Please note, CDSExtra will be on vacation Monday, August 15 through Friday, September 2. Distribution will resume Tuesday, September 6.

In Today’s Deep Space Extra… California startup outlines asteroid mining strategy.

Space Science

Space race heats up: Deep Space Industries plans to visit asteroid by 2020

Geek Wire (8/10): Deep Space Industries plans to take its space mining aspirations to a near-Earth asteroid by end of this decade. Relying on a novel water-based propulsion system, the company’s Prospector 1 spacecraft would survey then settle to the asteroid’s surface to complete a search for resources that could be mined. Prospector 1 would be a follow-on to Prospector X, an Earth-orbiting prototype satellite that will be launched next year as a technology demonstrator. The government of Luxembourg announced in May that it was partnering with California-based Deep Space Industries for the orbital demonstration.

Moon Express regulatory approval prompts questions about space law

Spaceflight Insider (8/9): A surge in interest by commercial space companies to seek out and potentially mine resources from asteroids and the moon may raise legal issues over ownership rights. Moon Express recently won the approval of the U.S. FAA to launch the first commercial mission to the moon, a regulatory requirement spelled out in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty signed by more than 100 nations and the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama late last year.

Comet Swift-Tuttle: The icy parent of the Perseid meteor shower

Space.com (8/9): The annual Perseid meteor shower peaks late Thursday/early Friday. The Perseid’s source, the tail of the Comet Swift -Tuttle, last passed close to the Earth in 1992. The shower is best for sky watchers in the Earth’s Northern Hemisphere. Up to 200 bright streaks are expected every hour.

How a 1967 solar storm nearly led to nuclear war

Space.com (8/9): It was late May 1967, when the U.S. Air Force grew concerned that the former Soviet Union was jamming key U.S. national security surveillance satellites. As it turned out, powerful solar eruptions were behind the mega disturbances. Today, solar activity is monitored closely by U.S. and European satellites.

Low Earth Orbit

Cruz kicks off state tour on economic issues

KHOU-TV, of Houston (8/8): U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, of Texas, a onetime U.S. presidential contender, tells a Houston business group he favors a 2024-2028 extension of International Space Station operations. “In my view, space exploration is a critical priority,” Cruz told an Aug. 8 meeting of business leaders assembled by the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership. Cruz chairs the U.S. Senate Science and Space Subcommittee. Cruz also favors a new authorization bill for NASA, its first since 2010.

Williams to become NASA’s longest-duration space flier

Seeker.com (8/9): NASA’s Jeff Williams, the current International Space Station commander, is in line on Aug. 24 to break the U.S. record of 520 days for time accumulated in space over a career that includes four spaceflights. The current record was established Mar. 1, 2016, as Scott Kelly returned to Earth after nearly a year in Earth orbit aboard the space station. Williams, however, will first join with fellow NASA astronaut Kate Rubins for an Aug. 19 spacewalk to install an International Docking Adapter on the station to accommodate future U.S. commercial crew launch vehicles developed by Boeing and SpaceX.

Commercial to Low Earth Orbit

U.S. Air Force turns to industry to plug weather satellite gaps 

Space News (8/9): The U.S. Air Force will look to commercially supplied satellite data as a possible solution to a pair of high priority military weather forecasting needs, cloud cover for long-range strike operations and global theater imagery. Under the terms of a recently issued broad area announcement, the Air Force is seeking proposed solutions that could lead to a handful of $500,000 contracts in December for further refinements.

SpaceX offers large rockets for small satellites

Space News (8/9): The Hawthorne Calif.-based launch services provider SpaceX declares that its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets can accommodate a growing small satellite market, rather than a new SpaceX launch vehicle tailored to CubeSats. SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell discussed the market at a conference on small satellites in Logan, Utah on Tuesday.