be run to stomach the astronaut aboard humanity ’s orbital frontier settlement .
“ To protect the life of the crew as well as the plus themselves , we would proceed to support planned operations of the ISS during any funding hiatus , ” say NASA ’s eventuality plan . “ Moreover , NASA will be nearly monitor the impact of an lengthy closing to determine if crew exile orcargo resupply servicesare required to mitigate at hand threats to sprightliness and property on the ISS or other sphere . ”
mouth of ISS resupply services – right thing SpaceX does n’t shutterin the event of a authorities shutdown , amirite?Chalk another one up to privatized aerospace .
https://gizmodo.com/aaaaand-spacex-just-scored-its-very-first-military-cont-5966198
https://gizmodo.com/with-current-budget-nasa-will-never-get-to-mars-514301367
OFFLINE:NASA.gov
seemingly , the Agency has resolve to keep its 55th birthday by shut down all internet site host at the NASA.gov . Or rather , almost all of them …
ONLINE:JPL.NASA.gov
As of this posting , the website forthe very obviously NASA - affiliate Jet Propulsion Laboratoryis still online . [ UPDATE ] The internet site features the next posting on its front Thomas Nelson Page ( see also the above screenshot ):
ViaNASAWATCH :
JPL folks are making an illegal expending of tax funds to keep their overtly official NASA.gov website online . JPL is just another NASA contractor and eyeshade NASA for everything finally w / overhead – just like all of the other declarer . Why does JPL guide thing when other contractors are shut down ? Guess they did not get the memorandum – or they just ignore it .
stand by it to the gentleman , huh ? We care it . Other NASA project internet site still online as of this posting :
LVIS ( dry land , Vegetation and Ice Sensor )
Kepler ( hooray ! )
NASA Advanced Supercomputer Division
ONLINE: Currently Operating Spacecraft
Scientific spacecraft currently in surgical process will be assert , and their datum stored for posterior analysis . Just do n’t expect to hear anything about what they ’re up to :
https://twitter.com/embed/status/384887422477430784
OFFLINE: Future Missions
“ If asatellitemission has not yet been launched , work will broadly speaking stop on that project , ” states NASA ’s shutdown plan . “ The extent of support necessary and the fourth dimension need to safely cease labor activity will look on whether any of the activities are of a risky nature ( e.g. , part of the satellite may ask to be cooled ) . ”
Among the missionary work that could be affect : MAVEN . The next expectant delegation to Mars , the MAVEN orbiter designed to study the disappearance of Mars ’s atmosphere from the planet ’s orbit . According to Dwane Brown , Senior Public Affairs Officer at NASA , ” “ a closing could delay the pre - launch processing presently under direction with a possible impact to the schedule Nov. 18 launch date . ”
https://gizmodo.com/nasa-shutdown-may-trash-next-big-mars-mission-1433974074
That ’s VERY bad news . Launch opportunities to Mars only come around once every 26 months or so , and remain open for a very short time windowpane . If MAVEN misses this launching windowpane ( which traverse from November 18th to December 7th ) , it ’ll have to wait for the next opportunity in early 2016 , costingNASA ’s already cash - welt Planetary Science Divisiontens of million of dollar .
https://gizmodo.com/how-is-the-sequester-affecting-science-in-america-1283470414
OFFLINE: Asteroid Watch (Twitter Account)
The Twitter account for NASA ’s Near Earth Object Office , which orchestrates the Agency ’s efforts to discover and track potentially risky near - Earth objects , is formally offline :
nobody tell the asteroid MT@AsteroidWatchIf govt shuts down , we wo nt post or reply fm this acct.sincerely hope to re-start tweets soon
— Heather Hurlburt ( @natsecHeather)October 1 , 2013
ONLINE: Actual Asteroid Detection
After Twitter devolved into hysteric over its initial announcement , @AsteroidWatch quickly clarified :
To clarify : Many observatories , stargazer are look on the skies . Updated lean of Near - Earth object athttp://t.co/mGzjwg6zQm
— NASA Asteroid Watch ( @AsteroidWatch)October 1 , 2013
Among those uranologist and observatory : the non - government organisation Minor Plant Center ( which manages worldwide observations of asteroids and comets ) , which had this to say of the closedown :
The US Government is shutting down , but the MPC will rest open for business as common – the Universe knows nothing of mankind ' fiddling political sympathies
— Minor Planet Center ( @MinorPlanetCtr)October 1 , 2013
learn , get wind , Minor Planet Center . Hear , try .
AstronomyAstrophysicsGovernment ShutdownMarsNASAScienceSpace
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