Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:

I am very pleased to have this opportunity today to share with you some recent Space Science highlights and to give you a glimpse of the exciting projects that are ahead. I look forward to working with you, Mr. Chairman, and all of the Members of this Subcommittee to ensure the ongoing success of NASA’s Space Science program.

In my testimony today, I will share with you some recent Space Science highlights, provide an overview of what we have planned in the year ahead, and discuss the contents of the FY 2000 budget request for NASA's Space Science Enterprise.

All of our endeavors in Space Science are aimed at the ultimate goal of providing answers to these fundamental questions:

With each space science discovery we get a little closer to the answers.

Mr. Chairman, right now the Space Science Enterprise is in the middle of one of the busiest, most ambitious times in our history. Beginning with the launch of the Deep Space 1 mission on October 24, 1998, the Space Science Enterprise entered a nine-month period in which it will have ten launches. Six missions have already been launched successfully:

Deep Space 1: First in a series of missions focused on validating new spacecraft technologies to enable more capable space science missions in the future. Deep Space l is testing 12 advanced technologies, the leading example being the first ever use of an electric ion engine as main propulsion for a spacecraft in the environment of deep space, by performing a flyby mission of Asteroid 1992 KD.

STS-95 Payloads: Four space science payloads lifted off on October 28, 1999: Spartan 201-5, a free flyer to investigate the solar corona; the Hubble Orbital Systems Test, to validate key technologies and equipment to be installed during the next servicing mission; a cryogenic thermal storage unit to test thermal controls in space; and the International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker payload, which had a number of different space science experiments.

Mars ’98 Surveyors: Mars Climate Orbiter was launched on December 11, 1998 and Mars Polar Lander on January 3, 1999; both are part of our on-going program to further characterize and understand the Martian environment.

Deep Space 2: a piggyback mission that flew with Mars Polar Lander will send 2 microprobes to the surface of Mars.

Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS): SWAS was launched on December 5, 1998, aboard a Pegasus rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Its primary objective is to survey water, molecular oxygen, carbon, and isotopic carbon monoxide emission in a variety of galactic star-forming regions.

Stardust: The first U.S. robotic sample-return mission, Stardust launched just a few days ago from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to obtain a sample of primordial solar system constituents from the comet Wild-2.

Later this month we will launch the Widefield Infrared Explorer (WIRE), which will conduct a four-month infrared survey of the universe, focusing specifically on starburst galaxies and luminous protogalaxies. In April, we will launch the Tomographic Experiment using Radiative Recombinative Ionospheric EUV and Radio Sources (TERRIERS) spacecraft, a unique combination of satellite and ground-based instrumentation which will make unprecedented daily global measurements of the Earth's ionosphere and thermosphere. In late May or early June, we will launch the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE). This is an Origins mission to explore the Universe using the technique of high-resolution spectroscopy in the far-ultraviolet spectral region in order to understand the conditions during the first few minutes after the Big Bang.

To round out this busy launch period, we hope to launch AXAF, recently renamed the Chandra X-ray Observatory, aboard STS-93 in the July timeframe. Chandra will be the third of NASA’s four Great Observatories and will address fundamental questions in science by obtaining x-ray images of astronomical objects such as neutron stars, black hole candidates, quasars, and active galaxies.

As the Committee is aware, the prime contractor on the Chandra mission, TRW, experienced difficulty in the electrical functional checkout of the observatory last year. Consequently, we experienced an 8-month launch delay. In recent months, technical problems with circuit boards identical to those in Chandra were discovered in another, non-NASA satellite. Testing is underway on these circuit boards, and I assure you that we will not launch the Observatory until we have thoroughly tested all boards and are comfortable that every precaution has been taken to ensure mission success. At this time, we anticipate the launch of Chandra no earlier than July.

These ten missions, launched in nine short months, represent all four space science disciplines: the Astronomical Search for Origins, Solar System Exploration, Sun-Earth Connection, and Structure and Evolution of the Universe. It’s a very exciting time to be part of the Space Science Enterprise. They also include extensive scientific collaboration with international partners.

Aside from all of the launch and new mission excitement, I am happy to report that our existing missions and programs continued to be very productive in the past year and have rewarded us with a great deal of new and exciting science.

