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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA and Lockheed Martin present their plans for the first uncrewed space flight test of the Orion capsule. Orion moves to Florida launch pad on Monday for Dec. 4 flight test. Medical experts tackle concerns of astronaut vision changes. NASA astronaut vet Marsha Ivins, physicist Kip Thorne among those advising Interstellar production. Extra-galactic stars are plentiful, say astrophysicists. ATK readies U.S. alternative to Russia’s RD-180 rocket engine. European Space Agency appeals to Germany to move ahead with Ariane 6.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Daring Orion Spaceship Test Flight Is NASA’s 1st Step Toward Mars
Space.com (11/6): Lockheed Martin, NASA ready for Dec. 4 launch of an uncrewed Orion capsule on Exploration Flight Test-1. The flight plan will take the heavily instrumented capsule around the Earth twice for a high speed re-entry and splashdown in the Pacific close to the Baja peninsula. The flight will test the spacecraft’s all-important heat shield on a lunar return-like trajectory. “This is really our first step on our journey to Mars,” William Hill, deputy associate administrator for explorations systems development at NASA, told a news briefing on Thursday.
Video: Learn about the Orion flight test launching in December
Spaceflightnow.com (11/6): NASA Exploration Flight Test-1 flight director Mike Serafin explains the test objectives of Orion’s first uncrewed test flight as well as the major milestones and the roles of Lockheed Martin and NASA.
NASA’s Orion Spacecraft Complete, Ready for Move to Launch Complex 37
Spaceflight Insider (11/6): Lockheed Martin’s Orion capsule will join its Delta 4 Heavy launch vehicle at Launch Complex 37 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on Monday.
NASA readies Orion for ‘first step to Mars’
Orlando Sentinel (11/6): “The flight, which will involve two Earth orbits and last less than five hours, will give NASA and its Orion business partner, Lockheed Martin, their first space test of the capsule envisioned as a critical part of any NASA trips to the moon, an asteroid, Mars or beyond,” the Sentinel reports.
FY EYE! Vision for Mars Challenge
Coalition for Space Exploration (11/6): The National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) and the Center for Space Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine have launched the Vision for Mars Challenge, a program to address the vision changes some astronauts experience during long exposures to weightlessness.
‘Interstellar’ actors sought space tips from real NASA astronaut
Collectspace.com (11/6): NASA veteran astronaut Marsha Ivins played a key advisory role for Interstellar, the new space exploration drama that opened in theaters this week. “I love science fiction movies,” Ivins wrote in an essay for TIME magazine last year, “the more scientifically fictional, the better. I am totally willing to suspend belief in, and the need to cling to, reality.”
Physicist who inspired Interstellar spills the backstory and the scene that makes him cringe
Science Insider (11/6): California Institute of Technology physicist Kip Thorne and a colleague bring reality to the physics of Interstellar.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
As many as half of all stars reside outside of galaxies, study finds
Los Angeles Times (11/6): Sounding rocket offers a brief but illuminating vision of the universe. Sensors detect luminosity from the great many stars that have wandered away from their home galaxies. There are more runaways than previously assumed, according to the NASA-sponsored study.
Rogue stars outside galaxies may be everywhere
Science Insider (11/6): New observations suggest that as many as half of all stars in the universe may be “rogue”—adrift without a galaxy to call home.
Commercial to Orbit
ATK expands on its domestic alternative to Atlas V’s RD-180
NASA Spaceflight.com (11/6): ATK’s solid fuel first stage emerges as a possible domestic alternative to imports of Russia’s RD-180, which is currently used to power the Atlas 5 rocket, and possibly the AJ-26, which Orbital Sciences believes was responsible for the Oct. 28 loss of an Antares rocket bound for the International Space Station. Tensions between Washington and Moscow over Russian interventions in Ukraine prompted a search for U.S. alternatives.
To Win Over Germany, ESA Maps out How Ariane 6 Would Save Everyone Money
Space News (11/6): The European Space Agency appeals to Germany to back plans for Ariane 6, a new launch vehicle, rather than forge ahead with the Ariane 5 and Europe’s version of Russia’s Soyuz launch vehicle for government and commercial missions. Ministers will gather in early December to determine the course.
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