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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Lockheed Martin preps for first unpiloted space test flight of the Orion crew exploration capsule, a NASA spacecraft developed to start humans on future missions of deep space exploration. Jury out on prospects for wormhole travel. Thousands line up to send messages to Mars. Europe’s Rosetta mission sails on. NASA names Jim Watzin as its new Mars exploration program director. Jupiter’s moon Europa in amazing colors. Italy confronts space spending issue that could impact future European participation in the International Space Station. NASA’s space shuttle program greatness embodied in final Hubble Space Telescope visit. Op-ed urges another look at U.S. commercial spaceflight regulation. Orbital Sciences Pegasus launch vehicle selected for 2017 NASA mission.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Lockheed Martin Keeps Fingers Crossed for Orion’s First Test Flight
Spaceflight Insider (11/24): Lockheed Martin embraces opportunity to launch Orion crew exploration vehicle on its first test flight. The unpiloted two orbit test flight is nearing a Dec. 4 lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
‘Interstellar’ Science: Is Wormhole Travel Possible?
Space.com (11/24): The question’s answer is “unlikely,” according to a leading U.S. expert on wormhole physics, Kip Thorne. Astronauts travel through a black hole in the feature film Interstellar to find a planetary refuge in another part of the universe. While theoretically possible, worm holes are unstable, according to experts’ current understanding. “If you don’t have something threading through them to hold them open, the walls will basically collapse so fast that nothing can go through them,” Thorne, who served as an advisor to the film’s production, tells Space.com.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
90,000 ‘Beam Me to Mars’ messages mark 50 years of Red Planet exploration
Collectspace.com (11/24): Thousands of messages marking a half century since the first U.S. Mars exploration mission left Earth will be transmitted towards Mars. Uwingu, which mounted the effort, plans to broadcast the messages on Nov. 28. NASA’s Mariner 4 launched Nov. 28, 1964 on a flyby mission that transmitted the first pictures of the Martian surface back to Earth.
What’s Next for the Rosetta Mission and Comet Exploration
Wired News (11/25): The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission is far from over, though the primary spacecraft’s Philae lander rests on the surface of a distant comet with its battery power depleted. Rosetta rendezvoused with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in early August for a trip around the sun.
Jim Watzin Returning to NASA as Mars Czar
Space News (11/24): NASA names a new Mars exploration program director. Jim Watzin leaves the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency to replace Doug McCuistion, who left the position in late 2012. Jim Watzin, a NASA veteran, takes over the $500 million a year Mars program on Dec. 1.
NASA Unveils Most Amazing View of Jupiter’s Moon Europa Ever (Video)
Space.com (11/24): Reprocessed video from NASA’s long ended Galileo mission reveal Jupiter’s moon Europa in all its colors.
Low Earth Orbit
Italy Fails in Bid for More Space Funds, Clouding Outlook for ESA Ministerial
Space News (11/24): Italian Space Agency funding issues may jeopardize the country’s ability to contribute to the development of the proposed Ariane 6 rocket as well as continued operations of the International Space Station.
The Space Review (11/24): NASA’s long running shuttle program is remembered through words and photos focused on STS-125, the final mission by shuttle astronauts to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. “A part of that era is expertly recorded, both in words and photos, in this book,” writes Jeff Foust, TSR editor. The mission was flown in 2009.
Commercial to Orbit
Time To Change a Poorly Crafted Law
Space News (11/24): Tomasso Sgobba, executive director of the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety, urges a more proactive stance in the regulation of commercial space activities. Sgobba’s op-ed comments were made in response to the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004, which was crafted to restrain regulation during the industry’s infancy.
NASA Contract Puts Orbital’s Pegasus XL Back on the Board
Space News (11/24): NASA awards Orbital Sciences a $56.3 million contract for the launch of the Ionospheric Connection Explorer mission spacecraft in mid-2017. The spacecraft will be air-launched with a Pegasus XL rocket from the U.S. Army’s Reagan Test Site on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific. Pegasus, one of the most reliable commercial launch vehicles, has not launched since mid-2013.
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