In Today’s Deep Space Extra… A proposed temporary U.S. spending plan would provide NASA with funding to keep Exploration Mission-1 on track for a late 2018 liftoff.

Human Deep Space Exploration

New CR funds government through April 28, protects SLS/Orion and JPSS

Spacepolicyonline.com (12/7): A proposed U.S. federal budget Continuing Resolution, written by House appropriators, would keep government agencies operating through April 28 at 2016 spending levels. However, a special provision would enable NASA’s Space Launch System, Orion and new ground support programs to spend at rates needed to support the planned November 2018 launch of Exploration Mission-1. EM-1 is to be the first unmanned test flight of the SLS and Orion, key elements of NASA’s plans to launch humans on future missions to lunar orbit and Mars. EM-1 would send Orion around the moon and back to Earth over a three week voyage. The full House, Senate and President Obama must sign off on the proposed Continuing Resolution. The current CR expires Friday, December 9 at midnight. The 2017 federal fiscal year began October 1 without a budget.

Space Science

Drill glitch brings Mars rover Curiosity to a halt

Space.com (12/6): Operations of NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover have been suspended temporarily while Earth-based engineers investigate difficulty with a drill used to gather samples of red planet rocks for analysis. Curiosity has been exploring Mars’ Gale Crater since making a dramatic landing in August 2012.

Low Earth Orbit

Mission Control Center reveals cause of Progress spacecraft loss

TASS, of Russia (12/6): Progress MS-04/65, Russia’s most recent re-supply mission to the International Space Station, was lost just over six minutes into flight after a December 1 lift-off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. In a statement on Tuesday, Russia’s Mission Control said the Soyuz U launch vehicle experienced an emergency third-stage shutdown. The capsule and its 2.6 tons of space station propellant and crew supplies broke apart over remote Siberia.

Resource-mapping satellite blasts off from India

Spaceflightnow.com (12/7): India closed out a record year of space activity on Wednesday with the launch of the Resourcesat 2A Earth-observing satellite.

Commercial to Low Earth Orbit

NASA just commissioned a spacecraft that can refuel satellites already in orbit

The Verge (12/6): NASA has contracted with Space Systems Loral to build a spacecraft for the agency’s RESTORE L mission to demonstrate the robotic re-fueling of orbiting satellites. The initiative is intended to develop a capability to extend the lives of orbiting satellites.

Jeff Bezos shows how Blue Origin’s orbital rocket factory is taking shape in Florida

GeekWire.com (12/6): Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos reports early progress in the construction of the company’s new rocket factory near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The facility is set to open at the end of next year for production of Blue’s New Glenn orbital rocket.

Suborbital

Houston spaceport partners with U.K. spaceport

Houston Chronicle (12/6): Houston’s runway spaceport has signed a cooperative agreement with a counterpart, the United Kingdom’s Glasgow Prestwick Airport.