A revision of the 2004 U.S. space transportation policy is likely to include “directive language” designed to boost the commercial space industry, according to a former official who helped draft the broad policy that the revision will illuminate.

HOUSTON — NASA’s planetary science program, faced with a steep cut in President Barack Obama’s proposed 2013 budget, is counting on a successful landing of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and closer ties to the better-funded human space exploration initiative to support a timely rebound, top agency science officials said during the opening session of the 43rd annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) here.

HOUSTON — Thanks to a final shuttle mission in July 2011, the International Space Station is well provisioned to sustain a six-person crew and a full research agenda well into 2013, NASA Program Manager Mike Suffredini said March 20. The outlook as Atlantis touched down after the 13-day STS-135 mission on July 21 was that the station had enough supplies for a year.

A dozen NASA software patents are scheduled to go on the auction block next week, covering potential applications in software development, telecommunications, smart grids, robotics, wireless sensor networks and cybersecurity. Goddard Space Flight Center’s Innovative Partnerships Program Office will offer the software at auction in three lots at the 15th ICAP Ocean Tomo IP Auction in Palos Verdes, Calif. Successful bidders will receive exclusive licensing rights and time with the technologies’ NASA inventors.

NEW DELHI — India’s budget for space projects will see a slight increase of just over 1% for the 2012/2013 fiscal year, as the country’s space agency prepares human spaceflight missions and readies its long-awaited Geostationary Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mk. III, designed to make India self-reliant in boosting heavier communication satellites.

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: Florida’s longtime Democratic senator and two recent tea party additions to the state’s congressional delegation are teaming to have the Space Coast designated a special zone in need of extra government assistance. The would-be Shuttle Workforce Revitalization Act, cosponsored by Sens. Bill Nelson (D) and Marco Rubio (R), looks to designate Brevard County as a “historically underutilized business zone,” or HUBZone. The designation gives small businesses in areas deemed economically challenged preference when the government doles out contracts.

Jilted by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) has decided to press ahead with its ExoMars program in partnership with the Russian space agency Roscosmos, which plans to contribute Proton launch vehicles and a new entry, descent and landing system to the ambitious two-pronged Mars mission in 2016 and 2018. Russia’s arrival as the savior of ExoMars is not without cost, however, as ESA now will have to fund development of a rover for the 2018 mission that NASA had previously planned to share.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — NASA should cut back on the breadth of its aeronautics research to free up funds within a flat budget to return to X-plane flight research, says a new report by the National Research Council (NRC). At only 3% of the space agency’s budget, aeronautics research funding is spread too thinly and unable to advance projects to the flight stage, which is vital to convincing industry and regulators to adopt new technologies, the report says