Mars Surveyor Program

The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), which was launched in November 1996 and entered Mars orbit in September 1997, continues to send us a wealth of detailed information about Mars’ surface, atmosphere, and gravitational and magnetic fields.

Results from MGS (coupled with results from Mars Pathfinder) suggest that the planet may have been thermally active and awash with water in its early history. This finding implies that water was stable at or near the surface and that a thicker atmosphere existed in Mars’ early history. MGS data also indicate active polar processes on Mars and show many Earth-like features, such active dunes and ice caps. We look forward to more exciting results as MGS enters its one-year mapping phase of the Red Planet.

The Mars Surveyor Program doesn’t end with the Mars Global Surveyor, the Program includes a series of small missions designed to resume the detailed exploration of Mars by either orbiting or landing on the planet. Two missions will be launched approximately every two years, leading to an anticipated sample return mission in 2005.

The Mars Surveyor '98 program, consisting of an orbiter and lander launched in December and January respectively, is the next generation of spacecraft to be sent on our long-term program to explore Mars. These missions will add to the knowledge gained by the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Pathfinder missions. The general science theme for the 1998 Surveyor missions is "Volatiles and Climate History." The Mars Climate Orbiter will use a series of aerobraking maneuvers to achieve a stable orbit, and then use atmospheric instruments and cameras to provide detailed information about the surface and climate of Mars. The Mars Polar Lander is equipped with cameras, a robotic arm and instruments to measure the Martian soil composition. Two small microprobes are also piggybacking on the lander, which will penetrate into the Martian subsurface to detect water ice.

The 2001 Mars Surveyor Orbiter/Lander is a partnership between NASA’s Space Science Enterprise and Human Exploration and Development of Space Enterprise to characterize surface composition and mineralogy, to study dust, soil and radiation conditions and test technologies for producing propellant. The 2003 Mars Surveyor Lander will characterize terrain, scientifically select samples for return to Earth, and place them in orbit around Mars. The 2005 Mars Sample Return mission, which will be a partnership with the French Space Agency (CNES) includes a lander to collect scientifically selected samples and place them in Mars orbit, and an orbiter to return the samples collected by the 2003 and 2005 missions to Earth for analysis by 2008. We anticipate that these missions will continue to involve a number of international partners.

The President’s FY 2000 budget request greatly increases the scientific return of the base Mars Surveyor Program with two new program elements. The first Mars Micromissions, will take advantage of piggyback opportunities in the 2003 and 2005 launches to test new rover miniaturization technologies and target high priority science at low cost. Mars Micromissions will competitively select new rover concepts, such as Mars airplanes and balloons, and provide launch opportunities for the second new program element, the Mars Network. Because of the orientation and spin on the Earth and Mars, we are currently able to communicate with mars landers and rover for only ten minutes each day. By putting microsatellites in orbit around Mars, the goals of the Mars Network is to provide nearly continuous internet-quality, data relays that will allow greatly magnified science return and increased education and exploration opportunities for the public.

Galileo

Further out into the Solar System, Galileo continues to orbit Jupiter, and provide us with new insights into the giant planet, its magnetosphere, and its four major moons. In December 1997, Galileo completed its two-year "Prime Mission" at Jupiter. It then began the "Galileo Europa Mission" (GEM) phase, a low-cost continued exploration of the Jovian system focused on detailed observations to provide clues as to whether or not Europa has a sub-surface liquid ocean, a key solar system origins objective.

Ten years after its launch, Galileo continues to provide insights into the mysteries of Jupiter and its moons by delivering high-resolution data and imagery like that received during the most recent Europa flyby. New evidence now suggests that Callisto may also have a liquid ocean under its icy, cratered crust. And recent images sent by Galileo show how Jupiter’s intricate, swirling ring system is formed by dust kicked up as interplanetary meteoroids smash into the giant planet’s four inner moons.

Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope continued its impressive performance. A "long exposure" infrared image taken with the NICMOS camera has allowed astronomers to peer into a previously unseen realm of the universe and uncover the faintest galaxies ever seen. Some of these galaxies are over 12 billion light years away, making them the farthest objects ever seen, and giving us a glimpse of the Universe as a "toddler," when it was only 5% as old as it is today.

