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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. A close U.S. House vote is predicted Thursday on a 2015 spending measure that includes $18 billion for NASA programs. NASA’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket could launch with an unmanned Orion crew capsule atop for the first time in mid-2018, a high ranking NASA official tells a U.S. House oversight panel. Some on the House Space Subcommittee urge more White House support for Mars exploration. Pending 2015 U.S. budget legislation would increase spending on NASA’s Orion crew capsule to $1.2 billion and on the Space Launch System to $1.7 billion. Meanwhile, proposed 2015 appropriations would increase spending on NASA planetary science programs, including funds for NASA’s 2020 Mars rover mission and studies of a future mission to Europa, Jupiter’s ocean covered moon. Comet impacts were not the source of water for Earth’s oceans, say scientists participating in Europe’s Rosetta mission. Russian asteroid discovery poses no threat to Earth, say U.S. scientists. China launches ocean surveillance satellites. Retired Kennedy Space Center director Jim Kennedy talks space with Florida elementary school students. Russia prepares for December debut of new Angara rocket.
NASA’s 2015 Budget
Vote expected to be close in House tomorrow on FY2015 CR Omnibus
Spacepolicyonline.com (12/10): A close vote is anticipated Thursday as the U.S. House considers a 2015 spending measure intended to fund 11 major areas of the federal government, including NASA’s space activities, through Sept. 30, the end of the 2015 fiscal year. The current budget continuing resolution expires Thursday at midnight. Lawmakers are divided over a range of provisions, ranging from immigration to campaign financing, according to Spacepolicyonline.com. Without a new spending measure, the federal government faces a shutdown. The measure includes $18 billion for NASA, a $549 million increase over 2014 spending.
Human Deep Space Exploration
NASA says SLS and Orion will slip to 2018 despite extra funding
Space News (12/10) NASA’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket will not be ready for its first test launch before mid-2018, William Gerstenmaier, the agency’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations, told the House Space Subcommittee on Wednesday. The SLS is to send an unpiloted Orion crew exploration capsule, which completed a successful orbital test flight last Friday, on a loop around the moon and back. Technical work, rather than funding, is pacing efforts to carry out the SLS launch in June or July of 2018, Gerstenmaier told the oversight panel. Some legislators asked if more money would restore the original December 2017 launch date.
Lawmakers: Orion flight shows need for Mars mission
USA Today (12/10): Members of the U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee urged the Obama Administration to make Mars exploration a higher priority during a hearing on Wednesday. “We cannot have one set of goals for NASA and for our human exploration programs and then not match those goals with the resources that are required to commit to the work,” said U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards, of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the Space Subcommittee.
Federal budget likes Orion, SLS
Orlando Sentinel (12/10): 2015 budget legislation before the U.S. House on Thursday includes $18 billion for NASA, a 2 percent increase over 2014. Forged by House and Senate conferees, the measure would increase spending on NASA’s Orion crew exploration capsule to $1.2 billion and the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket to $1.7 billion for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
‘CR Omnibus’ budget a good deal for NASA planetary science, supporters say
Los Angeles Times (12/10): The 2015 spending measure before the U.S. House on Thursday would ensure funding for NASA’s 2020 Mars rover mission and expand studies for a future robotic mission to Europa, Jupiter’s ocean covered moon. The bill includes $18 billion for NASA through Sept. 30, the end of the 2015 fiscal year.
Comet data clears up debate on Earth’s water
New York Times (12/11): Europe’s Rosetta mission appears to clear up a long standing debate over the role comets played in supplying the early Earth with water. The Rosetta spacecraft, which rendezvoused with Comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko in early August, found a form of hydrogen in water vapors rising from the comet that is heavier than the same element in the water native to the Earth’s oceans. Colliding asteroids may instead have provided the early Earth with water.
Newly found massive asteroid not a threat to Earth
Space.com (12/10): U.S. astronomers dispute claims from Russian astronomers that a newly discovered Earth orbit crossing asteroid, UR116, poses a collision threat. The space rock, 1,300 feet long, will not pose a threat for at least 150 years, according to U.S. experts.
Low Earth Orbit
Trio of ocean surveillance satellites launched by China
Spaceflightnow.com (12/11): China launches a Long March 4C rocket with three ocean surveillance satellites to monitor global navy activity.
Retired KSC Director visits and inspires Brevard students
Florida Today (12/10): Jim Kennedy, a retired director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, is on a Central Florida mission to inspire elementary school students with pictures and talk of space exploration. The school visits are part of Space Week, an annual event that includes students’ visits to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Russia’s Angara 5 on track for December debut
Aviation Week & Space Technology (12/8): The Angara 5 rocket, a symbol of Russian efforts to revive its space industry, is undergoing preparations for a test launch this month from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. The new launcher is intended to replace the troubled Proton launcher.
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