Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Like the rest of the U.S. federal government, NASA forges ahead without a 2015 budget thanks to a continuing budget resolution. Intelligent life, if it’s out there, may be too widely separated for detection, according to a new Danish study. Newly arrived U.S. and Indian Mars missions are good for international relations and technology advances. Russia is addressing a Soyuz solar panel problem. NASA satellites reveal scale of western U.S. ground water losses. Fruits of 2000 shuttle mission that mapped much of the globe with radar are now being shared. Sky sleuths document last month’s mysterious Russian spy satellite re-entry. NASA halts work under Sept. 16 Commercial Crew Program contracts, while authorities sort through appeal from an unsuccessful bidder. Jeff Bezos on his passion for space. NanoRacks explains problem with International Space Station CubeSat deployer mechanism. Fond memories of SpaceShipOne’s X-Prize winning flights a decade ago.
NASA’s 2015 Budget
Happy Fiscal Year 2015! Though NASA Still Doesn’t Have a Budget
The Planetary Society (10/1): Continuing budget resolutions adopted by the U.S. House and Senate and signed by President Obama will keep the federal government operating through Dec. 11 without a formal budget. The 2015 fiscal year began Oct. 1. Without the CR and an agreement to deal with the budget after the November elections, the federal government would have faced a shutdown.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Aliens May be Out There, but Too Distant for Contact
Discovery.com (10/2): The vast Milky Way Galaxy may host as many as 40 billion potentially habitable worlds. But the star system is so vast –100,000 light years across — that intelligent species may never exchange an “hello,” much less shake hands, according to a new Dutch study based on findings from NASA’s Kepler space telescope. Michael Garrett, head of the Dutch astronomy research foundation ASTRON, shared the perspective at the International Astronautical Congress in Toronto.
My view: Space education success on Mars
Deseret News, of Utah, (10/2): Space exploration encourages better international relations and advances technology, writes Arthur I. Cyr, author of “After the Cold War,” in an op-ed. Cyr was prompted to write by the recent arrival of new U.S. and Indian spacecraft at Mars.
Low Earth Orbit
Russia’s Roscosmos to announce cause of Soyuz solar array glitch next week
Itar Tass, of Russia (10/1): Russia’s federal space agency plans to explain why one of two solar panels on the Soyuz spacecraft that delivered three U.S. and Russian astronauts to the International Space Station Sept. 25-26 failed to deploy. The crew had adequate electricity from batteries and one array to rendezvous and dock.
Satellite images reveal shocking groundwater loss in California
Los Angeles Times (10/2): California has lost significant amounts of ground water to drought, according to a pair of NASA Grace mission satellites equipped to measure subtle changes in the Earth’s gravity.
Shuttle map gives the best view yet of Earth’s curves
New Scientist (10/2): The crew of shuttle Endeavour flew in February 2000 with a powerful radar that mapped most of the globe in new detail. Now data from the Shuttle Topography Mission is being released, presenting the globe in nine times more detail than before. Previously, only the results of the U.S. were offered in such detail.
Space Sleuths Piece Together Fiery Fall of Russian Spy Satellite Debris
Space.com (10/3): On Sept. 2, parts of an uncatalogued Russian satellite fell across Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. Amateurs, who watch the skies for satellites, pieced the origins of the spacecraft together.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
NASA Directs Boeing and SpaceX to Stop Work on CCtCAP
Spacepolicyonline.com (10/2): NASA directs Boeing and SpaceX to stop all work on recently awarded Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contracts, while the U.S. General Accountability Office hears a contract appeal from Sierra Nevada Corporation. The Sept. 16 NASA award allocated $4.2 billion for final development of Boeing’s CST-100 and $2.6 billion to SpaceX for work on a passenger version of the Dragon. Sierra Nevada Corporation appealed Sept. 26. The GAO is expected to provide a response by early January.
Amazon.com Billionaire Wants to Leave His Mark on Space
Aviation Week & Space Technology (10/2): Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos explains his passion for space exploration and the rocket engine that could replace the Russian RD-180 that powers the first stage of the Atlas 5. “I’m very, very lucky,” says Bezos, who also founded Amazon.com and recently purchased the Washington Post. “I get to live and work in the future. It’s fantastic, and that’s where I spend the vast majority of my time.”
NanoRacks Identifies Root Cause of ISS Cubesat Deployment Failures
Space News (10/2): Tight screws led to recent problems with a NanoRacks CubeSat deployer mechanism extended from the International Space Station, the Houston-based company’s CEO Jeffrey Manber said in an interview from the 2014 International Astronautical Congress in Toronto. NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency have authorized the launching of replacement deployers. The dispensers were extended from the station’s Japanese Kibo research module.
Suborbital
Making History with SpaceShipOne: Pilot Brian Binnie Recalls Historic Flight
Space.com (10/2): Time to celebrate the first decade since the historic flights of SpaceShipOne that captured the $10 million Ansari X-Prize over the Mojave Desert of California. Test pilot Brian Binnie took the controls after being unexpectedly dowsed with a cup of sugary coffee.
10 Years After SpaceShipOne, the New Space Age Is Still Revving Up
NBCNews.com (10/2): SpaceShipOne Ansari X-Prize victory a decade ago was to bring space travel to the many, not just the wealthiest. The revolution is still unfolding.