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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. U.S., Russian astronaut-cosmonaut duo ready for 2015 lift off on year-long International Space Station mission to advance future human deep space exploration. Exploration Flight Test-1 Orion capsule completes over the road journey from San Diego to the Kennedy Space Center. The European Space Agency names new director-general. NASA’s restored Kepler space telescope makes first alien planet discovery. DSCOVR solar sentry satellite proposed by former Vice President Al Gore nears early 2015 lift off. U.S. Congress funds NASA science mission education. British led lunar mission gains financial support, backing of Stephen Hawking. Albert Einstein: alien life a reasonable assumption. Next U.S. commercial resupply mission to the space station delayed until early January. Soyuz launcher boosts European communications satellites.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Meet the Twins Unlocking the Secrets of Space
Time (12/19): U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly will join Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko for a late March lift off that will mark their start of a year-long stay aboard the International Space Station. The long mission is intended to advance future human deep space exploration. On Earth, Kelly’s twin, former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, will participate in medical studies that could reveal whether space flight has genetic consequences. The Kelly’s are featured on the cover of Time Magazine.
Next year in space: Astronaut, cosmonaut look forward to year on space station
Collectspace.com (12/18): U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are preparing for the first year-long mission to the International Space Station, starting in late March. The two men’s health will be closely studied as part of an effort to ready the two countries for future human deep space exploration.
NASA’s Orion capsule back at Kennedy Space Center
Florida Today (12/17): The NASA/Lockheed Martin Exploration Flight Test-1 Orion capsule returned to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday. The spacecraft carried out a successful unpiloted two orbit test flight on Dec. 5. The capsule was recovered after a Pacific splashdown, transferred to San Diego by the U.S. Navy’s USS Anchorage, then driven by tractor trailer to Florida, where it was launched.
DLR’s Wörner to Take Helm at ESA
Spacepolicyonline.com (12/18): The European Space Agency gets new executive leadership. Johann-Dietrich Wörner, currently the head of Germany’s space agency DLR, will become the new Director General of ESA next summer, succeeding Jean-Jacques Dordain.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Kepler Makes First Exoplanet Discovery After Reboot
Discovery.com (12/18): Launched in 2009, NASA’s Kepler space telescope has bounced back from the 2013 loss of a second reaction control wheel. Engineers found a new strategy to operate with just two of Kepler’s critical pointing devices. Thursday, scientists announced their first alien planet discovery in the new mission mode: HIP 116454b, an alien world that is approximately 2.5 times the diameter of Earth with a fast, 9-day compact orbit around its host star. HIP 116454b is 180 light-years away.
Once Written Off, Kepler Telescope Finds New Planet
NPR (12/18): A distant planet, larger than the Earth, smaller than Neptune, is found in data used to demonstrate the Kepler space telescope can continue to search for alien worlds despite the loss of two pointing devices. Andrew Vanderburg, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, made the find.
DSCOVR Ready at Last for January 2015 Launch
Spacepolicyonline.com (12/18): The U.S. Air Force, NOAA and NASA have combined to prepare for the long awaited launch of a solar weather satellite sentry originally proposed by former Vice President Al Gore in the 1990s. DSCOVR could lift off in late January, depending on other mission scheduling.
Congress keeps NASA education programs aloft
Science Insider (12/18): NASA’s 2015 budget, part of a $1.1 trillion U.S. spending plan agreed to the House and Senate this month and signed into law on Tuesday, retains funding for education and public outreach efforts associated with space agency science missions. The spending plan is in force through Sept. 30, 2015.
Lunar Mission One reaches first Kickstarter funding goal to land on moon
New York Daily News (12/18): Proposed British-led Lunar Mission One succeeds in initial fund raising goal. Robotic lander would drill into moon to gather samples for study by experts. Physicist Stephen Hawking is among the mission’s supporters. A launch is planned within the next decade.
Air and Space Museum Magazine (12/18): In 1920, Albert Einstein offered his opinion, “…there is every reason to believe that Mars and the other planets are inhabited.”
Commercial to Orbit
Launch of SpaceX supply ship delayed to January
Spaceflightnow.com (12/19): Plans for the next launch of a U.S. commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station are delayed until no earlier than Jan. 6. The station’s six member crew is well stocked with supplies, according to NASA.
Soyuz-ST carrier rocket with O3b European communications satellites blasts off from Guiana
TASS (12/18): An Arianespace-sponsored Soyuz launch from French Guiana places European communications satellites into Earth orbit on Thursday.
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