The beginning of 2010 has been eventful. To quote Charles Dickens, "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair..."

The April 20 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, unchecked as this newsletter went to press, has significant implications for marine and coastal ecosystems, ecosystem services, and stakeholders throughout the Gulf for years—and likely decades—to come. The oil slick off the Mississippi Delta is routinely imaged by NASA's Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, a part of the Earth Observing System. NOAA, the lead science agency for oil spill response; NASA; and other agencies are working closely together to monitor and manage our nation’s response. This interagency cooperation is not only encouraging, it is providing best practices and important lessons learned that can and should be applied to address the broader issue of climate change management—both adaptation and avoidance.

The NASA-NOAA partnership has never been stronger. NASA launched the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-P, renamed GOES-15, as NOAA’s latest geosynchronous satellite, on March 4. Built by Boeing for NOAA and NASA, GOES-15 recently took its first "first-light" visible and infrared Earth images. NOAA’s GOES-12, newly repositioned and a significant U.S. contribution to the emerging Global Earth Observing System of Systems, began coverage of South America to track tropical cyclones and help protect against deadly mudslides. At Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), joint GOES-R and Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) project offices are building an impressive bench of systems engineering and management talent that holds promise for future climate instruments and missions yet to come.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), built, operated, and managed by GSFC—and the crucial first mission of NASA's "Living with a Star" program—began its five-year science mission to study the Sun. SDO is performing spectacularly. In April, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) passed its overall Mission Critical Design Review (MCDR). Also managed by GSFC, along with prime contractor Northrop Grumman Space Systems, JSWT's passing of its MCDR gave confidence that the observatory will meet all its mission requirements. We begin the second half of the year with the promise of strong NASA and NOAA budgets, tempered with the likelihood of uncertainties that a continuing resolution may bring. NASA's Glory climate mission is rapidly approaching a scheduled November 2010 launch by Orbital, to be followed ten months later with the September 2011 launch of the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) joint mission.

With special thanks to Lena Braatz, Sherri Tearman, and Booz Allen Hamilton for the production of this newsletter in an exciting new format, the officers and board of the Maryland Space Business Roundtable wish all of our members, partners, and colleagues a productive, rewarding, and refreshing summer.

Dr. Philip Ardanuy, President