Today’s Deep Space Extra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Top NASA officials announce a likely two year delay, from 2021 to 2023, in the launching of the first test flight of the Orion crew exploration capsule with human passengers. Future Mars explorers may move quickly into self-deploying shelters designed by engineers already at work on the challenge. At NASA’s Johnson Space Center, workers meet with actors from the soon to open movie The Martian to explain how they are turning science fiction into reality. Republican presidential candidates cite past space achievements as examples of the U.S. at its best during Wednesday night’s televised debate. On Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover discovers petrified sand dunes. Celestial collisions reveal a surprise source for the universe’s “missing mass.” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden visits Huntsville, Ala., to encourage greater diversity among those working for and managing NASA. Irving, Tex., high school freshman Ahmed Mohamed receives a White House invitation after a clock he assembled is mistaken for an explosive device. Boeing, partnered with Lockheed Martin in the joint venture United Launch Alliance, says a reported $2 billion bid by Aerojet Rocketdyne to purchase ULA, has not drawn serious attention. Imports of Russia’s RD-180 rocket engine should continue to ensure the launchings of U.S. national security payloads until a domestic replacement is available, according to an op-ed by a military analyst.
Human Deep Space Exploration
NASA: Orion deep space exploration ship faces delays
Newsweek (9/16): NASA’s Orion crew exploration capsule faces a potential two year delay, or until 2023, for the first space test flight with a crew, top space agency officials explained in a news briefing Wednesday. The first unpiloted test flight remains targeted for late 2018. The likely delay in the first crewed Orion test flight, designated Exploration Mission-2, was announced as part of an management review of the development progress and future funding estimates. Both the unpiloted and piloted missions are designed to take the Orion capsule around the moon and back to Earth for recovery. Orion is a key part of a NASA strategy to resume human deep space exploration.
First manned test flight of new deep-space capsule likely delayed: NASA
Reuters (9/15): NASA’s Orion crew exploration capsule faces a likely two year delay in its initial test flight with humans, from 2021 to 2023, due to technical, financial and management challenges, NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot explained in a news briefing on Wednesday. Plans for the first unmanned test flight of Orion atop NASA’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket in late 2018 remain in place.
Future Mars explorers could live in habitats that build themselves
Space News (9/16): At NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, engineers are working on the Self-deployable Habitat for Extreme Environments (SHEE) project, a shelter that could be assembled on Mars or under extreme conditions on the Earth.
NASA relates real projects to upcoming film ‘The Martian’
Associated Press via KPRC-TV, of Houston (9/16): Actors Sebastian Stan and Mackenzie Davis, from the cast of the soon to be released science fictions drama The Martin, toured NASA’s Johnson Space Center earlier this week. The day long field trip emphasized the activities underway at the space center to meet the many challenges of turning the movie’s fictional journey to Mars into reality.
Space mentioned in presidential primary debate, but the past not the future
Spacepolicyonline.com (9/17): References to past U.S. space accomplishments and how they inspired and encouraged earn mentions from two Republican presidential candidates during their televised debate Wednesday night.
Unmanned Space Exploration
NASA’s Curiosity rover finds petrified sand dunes on Mars (photo)
Space News (9/16): A sand dune discovery on Mars by NASA’s Curiosity rover includes a surprise. The dunes cross Mount Sharp are petrified. Curiosity is in its fourth year exploring the terrain of Gale Crater on the red planet.
The Milky Way’s missing mass: partially found
Scientific American (9/16): Observations of a galaxy skimming through the Milky Way have allowed astronomers to estimate a new source for the mass that seems to be missing from the universe.
Low Earth Orbit
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden visits Huntsville, talks diversity in aerospace
WHNT-TV, of Huntsville, Ala. (9/17): NASA Administrator Charles Bolden spoke on the agency’s commitment to increasing the diversity of its workforce and management during a visit to Huntsville, Ala. “When we look around at the work force, both contractor and NASA workforce, we find that there is a significant absence of a majority of the population, whether you’re talking about minorities or women or what, particularly in leadership roles,” commented Bolden.
Student’s creative clock draws police — and White House invitation
USA Today (9/16): Irving, Tex., high school freshman Ahmed Mohamed received an Astronomy Night invitation to the White House from President Obama on Wednesday after the 14-year-old was held by local police for bringing a clock he constructed to school to show a teacher. “We should inspire more kids like you to like science,” said the president via social media. NASA extended an invitation to visit as well. Authorities said the wires on the clock raised suspicions that it might be an explosive.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Two top Boeing execs dismiss Aerojet’s ULA bid
Space News (9/16): Boeing, half of the United Launch Alliance joint venture with Lockheed Martin, is not taking seriously reports of a purchase by Aerojet Rocketdyne, according to Boeing executives during two independent presentations on Wednesday.
Boeing rejects Aerojet Rocketdyne bid for ULA launch venture
Reuters (9/16): A reported bid by Aerojet Rocketdyne to acquire United Launch Alliance, a launch services joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, for $2 billion has not drawn serious consideration by Boeing, according to a company spokesman. Lockheed Martin chose not to comment.
Op-ed | National security in space: a critical imperative
Space News (9/15): While the U.S. presses ahead with development of a domestic alternative to imports of Russia’s RD-180 rocket engine for national security space missions, it must be prepared to continue RD-180 imports until a replacement rocket engine is ready for service, writes Steven L. Mosteiro, a former Pentagon strategic planner.