WASHINGTON — The following is a statement about the European Southern Observatory’s latest exoplanet discovery from NASA’s Science Mission Directorate Associate Administrator, Dr. John Grunsfeld. (from nasa.gov release : 12-366)

“We congratulate the European Southern Observatory team for making this exciting new exoplanet discovery. For astronomers, the search for exoplanets helps us understand our place in the universe and determine whether Earth is unique in supporting life or if it is just one member of a large community of habitable worlds. NASA has several current and future missions that will continue in this search.

An example [sic] is NASA’s Kepler mission. It was specifically designed to survey a specific region of our Milky Way galaxy to detect Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone — that region around a star where it is theoretically possible for a planet to maintain liquid water on its surface — and determine the fraction of the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy that might have such planets. Kepler works very differently from HARPS. Rather than detecting the wobble in the host star, Kepler detects the slight dimming of a star when a planet passes in front of it.

NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have contributed to the study of exoplanets. Using their photometric and spectroscopic sensitivity, these space telescopes have made the first steps in characterizing the atmospheres of planets around other stars. They can only do this when the exoplanets pass serendipitously in front of its star, allowing the space telescope to study light that has filtered through the planet’s atmosphere.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will provide a unique facility that will serve through the next decade as the mainstay for characterization of transiting exoplanets. The main transit studies JWST will be able to undertake are: discovery of unseen planets, determining exoplanet properties like mass, radius, and physical structure, and characterizing exoplanet atmospheres to determine things like their temperature and weather. If there are other planets in the Alpha Centauri system farther from the star, JWST may be able to detect them as well through imaging.

NASA is also studying two medium-class exoplanet missions in our Explorer program, and in the spring of 2013 will select one of them to enter development for flight later in the decade.”

(editor’s note: faster engines are needed, init? )

Warning against the temptation “to play God,” President Clinton yesterday banned federal funding of human cloning research and asked privately funded scientists to halt such work until a national bioethics commission reviews what he called the “troubling” legal and ethical implications.

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 5, 1997; Page A10

“Each human life is unique, born of a miracle that reaches beyond laboratory science,” Clinton said during a brief ceremony in the Oval Office, where he announced his executive directive. “I believe we must respect this profound gift and resist the temptation to replicate ourselves.”

The president’s order, effective immediately, comes 10 days after Scottish scientists reported they had cloned a sheep named Dolly from adult cells and two days after researchers in Oregon revealed they had bred a pair of rhesus monkeys from cloned embryo cells.

In 1994, Clinton signed an executive order banning federal funding of certain kinds of research involving human embryos, and Congress has prohibited other kinds of human embryo research. However, said Clinton yesterday, “after reviewing these restrictions, our administration believes that there are loopholes that could allow the cloning of human beings if the technology were developed.”

The president acknowledged that much of the cloning-related research in this country is conducted by private companies not covered by the federal ban. Some biotechnology companies are trying to clone pigs with humanized organs for transplantation into people, for example, and other companies have cloned goats that make human medicines in their milk. Clinton said he supported continued research in animals, but he asked companies to impose upon themselves a “voluntary moratorium” on expanding that work to humans.

“Any discovery that touches upon human creation is not simply a matter of scientific inquiry. It is a matter of morality and spirituality as well,” Clinton said. “That is why I am urging the entire scientific community — every foundation, every university, every industry that supports work in this area — to heed the federal government’s example.”

Highlighting the ban’s importance, Clinton made the announcement flanked by Vice President Gore, Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala, National Institutes of Health Director Harold E. Varmus, presidential science adviser Jack Gibbons and Princeton President Harold T. Shapiro, who chairs the National Bioethics Advisory Commission. That commission is scheduled to meet at the Watergate Hotel on March 13 and 14 to discuss the ethics of human cloning and has been asked by the president to submit a final report on the issue by the end of May.

Many scientists, including those involved in cloning research, have insisted repeatedly during the past week that they have no interest in cloning humans, even if it were technically possible. After hearing of the president’s ban, several reiterated those feelings.

