Today’s Deep Space Extra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA introduces a silvery addition to the Orion crew exploration capsule. Space Florida works to make space exploration an issue in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Rocket hardware recovered from NASA’s Apollo missions by raising it from the Atlantic Ocean will go on display at the Seattle Flight Museum. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory proposes the addition of Mars Helicopter, a small drone, to the agency’s 2020 Mars rover. The International Space Station partners move up the December landing of three astronauts. U.S. space leadership will grow stronger with new commercial space legislation, writes U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. United Launch Alliance unveils CubeSat launch plans. U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby will push a reprieve for a legislative ban on the import of Russian rocket engines. The just concluded Space Commerce and Exposition Conference showcases space technology for new products and services in energy, medicine, transportation and other non-aerospace enterprises.
Human Deep Space Exploration
NASA unveils shiny new coat for its Orion spacecraft
Ars Technica (11/19): NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle will sport a silvery metallic based finish for better thermal protection of the astronauts inside. NASA released images of the new look Thursday. The spacecraft, designed to start human explorers on new missions of deep space exploration, is working toward a late 2018 test flight that will also feature the first launch of NASA’s Space Launch System exploration rocket.
Space Florida hoping NASA becomes presidential issue
News 13, of Florida (11/19): Space Florida, the state’s space development arm, is working to make the nation’s space exploration policy a topic in the 2016 presidential election. Space Florida intends to work with Ohio, Colorado and Virginia to provide a unified message about the importance of funding America’s space program. Each has a stake in the space industry and each is a battleground state in the 2016 election.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Seattle’s Museum of Flight unwrap Apollo moon engine artifacts
Geek Wire (11/19): Rocket engine components from NASA’s Apollo moon missions were unveiled Thursday at the Seattle Museum of Flight. The hardware was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean east of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center through the efforts of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The engine parts from the Apollo 12 and 16 launches were raised from depths of 14,000 feet in 2013. Parts from Apollo 11 will be displayed at the Air and Space Museum in Washington.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Elachi touts helicopter scout for Mars sample-caching rover
Space News (11/20): NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is developing a small helicopter like drone to act as a an airborne scout for the agency’s Mars 2020 rover, Charles Elachi, JPL’s director, announced on Thursday. The Mars 2020 rover, based on Curiosity, will gather samples of Martian rock and soil for an eventual return to Earth. Mars Helicopter will weigh a kilogram, or just over two pounds.
Low Earth Orbit
Soyuz TMA-17M crew to return from ISS early to accommodate increased Space Station traffic
AmericaSpace.com (11/19): International Space Station crew members Kjell Lindgren, of NASA; Oleg Kononenko, of Russia; and Kimiya Yui, of Japan, will return to Earth on Dec. 11, nearly two weeks sooner than planned earlier, to accommodate a heavier than usual schedule of people and cargo launching to the orbiting science lab in late December and January. Their July 11 launching was delayed by two months as well while Russian experts looked into the third stage failure of a Soyuz rocket.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Cruz: We must continue America’s leadership in space
Houston Chronicle (11/18): U.S. space leadership will grow with passage this month of the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, writes U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who chairs the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness, in an op-ed. The legislation extends regulatory protection to the commercial space industry and extends operations of the International Space Station from 2020 to 2024.
Lockheed-Boeing rocket venture to launch micro satellites
Reuters via New York Times (11/19): United Launch Alliance, a Boeing/Lockheed Martin joint venture that traditionally has launched large satellites on U.S. national security missions, will initiate the launching of CubeSats by mid-2017, the company announced on Thursday. A special carrier for 24 CubeSats will be integrated into ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket for the launches along with large satellites. The global market for lower cost CubeSats is growing quickly.
ULA to give small research sats free rides to space
Denver Business Journal (11/19): United Launch Alliance will provide small satellites with a free ride to Earth orbit. As many as 24 CubeSats and small satellites could receive a ride to orbit, thanks to excess mass capacity on ULA’s Atlas 5 launch vehicle.
Key lawmaker aims to delay phase out of Russian rocket engine
USA Today (11/19): U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, of Alabama, intends to add language to a U.S. spending bill that would grant a reprieve to United Launch Alliance for the purchase of Russian rocket engines for the Atlas 5 rocket. Lawmakers legislated a ban to protest Russia’s activities in the Ukraine.
SpaceCom: Cashing in on the final frontier
KHOU-TV (11/19): NASA technology available to the private sector for new commercial products and services was on display this week at the Space Commerce Conference and Exposition in Houston. “We’re bringing together over 1,700 people not only from the aerospace industry but also from the non-aerospace industry to understand what the intersection points could be between established aerospace technology and how those technologies might be applied to earthbound activities,” said Jim Causey, SpaceCom’s executive director.