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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Assembly of crucial NASA adapter hardware for September Orion test flight now complete. NASA’s newest astronauts head for Air and Space Museum on Thursday. NASA to host annual Day of Remembrance on Friday to pay tribute to the 17 astronauts who perished in the Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia tragedies. Astrobiologist turns to courts to force a closer look at mysterious Mars rock. Europe’s Rosetta comet probe checks out after long electronic slumber. Moon steps in front of sun. Mars to offer NASA vantage point for comet observations. Asteroid studies produce revelations. U.S. lunar orbiter snaps photo of companion spacecraft. Black hole studies continue to amaze. NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson meets with California grade school students. Russians grow edible crops on International Space Station. Secretive U.S. Air Force X-37B orbital mission chases record in Earth orbit. California lawmakers ponder property tax break for commercial launch sites. Arianespace confronts launch log jam at equatorial space port.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Marshall team members to celebrate completion of flight hardware for Orion’s first mission
NASA (1/29): An adapter essential for the first unpiloted test flight of NASA’s Orion spacecraft reaches assembly complete. Exploration Flight Test-1 is scheduled for lift off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in September. Orion is in development to launch U.S. astronauts on missions of deep space exploration. The adapter will link the capsule to its Delta IV launcher for the first flight test of the capsule’s re-entry systems.
New U.S. astronaut candidates to visit Smithsonian
Associated Press via Washington Post (1/30): NASA latest class of astronauts, four men, four woman, will meet the public Thursday morning at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington. Hired in 2013, the group of men and women are in training for potential missions to deep space as well as assignments aboard the International Space Station. The gathering begins at 10 a.m., EST.
NASA observes Day of Remembrance Jan. 31
NASA (1/29): On Friday, top NASA officials will gather at Arlington National Cemetery near the nation’s capital for the agency’s annual Day of Remembrance, an opportunity to reflect on the 17 U.S. astronauts who gave their lives to advance the exploration of space in the Apollo1 fire and the shuttle Challenger and Columbia tragedies. Regional memorials are planned as well.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Scientist sues NASA, alleges failure to investigate alien life on Mars
Huffington Post (1/29): Unusual rock spotted by NASA’s 10-year-old Opportunity Mars rover sparks lawsuit. Astrobiologist Rhawn Joseph turns to the courts to force NASA to take a closer look at the rock.
ESA says Rosetta in good shape after 31-month snooze
Astronomy Now (1/29): The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft, raised from a 31 month electronic slumber earlier this month, has checked out in good shape and will be prepared for an encounter with comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in August.
Space Weather.com (1/29): Today, the moon will pass in front of the sun, producing some remarkable imagery visible directly only from space. Thanks to technology, Earthlings can check out photos on the web site.
NASA preparing for 2014 comet watch at Mars
NASA (1/29): Comet 2013 A1 Siding Spring seems destined to make a dramatic pass close to Mars on Oct. 19. NASA intends to gather imagery from the encounter with spacecraft circling or roving the red planet.
Asteroid belt holds clues to era of swinging planets
National Public Radio (1/30): Findings from the past decade change views of how and when the main belt asteroids formed. The asteroid may have formed throughout the solar system when the orbits of the major planets were much more dynamic.
NASA moon mission captures fleeting view of sister craft
Spaceflightnow.com (1/29): NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, one of two spacecraft currently circling the moon, snaps a picture of its companion, NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Explorer, as it passed below earlier this month. LRO was launched in 2009 to map the lunar terrain at higher resolutions. LADEE reached its destination in October to study the moon’s tenuous atmosphere.
A brief history of mind-bending ideas about black holes
Wired.com (1/29): Stephen Hawking latest black hole pronouncements offer an opportunity to look back at the history of the mysterious objects.
Low Earth Orbit
NASA astronaut brings space travel down to Earth for kids
Space.com (1/29): NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson visits here home state of California for an educational encounter with third and fourth grade students. “I believe that we as a country and a world need to keep exploring space,” Caldwell Dyson told the elementary students. The astronaut discussed her stay aboard the International Space Station and credited Challenger teacher astronaut Christa McAuliffe with inspiring her to become an astronaut. NASA’s seven Challenger astronauts lost their lives 28 years ago this week in a launch tragedy.
Russian farmers harvest wheat, peas and greens
Ria Novosti, of Russia (1/29): Experiments aboard the International Space Station have produced edible peas, dwarf wheat and Japanese greens, scientists in Moscow report. New crops of rice, tomatoes and bell peppers are planned.
Air Force’s mysterious X-37B space plane passes 400 days in orbit
Space.com (1/29): The U.S. Air Force’s secretive X-37B unpiloted space plane mission, now well past the 400 day mark, closes in on a record. The winged Boeing orbiter carries a classified payload.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Calif. lawmakers pass space industry tax exemption
The Associated Press via Sacramento Bee: (1/29): California’s lower House approves legislation exempting commercial launch sites from property taxes for 10 years. The measure, intended to counter the lure of Texas, New Mexico and other states, now moves to the California Senate, the AP reports.
Logjam at European spaceport puts Arianespace in a ticklish spot
Space News (1/29): The European spaceport in French New Guinea promises to be a busy place this year. Fourteen Ariane 5 and Soyuz launches are planned, some delayed from 2013.
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