Astronomers have also obtained an unprecedented look at the nearest example of galactic cannibalism -- a massive black hole hidden at the center of the nearby giant galaxy Centaurus A that is feeding on a smaller galaxy in a spectacular collision. Such fireworks were common in the more compact early universe, as galaxies formed and evolved, but are rare today. In these images, blue clusters of newborn stars and silhouettes of dust filaments are interspersed with blazing orange-glowing gas. Hubble's infrared vision has penetrated this wall of dust for the first time to see a twisted disk of hot gas swept up in the black hole's gravitational whirlpool.

During the STS-95 mission last fall, a suite of new instruments and technologies were tested to ensure the success of Hubble’s third servicing mission currently planned for spring 2000. Everything performed beautifully. The timing of the third servicing mission is under review due to the AXAF schedule slip. We expect to have a firm launch date soon and are currently working toward a June 2000 servicing mission launch. The upgrades to Hubble will ensure that this magnificent observatory continues to deliver dramatic science results into the new millennium.

NEAR

The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft, launched in 1996, is continuing on its three-year journey to rendezvous with and orbit the asteroid Eros to provide us with our first comprehensive scientific survey of a near-Earth asteroid. Scientists suspect that asteroids contain clues to the nature of the building blocks from which the inner planets, including Earth, were formed.

NEAR was scheduled to encounter Eros in January of this year; however, the spacecraft's first attempted rendezvous burn was aborted on Dec. 20, 1998, just seconds after the settling burn was completed. An investigation by mission personnel revealed that the brief engine burn exceeded certain safety limits associated with the onboard system that autonomously controls the spacecraft. This resulted in the engine abort. Reprogramming of the values was completed and the spacecraft successfully completed the necessary burn on January 3. Despite the delay, NEAR is expected to complete all its science objectives.

In fact, NEAR did perform a flyby of Eros and obtained images revealing a ridge 12 miles long and two craters bigger than 4 miles across on this cigar-shaped asteroid.

Cassini/Huygens

The Cassini/Huygens mission, which was launched in October 1997, is continuing on its seven-year journey to Saturn to explore the entire Saturn system, most notably, the mysterious moon Titan.

In April 1998, Cassini made its first gravity-assist fly-by of Venus, and later this year it will make its first Earth swing-by.

Cassini recently went into a four-day safe-hold. Engineers have determined that a particular geometry that the spacecraft experienced during a very slow roll maneuver was responsible for placing it into "safe" mode on January 11, 1999. Commands radioed to the spacecraft put it back into operational mode on January 15, 1999.

Let me assure the Committee that the Cassini spacecraft going into safe mode at anytime during the mission does not have a bearing on the safety of the Earth swing-by. NASA has designed the Cassini mission to be safe even if the spacecraft goes into safe mode during a trajectory burn. Not even the loss of spacecraft power or loss of engines could cause Cassini to impact Earth. Cassini’s location is tracked through NASA’s global deep space network, and as Cassini approaches the Earth swingby its location will be accurately known. More importantly, Cassini’s trajectory is never targeted at Earth, but always aimed away, this is why if we lose spacecraft power or communication even during a trajectory burn the spacecraft would safely fly by the Earth. To ensure the accuracy of our calculations, all of our analysis for the flyby was subjected to outside independent reviews. Experts from a number of government agencies, academia and many world-class national laboratories concluded that JPL’s assessment methods were sound and accurate.

SOHO

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory has certainly had an impressive, but challenging year.

In June of last year, SOHO, a joint NASA/ESA mission revealed a rare celestial spectacle: two comets plunging into the Sun’s atmosphere in close succession. In July, scientists confirmed for the first time that solar flares produce seismic waves in the Sun's interior that resemble those created by earthquakes. They observed a flare-generated solar quake that contained about 40,000 times the energy released in the great 1906 earthquake that devastated San Francisco. (The amount of energy released was enough to power the United States for 20 years at its current level of consumption and was equivalent to an 11.3 magnitude earthquake.) Scientists found the telltale seismic signature in data on the Sun's surface.

