In Today’s Deep Space Extra…NASA’s Mars exploration ambitions likely to coincide with growing personal spaceflight.

Human Deep Space Exploration

‘Way Up There’: Above the Earth and onward to Mars
CNN.com (4/28): NASA has its eyes on Mars for future human deep space exploration. But for those eager to attain suborbital spaceflight there are options not that far away.

Senior officer expects moon visit by 2036
China Daily (4/29): China intends to reach the moon with its astronauts before 2036, according to a senior officer with the People’s Liberation Army. Lieutenant General Zhang Yulin, deputy commander of China’s Manned Space Program, offered the timing at a conference convened as part of China Space Day.

Space Science

SpaceX announces plan to send mission to Mars in 2018
Spaceflightnow.com (4/27): Working under a NASA Space Act agreement, SpaceX plans to attempt an unmanned commercial test flight and landing on Mars as soon as 2018. SpaceX disclosed the agreement, which has been in place since 2014, on Wednesday. NASA will furnish the company’s Red Dragon initiative with technical assistance, communications and navigation support, and possible scientific instrumentation. No funds are to be exchanged.

What are the odds of other intelligent life in the universe?
CBS News (4/28): Scientists take a fresh look at data gathered by NASA’s Kepler space telescope to re-examine the Drake equation. Their conclusion: there is ample opportunity for life elsewhere in the universe.

Evidence from Curiosity Rover Shows Mars Once Had Oxygen-Rich Atmosphere
America Space (4/28): NASA’s Curiosity rover finds evidence from its Martian travels of an earlier era with an atmosphere that was warmer and richer in oxygen. The conclusion is based on the levels of manganese oxide found in Martian rocks.

NASA’s Gold-Covered James Webb Space Telescope Could Reveal Incredible New Worlds
Science.Mic (4/28): Planned for launching in late 2018 and much larger than the aging Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope offers plenty to be “pumped up” about when it comes to new discoveries. Among them, objects not thought about.

Software error doomed Japanese Hitomi spacecraft
Nature (4/28): A software error appears to have doomed Japan’s $286 million Hitomi X-ray space telescope, according to Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency experts. Soon after liftoff, pieces of the main body broke away, according to tracking imagery.

Tour May’s Sky: Jupiter Leads the Way
Sky and Telescope (4/28): May promises compelling night sky viewing. Just before sunrise it will be possible to sight Saturn, Mars and the bright star Antares in the darkened skies.

Low Earth Orbit

Review: ‘A Beautiful Planet’ Shows a Dazzling Earth From Space
New York Times (4/28): A Beautiful Planet, the latest NASA assisted documentary on views of the Earth from space, was produced with striking 3-D images gathered from the International Space Station.

Commercial to Orbit

First launch from Russia’s new cosmodrome declared a success
Spaceflightnow.com (4/28): Russia declares a success for the first rocket launched from the new Vostochny Cosmdrome in Russian. Russian president Vladimir Putin extended his stay to witness the liftoff.

HASC Sides With Air Force, ULA on RD-180 Rocket Engines
Spacepolicyonline.com (4/28): The U.S. House Armed Services Committee in overnight deliberations extending into early Thursday approved provisions backing the U.S. Air Force’s desire to import more Russian RD-180 rocket engines for the launching of national security payloads aboard Atlas V rockets. The panel also backed the Pentagon’s plan to development a replacement for United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V and Delta 4 rockets as well as the RD-180.