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Friday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space-related activities from across the globe. NASA’s four-year-old Kepler space telescope mission finds evidence of “near by” Earth-like worlds circling or close to the habitable zones of stars. Orbital Sciences Corp. looks to Saturday for a second attempt to test launch the Antares rocket. Three former NASA astronauts, two of them women, prepare to enter the U. S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory postpones plans for an annual open house in response to U.S. budget restrictions.
1. From CBS News: NASA’s Kepler space telescope has discovered the smallest planets yet found circling within or close to the habitable zones of two distant stars. All three alien worlds are larger than the Earth. But they resemble the Earth more closely than previous planet candidates. Liquid water may be present.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57580339/kepler-closing-in-on-earth-like-planets/
A. From The New York Times: NASA’s Kepler space telescope finds “two good places to live,” and they are 1,200 light years away.
B. From Space.com: If life flourished, what would it look like on these newest alien planet discoveries. Two may have global oceans where life flourishes
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/20728-new-alien-planets-oceans-life.html
C. From Time Magazine: NASA’s Kepler space telescope accelerates exo-planet discoveries. The Kepler team produces its latest findings in this week’s journal Science.
http://science.time.com/2013/04/18/exoplanet/
D. From Nature News: Water worlds surface in “habitable zone” of alien stars.
http://www.nature.com/news/kepler-spies-water-worlds-1.12825
E. From National Geographic: NASA’s search for alien worlds with the Kepler space telescope scores a breakthrough.
F. From the Daily Camera of Boulder, Colo., Built in Boulder, Kepler’s optics help to find planets Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f. These planetary twins orbit an orange dwarf star. In adjacent orbits, they are closer together than the Earth and its neighbor Mars.
2. From Discovery.com: Orbital Sciences Corp. looks to Saturday for a second bid to launch the inaugural mission of the Antares rocket. Orbital is poised to become the second U. S. commercial supply service in support of the International Space Station. Wednesday’s launch attempt was scrubbed close to lift off, when a launch pad umbilical line separated from the rocket’s second stage prematurely. Weather permitting Antares would lift off Saturday at 5 p.m., EDT.
A. From Spaceflightnow.com: The website offers one way to follow the Orbital Sciences Corp. countdown for the Antares test mission. Weather could be a factor.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/antares/demo/status.html
3. From Florida Today: Former NASA astronauts Eileen Collins, Bonnie Dunbar and Curt Brown enter the U. S. Astronaut Hall of fame near Titusville, Fla., this weekend.
4. From The Los Angeles Times: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory suspends plans for an annual open house in early June in response to the U.S. government’s 2013 budget sequester. The popular event may be re-scheduled for later in the year — if lawmakers deal with the nation’s budget issues.
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