Today’s Deep Space Extra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. A top NASA official predicts humans will reach Mars within two decades. NASA briefs plan for a robotic Mars orbiter in the 2020s equipped to bring Mars rocks and soil samples back to Earth. United Launch Alliance prepares for a U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, CubeSat mission from Vandenberg early Thursday. Orbital ATK plans to resume cargo missions to the International Space Station with back to back Atlas 5 launches. China launches four Earth observing spacecraft. NASA offers a U.S. patent deal. Boeing signs U.S. Air Force contact to develop a new Earth observing satellite. A NASA sounding rocket mission tests new space hardware.
Human Space Exploration
Lightfoot confident humans will be at Mars in 20 years
Spacepolicyonline.com (10/7): Humans will be orbiting, if not walking, on Mars within two decades, NASA’s Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot predicted in remarks before the Space Transportation Association on Capitol Hill. The agency will pursue a step by step strategy that will cost much less than America’s Apollo program on an annual basis but take longer, he said. The agency and its international partners will move from operations aboard the International Space Station, to human flight tests in cis-lunar space and then deeper into space, establishing a permanent Mars presence, he predicted.
Unmanned Space Exploration
NASA eyes sample-return capability for post-2020 Mars orbiter
Space News (10/7): NASA is preparing a soil and rock sample gathering rover for launching to Mars in 2020. Discussion this week suggests the space agency also plans a follow on Mars orbiter mission that would receive the samples and return them to Earth for scientific analysis.
Low Earth Orbit
ULA prepares to send classified NROL-55 spacecraft to orbit
Spaceflight Insider (10/7): United Launch Alliance readied an Atlas 5 rocket for launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., early Thursday with a U.S. National Reconnaissance Office satellite shortly before 9 a.m., EDT. While details of the primary spacecraft are classified, the rocket’s Centaur upper stage is carrying 13 CubeSats for other organizations and missions.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Cygnus supply ship takes weather satellite’s slot in Atlas manifest
Spaceflightnow.com (10/7): Orbital ATK will look to Dec. 3 and Mar. 10 for the launching of the company’s first NASA contracted re-supply missions to the International Space Station since an Oct. 28, 2014 launch mishap involving its Antares rocket. Both cargo flights will substitute a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 as the launch vehicle and lift off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., with upgraded Cygnus cargo capsules. Work to modify the Antares for future re-supply missions launched from Wallops Island, Va., continues.
Quartet of Earth imaging satellites launched from China
Spaceflightnow.com (10/7): China launched four commercial Earth observing satellites with a single Long March 2D rocket on Wednesday. The four spacecraft were developed by Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co. Ltd.
NASA is opening up hundreds of patents to inventors, for free
Washington Post (10/7): NASA’s Technology Transfer Program offers a patent deal in exchange for access to three years of new product development. As well as exploring, NASA encourages the development of new technologies.
Boeing gets contract for optical space tracking
Space News (10/7): Under a $13.7 million contract with the U.S. Air Force, Boeing will help to design and engineer a new electro-optical satellite observing system.
Suborbital
NASA sounding rocket launched from Wallops Island
USA Today (10/7): NASA launched a Black Brandt sounding rocket on a test flight from Wallops Island, Va., Wednesday night. It was the first rocket launch from the NASA flight facility since the Oct. 28, 2014 loss of an Orbital ATK re-supply mission to the International Space Station. The sounding rocket flight tested new production techniques and aerospace materials.