Wolf is chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA

Wyle Laboratories Inc., of Houston, will provide medical and biomedical support for a wide range of NASA human space exploration and research initiatives under a potential 10-year, $1.76 billion contract award announced March 4. The Human Health and Performance contract, which includes Lockheed Martin Services Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., as a major subcontractor, is effective May 1. The agreement includes a five-year base period and options for extensions through 2023.

HOUSTON — Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) were well into the unpacking of the SpaceX Dragon resupply capsule on March 4, after the mission successfully overcame post-launch thruster difficulties that delayed the rendezvous and berthing by a day. Station commander Kevin Ford, assisted by flight engineer Tom Marsburn, grappled the second SpaceX Dragon supply vessel with Canada’s 58-ft.-long robot arm on March 3 at 5:31 a.m. EST.

AT LAST: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has taken operational control of the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) weather satellite from NASA. Originally known as the Npoess Preparatory Project, NPP was conceived as a pathfinder for the ill-fated National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, an effort to merge civil and military weather satellite needs that was canceled due to massive cost overruns.

HOUSTON — SpaceX and NASA were scrambling to salvage the second Dragon Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station, after the unmanned cargo capsule encountered a thruster issue shortly after its March 1 liftoff that slowed the scheduled critical deployments of its solar arrays and rendezvous maneuvers. This situation has forced at least a one-day delay in plans for a March 2 rendezvous and berthing of the Dragon capsule with the six-person orbiting science lab, according to Mike Suffredini, NASA’s space station program manager.

SpaceX and NASA have cleared the Falcon9/Dragon Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS-2) mission to the International Space Station (ISS) for a March 1 liftoff, following a joint investigation into the first-stage engine loss that accompanied the Hawthorne, Calif.-based company’s first cargo delivery mission to the orbiting science laboratory in October.

Will carry JAXA’s Sprint-A planetary observatory

The ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee has joined two House GOP committee chairmen in publicly questioning why a four-year federal investigation into whistle-blower charges that NASA failed to protect sensitive technology at Ames Research Center was abruptly shut down without explanation.