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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Which asteroid should serve as a target for NASA’s Asteroid Grand Challenge and a possible visit by U.S. astronauts? NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building takes on new duties. NuStar space observatory unravels mysteries behind stellar explosions. Europeans choose PLATO mission for alien planet search. Mars demands brainy robots. Teams from five countries advance in demanding Google Lunar X-Prize competition. Japan touts sports drink for lunar voyage. Asteroids no reason for hysteria. Fall U.S. government shutdown takes toll on NASA solar mission. Orbital’s Cygnus freighter re-enters after International Space Station deliveries. U.S. Air Force plans launch of latest Global Positioning Satellite at 8:40 p.m. NASA astronaut Mike Massimino does it all: Twitter, television cameos and spacewalks. Astronaut, rocket scientist take to Los Angeles to discuss life on the space station. Cosmonaut, one of five involved in the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission, dies. Russian government cracks down on space industry. SpaceX hints at South Texas spaceport with land purchases.
Human Deep Space Exploration
NASA seeks targets for asteroid-capture mission
Space.com (2/19): NASA establishes a decision group to select an asteroid target for the Astronaut Grand Challenge. The asteroid could be visited by U.S. astronauts as early as 2021.
Gaping inside the huge vehicle assembly building NASA used for space shuttles and Moon missions
Universe Today (2/19): In Florida, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is undergoing post shuttle changes. One of those is the Vehicle Assembly Building, where the Saturn V moon rockets and space shuttle were once assembled. Changes to the landmark structure are preparing it to support a range of future missions.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
NASA X-ray telescope sheds new light on supernova, death of a distant star
CBS News (2/19): NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, sheds new light on stellar explosions. The space telescope took flight in 2012.
Supernova secrets seen in X-rays
CNN (2/19): Two-year-old NuStar NASA space observatory unravels the mysteries behind stellar explosions.
Europe to build a new planet-hunting spacecraft
Forbes (2/19): European Space Agency announces a new mission, a space-based observatory equipped with 34 small telescopes and cameras to hunt for planets circling as many as a million stars spread across half the sky. PLATO is slated for a 2024 lift off.
Robots with human-like brains to take on Mars unaided
New Scientist (2/19): Change the computer, change the robot.
Google Lunar X Prize picks teams from U.S., Japan, Germany and India for prize purse
Spacepolicyonline.com (2/19): Google X-prize selects five teams from four countries as finalists in a quest to back commercial exploration of the moon. The Milestone prizes are worth $5 million to the teams preparing missions for a soft landing on the lunar surface with small rovers.
First commercial moon delivery could be sports drink
New Scientist (2/19): Japanese marketing may place the drink on the moon as part of the Google X-prize.
Asteroid did not nearly hit Earth, actually
Washington Post (2/20): Blogger Joel Achenbach examines the media response to asteroids that pass close to the Earth. Some accounts may be too alarmist. “Killer rocks are out there and we should try to detect them,” he writes. “We’re setting ourselves up for blood-pressure spikes if we overreact to every passing rock.”
Government shutdown could mean long delay for NASA heliophysics mission
Space News (2/18): The U.S. government shutdown in October may delay a new NASA mission for studies of interactions between the sun and the Earth’s magnetic field the sun. The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission will launch no sooner than early 2015, according to one official.
Low Earth Orbit
Orbital completes first cargo mission for NASA
Space News (2/19): The company’s Orb-1 Cygnus re-supply capsule burns up in the atmosphere over the South Pacific in the early afternoon Wednesday. The commercial freighter departed the six person International Space Station on Feb. 18.
Milestone launch of Delta 4 to carry GPS satellite
Spaceflightnow.com (2/18): New U.S. Global Positioning Satellite is scheduled to launch Thursday night from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Lift off is scheduled for 8:40 p.m., EST.
Columbia Daily Spectator (2/20): NASA astronaut Mike Massimino discuss his cameo appearances on The Big Bang Theory, his use of Twitter in space and his duties as a space walker with the university newspaper. “It has been pure fun,” says one of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope repair men.
The International Space Station, through the astronauts’ eyes
Los Angeles Times (2/19): What’s it like to live aboard the International Space Station. Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson and rocket scientist Camille Alleyne accompany a public exhibit that tells the story.
Cosmonaut Valery Kubasov, Apollo-Soyuz crew member, dies at 79
Collectspace.com (2/19): Kubasov was one of two cosmonauts assigned to the 1975 spaceflight that brought U.S. and Soviet astronauts together in space for the first time. He was 79.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Russian government demands more efficient spacecraft production
Ria Novosti, of Russia, (2/20): Russia to impose new fines and penalties on its domestic space industry for failing to meet production goals. Dmitry Rogozin, who supervises Russia’s defense and space industries as a deputy prime minister, said the production of commercial satellites in particular has been damaged by delays and inferior quality.
Well if you want a spaceport in Texas this is promising
Houston Chronicle (2/19): Name for new subdivision in Brownsville, Texas, plus property purchases hints at SpaceX decision to establish a commercial spaceport in South Texas.
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