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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Contemplating a human return to the moon. Property rights and deep space exploration. Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin urges U.S. toward Mars during China visit. NASA’s Pluto bound New Horizons’ spacecraft spots distant moon. United Launch Alliance Atlas V boosts mystery satellite into orbit. A second NASA shuttle carrier aircraft finds a museum home in California. Boeing, SpaceX emerge in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program competition. New commercial crew activity could mean 1,000 new jobs for Central Florida. ULA, Blue Origin reported partners in new U.S. rocket engine development initiative. Aerojet Rocketdyne opens new rocket development office in Alabama to develop U.S. alternative to Russia’s RD-180. Russia looks to offer swing around the moon to space tourists.
Human Deep Space Exploration
What will it take to get us back to the Moon?
Boing Boing (9/16): An Arizona State University scientist offers suggestions that include imagination, public/private partnering and perhaps artificial gravity. The school is working on a small prototype spacecraft that could generate 1/2 to 1 G of artificial gravity for biology experiments.
Mining in the last frontier: Column
USA Today (9/15): Establish property rights for those motivated to explore and mine the asteroids for resources, writes University of Tennessee law professor and author Glenn Harlan Reynolds.
Mars much better than moon: Buzz Aldrin
Xinhua, of China (9/16): In China, Apollo 11’s Aldrin urges the U.S. to cast its exploration ambitions toward Mars. The moon, says Aldrin, is a good first destination for countries that have not been there.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
New Horizons spies Pluto’s tiny moon Hydra
Discovery.com (9/16): NASA’s Pluto bound New Horizons spacecraft images Hydra, an outer most moon of the distant minor planet.
Low Earth Orbit
Mysterious satellite launched from Florida by Atlas 5 rocket
Spaceflightnow.com (9/16): United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket places U.S. CLIO satellite in Earth orbit Tuesday night from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
NASA’s second shuttle carrier jet lands on public display in California
Collectspace.com (9/15): The second of NASA’s modified Boeing 747 shuttle carrier aircraft is set to go on public display at the Joe Davies Heritage Airpark in Palmdale, Calif. NASA 911 was retired in early 2012. Like its companion SCA now in display at Space Center Houston in Texas, 911 was used by NASA to carry space shuttle orbiters across the U.S.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Boeing, SpaceX to team with NASA on space taxis
CBS News (9/16): NASA announces contracts with Boeing and SpaceX to complete the development of commercial low Earth orbit launch services that can transport four astronauts from the U.S. to the International Space Station, ending reliance on Russia for the rides. First Boeing and SpaceX, flights are possible by 2017. The agreements total $6.8 billion. The new services will permit the space station to house up to seven rather than six astronauts as well.
Louisville’s Sierra Nevada space left out of NASA space taxi contract
Denver Post (9/16): NASA’s Commercial Crew Program contract decisions leave Sierra Nevada on the sidelines. However, NASA pledges to continue nurturing SN’s small shuttle like Dream Chaser spacecraft through existing unfunded Space Act Agreements. Sierra said it will announce future plans for development of the Dream Chaser after it evaluates NASA’s selection process.
Boeing and SpaceX to take Americans to Space Station
New York Times (9/16): NASA is prepared to spend $4.2 billion with Boeing, $2.6 billion with SpaceX to develop U.S. commercial human space launch capabilities. Boeing’s CST-100 will turn to the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 as a launch vehicle. SpaceX will rely on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket.
Boeing, SpaceX win NASA contracts to fly crews
USA Today/Florida Today (9/16): Boeing, SpaceX prevail in bid to restore a U.S. human space launch capability.
SpaceX and Boeing land NASA deal to carry astronauts into space
Houston Chronicle (9/16-17): NASA is opening a new chapter in human spaceflight, says Administrator Charles Bolden of the agency’s Boeing and SpaceX Commercial Crew Program selections. The nation’s private sector will shoulder low Earth orbit transportation, freeing NASA to focus on human deep space exploration, says Bolden.
Boeing, SpaceX win new ‘space taxi’ contracts
Orlando Sentinel (9/16): Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program contract is expected to mean 1,000 new jobs for Central Florida, local economists estimate
ULA and Blue Origin to team up for RD-180 replacement
Space News (9/16): A formal announcement is possible Wednesday uniting United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin in a partnership to develop a domestic alternative to Russia’s RD-180 rocket engine. The Russian rocket engine currently powers the first stage of the ULA Atlas V rocket. Tensions between Washington and Moscow over Russian intervention in Ukraine threaten the RD-180 supply chain.
Aerojet Rocketdyne opens new rocket engine development office in Huntsville
Huntsville Times (9/16): Aerojet Rocketdyne announces plans to open a new rocket development office near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center to develop an alternative to Russia’sRD-180 rocket engine. The new facilities could mean 100 new jobs.
Space tourism firm offers flight around the moon on Soyuz crafts
Russia Today (9/17): Russia will team with Space Adventures, of Virginia, to offer space tourism flights to lunar orbit and back. Missions would take flight aboard heritage Russian hardware in 2018. Two passengers would accompany a professional cosmonaut on a loop around the moon’s far side.
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