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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA’s small budget increase likely to survive November election outcome, according to government affairs specialist. Lockheed Martin completes assembly of NASA’s Orion spacecraft for the uncrewed Exploration Flight Test-1 launch set for Dec. 4. Crew escape systems a life saver for NASA’s Orion, new U.S. commercial crew vehicles. China’s uncrewed lunar test mission due to return late Friday. Water on the Earth may have appeared much earlier than believed. Pictures from NASA’s Curiosity rover explain fascination with Mars. Black holes sometimes no friend of star formation. Lessons from Ebola outbreak may inform challenge of handling Martian soil. NASA’s Kennedy Space Center welcomes U.S. Air Force as new tenant. Orbital Sciences expects explanation for Antares explosion to emerge soon. Editorials, urge continued faith in commercial space activities. Boeing exec calls for new U.S. replacements for Russian rocket engines. New NASA report suggests commercial space part of second Space Age.
NASA’s 2015 Budget
Pending NASA budget bill would likely survive Senate flip, lobbyist says
Space News (10/30): The pending NASA budget for 2015 is likely to emerge intact from the November Congressional elections even if the U.S. Senate majority turns from Democratic to Republican. NASA would get $17.9 billion for 2015, some $250 million more than in 2014. The current bill includes record high appropriations for the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket and commercial crew programs. Kate Kronmiller, vice president and general manager for government affairs for Orbital Sciences Corp, offered the assessment this week before the annual Von Braun Symposium in Huntsville, Ala.
Human Deep Space Exploration
EFT-1 Orion completes assembly and conducts FRR
NASASpaceflight.com (10/30): The Orion capsule in line to launch Dec. 4 on Exploration Flight Test-1 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., has completed assembly at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and is awaiting a move to its assigned launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., Orion is under development by NASA and Lockheed Martin to carry U. S. astronauts on future missions of deep space exploration. During EFT-1, Orion will circle the Earth twice and re-enter the atmosphere at velocities similar to those of a spacecraft returning from the moon. A Pacific splashdown is planned.
New U.S. rockets include crew launch-escape systems
Reuters (10/30): Crew escape systems like those planned for NASA’s Orion crew exploration capsule and the Commercial Crew Program’s CST-100 developed by Boeing and the Dragon developed by SpaceX offer a means of survival in a launch explosion like the one that destroyed an unmanned Orbital Sciences Antares rocket on Tuesday.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
China’s lunar sample return test spacecraft due to return Friday EDT
Spacepolicyonline.com (10/30): A Chinese lunar probe launched a week ago is due back at Earth on Friday. The probe will demonstrate technologies for re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. Re-entry is a crucial part of a 2017 Chinese robotic mission plan to gather samples of the moon and return them to Earth.
Earth’s water existed 135 million years earlier than thought
Space.com (10/30): New study suggests that on Earth water was locked in rocky structures until environmental conditions permitted it to emerge in liquid form. The evidence was found in meteorites linked to the asteroid Vesta.
Washington Post (10/30): Images from NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars reveal why the red planet is so intriguing.
Rough cosmic waters: Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals “turbulent” effect of black holes
AmericaSpace.com (10/30): Turbulence from galactic black holes can disturb nature’s star forming processes, according to observations with NASA’s 15-year-old Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Low Earth Orbit
Ebola outbreak may hold lessons for handling samples from Mars
Space.com (10/30): The Ebola outbreak has raised wide concerns in the U.S. after a handful of recent cases. The procedures for constraining the spread of the virus may provide an important precedent for handling future samples of Martian soil returned to Earth for study.
NASA prepares to host hush-hush military program at KSC
Space News (10/30): The U.S. Air Force’s X-37-B unmanned reusable winged orbiter will be processed for future missions in NASA Kennedy Space Center facilities once used by the space shuttle. The two spacecraft have completed three secretive missions for the military so far.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Orbital Sciences hopes to quickly find cause of rocket failure
Spaceflightnow.com and CBS (10/30): Orbital Sciences CEO David Thompson said the cause of Tuesday’s Antares explosion may surface within days. The company official offered the assessment in a call to financial analysts a day after the mishap.
Data show Antares rocket fine for first 15 seconds, then first stage failure
Spacepolicyonline.com (10/30): Early assessment of launch telemetry show Antares first stage flew for 15 seconds before destructive turn of events.
Editorial: How to think about Antares failure
Aviation Week & Space Technology (10/30): “Lessons will be learned from the failure of Orbital’s Antares at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia,” according to the magazine. “One conclusion that should not be drawn is that commercial space companies are simply less capable than the legacy aerospace giants. Nor should it be inferred that spaceflight is so staggeringly difficult only a large government-run enterprise can achieve a high level of performance.”
The Antares rocket explosion shouldn’t deter America’s space mission: opinion
Huntsville Times (10/29): Now is no time to re-debate the nation’s direction in space, a transition of orbital operations to the commercial sector so that NASA can focus on human deep space exploration, writes the Huntsville, Ala., newspaper’s editorial board. The topic was a focus of discussion at the annual Von Braun Symposium this week after Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket detonated after lifting off on a re-supply mission to the International Space Station.
Successful space launch follows spectacular launch failure
Sacramento Business Journal (10/30): Within hours of the Antares rocket loss on Tuesday, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket delivered the latest in a series of U.S. Global Positioning System navigation satellites to orbit for the U.S. Air Force. Aerojet Rocketdyne furnished the upper stage engine and thrusters for the successful mission.
Boeing exec says NASA crash underscores need for new U.S. engine
Reuters (10/30): Boeing’s defense division lead calls for new U.S. rocket engine in aftermath of Tuesday’s Antares rocket explosion. Orbital Sciences and United Launch Alliance import Russian rockets for their Antares and Atlas 5 rockets. “It’s a wake-up call that we need to move forward, we need to move smartly, we need to move together to protect this industry,” according to Boeing’s Chris Chadwick. “We need to move beyond today’s technology … and look for that next generation of engine that’s even more reliable, even more capable.”
NASA report spotlights evolving U.S. private-sector space activities
Coalition for Space Exploration (10/27): New NASA report suggests the U.S. is on the verge of a second Space Age thanks to new NASA public private alliances.
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