Today’s Deep Space Extra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA’s Space Launch System exploration rocket is closing in on the conclusion of a key milestone, Critical Design Review. Spaceflight’s physical and mental health challenges. NASA’s Kepler space telescope finds the most Earth like extraterrestrial planet yet. An observatory in Chile profiles a galaxy emerging when the universe was but 800 million years old. Meet Kjell Lindgren, NASA’s newest member of the International Space Station crew. The financial consequences of the June 28 SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket loss reach well beyond the Hawthorne, Calif., based company. NTSB investigation into fatal 2014 Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo test flight accident is drawing to a close with Washington public hearing.
Human Deep Space Exploration
NASA nears milestone approval for its new Space Launch System
Huntsville Times (7/23): NASA’s Space Launch System exploration rocket is closing in on a key milestone, Critical Design Review. The result of the review should be available by the end of September. The SLS is moving toward its first unpiloted flight test in 2018. The launch will power NASA’s Orion Crew exploration vehicle on a loop around the moon and a return to Earth.
Planning a trip to Mars? – Here’s what you need to know
Forbes (7/24): A long space journey poses health challenges that range from radiation exposure to weakened bones and muscles to lack of sleep.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Earth 2.0? NASA finds planet with possible habitable zone
USA Today (7/23): Astronomers announce that NASA’s Kepler space telescope has enabled them to observe the most Earth like planet yet. Kepler 452b circles a sun like star 1,400 light years distant.
NASA finds ‘cousin’ to Earth in age-old quest for other worlds
Christian Science Monitor (7/23): Kepler 452b, the planet, is about the same age as the Earth and circling in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. Kepler 252b is the smallest extraterrestrial world discovery outside the solar system that it is 60 percent larger than the Earth.
NASA spots most Earth-like planet yet
Science Magazine (7/23): NASA’s six-year-old Kepler space telescope mission finds The Earth’s closest twin yet. The planet Kepler 452b circles a sun like star nearly 1,400 light years away. In addition, astronomers say Kepler has discovered another 500 alien planetary candidates.
Scientists disagree on planet habitability definition
USA Today (7/23): Experts disagree on what might make an extraterrestrial planet habitable. “Briefly speaking, it’s a rocky planet at the distance where water can exist on the surface,” said Paul Hertz, director of NASA’s astrophysics division.
Still-forming galaxy spotted near the dawn of the universe
Los Angeles Times (7/23): Astronomers use a radio telescope in the Atacama Desert of Chile to identify a distant galaxy emerging when the universe was 800 million years old.
NASA Investigating the Idea of Sending ‘Windbot’ to Jupiter
Discovery.com (7/23): Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory consider the dandelion seed as a possible model for a windbot for future explorations of the cloud filled skies of Jupiter and Saturn.
Low Earth Orbit
Meet Kjell Lindgren, NASA’s newest guy in space
ABC News (7/23): Kjell Lindgren floated aboard the International Space Station early Thursday after lifting off from Kazakhstan with Russian Oleg Kononenko and Japan’s Kimiya Yui. Lindgen, a U.S. Air Force veteran, is a medical doctor trained in aerospace and emergency medicine. Lindgren, Kononenko and Yui have trained for a five month stay aboard the Space Station. Their presence restored the Space Station to six person operations.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Delta IV rocket delivers powerful military satellite into orbit
Orlando Sentinel (7/24): A United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket lifted off Thursday at 8:07 p.m., EDT, with a U.S. Air Force communications satellite, the $566 million Wideband Global SATCOM spacecraft, the seventh in a series of 10 spacecraft.. After liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., Boeing assumed control of the satellite.
What SpaceX’s launch failure means for the private space industry
Fortune (7/23): The fall out is not good news for the satellite customers sidelined by the June 28 SpaceX Falcon 9 in flight explosion. While there are competing launch providers, the wait to lift off is long in any case. “It’s not like you can just jump to another launch vehicle,” says Richard M. Rocket, co-founder and CEO of space industry analysis firm NewSpace Global.
Suborbital
Virgin Galactic girds customers for NTSB findings
Parabolic Arc, (7/23): The National Transportation Safety Board will host a July 28 Washington hearing as its investigation into last October’s fatal crash of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo in the Mojave Desert of California nears a conclusion, according to the report.