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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Huntsville, Ala., looks to the promise of NASA’s Space Launch System for new missions of human exploration. Future rounds of sequestration, political divisiveness threaten advances in aerospace. The inner solar system beckons. Space vets to advise Challenger Center. China picks moon’s Rainbow Bay for landing site. Sun raging; northern latitudes aglow. Odds of Milky Way supernova rising. Space station astronauts move Soyuz crew transport. Olympic torch, new astronaut crew to head for International Space Station. Canada’s Chris Hadfield reflects on life in space and after. Astronaut Karen Nyberg stages quilting bee from International Space Station. NBC and Virgin Galactic team for reality television show.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Rocket scientists find sweet home in Alabama
Washington Post (11/1): Documentary video explains the Marshall Space Flight Center’s link to NASA’s Space Launch System, the heavy lift rocket under development for future human deep space missions. “Pick your destination, the Space Launch System is capable of taking you there,” explains one engineer. “I’d love to see some rocket engines made in Huntsville go to Mars,” adds Huntsville’s mayor.
Fear and Loathing in Washington — The Remix
Space Foundation Space Watch (10/31): Elliot Pulham offers 10 reasons to reverse the impact of the budget sequester on space. They range from the search to intelligent life to weather satellites and national security assets to the GPS navigation assets.
Space Bipartisanship: The New Final Frontier
Space Foundation (10/31): The organization’s Washington representative finds bipartisanship support for the nation’s space endeavors eroding in the nation’s capital.
It’s time to send Americans into the inner solar system (op-ed)
Space.com (10/31): A. D. Boozer, astrophysics researcher, urges investments in space fuel depots to manage the cost of launching Americans on missions beyond the Earth.
Challenger Center Announces Formation of Advisory Council
Challenger Center via The PR Web (10/31): Former President George H. W. Bush, Mercury astronaut John Glenn and aerospace executive Norm Augustine are among those serving on the organization’s advisory board. The Challenger Center was established to encourage education in the STEM fields.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
China’s next moon mission targets Bay of Rainbows
Space.com (10/31) China eyes a basaltic lava bed for the landing site for its Change’3 lunar lander and rover. The mission is nearing an early December lift off.
28 solar flares in the last seven days, and more may be coming
The Los Angeles Times (10/31): The sun grows activity. But it is the solar max, the peak of an 11 year activity period.
From Spaceweather.com (11/1): Increased solar activity this week triggers eerie display of Northern Lights at northern latitudes
ScienceShot: Almost Certain Chance of Supernova
Science Magazine (10/31) and the Astrophysical Journal: Experts estimate a 50 percent chance of a Milky Way supernova within 50 The last known stellar explosion in the galaxy was 1604, well before the advent of telescopes. This time, an underground neutrino detector in Japan may be the first to know.
Low Earth Orbit
Soyuz switches ports on International Space Station
Spacefightnow.com (11/1): Three astronauts aboard the space station relocate their Soyuz crew transport capsule early Friday to clear a parking spot for three new crew members next week.
Olympic torch relay heads to International Space Station
Spaceflightnow.com (10/31): Next week, a symbolic and unlit version of the Olympic torch is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station for a spacewalk and a quick return to Earth. The torch will celebrate the February Winter Games to open in Sochi, Russia in February.
Orbital Do-Si-Do Begins as ISS prepares for three crews at once
From Spacepolicyonline.com (10/31): The space station population will rise from six to nine briefly as a symbolic Olympic torch arrives with three new crew members on Nov. 6/7, participates in a spacewalk on Nov. 9, then returns to Earth on Nov. 10 with three returning astronauts.
Watch Astronaut Chris Hadfield’s Interview with SPACE.com
Space.com (10/31): Canadian astronaut, who gained fame for his cover of David Bowie’s Space Oddity, and his enthusiasm for exploration as the first from his country to command the International Space Station, speaks of lessons learned, life after space and music.
Chris Hadfield, Astronaut, YouTube star, talks bringing space experience to Earth
CBS News (10/31): Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield: Social media making the experience of space more accessible to the public.
NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg hosts quilting bee from space station
From The Los Angeles Times (10/31): Nyberg, a hand crafter as well as an astronaut and young mother, reaches out to quilters to join her in creating a patch work tapestry.
Suborbital
NBC teams up with Virgin Galactic for ‘Space Race’ reality TV show
Space News (10/31): NBC teams with the Virgin Galactic on a reality show to track competition for a seat aboard a SpaceShipTwo flight.
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