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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. President Obama nominates MIT’s Dava Newman to fill NASA’s deputy administrator post. NASA ranks high as place to work among employees. NASA gathers Mars landing data through agreement with commercial launch services provider. Mars braced for Sunday’s comet pass. Saturn’s moons offer surprises. Partial solar eclipse due next week. China engages possible international partners for new space station effort. Arianespace launches two broadcast communications satellites.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Obama nominates Dava Newman to be NASA Deputy Administrator
Space News (10/16): The MIT professor was formally nominated for the number two post at NASA on Thursday by the Obama Administration. The appointment requires U.S. Senate confirmation. The deputy’s post at NASA has been vacant since the Sept. 2013 departure of Lori Garver, who left to become GM of the Air Line Pilots Association.
NASA maintains lofty worker-satisfaction ratings for 2014
Washington Post (10/16): NASA ranks high among U.S. federal agencies as a place to work, according to results from annual Office of Management and Budget survey. While pay and advancement opportunities were cited as issues, 88 percent of the agency’s employees view their work as important, 78 percent believe their management is receptive to new and better ways of doing things.
NASA, SpaceX share data on supersonic retropropulsion
Aviation Week & Space Technology (10/16): NASA, SpaceX work exchange to provide data on rocket maneuvers critical to supporting human explorers on Mars. NASA high altitude aircraft track post staging maneuvers of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket during recent launches.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Comet takes near-miss route to Mars
USA Today (10/16): Sunday marks a narrow escape for neighboring Mars, as the comet Siding Spring dashes within 90,000 miles of the red planet’s surface. U.S., European and Indian spacecraft at Mars have taken protective measures, while preparing sensors for observations.
Cassini shocked by Saturn’s spongy moon
Discovery.com (10/16): Saturn’s moon Hyperion proves “electric” during a 2005 encounter with NASA’s Cassini mission probe. The details appear in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Does Saturn’s moon Mimas have an ocean under its icy surface? (video)
Christian Science Monitor (10/16): Cornell University scientists use observations from NASA’s Cassini mission and computer modeling to guess at what goes on inside Saturn’s small wobbly moon Mimas. A subsurface ocean is one possibility.
How to safely watch next week’s partial solar eclipse
Space.com (10/16): Coming next Thursday, a partial solar eclipse. Best views are expected in Alaska and the Canadian Arctic. Much of North America should get a glimpse, however.
Low Earth Orbit
China moving forward with big Space Station plans
Space.com (10/16): China invites the space programs of other nations to join with the Asian power in the development of a new space station, which could be fully operational by 2022. Details were shared during the 27th Planetary Congress of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), held in Beijing last month.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Two satellites for Latin America launched by Ariane 5
Spaceflightnow.com (10/16): Two satellites for Latin American broadcast television lifted off Thursday from French Guiana atop an Ariane 5 rocket. It was the 62nd consecutive launch success for the French launch services company Arianespace, according to the report.
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