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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Lockheed Martin, United Launch Alliance and NASA log ground processing milestones in plans to launch Exploration Flight Test-1, the first unpiloted test flight of the Orion capsule, in early December. Visa issues prevent Russians, Chinese from attending International Astronautical Congress in Toronto, Canada. However, IAU comments suggest the U.S. must wait for commitments to fund an extension of International Space Station operations from 2020 to 2024. Life of Neil Armstrong primed for feature film and television mini-series. U.S., India could improve overall relations with deeper cooperation in space, according to op-ed. Just arrived Indian Mars orbiter spots dust storm brewing. NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover drills at base of Mount Sharp. Commercial space circles abuzz with talk of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program contract decisions and fate of Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser. Central Florida prepares for economic upswing, new opportunities in aerospace.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Delta IV heavy rocket, capsule move closer to launch
Florida Today (9/29): On Florida’s space coast, NASA and its contractors reach new milestones in preparations for Exploration Flight Test-1, the planned early December unpiloted flight test of the Orion crew capsule atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket. The capsule moved earlier this week to a Kennedy Space Center facility where it will be fitted with the Launch Abort System. Meanwhile, efforts are underway to roll the Delta IV Heavy from a processing facility to Launch Pad 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
Visa issues keep Russian, Chinese engineers away from IAC 2014
Space News (9/29): Russian and Chinese participants are effectively barred from participating in the Toronto, Canada hosted International Astronautical Congress because of visa restrictions. Their absence undermines discussions on the future of the International Space Station, among other topics.
IAC2014 day one: Camaraderie, but where were Russia and China?
Spacepolicyonline.com (9/29): The U.S. must be patient as it awaits responses from its global partners on the extension of International Space Station operations proposed by the White House earlier this year, according to details that emerged on the first day of the week long International Astronautical Congress meeting under way in Toronto.
Filmmaker, TV network take small steps to Neil Armstrong biopics
Collectspace.com (9/30): Universal Studios and TNT prepare for productions portraying the life of Apollo 11 mission commander Neil Armstrong, the first human to step on the surface of a new world. Both the film and television mini-series borrow from First Man, the authorized biography by historian James Hansen.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Modi’s U.S. visit: Can space transform the relationship?
Space News (9/29): The U.S. and India could improve relations with closer cooperation in space, write representatives of the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi and the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies of Washington, in an op-ed. “…it is clear that space provides a unique opportunity to add new vigor to a critical relationship,” they write.
Dusty days: India mission photographs stormy Mars globe
Discovery.com (9/29): Early imagery from India’s Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft reveals a dust storm brewing on Mars. The spacecraft successfully maneuvered into orbit around the red planet last week.
Humans will walk on Mars by 2030, says former ISRO chief
Spacefllightinsider.com (9/29): Encouraged by the recent success of India’s Mars Orbiter Mission, former Indian Space Research Organization Chairman Udupi Ramachandra Rao predicts humans will walk on Mars by the 2030s. Rao reasons that Mars has useful resources and as we exhaust those of the Earth, we will have to search new places.
America Space (9/29): Now at “Confidence Hills” at the base of Mount Sharp, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is ready to drill, following a long trek. “This first look at rocks we believe to underlie Mount Sharp is exciting because it will begin to form a picture of the environment at the time the mountain formed, and what led to its growth,” said Curiosity Deputy Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada. Sharp rises nearly 3/12 miles comprised of layer upon layer of sediments each with a clues about the history of Mars.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Space News (9/29): Sierra Nevada’s loss to Boeing and SpaceX in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program should not end efforts to help Sierra’s winged Dream Chaser reach orbit, writes Donald Robertson, aerospace industry freelance journalist, in an op-ed. Sierra Nevada has shown unusual willingness to invest its own money to succeed, he writes.
Gerstenmaier on commercial crew contract awards: they “roughly” fit within the budget
Houston Chronicle (9/29): William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations, finds NASA’s $6.8 billion Commercial Crew Program decision to award contracts to Boeing and SpaceX doable under a long running strategy that includes up to six crewed missions to the International Space Station. “We’ve still got some details to do, some phasing to do, but that’s where it is,” said Gerstenmaier, as Sierra Nevada, the unsuccessful competitor, prepared to announce a formal protest.
Hopes run high as aerospace grows in Brevard
Florida Today (9/29): In central Florida, community leaders see an improving economy with opportunity to leverage the area’s aerospace experience — if it can forge creative strategies to compete for new business. Expansions by Northrop Grumman Corp. and Embraer at the Melbourne International Airport are among recent advances.
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