In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Legislation passes the U.S. House approving coins commemorating the Apollo 11 50th anniversary.
Human Deep Space Exploration
House of Representatives approves bill to mint coins for moon landing 50th
Collectspace.com (12/5): Now on its way to the U.S. Senate, legislation passed by the House on Monday instructs the U.S. mint to strike gold and silver coins commemorating the 50th anniversary of the July 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing.
Rhode Island School of Design works with NASA on Mars suit
AP via New York Times (12/5): The Rhode Island School of Design unveils a new space suit for NASA sponsored Mars mission simulations in Hawaii. The garment, made of nylon fabric, carbon fiber and foam to replicate an actual space suit, will be worn during a 2017 Mars mission exercise called the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation.
Interstellar glitz: Designing the ‘Passengers’ starship, inside and out
Space.com (12/5): What happens when two of the 1,500 souls asleep aboard a future star ship on a 120-year journey awaken much too soon? Passengers, a new science-fiction thriller opening December 21, offer answers as well as some drama.
Space Science
Quest to reveal asteroid’s mysteries before Japanese spacecraft’s visit
Seeker.com (12/5): Terrestrial astronomers are doing all they can to learn about the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu well before Japan’s Hayabusa 2 sample return mission reaches Ryugu in mid-2018. More knowledge of the asteroid’s orbit and properties can help improve the chances of mission success.
Low Earth Orbit
Russia loses $500,000 greenhouse due to Progress spacecraft’s crash
TASS, of Russia (12/5): Russia’s December 1 Progress MS-04/65 failed re-supply mission to the International Space Station claimed a Russian greenhouse experiment meant for installation on the orbiting lab’s Russian segment. The experiment was to be used by cosmonaut to grow sweet peppers, wheat and salad greens.
Russian authorities inspecting crashed spacecraft debris
AFP, of France (12/5): Russian authorities gathered in the remote and mountainous region of southern Siberia on Monday to examine debris from the Progress MS-04/65 International Space Station re-supply mission. Launched December 1, the freighter broke apart and fell to Earth following lift-off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and some sort of problem with the Soyuz launch vehicle’s third stage.
Astronaut Cady Coleman leaving NASA
Spaceflight Insider (12/5): Veteran NASA astronaut Catherine “Cady” Coleman retires. Selected by NASA for astronaut training in 1992, Coleman launched three times, accumulating 180 days in Earth orbit as she helped dispatch the Chandra X-ray Observatory from the space shuttle and lived aboard the International Space Station.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Vega mission orbits Turkish Earth observation satellite
Space News (12/5): A Turkish Earth-observing satellite, launched from Europe’s Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana early Monday, successfully achieved orbit and is soon to begin a seven year mission.