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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket is well positioned to transition from planning to production and assembly. Russia eyes rival mega rocket. NASA’s Orion crew capsule ready for another round of ocean recovery rehearsals. NASA takes on questions regarding the proposed Asteroid Retrieval Mission. U.S., Russia collaborate on strategy to prepare astronauts for space extremes. Paint: just the ticket to fend off hostile asteroids? NASA’s New Horizons poised to re-open door on deep space exploration. National Research Council crucial to U.S. space agenda setting. 2016 U.S. asteroid mission to carry inspirational time capsule. U.S. space observatory tracks recent solar eruptions. First space 3-D printer headed to the International Space Station. NASA delays soil moisture satellite mission for antenna checks. Canadian space robot technologies finding place in pediatric health care. Europe’s Galileo satellite foul up triggers fast-paced investigations. Russia invests heavily in new Vostochny space launch complex. Space whiskey experiment awaits return to Earth.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Let’s continue the progress on SLS
Space News (9/1): NASA is in a more favorable posture than it may seem with regard to developing the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket, a cornerstone in the agency’s bid to resume human deep space exploration, writes Doug Cooke, in an op-ed. Cooke is a former NASA associate administrator for exploration. Conservative appraisals of NASA’s future budgets may have caused the agency to look as far out as November 2018 for the first unpiloted test launch of the SLS, Cooke explains. The target date emerged from NASA’s latest project review, one that authorized the SLS to transition from planning to production.
Russia to begin building record-setting super-heavy space rocket
Russia Today (9/2): Russian President Valery Putin delivers preliminary approval for development of a yet-to-be-named super rocket capable of delivering 150 tons of cargo to Earth orbit. Similar programs are underway in the U.S., the Space Launch System, and in China, the Long March 9. Private sector SpaceX plans a powerful rocket as well. Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin delivered the news after touring the Vostochny cosmodrome with Putin. Construction could begin in 2020.
NASA’s new Orion spaceship makes a splash in ocean tests
Space News (9/2): Joint sea trials between NASA and the U.S. Navy for the recovery of NASA’s Orion capsule in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast will continue in September. NASA and the Navy are prepping to recover an unpiloted Orion capsule following the first orbital test flight of the spacecraft designated to start U.S. explorers on future missions of deep space exploration. The launch of Exploration Flight Test-1 is planned for Dec. 4.
7 questions about NASA’s asteroid redirect mission
USA and Florida Today newspapers (9/2): The two publications look for answers to fundamental questions about NASA’s proposed Asteroid Redirect Mission. The adventure looks to new capabilities including the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket and Orion crew capsule to carry out the end game, an encounter between U.S. astronauts and an asteroid maneuvered into lunar orbit, by the mid-2020s.
Russian, U.S. scientists to prepare astronauts for extreme situations in space
Ria Novosti (9/2): Russian and U.S. experts collaborate on ways to prepare astronauts for extreme conditions in space.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Deflecting near Earth asteroids with paint
The Space Review (9/2): Light and dark coatings applied to asteroids long before they impact the Earth could form an effective defense against destruction, writes Shen Ge, co-founder of both the educational nonprofit organization Scientific Preparatory Academy for Cosmic Explorers (www.spaceacad.org) and the research company Experimental Center for Applied Physical Systems (ECAPS) LLC. Shen outlines an orbital test opportunity as well as a test of the concept involving the asteroid Apophis.
A mission to Pluto enters the home stretch
The Space Review (9/2): Not since NASA’s Voyager missions has the U.S. had the opportunity to lift an equivalent veil of discovery. Launched in 2006, the NASA financed New Horizon’s probe is on course to fly by very distant Pluto in July 2015. Essayist Jeff Foust notes that major discoveries often require great patience.
Decadal survey is community’s best budget lever, NASA chief scientist says
Space News (9/2): NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan defends the influence of the congressionally-chartered National Research Council in setting long term science priorities for the space agency through an assortment of decadal surveys. Stofan’s remarks were made to the NRC on Aug. 26.
Invitation: Get on board a time capsule to an asteroid
Coalition for Space Exploration (9/2): Scheduled to launch in 2016, NASA’s Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) will rendezvous with an asteroid and return to Earth with a small sample in 2023. The probe will carry a time capsule and suggestions from the pubic for worthy space goals a decade hence. More the 50 public suggestions will travel along and be revealed as Osiris Rex returns to Earth.
Solar flares launch beautiful radiation into space in NASA’s new video
Washington Post (9/2): New video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory tracks recent solar flare activity.
Low Earth Orbit
World’s first 3D printer in space will launch this month
Space.com (9/2): SpaceX is primed to set off on the next U.S. commercial re-supply mission to the International Space Station in September. The cargo will include a collaboration between NASA and Made in Space, a 3-D printer, the first in space to assess the potential for fabricating spare parts and new components in space, rather than launching them.
NASA orders extra checks on SMAP’s deployable antenna
Spaceflightnow.com (9/2): NASA delays the early November launching of the Soil Moisture Active Passive satellite research mission for checks of the spacecraft’s spinning mesh antenna. SMAP was developed to measure global soil moisture from orbit. A mid-December lift off is possible.
Space robot arm tech could help surgeons operate on kids
Space.com (9/2): Technologies from Canada’s MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, the manufacturer of the robotic arms Canadarm and Canadarm2 aboard the International Space Station, have become a featured part of the Kids Arm project. A mini robot arm based on the technologies may automate some tasks during pediatric surgery.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Soyuz’s Galileo launch failure spawns three investigations
Space News (9/2): An Aug. 22 launching aboard a Russian rocket placed two European Galileo satellite navigation spacecraft in the wrong orbit. The incident prompted an intense round of investigation, and the initial results may emerge on Sept. 8.
Hefty $1.5 billion to be invested in Vostochny space port 2015: Putin
Itar-Tass, or Russia, (9/2): Russia to invest $1.5 billion in development of the new Vostochny space launch complex in 2015. Russian President Vladimir Putin calls on strict schedule and cost compliance on the project.
‘Space whisky’ to return after Space Station voyage
Discovery.com (9/2): Small samples of Scotch whisky provided by Ardbeg will soon make their way to Earth from the International Space Station to determine how they matured in the absence of gravity.
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