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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA’s Kennedy Space Center re-emerging from the shuttle’s shadow with future spacecraft assembly and test flights. U.S. and China: formidable as potential partners in Mars exploration? Alien life could be out there for the finding. U.N. rallies around asteroid detection, deflection strategies. U.S. satellite spots evidence of Martian rolling stone. Observations raise possibility of gravity waves, evidence for inflation. U.S. Air Force Space Command chief to devise options, recommendations for space national security. South Korea’s only astronaut resigns. Comic Robin Williams’ shuttle wakeup call remembered. United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 sends powerful commercial reconnaissance satellite into orbit. Aerojet Rocketdyne tests first stage for new small satellite launcher. Planet Labs cameras covering the world.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Kennedy Space Center’s quiet rebirth slowly taking shape
The Orlando Sentinel (8/13): NASA’s Kennedy Space Center quietly re-emerging from shadow of the shuttle. A major unpiloted test flight of NASA’s new Orion crew capsule is scheduled for December. Orion could be launching U.S. explorers to deep space in the 2020s.
U.S. Astronaut Leroy Chiao: America should embrace China for Mars missions
Forbes.com (8/11): Chiao, formerly of NASA and of Chinese parents, believes cooperation is win-win for the U.S. and China if they pursue human missions to Mars. China could offer a second way for Americans to go to and from the International Space Station as well, said Chiao.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
We could find alien life, but politicians don’t have the will
The Conversation (8/12): While the prospects for discovering alien life rise, the resources languish.
Could we detect an alien civilization’s waste heat?
Discovery.com (8/13): Astronomers suggest evidence of a thriving alien civilization may reside in a thermal signature.
How will Earth’s leaders respond to a real asteroid threat?
Space News (8/13): United Nations establishes framework for nations to pool their assets in spotting and tracking and thwarting asteroids that could imperil the Earth.
Potentially dangerous asteroid is actually a pile of rubble
Space.com (8/13): Chance asteroid threat to Earth is actually a collection of loosely organized rubble. The forces of attraction within Asteroid DA 1950 remain unexplained.
Whoa! Rolling boulder on Mars leaves trail visible from space
Space.com (8/14): Cameras aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter detect the trail left by a boulder rolling down a Martian incline.
Scientific American (8/13): Astronomers deal with tantalizing evidence of inflation — the early rapid expansion of a new born universe.
Low Earth Orbit
Incoming U.S. Space Command Chief makes case for revamping satellite constellations
Space News (8/13): Incoming U.S. Air Force Space Command chief, Lt. Gen. John Hyten, will soon present the Pentagon with options and ultimately recommendations on the future of national security satellites for missile warning and communications.
Why South Korea’s only astronaut quit
ABC News (8/13): South Korea’s only astronaut, Yi So-yeon, resigned this week. Yi flew to the International Space Station during an 11 day mission aboard a Russian rocket in 2008.
Hear how Robin Williams woke up the Space Shuttle Discovery Crew in 1988
Smithsonian Magazine (8/13): It was 1988, and NASA was flying a shuttle crew for the first time since the Challenger tragedy. The late comedian Robin Williams chimed in with a wake up event on the second day of Discovery’s mission.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
WorldView-3 satellite in orbit: Get better views of your yard
NBC News (8/13): United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 sends commercial Earth imaging satellite into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
Aerojet Rocketdyne completes successful LEO-46 rocket motor test
Marketwatch.com (8/13): New first stage rocket motor for launching small satellites completes test firing at U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory in California.
A start-up provides a picture of our shape-shifting planet
New York Times (8/13): The Earth falls under the watchful eye of San Francisco based-start up Planet Labs.
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