“The president’s reaction is a prudent one and is fully appropriate, and speaking for the industry, we support him wholeheartedly,” said Carl B. Feldbaum, president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, which represents 700 biotechnology companies and institutions.

Feldbaum said it was understandable that Clinton, and probably much of the public, felt a need to put the brakes on the quickly evolving scientific field. “You go from cloning of sheep a week ago and you cloned monkeys this week and you figure humans have got to be cloned by next week,” he said.

Feldbaum said he was heartened, however, to see Varmus by Clinton’s side in the Oval Office — an arrangement he said indicated Clinton’s ongoing support for basic research on embryos, which could lead to improved treatments for infertility and other medical problems.

Colin Stewart, a researcher at the National Cancer Institute’s research center in Frederick, Md., said he too was encouraged by Clinton’s apparent effort not to reject all genetics research as he placed limits on human cloning.

“What I’ve been encouraged by in all this has been the level of debate and the high level of consciousness of what’s going on,” Stewart said, “and I hope this won’t stymie debate about long-term policy on human embryos and other forms of mammalian research.”

Rep. Constance A. Morella (R-Md.), whose district includes the NIH, has called for the first congressional hearings on cloning, to be held this afternoon in the Rayburn House Office Building. Scheduled speakers include Varmus, Case Western Reserve University bioethicist Thomas H. Murray; M. Susan Smith, director of the Oregon research center where the monkeys were cloned; and James Geraghty, president of Genzyme Transgenics, a Massachusetts company that has produced goats from cloned embryos.

Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) announced yesterday that his hearings on cloning, scheduled for next Wednesday in the Dirksen Senate Building, will include testimony from Ian Wilmut, the Scottish researcher who oversaw the cloning of Dolly.

The third and fourth satellites of Europe’s Galileo global navigation satellite system were lofted into orbit on 12 October from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. They join the first pair of satellites launched a year ago to complete the validation phase of the Galileo programme. ( from esa.com )

The Soyuz ST-B launcher, operated by Arianespace, lifted off at 18:15 GMT (20:15 CEST) from the Guiana Space Centre. All the stages of the Soyuz vehicle performed as planned and the Fregat-MT upper stage released the Galileo satellites into their targeted orbit at close to 23 200 km altitude, 3 hours 45 minutes after liftoff.

Galileo is Europe’s own global satellite navigation system. It will consist of 30 satellites and their associated ground infrastructure. The definition, development and IOV phase of the Galileo programme are carried out by ESA, and co-funded by ESA and the European Commission. This phase leads to a mini-constellation of four satellites and a reduced ground segment dedicated to the validation of the overall concept.

These satellites launched were built by a consortium led by Astrium as prime contractor, with Thales Alenia Space in charge of assembly, integration and testing. The operations are managed by SpaceOpal a joint company of the DLR German Aerospace Center and Italy’s Telespazio, with the early operations of the satellites controlled by a joint ESA and CNES French space agency team in Toulouse, France.

After initial checks, they will be handed over to the Galileo Control Centres in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, and Fucino, Italy, for testing before they are commissioned for the Galileo service validation phase. From a performance point of view, these In-Orbit Validation (IOV) satellites are the same as the forthcoming satellites.

With four identical satellites now in orbit, ESA will be able to demonstrate the performance of the Galileo positioning system fully before the deployment of the remaining operational satellites.

“Since the first launch a year ago, Galileo’s technology has proven itself in orbit,” said Didier Faivre, ESA’s Director of the Galileo Programme and Navigation-related activities.
“Thanks to the satellites launched today, the testing phase will be completed, and clear the way for rapid full-scale deployment of the constellation.

“By late 2014, 18 satellites are scheduled to have been launched, by which time early services to Europeans can begin.” Galileo’s Full Operational Capability (FOC) will be reached with 30 satellites (including the four IOVs and in-orbit spares) in 2018.

The four satellites launched during the IOV phase are the nucleus of the constellation that will then be extended to reach its FOC.

The FOC phase is fully funded by the European Commission. The Commission and ESA have signed a delegation agreement by which ESA acts as design and procurement agent on behalf of the Commission.