In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and its partner companies express new confidence 2018 will bring uncrewed and crewed test missions.
Human Space Exploration
NASA and companies express growing confidence in commercial crew schedules
Space News (7/22): The latest scheduling from NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and its contract partners Boeing and SpaceX shows both companies conducting uncrewed and crewed test flights in 2018. If the planning holds, the U.S. would be launching astronauts into orbit for the first time since NASA’s final space shuttle mission in 2011. Boeing’s CST-100 and SpaceX’s crewed Dragon are to transport four astronauts.
NASA’s work to head off battery blazes in space finds uses on Earth
Wall Street Journal (7/21): Efforts by NASA and the agency’s contractors to stem the threat of fire or explosion from rechargeable lithium ion batteries found aboard the International Space Station and in space suits will soon improve the safety of their use in household and personal electronics products.
SpaceX’s pivot: Elon Musk downsizes some of his ambitious goals
Florida Today (7/21): In remarks in Washington last week, SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk lowers expectations on a range of expectations, including propulsive landings of the company’s crewed Dragon, a successful first launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket later this year and Red Dragon, a commercial uncrewed mission to the Martian surface. “It’s him adjusting to reality,” said Laura Seward Forczyk, founder of Astralytical, a consulting firm that analyzes the space industry. “It’s smart for any company to adjust once it learns more information about what it’s trying to do and evolve its plans.”
Jeff Bezos’ vision: ‘A trillion humans in the Solar System’
Space.com (7/21): Amazon.com and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, inspired by NASA’s Apollo program in his youth, envisions a human civilization expanding in space, not to find refuge from disaster but to find valuable resources. His first stops would be a settlement at one of the moon’s poles and asteroid mining. Reuse of rocket hardware is a key, said Bezos, who joined Buzz Aldrin and other former astronauts at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to mark the 48th anniversary of the July 20, 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing.
Space Science
Study teams comb through NASA’s wish list for new telescope
Space News (7/21): Experts envision NASA’s Space Launch System and emerging advances in optics and detectors coming together to open new opportunities in space observatories and studies of distant potentially habitable planets and the earliest star systems.
NASA might privatize one of its great observatories
Spaceflightnow.com (7/22): Launched in 2003 as the last of NASA’s Great Observatories, the Spitzer Space Telescope could be turned over to an academic or commercial operators in 2019. The James Webb Space Telescope, in preparation by NASA to launch in late 2018, will observe in similar wave lengths.
Space-grown crystals could counteract toxic nerve poisons
Space.com (7/22): A National Institutes of Health study underway aboard the International Space Station could help develop countermeasures to forms of chemical weapons. The Countermeasures Against Chemical Threats initiative also looks at the toxic effects of pesticides.
Other News
Tour the International Space Station with Google Street View
Newsweek (7/20): Google Street View has expanded its visual services from Earth to the International Space Station. European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet captured Street View imagery to share what it looks like from the inside, and what it’s like to look down on Earth from outer space during his recent six month stay aboard the Space Station.
Mars rover concept vehicle tours this planet
USA Today (7/21): NASA’s Mars Rover concept vehicle is touring the U.S. East Coast this summer, offering the public a glimpse at what it might be like to roam the red planet in a rugged, 5,500 pound, four person, battery powered mobile lab with 50 inch aluminum mesh tires that stands 11 feet tall. Stops include Washington D.C. and New York City.
Apollo astronaut reunion set for Wisconsin’s EAA AirVenture
Journal Sentinel (7/22): It’s been 50 years since the launching of the Apollo program that would eventually land humans on the moon, but the few men who blasted into space are still treated as rock stars. Which is as it should be. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo space program, the 2017 EAA AirVenture, which opens Monday, is organizing an astronaut reunion, a new exhibit at the EAA Aviation Museum featuring a moon rock brought back by Apollo 15 astronauts and a panel discussion Friday evening.
Mishap to delay launch of NASA communications satellite
Space News (7/21): The Florida launching of NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M, once planned for Aug. 3, will be delayed to accommodate repairs to an antenna damaged during pre-launch processing. NASA, satellite manufacturer Boeing and launch services provider United Launch Alliance are looking to a new launch date later in August, according to a space agency statement on Friday. TDRS satellite communications support for the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope and other satellites.
Bengaluru firm eyes to land first private spacecraft on moon
Times of India (7/22): India’s Team Indus, a Google Lunar X-Prize competitor, envisions a December launch of its lunar lander and small rover. Team Indus is among five competitors, including two more from the U.S. and one each from Japan and Israel.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of July 24-28, 2017
Spacepolicyonline.com (7/23): Activities this week include meetings of the NASA Advisory Council in Hampton, Va., and on Friday the launching of U.S., Russian and European crew members to the International Space Station. Their fast track launch to docking will restore Space Station to six person operations for the first time since early June.