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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. New details related to NASA’s 2014 and 2015 budgets suggest Mars Opportunity and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter missions could come to an end. Benefits of spaceflight all around, says record sharing astronaut. Astronomers turn focus to mysteries of black hole event horizon. Tensions in Ukraine raise concerns over U.S. reliance on Russian rocket engines. Weather favorable for Sunday launch of SpaceX Falcon9/Dragon re-supply mission to the International Space Station. Dragon cargo includes laser communications gear, a technology upgrade suited for future communications satellites. NASA cameras aboard the space station join search for missing Malaysian jetliner. Public rushes to Digital Globe website to comb satellite imagery for missing Malaysian airplane. Florida leaders urged not to take state space assets for granted. U.S. government enters electric spacecraft arena.
NASA 2015 Budget
Mars rover Opportunity faces new threat: Budget ax
Discovery.com (3/12): NASA’s Opportunity rover, which has roamed Mars since 2004, faces funding loss, according to new documents regarding the agency’s budgets. NASA’s Mars Odyssey faces funding loss in 2016 as well, according to Jim Green, the agency’s director of planetary sciences.
NASA’s Jim Green worried about LRO, comments on Cassini extension and Europa
Spacepolicyonline.com (3/12): Operations of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter are not assured through 2014, Jim Green, the agency’s director of planetary sciences, told an advisory panel on Wednesday. LRO was launched in 2009 to gather detailed imagery of the moon and will likely continue, according to Green. However, the agency will be challenged to cut the cost of a proposed ambitious robotic mission to Europa, the ocean covered moon of Jupiter, according to Green.
NASA Langley keeps fingers crossed, eyes focused forward
Hampton Roads Daily Press, of Virginia (3/12): NASA’s proposed $17.5 billion, 2015 budget holds good news, says Steve Jurczyk, acting director of the NASA Langley Research Center. While he was pleased with the president’s proposal, Jurczyk said now he is nervously waiting to see if the U.S. Congress approves it.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Huffington Post (3/12): Franklin Chang-Diaz, a record setting former NASA astronaut and plasma physicist, explains how ingrained our lives are with spaceflight. Hard to look around without encountering the benefits, says Chang-Diaz, who leads Ad Astra Rocket Co., developers of deep space propulsion systems. Chang-Diaz shares record for most launches into space, seven.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Probing the point of no return: The event horizon telescope
America Space (3/11): Massive black holes and their even more mysterious event horizons in line for new scientific scrutiny.
Low Earth Orbit
U.S. News and World Report (3/11): U.S. national security imperiled by reliance on Russian engines for crucial American rocket, as Russia squares off against the West over the Crimean peninsula, the publication reports.
Pre-dawn weather looks good for Sunday SpaceX launch
Florida Today (3/12): Favorable weather outlook in store as SpaceX prepares for its third contracted Falcon9/Dragon re-supply mission to the International Space Station. Launching from Cape Canaveral is scheduled for Sunday at 4:41 a.m., ET. The Dragon is loaded with about 5,000 pounds of cargo.
Pew! Pew! Pew! Space Station laser to beam HD video to Earth
Space.com (3/12): International Space Station astronauts await the arrival of the SpaceX Dragon resupply mission scheduled for a lift off early Sunday. Cargo includes new laser communications equipment. Dragon will deliver the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) among other supplies. OPALS will test a data streaming process by sending information via laser beam rather than radio wave.
NASA wants laser communications for TDRS follow-on, needs industry money first
Space News (3/12): NASA looks to greatly step up the effectiveness of Earth orbiting communications satellites with laser communications.
NASA joins hunt for missing Malaysian jetliner
Space.com (3/12): NASA joins search for missing Malaysian jetliner that disappeared early Saturday with 239 on board. The agency’s efforts underway since Monday include the use of a camera aboard the International Space Station, the web sites reports.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
People overload DigitalGlobe website, hoping to help search for missing jet
National Public Radio (3/11): U.S. satellite operator DigitalGlobe is overwhelmed by volunteers eager to comb through spacecraft imagery available over the Internet that may hold details of missing Malaysian jetliner. The company’s website struggles to keep up with the traffic.
Space leaders pay visit to Capitol
Florida Today (3/12): Aerospace industry representatives visit state capitol in Tallahassee where they remind lawmakers not to take commercial space for granted. Other states competing hard for new business, they advise.
Boeing reveals government’s all-electric satellite purchase
Spaceflightnow.com (3/12): An undisclosed U.S. government agency ordered three all electric spacecraft last year, Boeing announces. The lighter spacecraft use electric propulsion with ionized xenon for thrust, rather than chemical fuels to adjust their orbits.
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