In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Former NASA shuttle commander Chris Ferguson named to launch aboard first Boeing CST-100 Starliner test mission with astronauts. NASA’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) faces further budget scrutiny. Launch of NASA’s Solar Parker Probe delayed for further inspections.

Human Space Exploration

The company astronaut

Coalition Member in the News – Boeing

Washington Post (7/24): Chris Ferguson, who made history as the commander of NASA’s final space shuttle mission, STS-135, in July 2011, will join the crew of the first Boeing CST-100 Starliner test launch with astronauts. Ferguson, retired from NASA and joined Boeing following STS-135 to help lead the development of the Starliner. Boeing is a partner in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which promises to restore a U.S. capability to transport astronauts to and from low Earth orbit.The dates for uncrewed and crewed test flights of the Starliner and SpaceX’s Dragon 2 are being assessed by NASA. Ferguson will join NASA astronauts to become the first private citizen to launch into low Earth orbit on a commercial rocket.

 

Space Science

NASA studying potential additional cuts in WFIRST

SpaceNews.com (7/24): The chronograph already considered a technology development objective rather than a fully qualified science instrument for NASA’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) faces further possible cutbacks, according to an exchange Tuesday between members of the agency’s Astrophysics Advisory Committee and its project scientist. “It’s not that we’ve been directed to do that, but we’ve been asked to present options” said project scientist Jeff Kruk.” That study is due late this year.” Earlier in a bid to reign in WFIRST costs, the chronograph was downgraded from “instrument” to “technology development” status. Once WFIRST was in space, the chronograph would move to block the direct light from a star so the telescope could study any extra solar planets for evidence of biomarkers, or signs of life, in the atmosphere. The White House has proposed cancellation of WFIRST as part of NASA’s 2019 budget. So far, Congressional appropriators have rejected the move.

NOAA still grappling with instrument problem on new weather satellite

SpaceNews.com (7/24): NOAA announced Tuesday that its investigation efforts are making progress in identifying the source of a cooling system issue with the Advanced Baseline Imager on the agency’s GOES-17 advanced weather satellite launched in March. It is to watch over terrestrial and solar influences governing weather conditions over western North and South America. Launched as GOES-S, the satellite is the second of four spacecraft designed to assess potential disasters ranging from hurricanes to wildfires.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission slips 5 days

Spaceflightinsider.com (7/24): The Parker Solar Probe, a NASA science mission to study the sun up close, is facing a launch delay of from August 6 to August 11 to deal with a foam insulation strip that was spotted on the inside the payload fairing of the mission’s Delta IV rocket. The Parker spacecraft was developed to dip into the high temperature environment of the sun’s corona, a first.

Scientists come up with revised ‘Rio scale’ to rate claims of extraterrestrial contact

Geek Wire (7/24): When the geologists and the public learn of Earthquakes they ask how strong was it. The answer comes with a Richter Scale rating. Now, the International Academy of Astronautics is updating its 1-10 scale for the veracity of claims of contact with extraterrestrial intelligence, the Rio 2.0 scale. So far, no previous claim would rate higher than 1.

 

Other News

Four huge rockets are due to debut in 2020 — will any make it?

Coalition Members in the News – Boeing, Lockheed Martin, United Launch Alliance

Ars Technica (7/24): The dates for the rocket debuts, three from U.S. supplies and one from Europe, are estimates. They include NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS); United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan; Blue Origin’s New Glenn; and the European Space Agency’s Ariane 6.

See the dramatic increase in near-Earth asteroids NASA has discovered (video)

Space.com (7/24): NASA has been tasked by Congress over the past two decades and more with identifying progressively smaller asteroids that could impact the Earth with globally and regionally destructive consequences. A new video from the agency illustrates just how many they’ve found, about 18,000, that cross or come very near the Earth’s orbital track, out of a total population thought to range into the millions. NASA has identified 95 percent of those one kilometer (six tenths of a mile) wide and larger and capable of unleashing the most destruction with an impact. None of those pose a risk in the foreseeable future.