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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. U.S. turns a corner in human space exploration with Orion’s successful Exploration Flight Test-1. U.S.S. Anchorage expected to reach U.S. Navy base in San Diego with Orion capsule on Monday. Orion’s widely reported success a boon to hundreds of U.S. aerospace companies, large and small. Russia takes notice of Orion mission. China studies big rocket for human lunar missions. Flight controllers activate NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft for first ever Pluto encounter in July. NASA’s Dawn mission photographs Ceres, a spring rendezvous target. Russian scientist discovers worrisome Earth orbit crossing asteroid. Physicist questions some of his own assumptions about cosmic inflation. China seeks expedited satellite collision warnings from U.S. China launches joint Earth observing satellite with Brazil. China develops space 3-D printer. European Space Agency Ariane 5 launches U.S., Indian communications satellites. Repairs to damaged Virginia launch pad to take a year. U.S. Congress expected to work out 2015 budget agreement this week.
Human Deep Space Exploration
What’s next for NASA’s Orion spaceship after historic 1st flight?
Space.com (12/7): NASA plans its next test flight of the NASA/Lockheed Martin Orion crew exploration capsule for 2018, following Friday’s successful two orbit test flight called Exploration Flight Test-1. Exploration Mission-1 will pair another unpiloted Orion capsule with NASA’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket for a deep space lap around the moon and back. Astronauts may launch on a similar course aboard Orion and the SLS in 2021.
NASA’s Orion spacecraft due to arrive in San Diego
Associated Press via Houston Chronicle (12/8): Secured aboard the U.S.S. Anchorage after Friday’s Pacific Ocean splashdown, the NASA/Lockheed Martin Orion capsule is expected to reach port at the U.S. Navy base in San Diego on Monday. The spacecraft will be off loaded and transported to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Space News (12/5): The NASA/Lockheed Martin spacecraft that forms a cornerstone of future U.S. human space exploration scores a test flight success on Friday. The unpiloted capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 11:29 a.m., EST, following two orbits of the Earth.
A successful first flight for NASA’s Orion spacecraft
Smithsonian Magazine (12/5): Orion promises to open a new era of American space exploration.
New NASA spaceship successfully completes debut test run
New York Times (12/5): Video tracks the final moments of Orion’s parachute descent and Pacific Ocean splashdown.
NASA’s Orion capsule returns safely in flawless Pacific splashdown
Wall Street Journal (12/05): Orion’s successful Exploration Flight Test-1 reawakened public interest in NASA’s long term exploration plans, the Journal reports. Yet the space agency cautioned that many technical challenges remain, while lawmakers are divided over how future missions will be funded as well as their destinations.
NASA’s exploration road map to Mars starts with flawless Orion launch and landing
Universe Today (12/8): Engineers can expect valuable data from the first unpiloted test flight of the NASA/Lockheed Martin Orion crew exploration vehicle on Friday, Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration, tells a post flight news briefing.
These photos from NASA’s Orion spaceship test flight are simply awesome
Space.com (12/5): Cameras aboard Orion’s successful Exploration Flight Test-1 look to Earth. Ground cameras track United Launch Alliance Delta IV-Heavy lift off.
First flight test is successful for NASA’s Orion spacecraft
New York Times (12/5): Successful Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 mission strengthens NASA hopes of future human exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit.
Why the Orion space launch bodes well for Lockheed Martin & others
The Street (12/6): Major U.S. aerospace companies and hundreds of suppliers are lined up with NASA and Lockheed Martin to develop Orion and the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket. The team includes ATK, Aerojet General, Boeing, Hamilton Sunstrand, Textron Defense Systems and Ball Aerospace Technologies. In Europe, Airbus will develop a future service module for Orion.
Orion spacecraft makes splashdown in Pacific Ocean
ITAR TASS, of Russia (12/5): Orion’s unpiloted test flight on Friday suggests the new human spacecraft can withstand the demands of atmospheric re-entry, the Russian news agency reports.
China Daily (12/8): China studies a new rocket powerful enough to support planned human lunar missions. “Its specifications will mostly be determined by a host of factors, including the government’s space plan and the nation’s overall industrial capability, as well as its engine’s development,” according to an official with the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Pluto-bound probe wakes from electronic slumber
Discovery.com (12/7): Ground control teams at the Advanced Physics Laboratory in Maryland send commands Saturday to bring NASA’s Pluto bound New Horizons spacecraft out of its electronic slumber. New Horizons is to make the first flyby of Pluto on July 14.
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft captures first images of Ceres
Space.com (12/7): NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, launched in 2007, has photographed the second destination of its long mission, Ceres, a dwarf planet. Dawn is on a course to reach Ceres in the spring of 2015. Dawn departed its first destination in the solar system’s main asteroid belt, Vesta, more than two years ago.
Russian scientist discovers huge new asteroid that could crash to Earth
Moscow Times (12/7): The discovery of asteroid UR116, a 370 meter wide near Earth object, was announced by Moscow State University professor Vladimir Lipunov. UR 116 could cause an 8,000 times more powerful explosion than that caused by the meteorite that exploded over the Chelyabinsk region of Russia in February 2013.
Physicist Paul Steinhardt slams inflation, cosmic theory he helped conceive
Scientific American (12/1): Respected physicist questions his own theories of cosmic inflation.
Low Earth Orbit
U.S. to expedite orbital collision-avoidance warnings to China
Space News (12/5): China seeks access to U.S. Air Force space tracking data without moving the information through the U.S. State Department first.
China focus: China launches CBERS-4 on 200th long March mission
Xinhua (12/7): China launches a joint Chinese/Brazilian Earth resources satellite on Sunday.
China produces first space-based 3D printing machine
China Daily (12/8): China develops a 3D printer for space use. The device can fashion items out of stainless steel, titanium alloy and nickel-based super alloy, China claims. “The products made will have to be tested thoroughly, due to the strict quality requirements of aerospace products,” according to a senior project engineer.
Ariane 5 successfully conducts dual launch out of Kourou
NASAspaceflight.com (12/6): Ariane 5 places Direct-TV-14 and India’s GSAT-16 communications satellites in orbit on Saturday.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Repairs to Wallops Island launch pad, damaged in rocket explosion, to take a year
Baltimore Sun (12/5): The Virginia Commercial Spaceport Authority estimates it will take a year to repair the launch pad damage sustained Oct. 28 by the Antares rocket explosion.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of December 8-12, 2014
Spacepolicyonline.com (12/8): The U.S. Congress this week is expected to focus on an appropriations measure extending through the end of the current fiscal year, Sept. 30, 2015. The current continuing resolution expires after Dec. 11. The measure is expected to include civil space and defense activities. A House panel has set Wednesday for a hearing on the status of NASA’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket and Orion.
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