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Monday’s CSExtra offers a roundup of the latest reporting and commentary on space-related activities over the Christmas weekend. In Washington, Congress failed to reach agreement on a 2011 budget for many agencies. At NASA, that means continuing to spend of programs facing cancellation at the expense of new initiatives. India’s commercial space launch industry suffers a setback, while Russia’s successfully launches a European communications satellite. At the Kennedy Space Center, a diminishing workforce spends its last Christmas with the space shuttle.  One Colorado community, which legislative support from NASA, envisions a high tech campus that would employ thousands. NASA’s Stardust probe draws a new assignment. Japan moves ahead with a new asteroid mission. The U.S. and Europe ponder a mission to Saturn’s moon Titan. On Mars, NASA’s Opportunity rover studies a large crater.

1. From the Orlando Sentinel, Dec. 26: Much of the federal government has been operating under a series of budgetary Continuing Resolutions since Oct. 1, rather than a 2011 appropriations law. Under the restriction, NASA is required to continue spending on the Constellation Program — an initiative from the previous administration that Congress and President Obama have agreed to cancel.  Constellation spending will reach $1.2 billion by the time the latest CR expires in early March, according to the Sentinel. Some $500 million of that will go to the Ares 1 rocket, which is not among the new commercial and exploration initiatives that the president and Congress have agreed to pursue. The budget issue has also delayed the start of a major Kennedy Space Center overhaul.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/os-nasa-ares-rocket-constellation-20101227,0,2096166.story

2. From Spaceflightnow.com and Space.com, Dec. 25: India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle exploded seconds into flight, following lift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center. The rocket carried an Indian telecommunications satellite. The failure was the fourth in seven launches for the GSLV, Spaceflightnow.com reports. http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1012/25gslv/

A. From the Hindustan Times, Dec. 25: Rocket loss delivers set backs to India’s strategy for entering the commercial heavy lift rocket market.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/andhrapradesh/Gone-in-63-seconds/Article1-642642.aspx

3. From Spaceflightnow.com, Dec. 26:  A Russian Proton rocket successfully launches a European communications satellite. The KA-sat, will furnish high data rate Internet and television transmissions.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/proton/kasat/launch/

4. From Florida Today, Dec. 26: At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Terry Sibile, who coordinates the deployment of large cranes and other heavy equipment, writes an annual Christmas poem. Florida Today publishes this year’s version, The Shuttle’s Last Christmas, which expresses the sentiments of many workers over the space shuttle’s approaching retirement.
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010101226001

A. From Florida Today, Dec. 26:  Columnist John Kelly’s perspective on Terry Sibile’s Christmas poem. http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=201012260333

B. From Florida Today, Dec. 27: At Space View Park in Titusville, fundraising is under way to commemorate NASA’s space shuttle program. The shuttle monument will join others for Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. Titusville borders the Kennedy Space Center.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20101227/NEWS02/12270319/Shuttle+workers+to+get+their+due

5. From the Loveland Reporter Herald of Colorado, Dec 24: Earlier this month, NASA signed a Space Act agreement with the Colorado Association of Manufacturing Technologies, a group that hopes to start a campus for small aerospace and clean energy manufacturers. The initiative could create as many as 10,000 jobs, the association estimates.
http://www.reporterherald.com/news_story.asp?ID=30542

6. From the Coalition for Space Exploration, Dec. 24: Japan agrees to finance the Hayabusa 2 mission, a follow on to the Hayabusa 1 mission that visited an asteroid in 2005 and returned samples to Earth in June 2010. The second mission will visit the asteroid 1999JU3.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/blog/japans-next-asteroid-mission-receives-financial-green-light

7. From Spaceflightnow.com, Dec. 23: NASA’s venerable Stardust spacecraft, with Lockheed Martin engineers managing a meager fuel supply, heads for a Valentines Day’s encounter with the comet Tempel 1. Just five years ago, another NASA mission, Deep Impact, sent a probe crashing into Tempel 1. Stardust will pass close enough to record a fresh look. Stardust was launched in 1999 on a successful mission to collect and return to Earth samples of the comet Wild2.             http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1012/23stardustnext/

 8. From MSNBC, Dec. 26: Some scientists are suggesting a follow on to the NASA-led Cassini mission to Saturn that would include a balloon or blimp for aerial studies of the moon Titan.  U. S. and European scientists would collaborate.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40806502

9. From The Coalition for Space Exploration, Dec. 26: The NASA Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is slowly circling the rim of the Santa Maria crater collecting imagery and studying the chemistry of the rocks to learn more about the changing geography in the Meridiani Planum region. Opportunity landed on Mars seven years ago next month.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/blog/rim-shots-mars-rover-examines-fresh-crater

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