Monday’s Deep Space Extra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA’s Space Launch System will carry CubeSats aboard Exploration Mission-1, the agency’s 2018 inaugural SLS test flight of the Orion capsule. The CubeSats will help to advance future human exploration. Europe is picking up the pace for ExoMars launch preparations. NASA’s long running Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission locates and maps potential resources for future human activity. Scientists offer an explanation for the moon’s slight tilt. Comets not alien structures circle the star KIC 8462852, say Iowa State researchers. A soon to launch European space mission will test Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. December nights will bring Geminid meteor shower, bright planets. China has launched an Earth observing satellite. An aging NOAA weather satellite has broken apart. Orbital ATK prepares to resume NASA contracted cargo launches to the International Space Station on Thursday. President Obama has signed legislation supporting commercial space activities and extending International Space Station operations from 2020 to 2024. The private sector has become a key contributor to a new space race. NASA turns to commercial partners for key technology developments. Major space related activities planned for the week ahead.

Human Deep Space Exploration

NASA identifies secondary payloads for SLS’s EM-1 mission

NASAspaceflight.com (11/27): NASA has selected three lines of investigation for the CubeSats that will be launched aboard Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), the late 2018 first flight of the Space Launch System exploration rocket and an uncrewed Orion capsule. Excess launch capacity will permit launches of CubeSats to investigate strategic knowledge gaps in future human exploration planning. BioSential will examine radiation damage to the DNA of living organisms in Earth moon space. Lunar Flashlight will identify water ice and other possible human resources on the moon. Near Asteroid Scout will study the characteristics of a Near Earth Asteroid.

Unmanned Deep Space Exploration

ExoMars Work at Frenzied Pace To Make 2016 Launch Date

Space News (11/25): The European Space Agency and prime contractor Thales Alenia are working hard against deadlines to keep a Mar. 14-25 launch window open for the first ExoMars mission. ESA is partnered with Russia, which will furnish a Proton rocket launch, for ExoMars. The project, which includes the 2018 launching of a Mars rover, has been cost challenged since its inception. The 2016 mission features an orbiter and a prototype short term lander.

5 Lessons From NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Forbes.com (11/29): Launched in mid-2009, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission continues to provide valuable information about the moon, including evidence for large amounts of water ice and other volatiles that could provide resources for human explorers. The moon may have been volcanically active as recently as 100 million years ago.

Scientists Link Moon’s Tilt and Earth’s Gold

New York Times (11/27): Scientists suggest the moon’s odd tilt may have a common explanation. Writing in the journal Nature, they suggest as have others, that the moon formed from debris left after another large object grazed the Earth billions of years ago. Other large objects darting through the inner solar system caused the odd lunar tilt. Some of the large objects struck the Earth but not the moon, leaving precious metals such as gold and platinum in the Earth’s crust, well within diggable reach.

That ‘alien megastructure’ orbiting a distant star is probably just a bunch of comets

Washington Post (11/25): Observations around the distant star KIC 8462852 with NASA’s Kepler space telescope revealed an odd blinking pattern, stirring recent speculation of a possible structure built by an alien intelligence as the source. Researchers from Iowa State University, however, now suggest the source is a cluster of comets.

Spacecraft that will put Einstein to the test ready for lift-off

New Scientist (11/27): The European Space Agency is prepared for the Dec. 2, liftoff of LISA Pathfinder, a mission that will seek evidence for the gravity waves predicted by Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. The mission is a forerunner to the ESA-led eLISA mission planned for 2034.

Tour December’s Sky: Planets and Meteors

Sky & Telescope (11/27): The Northern Hemisphere promises to be at its best for star gazing in December. There’s the Geminid meteor shower just before mid-month, and good viewing of Venus, Mars, Jupiter and the moon.

Low Earth Orbit

Chinese Long March 4C rocket conducts surprise Yaogan-29 launch

Spaceflight Insider (11/28): China launched the latest in a series of Earth observing satellites on Nov. 26, carrying possible electro-optical and synthetic aperture radar sensors.

NOAA Weather Satellite Breaks Up in Orbit

Space News (11/27): The NOAA 16 polar orbiting weather satellite, launched in 2000, has broken apart, the U.S. Joint Space Operations Center announced last week. The fragments do not appear to pose a collision threat to other satellites. A U.S. military weather satellite experienced a similar breakup earlier this year.

Commercial to Orbit

NASA’s space station resupply program to relaunch

Orlando Sentinel (11/28): NASA contracted re-supply missions to the International Space Station are set to resume Thursday with the launching of an Orbital ATK cargo vessel atop at Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The commercial resupply flights were suspended following a pair of launch explosions. The most recent, June 28, involved SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Orbital’s Antares launch vehicle exploded moments after lift off Oct. 28, 2014 from Wallops Island, Va. The upcoming missions will launch with more than 7,000 pounds of assorted supplies and research gear for the station’s six member crew.

President Signs FY2016 NDAA, Commercial Space Bills Into Law

Spacepolicyonline.com (11/25): President Obama signed new commercial space legislation agreed to by the U.S. House and Senate just before Thanksgiving. The legislation eases federal regulation of commercial space activities until 2023, provides ownership rights to U.S. citizens who discover valuable materials on asteroids and extends operations of the International Space Station from 2020 through 2024.

How business is taking the space race to new frontiers

The Conversation (11/28): Who is racing to space these days? The space race “is less of a competition with only one possible winner, “writes University of Warwick strategist Loizos Heracleous. “This is a race of consortia that often includes both private entities and multiple government agencies. It brings together commercial, scientific and military interests.” The recent successful vertical landing of Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket prompted the question.

NASA Announces Awards for `Tipping Point’ Technologies

Space News (11/27): NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate has awarded commercial sector contracts to advance 22 technology projects that range from robotic in space manufacturing to small spacecraft propulsion systems.

The Week Ahead

What’s Happening in Space Policy November 30-December 4, 2015

Spacepolicyonline.com (11/29/15): The U.S. Congress reconvenes this week following a break for the Thanksgiving holiday. Legislative priorities include the 2016 federal budget. The current budget Continuing Resolution for all U.S. federal agencies expires Dec. 11. Also, possible re-authorization of the U.S. Export Import Bank awaits. The bank, whose authorization lapsed June 30, offers a means by which foreign customers can borrow money to purchase U.S. goods and services, including those from the aerospace industry. Orbital ATK is working toward a Dec. 3 launch of a NASA contracted re-supply mission to the International Space Station, the company’s first since an Oct. 28, 2014 launch mishap involving the Antares launch vehicle and Cygnus cargo capsule. The NASA Advisory Council meets this week as well.