Shortly after revealing this amazing discovery, ground controllers lost contact with the SOHO spacecraft and the satellite went into Emergency Sun Reacquisition (ESR) mode. The ESR mode is activated when an anomaly occurs and the spacecraft loses its orientation towards the Sun. After six weeks of silence, contact was re-established with SOHO in early August. This was a testament to the hard work of a very talented group of people. Unfortunately, in December 1998, SOHO went into safe mode again after losing its one remaining gyro. SOHO remained in safe hold until the end of January while engineers generated new procedures for operation without gyros. On February 2, SOHO resumed making scientific observations. The spacecraft has sufficient thruster fuel remaining for continued operation for at least five years.

Compton Gamma Ray Observatory

The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) continues to make observations of gamma ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the Universe. Gamma ray bursts have now been found to come from the most distant galaxies; scientists next hope to determine the sources of such incredible energy.

Just a few weeks ago, scientists for the first time obtained data on the visible light that is emitted at the same time as a gamma-ray burst. The optical counterpart was so bright that it could have been seen in the night sky with a simple pair of binoculars.

In other related astrophysics news, the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer recently confirmed the existence of a special class of neutron stars, now dubbed "magnetars." Magnetars are dense balls of super-heavy matter, no larger than a city, but weighing more than the Sun. They have the greatest magnetic field known in the Universe, so intense that it powers a steady glow of X-rays from the star's surface, often punctuated by brief, intense gamma-ray flashes, and occasionally by cataclysmic flares like the one observed on August 27, 1998. On that date, an intense wave of gamma rays, emanating from a catastrophic magnetic flare on a mysterious star 20,000 light years away, struck the Earth's atmosphere, providing important clues about some of the most unusual stars in the Universe.

Lunar Prospector

The Lunar Prospector mission, launched in January 1998, was NASA’s first attempt to study the moon in 25 years. The mission is shedding new light on the Earth’s only natural satellite. Mission scientists see evidence that water ice may exist at both the north and south poles of the Moon – perhaps as much as six billion metric tons of water ice, a more than ten-fold increase over initial estimates. Lunar Prospector also detected strong, localized, lunar magnetic fields, and gave us our first complete gravity map of the Moon.

TRACE

The Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) is exploring the three-dimensional magnetic structures that emerge through the visible surface of the Sun - the Photosphere - and define both the geometry and dynamics of the upper solar atmosphere: the Transition Region and Corona. In May 1998, the first images from TRACE revealed activity in the solar atmosphere in stunning detail and include the first detailed observations of a magnetic energy release, called a magnetic reconnection.

Strategic Planning

One of the reasons for the success that the Space Science Enterprise has enjoyed over the past few years has been the development and implementation of our Space Science Enterprise Strategic Plan. Working both internally and with our peers in the space science community, we developed a comprehensive, well-thought-out strategic plan that has kept the concept of faster, better, cheaper at the forefront and helped us streamline our missions and their associated costs, while maintaining or increasing our scientific capability.

That document has been a guiding force for Space Science, but like all living documents, it is now time for a review and update to ensure that the Space Science Enterprise continues down this successful path. We are gearing up for the next edition of the Strategic Plan and will once again include input from our peers in the science community during its development.

Technology

The Space Science Enterprise continues to maintain a robust technology program that will enable us to meet the challenges of the 21^st century. The goal of this program is to develop the critical technologies and new mission concepts required to enhance space exploration, expand our knowledge of the universe, and ensure continued national scientific, technical and economic leadership by teaming with partners in U.S. industry, NASA, other Federal agencies, national laboratories, academia and foreign space agencies.

We work closely with NASA’s Office of the Chief Technologist, which establishes the framework through which the Space Science Enterprise will satisfy stakeholder expectations. Space Science has specific responsibility within NASA for two areas:

• All technology to enable and enhance scientific exploration and discovery in support of the Space Science initiatives

• Crosscutting, common spacecraft-related technology supporting multiple Enterprises across NASA to avoid duplication and exploit synergy. A good example of this would be high-efficiency solar arrays that support science as well as human exploration missions.

