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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA, contractor ATK test Space Launch System avionics. Apollo 17 anniversary feeds yearning for human return to the moon. Finding a target for NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission. China’s Chang’e-3 mission lands on moon, deploys Jade Rabbit rover. Iran launches primate. Lessons from comet ISON. Saturn’s rings dated. Scientist urges sufficient funds for U.S. planetary science. Launch of International Space Station delayed at least a day. Views of Earth from the space station. NASA picks SpaceX to negotiate launch pad lease at the Kennedy Space Center. Major space activities scheduled for the week ahead.
Human Deep Space Exploration
NASA and ATK complete avionics and control testing for SLS booster
AmericaSpace.com (12/14): Contractor ATK achieves hot fire tests of boosters for NASA’s Space Launch System, the heavy lift rocket intended to start U.S. explorers on new mission of deep exploration. The testing put the new, advanced avionics system through simulated SLS launch sequences — preflight and ascent phases — by verifying communication between ground and flight systems, AmericaSpace.com reports.
Editorial: Remembering Apollo 17 — Last manned moon mission leaves resonances, longing to go back.
Spaceflight Insider (12/15): Saturday marked the 41st anniversary of Apollo 17’s lunar departure. No human has been to the moon since. Apollo 17 has become a reminder of humanity’s longing to visit other worlds, a longing which has yet to be satisfied for most space watchers, according to the Spaceflight Insider editorial.
NASA still searching for the right asteroid; scratch 2009 BD off the list
Washington Post (12/13): NASA’s plans for the Asteroid Redirect Mission depend on a suitable near Earth object as a destination. ARM would capture and maneuver a small asteroid into orbit around the moon, where it could be reached by U.S. astronauts launched aboard an Orion rocket atop the new Space Launch System.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
China Moon landing: ‘Jade Rabbit’ rover basks in lunar bay of rainbows
Space.com (12/15): China’s first moon lander mission, Chang’e-3, deploys the Jade Rabbit rover on an unexplored region of the moon.
China’s ‘Jade Rabbit’ separates from lander
Xinhuanet, of China, (12/15): China’s first moon rover, Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, separates from the lander early Sunday, several hours after the Chang’e-3 probe soft-landed on the lunar surface. China televises.
China celebrates lunar probe and announces return plans
New York Times (12/16): Beijing marks the success of the Chang’e-3 lunar mission with plans to return to the lunar surface with another unmanned probe in 2017 to collect samples and return them to Earth.
China successfully lands robotic rover on the moon
Spaceflightnow.com (12/14): China’s Chang’e-3 descends to the lunar surface on Saturday, the first “soft landing” on the moon in 37 years. China becomes only the third country to score the achievement, after the United States and the former Soviet Union.
China’s Moon landing: Was it worth it?
China Realtime and Wall Street Journal (12/15): China’s “soft power” achievements with Chang’e-3 leave new questions about the country’s intentions in space. China may find the benefits short lived. Beijing may be tested by the inevitable failure. As in the West, exploration’s benefits may be commercial in the long run.
Commentary: Chang’e-3’s soft landing marks China’s hard success
Xinhuanet (12/14): A small drive by Chang’e-3 on the moon demonstrates a big stride for China, writes the Chinese news service. “Soft landing” marks “hard success.” In an unexplored area on the moon for scientific exploration, Chang’e-3 is not chasing the earlier fame by the United States and former Soviet Union, writes Xinjuanet.
Amazing Chang’e 3 descent video
The Planetary Society (12/15): China video of the Chang’e-3 descent:
Iran sends second monkey into space
Ria Novosti, of Russia (12/15): Auspicious, a small primate, reaches an altitude of 72 miles as a precursor to future Iranian human space flight. the Russian news service reports. Iran launches its first liquid fueled rocket. Auspicious descends safely by parachute, ending a flight that spanned 15 minutes. Iranian state television reported the flight on Saturday.
National Geographic (12/13): Comet ISON’s small stature likely contributed to its demise as it brushed past the sun on Nov. 28. Scientists hoped ISON, a refugee from the distant Oort Cloud, would survive so that it could be observed.
Age of Saturn’s rings revealed
Space.com (12/13): Astronomers date the age of planet Saturn’s specular rings at 4.4 billion years, or almost to the birth of the solar system. Estimates were made with data gathered by NASA’s Cassini mission.
CNN (12/14): Talk at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco last week turned from NASA mission achievements across the solar system to concerns that restricted budgets may force an early end to projects like the Curiosity rover at Mars and Cassini at Saturn.
Low Earth Orbit
Station cargo flight delayed amid coolant system troubleshooting
CBS News (12/14): On Saturday, NASA bumps plans for the launch of Orbital Sciences Corp’s cargo mission to the International Space Station from Dec. 18 to no earlier than Dec. 19. Meanwhile, NASA continues its troubleshooting of a cooling system problem on the station that may require spacewalks in the same time frame.
Earth views from space station star in stunning time-lapse video
Space.com (12/13): New video, the World Outside My Window, features sights from the window ports of the International Space Station.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
NASA negotiating pad lease with SpaceX after GAO rejects Blue Origin protest
Space News (12/13): NASA selected SpaceX for negotiations leading to commercial use of Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The announcement Friday followed by one day a U.S. General Accountability Office decision that rejected a protest from Blue Origin.
NASA picks SpaceX to run KSC launch complex
Orlando Sentinel (12/13): NASA looks to long term deal with SpaceX for commercial use of former space shuttle launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Terms to be negotiated, says NASA spokesman. SpaceX will gladly accommodate other commercial providers interested in using launch complex 39A for NASA human-rated orbital spaceflight, says a SpaceX spokeswoman.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Space policy events for the week of December 16-20, 2013
Spacepolicyonline.com (12/15): A look at major space related activities scheduled for the week ahead.
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