Today’s Deep Space Extra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA’s Space Launch System exploration rocket has completed the Critical Design Review phase, a major milestone in its assigned mission to start humans on new voyages of deep space exploration. An editorial urges the U.S. to reach Mars first. NASA’s New Horizons mission spacecraft alters course for a new Kuiper Belt destination after an historic July 14 flyby of distant Pluto. The Hubble Space Telescope catches a glimpse of the earliest galaxies. Japan’s Hayabusa 2 asteroid mission spacecraft will swing by Earth on Dec. 3 for an important gravity assist. The U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame will close and move to join other Kennedy Space Center attractions. Congress appears ready to vote on a re-authorization of the U.S. Export Import Bank. The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded Lockheed Martin a major radar facility contract to watch for Pacific missile threats.
Human Deep Space Exploration
NASA’s ‘ride to Mars’ completes critical design review
Orlando Sentinel (10/22): The Space Launch System exploration rocket has completed all phases of NASA’s critical design review, NASA announced Thursday. It’s the first time in almost four decades a new spacecraft developed to send humans into space has reached such a milestone. The SLS, coupled with the Orion crew capsule, is intended to start humans on new missions of deep space exploration, with Mars among the destinations. SLS and Orion are working toward a first space test flight in late 2018. The launching will send an unpiloted Orion capsule around the moon and back to Earth for an ocean splashdown and recovery.
NASA completes critical design review for Space Launch System
Space Daily (10/22): NASA’s Space Launch System exploration rocket has cleared the Critical Design Review phase, NASA announced on Thursday. The most powerful rocket ever built, the SLS is designed to launch humans on missions of deep space exploration to destinations including the lunar environs, asteroids and Mars in the 2030s. The SLS represents the first exploration class rocket since the NASA Apollo program’s Saturn V.
NASA’s Space Launch System inches even closer to flight
Engadget.com (10/22): NASA’s Space Launch System exploration rocket has achieved a key development milestone, completing a critical design review process that began two months after agency officials submitted its findings to an independent senior review board. The first of three SLS configurations is working toward a late 2018 flight test, one that will send an unpiloted Orion crew capsule around the moon and back to Earth for an ocean splashdown and recovery.
NASA’s SLS booster sheds Saturn V color scheme in design review
Collectspace.com (10/23): With Thursday’s announcement that the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket has cleared the important Critical Design Review process, NASA offered a rendering that features a new color scheme for the largest launch vehicle every built. The new scheme does away with the black and white of its long ago predecessor, the Apollo program Saturn V moon rocket.
Mars is calling
The Washington Times (10/22): In an editorial, the Washington newspaper calls for the United States to find and execute a strategy for reaching Mars with humans first. “The heavens beckon — it’s not in the American DNA to get there after everybody else” according to the Washington Times. The op-ed takes note of U.S. stops and starts in its pursuits of new exploration destinations and emphasizes the need to pursue a cost efficient strategy.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
New Horizons changes course for flyby of first post-Pluto destination on New Year’s Day 2019
America Space (10/22): NASA’s New Horizons mission probe was commanded to alter its course on Thursday. The new heading is to take the well-traveled spacecraft that carried out the first ever flyby of distant Pluto on July 14 toward a second Kuiper Belt Object, a tiny rocky world called 2014 MU69, which is less than 30 miles in diameter. The new destination orbits the sun 1 billion miles beyond Pluto.
Hubble sees ‘first light’ galaxies at dawn of time
Discovery.com (10/22): The Hubble Space Telescope has spied some of the universe’s earliest galaxies with the help of gravitational lensing. These star systems came into existence an estimated 600 million years after the universe was born and helped to shape the emerging cosmos.
Hayabusa2 ready for December swing-by
Nikkei Asian Review, of Japan (10/23): Japan’s Hyabusa2 asteroid mission spacecraft will swing close to the Earth on Dec. 3 for a gravity assist that will help speed the spacecraft toward an encounter with the asteroid Ryagu between June and July 2018. The mission was launched on Dec. 3, 2014. The gravity assist maneuver will require precise tracking and communications.
Low Earth Orbit
On-the-move Astronaut Hall of Fame to close Nov. 2
Orlando Sentinel (10/22): The U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, located in Titusville, Fla., will close on Nov. 2 and move to the nearby Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex as part of the new Heroes and Legends attraction. The new complex is designed to accommodate more attractions and visitors. A late 2016 opening is planned.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Space-related bills await action by Congress
Space News (10/22): Washington lawmakers appear ready to take up important space policy issues, including a possible re-authorization of the U.S. Export Import Bank, legislation that lapsed on June 30. The bank acts as a mechanism to assist foreign customers with the purchase of U.S. aerospace products and services among other goods. A vote is planned for Oct. 26 that would authorize the bank until 2019. Other legislation in the works would extend government indemnification for commercial launch activities.
Lockheed Martin lands missile defense radar contract
Space News (10/22): The Department of Defense has selected Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training for a $784 million contract to build a long-range discrimination radar for the identification of incoming missile threats from the Pacific region, primarily North Korea. The announcement was made Oct. 21.