International Collaboration

The quest for knowledge does not recognize national boundaries. Scientific expertise and capabilities are today, more than ever, distributed among many nations. Common interests and limited resources virtually dictate that nations cooperate in the pursuit of common goals. Consequently, international cooperation is a fundamental aspect of almost all Space Science Enterprise programs.

FY 2000 Budget Request

The President’s FY 2000 Budget Request continues to support a strong and well balanced Space Science program that will allow us to continue to study the Sun, the Solar System, and the Universe. It maintains support for the Origins Initiative approved by Congress to search for planets around other stars, to study galaxies and stars as they are born, and to look for evidence of life elsewhere in the Solar System and the Universe. The FY 2000 President’s request adds funding for five new Space Science endeavors.

Two new program elements are funded in the Mars Surveyor program beginning in FY 2000: Mars Network and Micromissions. Mars Network will develop communications capability to provide a substantial increase in bandwidth and connectivity from Mars to Earth. The Mars Surveyor Architecture Review cited improved communications capability as the most significant augmentation that could be added to the program. Mars Micromissions will provide low-cost capability for delivering small payloads to Mars, including telecom elements of the Mars network. Competitively selected micromissions will deliver up to a 50-kilogram science payload to Mars to collect high-priority scientific data. The first planned Mars micromission is the "Mars Airplane," which will commemorate the 100^th anniversary of Orville and Wilbur Wright’s historic flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Also in the FY 2000 request, the Cross-Enterprise Technology program budget is being augmented to include funding for three initiatives: Self-Sustaining Robotic Networks, Gossamer Spacecraft, and Next Decade Planning. Self-Sustaining Robotic Networks will build on the success of Mars Pathfinder. This initiative’s goal is to extend ongoing advances in spacecraft automation and miniaturization to the critical set of technologies necessary to enable self-tasking, self-repairing, evolvable networks of small, highly mobile robots that will allow us to establish permanent "virtual presence" outposts at key points of scientific interest in the solar system. The Gossamer Spacecraft initiative will provide additional funding to the ultralight structures and space observatories discipline to develop and demonstrate the deployment, control, and utility of thin-film deployable structures. These structures can be used as sun shields, solar arrays, antennas, mirrors, or solar sails, and will revolutionize a wide variety of missions, including those of other agencies such as NOAA and the Air Force. Next Decade planning will support improved, agency-wide planning to develop and refine concepts and technologies for a robust menu of potential future civil space programs.

Conclusion

NASA’s Space Science Enterprise continues to be very successful and delivers an incredible of amount of scientific discovery for the funding support that it receives. The 1999 budget allows us to continue building on the momentum we have gained in recent years and provides for the balanced program that is needed to deliver the very best science results to the Space Science community and to the American public. The proposed FY 2000 budget recognizes the Space Science Enterprise’s impressive track record of cost consciousness and scientific productivity over the last five or six years. It is a vote of confidence in our ability and clearly sets the stage for new and even bolder scientific achievements as we enter the new millennium.

The President’s Space Science budget proposal holds promise for an exciting future and provides the resources to help us answer some of the most fundamental questions that exist in Space Science today:

It supports the well-balanced Space Science program and recognizes this Enterprise’s ongoing commitment to conscientious spending while continuing to deliver profound science results.

Space Science is a sound and worthwhile investment in the scientific and technological future of this nation. It continues to yield new scientific discoveries about the Sun, the Solar System and the Universe; it drives technology, resulting in ever smaller, yet more efficient systems; it provides valuable and exciting new scientific discoveries which have instilled a renewed sense of pride and amazement in what NASA can do, and it generates a rare excitement and curiosity in the general public about this vast Universe and how we relate to it. This organization is committed to bringing you more of the same in the years to come.

Mr. Chairman, I thank you and members of the Subcommittee for this opportunity to provide an update on NASA’s Space Science Enterprise.

As you can see, we have had a very productive 1998, we’re in the midst of an exciting and busy 1999, and we have bold and promising things planned in the future. I look forward to the continued support of this Committee in making these ambitious endeavors a reality, so that we can continue to deliver world-class science to the American public and continue to excite and inspire young school children everywhere. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.