If you do write your Senator, please let us know or send us a copy. We are trying to see if this announcement produces results. With your permission we may also publish some letters on the ATI web site. 

Include your name and address so they know you are from their state.

Send by fax or mail.

Honorable (full name)

(insert address from roll call site)Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator:

I write to you to support fully funding the Administration's budget request for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). I believe that space science program continues to be a vital part of America's technology development and urge you to help restore the 1 billion dollars cut by the House. Over the years NASA has been prudently and steadily pushing the frontiers of science. This work has helped maintain the economic growth of the United States. Spin-offs from the space program all well documented and benefit all citizens.

Space employment is important to the State of (insert). (Insert Company) is a major employer in the state and will certainly be hurt by the decline of the space budget. (Add more details if appropriate)

I strongly urge you to vote to support restoring the full proposed NASA budget. Please contact Senator Mikulski and Senator Bond to express your support for restoring NASA funding.

Yours truly,

NASA WORKFORCE INFORMATION SITE -NASA has reduced government employees by one-third in the last few years and hired only a few new employees. The size of the downsizing surprised me.

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/HR-Education/workforce/

NASA UNVEILS FIRST IMAGES FROM CHANDRA The Chandra X-Ray Observatory is producing images to give scientists around the world a better understanding of the structure and evolution of the universe. It will provide unprecedented X-ray images and spectra of violent, high-temperature events and objects. It is is designed to observe X-rays from high energy regions of the universe, such as hot gas in the remnants of exploded stars. Extraordinary first images from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory trace the aftermath of a gigantic stellar explosion in such stunning detail that scientists can see evidence of what may be a neutron star or black hole near the center. Another image shows a powerful X-ray jet blasting 200,000 light years into intergalactic space from a distant quasar. Released today, both images confirm that NASA's newest Great Observatory is in excellent health and its instruments and optics are performing up to expectations. Chandra, the world's largest and most sensitive X- ray telescope, is still in its orbital check-out and calibration phase. "When I saw the first image, I knew that the dream had been realized," said Dr. Martin Weisskopf, Chandra Project Scientist, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL. "This observatory is ready to take its place in the history of spectacular scientific achievements." "We were astounded by these images," said Harvey Tananbaum, Director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Chandra X- ray Center, Cambridge, MA. "We see the collision of the debris from the exploded star with the matter around it, we see shock waves rushing into interstellar space at millions of miles per hour, and, as a real bonus, we see for the first time a tantalizing bright point near the center of the remnant that could possibly be a collapsed star associated with the outburst."

NASA SELECTS MINIATURE SPACECRAFT TO TEST SPACE TECHNOLOGY They're each about the size of a large birthday cake, weigh about as much as a desktop computer, and are smart enough to fly in formation far from Earth while they test new technologies. They are three very small satellites, called the Nanosat Constellation Trailblazer mission, and today NASA selected them as the agency's latest New Millennium mission. The mission will validate methods of operating several spacecraft as a system, and test eight technologies in the harsh space environment near the boundary of Earth's protective magnetic field, or magnetosphere. Each Trailblazer spacecraft will be an octagon 16 inches across and 8 inches high, and each will have booms and antennas that will extend after launch. The mission will cost $28 million and will be launched in 2003 as a secondary payload on an expendable launch vehicle. The mission is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. Results from the Tra ilblazer mission will be used to design future missions using constellations of lightweight (about 44 pounds), highly miniaturized autonomous spacecraft. One proposed constellation of up to 100 spacecraft positioned around the Earth will monitor the effects of solar activity that can affect spacecraft, electrical power and communications systems. Others will study global precipitation and the atmospheres of other planets. The Nanosat Constellation Trailblazer is the fifth in the agency's New Millennium program, which tests technology for future space and Earth science missions. The program's goal is to dramatically reduce the weight, size and costs of missions while increasing their science capabilities. The technologies to be flown and tested, and the partners involved, are: -- A miniature communications system to determine the positions of the spacecraft using the Global Positioning System (NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA). -- A set of software that automatically operates the spacecraft and d etermines orbits (Bester Tracking System, Emeryville, CA). -- A communications system component that uses one-fourth the voltage and half the power, weighs 12 times less and is nine times smaller than proven technology (Aero Astro, Boston, MA). -- A new method of connecting electrical lines that saves weight (Lockheed Martin, Denver, CO). -- A new type of microelectronic device that is more reliable and uses 20 times less power than proven technology (Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque). -- An electrically tunable coating that can change its properties from absorbing the Sun's heat when the spacecraft is cool to reflecting or emitting heat when needed (Goddard Space Flight Center and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, MD). -- A very tiny microelectromechanical system chip that provides fine attitude adjustments on the spacecraft using 8.5 times less power and weighing less than half as much as proven systems (Marotta Scientific Controls, Montville, NJ). -- Development of a Lithium Ion Power System for Small Satellites. A rechargeable lithium ion battery that stores two to four times more energy and has a longer life than proven technology (Yardney Technical Products, Pawcatuck, CT). "Not only could these technologies make future missions more productive and less expensive, some could become consumer products," said Dr. Dana Brewer, New Millennium Program Executive, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC. "For example, the variable- emittance thermal-control system is a coating applied to surfaces such as automobile windows which becomes highly reflective when you apply an electrical current to it. It blocks out a lot of the sunlight, keeping it cooler inside a car."

NASA SELECTS 103 INNOVATIVE SBIR PROJECTS The list of projects and the winning companies is always interesting reading. Funding for Phase II contracts may amount to $600,000 for over two years. Individual SBIR projects are managed by NASA's 10 field centers. A listing of the selected companies can be obtained on the Internet at: http://sbir.nasa.gov

ATI SELECTED TO TEACH 9 COURSES ON-SITE AT GSFC Many of the courses were also presented with excellent evaluations in FY1999.

• Fundamentals of SAR.......................Dec 7-8,1999..........Goddard On-Site
• Microwave Remote Sensing..............Mar 1-3, 2000........Goddard On-Site
• Risk Assessment for Space Flight.....Mar 8-9, 2000.......Goddard On-Site
• Space Environment...........................Aug 22-23, 2000.....Goddard On-Site
• Spacecraft Sys Design & Engineering..Feb 22-25............Goddard On-Site
• Space Systems I..............................June 19-23, 2000.......Goddard On-Site
• Space Systems I..............................June 26-30, 2000.......Wallops On-Site
• Space Systems II.............................July 24-2, 2000..........Goddard On-Site
• Space Systems II.............................July 31-Aug 4, 2000....Wallops On-Site

Call us if there are courses that you would like to see presented at your facility. The new schedule of ATI space and satellite technical training and course descriptions has been posted on our web site. http://www.ATIcourses.com