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Friday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from around the world. In Washington, policymakers, astronauts and the public gather to pay tribute to Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong.  In California, an Atlas 5 with a National Reconnaissance Organization payload lifts off. In Houston, experts gather for the 100-year Starship Symposium to discuss interstellar travel. Should NASA be re-focused on human space exploration and science? A veteran Texas lawmaker poses the question. Why isn’t space exploration a prominent president campaign issue? The U. S. space industry applauds a decision to re-invest Pentagon savings into new space assets. In Houston, NASA’s Morpheus planetary lander team begins to re-build after an August crash.  Poland becomes the 20th member of the European Space Agency.

1. From The Associated Press via Yahoo.com:  In Washington: The nation recognizes Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong in a memorial service attended by members of his family, friends, astronauts, government officials, and the public. Armstrong died in August. He was 82.
http://news.yahoo.com/nation-says-goodbye-moonwalker-neil-armstrong-141401098.html?_esi=1

A. From The Washington Post: Neil Armstrong, who died Aug. 25, will be buried at sea on Friday. “No one, but no one could have accepted the responsibility of his remarkable accomplishment with more dignity and more grace than Neil Armstrong,” said friend and fellow Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan of Armstrong at Thursday’s memorial service. Armstrong became the first human to step to the surface of a new world in 1969.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/astronaut-neil-armstrong-mourned-at-washington-national-cathedral/2012/09/13/09fe8622-fdb9-11e1-8adc-499661afe377_story.html?hpid=z5

2. From Spaceflightnow.com: A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 lifts a U. S. National Reconnaissance Office payload into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on Thursday.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av033/

3. From Space.com: In Houston, the 100-Year Starship Symposium opens for a weekend conference on the challenges of interstellar travel. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency-instigated initiative examines the social as well as the technical challenges of expanding civilization to another star system.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/17568-100-year-starship-symposium-kicks-off.html

4. From Space News:  In Washington, U. S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison questions the structure of NASA as the agency moves ahead. Should NASA be tailored to sponsor human space exploration and science, while other missions are split off to other federal agencies, Hutchison, a Texas Republican, asks during a Senate oversight hearing this week.
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/120913-sen-hutchison-suggests-splitting-nasa.html

5. From Popular Mechanics: The Space Frontier Foundation takes both major U. S. political parties to task for failing to address the specifics of future space exploration.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/nasa/why-wont-the-political-parties-talk-about-space-12636543?click=pm_latest

6. From Aviation Week & Space Technology: The aerospace industry applauds efforts by the Pentagon to re-invest program savings into national security space system upgrades. The topic arises at the  AIAA Space 2012 conference in Pasadena, Calif.
http://www.aviationnow.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/asd_09_13_2012_p04-01-494224.xml

7. From Space.com: NASA’s Morpheus team begins to assemble a replacement for the prototype Morpheus planetary lander that crashed Aug. 6 at the Kennedy Space Center.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/17591-morpheus-moon-lander-project-crash-response.html

8. From Space Daily:  Poland becomes the 20th nation to join the European Space Agency.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Poland_joins_European_Space_Agency_999.html

Brought to you by the Coalition for Space Exploration, CSExtra is a daily compilation of space industry news selected from hundreds of online media resources.  The Coalition is not the author or reporter of any of the stories appearing in CSExtra and does not control and is not responsible for the content of any of these stories.  The content available through CSExtra contains links to other websites and domains which are wholly independent of the Coalition, and the Coalition makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or authenticity of the information contained in any such site or domain and does not pre-screen or approve any content.   The Coalition does not endorse or receive any type of compensation from the included media outlets and is not responsible or liable in any way for any content of CSExtra or for any loss, damage or injury incurred as a result of any content appearing in CSExtra.  For information on the Coalition, visit www.space.com or contact us via e-mail at Info@space.com.