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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA’s assembled Orion capsule awaits a trip to a Florida launch pad for its first unpiloted spaceflight in December. Russia awaits heavy lift rocket design proposals for lunar exploration missions. U.S. House leaders press NASA Administrator Charles Bolden again on Space Launch System, Orion and Commercial Crew Program plans. Developers of NASA’s Space Launch System look to deep space exploration enhancements and wind tunnel tests. Cast of feature film Interstellar discuss world’s space future. Active sun produces large blemish ahead of Thursday’s partial solar eclipse. China poised for launching of lunar test mission. Why Saturn’s moon Titan glows. Russian cosmonauts sprint through a spacewalk. With Bermuda rocket tracking station intact after hurricane, Orbital Sciences looks to late Monday for the launching of its third resupply mission to the International Space Station. Retired NASA astronaut Clay Anderson recalls Challenger, Columbia tragedies.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Assembly Complete for NASA’s Maiden Orion Spacecraft Launching in December 2014
Universe Today (10/22): At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, workers have finished attaching the Launch Abort System to the Orion crew exploration capsule and enclosing the two within a protective fairing. The work prepares the assembly for a mid-November trip to a nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launch pad, where the Orion assembly will be fitted atop a Delta 4 launch vehicle for an early December launching on Exploration Flight Test-1, an unpiloted two orbit test flight. EFT-1 is planned for a Dec. 4 lift off.
Russian Space Agency to Receive Designs of Super-Heavy Carrier Rocket by Year-End
Ria Novosti (10/22): Russia’s federal space agency, Roscosmos, expects to receive competing design proposals for a heavy lift rocket by the end of 2014. The rocket will be capable of supporting future lunar exploration in the 2016 to 2025 time frame, according to the agency.
Russian space agency predicts rivalry for Moon exploration in next few decades
TASS (10/23): Russia’s lunar exploration efforts should focus on the moon’s south pole, a region once of interest to NASA’s cancelled Constellation program.
Top House Committee Republicans Press NASA for Answers on SLS, Orion, CCtCAP
Spacepolicyonline.com (10/22): U.S. House policy making panel presses NASA for details on development plans for the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket, the Orion crew exploration capsule and commercial initiatives to transport U.S. astronauts to Earth orbit.
SLS headquarters developing exploration stage of rocket
SpaceAlabama.com (10/2): NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center presses development of the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket, including a more powerful version with an Exploration Upper Stage and enough propulsion to start human explorers on missions of deep space exploration. NASA has turned to U.S. industry for upper stage propulsion proposals.
Space Launch System Booster Separation Testing Brings Confidence to First Flight
SpaceFellowship.com (10/23): Engineers at NASA’s Langley Research Center test scaled down Space Launch System in wind tunnel to model aerodynamic forces.
Space.com (10/26): Cast of new feature film Interstellar, in which humans rush to find an alternative to a dying Earth, discuss space, acting, and the themes of their film.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Beastly Sunspot Amazes, Heightens Eclipse Excitement
Universe Today (10/22): A major sun spot appears this week ahead of Thursday’s partial solar eclipse. The eclipse should be visible across much of North America before sunset.
Shadowandsubstance.com (10/22): Graphic displays local North American times for solar eclipse.
China Poised to Launch Next Moon Mission on Thursday
Space.com (10/22): China prepares for the Thursday lift off of a test mission that will send a spacecraft around the moon and back to Earth. The flight should help China prepare for a 2017 mission intended to robotically land on the moon and return to Earth with samples of the lunar soil and rock.
Mysterious Titan has a Ghostly Dawn to Dusk Glow
Space.com (10/22): Surprising chemical combinations in the upper atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan glow daily. NASA’s long running Cassini mission played a role in unraveling the mystery.
Low Earth Orbit
Russian cosmonauts wrap up successful spacewalk
CBS News via Spaceflightnow.com (10/21): Spacewalking cosmonauts discard unneeded external hardware from the Russian segment of the International Space Station on Wednesday. The excursion, set for six hours, ended well ahead of schedule. It was the second spacewalk for Max Suraev and Alexander Samokutyaev.
3rd spacewalk in 3 weeks at space station
Associated Press via Houston Chronicle (10/22): Cosmonauts Max Suraev and Alexander Samokutyaev complete Wednesday’s planned six hour spacewalk in less than four hours. “It seems like we did everything so quickly,” noted one of the cosmonauts.
NASA Tracking Facility Survives Hurricane, Ready To Track Orbital Cargo Launch
Space News (10/22): Orbital’s third commercial re-supply mission launch to the International Space Station is set for Oct. 27 at 6:44 p.m., EDT, from the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport of Virginia. The launch was delayed from Oct. 24 to wait out Hurricane Gonzalo’s crossing of Bermuda, where the U.S. maintains a rocket tracking station. The facility was judged in good shape on Wednesday.
What Was It Like to Work at NASA During the Challenger and Columbia Disasters?
Slate.com (10/22): NASA astronaut Clay Anderson, retired, previews his forthcoming book, The Ordinary Spaceman: From Boyhood Dreams to Astronaut, with a discussion of the shuttle Challenger and Columbia tragedies. Anderson was on the inside as his NASA colleagues confronted disaster.
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