Medical researchers at the NASA-funded National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) have identified a promising possible alternative to surgery in the treatment of kidney stones developed by astronauts on deep-space missions, or terrestrial humans plagued by the painful ailment. The new technology combines a ultrasound technique that detects obstructive stones called “twinkling artifact” with a treatment that uses a focused ultrasound wave energy to push the obstructions to the kidney’s exit.

HOUSTON — NASA is equipping itself with a flexible strategy to push the development of cross-cutting technologies identified by a National Research Council panel as essential to the space agency’s strategic pursuits, including deep-space human exploration, according to the agency’s chief technologist. The strategy will allow NASA to adjust to the budget pressures Congress is likely to face as it considers the 2013 budget that President Barack Obama unveils on Feb. 13, according to Mason Peck, who took over the two-year-old chief technology post in January.

HOUSTON — NASA Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini extended a vote of confidence to the Russian space agency on Feb. 2, as officials in the partner nation sort through the recent ground test failure of a Soyuz capsule that will force a six-week delay in the launch of the next three-person crew to the orbiting space laboratory. Crew returns and future launches will likely slide throughout 2012 as well to ensure the briefest interruptions in sustained six-person station operations to keep research activities at the highest levels.

Rocket-engine testing for U.S. human spaceflight is getting off to a roaring start in 2012, with Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) announcing the first hot-fire test of its SuperDraco hypergolic engine, and NASA preparing to begin testing the powerpack of the J-2X cryogenic upper-stage engine for its planned Space Launch System (SLS) heavy lifter.

HOUSTON — NASA faces a lengthy, cash-strapped catch-up period in acquiring the range of technologies needed to achieve the agency’s strategic objectives, according to a National Research Council report released Feb. 1. “Success in executing future NASA space missions will depend on advanced technology developments that should already be under way,” says aerospace consultant Raymond Calladay, the former Lockheed Martin Corp. executive who chaired the 18-member panel that produced the report.

LUCID RETIRES: Five-time space traveler Shannon Lucid has retired from NASA after 34 years and more than 223 days in space. A member of the first class of NASA astronauts to include women, Lucid is the only U.S. woman to live and work on Russia’s Mir space station, a 188-day mission that was extended twice to last more than six weeks longer than anticipated at launch on the space shuttle Atlantis.

Russian news media have reported potential delays of a month or more in the scheduled March 29 liftoff of the Soyuz TMA-04M capsule.

Luxembourg-based SES S.A. is moving its new SES-3 telecommunication satellite from an orbital slot servicing North America to one over Asia to meet growing demand there. Launched in July 2011, SES-3 will be positioned at 108.2 deg. E. Long. to serve the Middle East and Southeast Asia, where the company says it is receiving “growing” demand from commercial and government customers.