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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Reports of a rare and powerful Gamma-Ray burst appear unfounded. China’s Jade Rabbit lunar rover alive but too weak to roll. Kepler planets provide targets for life seeking radio astronomers. On Mars, volcano and glacier could have hosted life. U.S., Russian and European astronauts reach International Space Station late Wednesday. Astronaut twins Scott and Mark Kelly to support science for Scott’s one-year space mission. Key NASA supporter in Congress losses re-election bid. Test mishap to delay Orbital Sciences next commercial re-supply mission to the International Space Station. Russian, French and U.S. commercial launch providers deal with delays. Human error, possibly sabotage raised as cause of May Russian Proton failure. Europe’s Skylon re-usable spaceplane could find launch market.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Gamma-ray report turns out to be false alarm
NBCNews.com (5/28): Reports earlier this week of a possible gamma ray burst produced by a collision of neutron stars in the Andromeda Galaxy now appear unfounded.
Chinese lunar rover alive but weak
Xinhuanet (5/28): China says it’s Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, lunar rover is alive but restrained. The rover was part of China’s Chang’e-3 lunar lander mission that reached the moon in December. The rover can send data but is immobile because of its exposure to the moon’s cold temperatures.
Hunt intensifies for aliens on Kepler’s planets
Discovery.com (5/28): Kepler’s planet discoveries become objects of study for SETI’s radio astronomers. Kepler scientists have yet to announce a true Earth analog, but already have added 962 confirmations and 3,845 candidates to the list of 1,792 planets discovered beyond the solar system.
Giant volcano with glacier on Mars may have been a nice place for life
Los Angeles Times (5/28): Data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter suggests a glacier covered volcano would provide the best spot for life on the red planet — microbial life.
Low Earth Orbit
Russian Soyuz docks with space station
CBS News (5/28): Russian spacecraft delivers cosmonaut Maxim Suraev, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and German astronaut Alexander Gerst to the International Space Station. Newcomers boost station crew to six members.
Twin astronauts offer up selves for space science
Associated Press via Washington Post (5/28): Twins Scott and Mark Kelly to break ground as NASA astronaut Scott Kelly embarks on year-long mission to the International Space Station in March 2015. Mark Kelly, a retired NASA astronaut, has volunteered to be a subject in many of the same medical experiments as his brother, affording researchers a chance to study effects of spaceflight on genetics.
Ralph Hall’s loss will leave a hole on science panel
Roll Call (5/25): Hall, 91, loses bid for re-election to Congress from his East Texas district. A longtime member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, Hall is also a former chairman.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Private cargo ship launch delayed by rocket engine investigation
Space.com (5/28): Orbital Sciences postpones June 10 Cygnus re-supply mission to the International Space Station after May 22 rocket engine test failure. Orbital says it will proceed no sooner than June 17.
String of delays portends summer traffic jam for launch providers
Space News (5/28): Launch services providers in three countries, Russia, the U.S. and France, deal with spacecraft or payload issues that are prompting launch postponements for troubleshooting.
Russian investigative commission hints sabotage possibly caused Proton accident
Ria Novosti, of Russia (5/29): A lapse in the third stage was behind a May 16 loss of a Proton rocket and its communications satellite payload. “… premeditated sabotage has not been ruled out,” Roscosmos quoted the head of the commission, First Deputy General Director of the Central Research Institute of Machine Building (TsNIIMash) Alexander Danilyuk, as saying.
Suborbital
Skylon ‘spaceplane economics stack up’
BBC (5/29): European reusable space plane concept may have economic legs, according to a report commissioned by the European Space Agency.
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