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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. What if NASA’s Apollo program had not been cancelled? Canada’s space program looks for new heading. Earth’s extreme environments may hold clues to life on Mars. The scientist behind NASA’s exo-planet hunting Kepler mission. NASA’s Messenger probe tracks lunar eclipse from Mercury. NASA’s New Horizons on the trail of destinations beyond Pluto. Energetic nearby galaxy offers hint at early star formation. China open to international partnerships for its forthcoming space station. One time skeptic urges support for continued International Space Station operations. Secretive U.S. Air Force X-37B could return from long space journey today. Key members of U.S. House question NASA’s commercial crew strategy.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Wired News (10/13): What if NASA’s Apollo program had not been terminated? Writer and space historian David Portree addresses an alternative future for the only space enterprise that reached the moon with humans.
Canadian space at a crossroads
The Space Review (10/13): Canada’s space budget is modest and declining, as evidenced by an astronaut corps with only two active members. Nonetheless, at the recent 2014 International Aeronautical Conference in Toronto, Canadian Space Agency officials expressed optimism about the value of space in advancing economic opportunity and forging international relationships. However, Canada has yet to decide on a 2020-24 extension of its International Space Station participation and many with an interest are wondering why their homeland has not led a notable mission of its own.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Search for Mars life starts on Earth
Space.com (10/13): A NASA grant will sponsor studies of life in some of the Earth’s most extreme environments, ranging from the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park to the Arctic permafrost and the Chilean desert. The SETI-led effort will use bio signature seeking instruments similar to those that will launch aboard NASA’s Mars 2020 rover.
The amazing story behind the story of NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler mission
Huffington Post (10/13): A persistent William Borucki was the force behind NASA’s Kepler mission, which is credited with opening a door on the discovery of extra solar planets. So far, the Kepler mission counts 978 alien planet discoveries. More than 4,000 candidate objects are still under evaluation.
Goodnight, moon: Messenger probe tracks lunar eclipse from Mercury
NBC News.com (10/13): From its orbit around Mercury, NASA’s Messenger mission spacecraft watched last week’s full lunar eclipse of the Earth’s moon.
Beyond Pluto: NASA eyes distant targets for New Horizons probe
Space.com (10/13): With help from the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA’s New Horizon’s team is selecting destinations for its spacecraft beyond Pluto. The New Horizon’s spacecraft is on course to zip past distant Pluto in July 2015. While an opportunity to fill in the considerable gaps in our knowledge of the distant minor planet, New Horizons also offers the chance to check out other Kuiper Belt Objects.
Leaky galaxy is a star factory that could shed light on early universe
Los Angeles Times (10/13): Galaxy J0921+4509 is providing astronomers with a look back at how the early universe worked overtime to create the earliest stars.
Low Earth Orbit
The role of international cooperation in China’s space station plans
The Space Review (10/13): Though China’s top space officials were barred from the recent 2014 International Aeronautical Conference in Toronto, others from the Asian power at the gathering made it clear they are ready to partner with other nations in the development of a small new space station in the early 2020s. The offer comes as NASA is asking its major partners to back a 2020-24 extension of International Space Station operations.
Space News (10/13): NASA should do all it can to keep the International Space Station in orbit to encourage wider use, including new commercial and human activity in low Earth orbit, writes Rick Tumlinson, co-founder of the Space Frontier Foundation, in an op-ed. Tumlinson once argued against the six person orbital outpost, viewing it as an obstacle to human expansion into space. NASA is urging its major partners to extend space station operations from 2020 to 2024.
X-37B space plane scheduled to return to Earth soon
Spaceflightnow.com (10/14): Re-entry of the latest mission of the U.S. Air Force X-37B, a small winged reusable spacecraft, is imminent, possibly unfolding Tuesday at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The unpiloted craft launched on a secret mission Dec. 11, 2012.
Air Force X-37B due to land Tuesday, SWF wants more transparency about its missions
Spacepolicyonline.com (10/13): The Secure World Foundation has called upon the U.S. Air Force to release more information about X-37B missions, offering assurances to rivals it is not a weapons system. The Boeing project was initially intended by NASA to lead to an orbital space plane that could provide two way transportation to the International Space Station.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Smith to Bolden: Why not Orion for Commercial Crew?
Space News (10/13): Lamar Smith, chair of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, questions the need for two NASA Commercial Crew Program partners given the development of the Orion crew exploration vehicle and its role as a potential backup for the delivery of astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station. Smith framed the question in a letter to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, also signed by Steven Palazzo, chair of the House Science space subcommittee. NASA awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX in September to develop commercial crew transportation systems to the space station by 2017.
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