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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA turns to the U.S. private sector for deep space habitation module planning. The U.S. Senate schedules a vote on Dava Newman as NASA’s deputy administrator. Boeing names veteran space station, space shuttle executive to lead Space Launch System development. U.S. aerospace technology expert urges long running Outer Planets Exploration Program to determine habitability of the outer solar system’s ice and water covered moons. NASA forms a science team to assess what makes distant planets habitable. Russia to join search for extraterrestrial life. On Friday, the Hubble Space Telescope marks its 25th anniversary in orbit. The James Webb Space Telescope comes together to succeed the Hubble. China joined the global space club 45 years ago with its first satellite launching. The six person International Space Station maneuvered early Thursday to avoid Russian space debris. Russia looks at the launching of three new modules to the International Space Station. Engineers tackle a new drinking experience aboard the space station.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Habitats could be NASA’s next commercial spacecraft buy
Aviation Week & Space Technology (4/23): Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Orbital ATK have all partnered with NASA to study how they might extend the volume for four astronauts launched on deep space missions aboard Lockheed Martin’s Orion crew exploration vehicle. The capsule is cozy and without an airlock. Advisory panels have urged NASA to look at augmenting Orion with a habitability module for long missions to Mars, the asteroids and other deep space destinations.
NASA may get new Deputy Administrator next week
Spacepolicyonline.com (4/23): The U.S. Senate is scheduled to consider the White House nomination of Dava Newman as NASA’s deputy administrator on Monday. The MIT professor would succeed Lori Garver, who departed the No. 2 space agency post in September 2013.
John Shannon to replace Ginger Barnes as Boeing’s head of SLS
Spaceflight Insider (4/23): Boeing International Space Station program manager John Shannon will move to vice president and program manager of the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket at the aerospace company. Shannon is a former NASA shuttle program manager. He succeeds Virginia Barnes, who is retiring, in leading development of the propulsion system intended to start humans on future missions of deep space exploration.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Space News (4/22): Former NASA chief technologist Robert Braun calls for an Outer Planets Exploration Program focused on the water rich moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto of Jupiter; Enceladus of Saturn; and Triton of Neptune; as well as the hydrocarbon rich Titan, another moon of Saturn. NASA’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket as well as commercial heavy lifters offer opportunities for a steady flow of missions to determine whether conditions on any of the water worlds are just right for life, writes Braun.
NASA’s bold new NExSS initiative will search for signs of life on other planets
The Huffington Post (4/23): NASA’s newly established Nexus for Exoplanet System Science, a multi-disciplinary team of experts, will advise the space agency in its search for planetary bodies beyond the Earth with environments suitable for life. The effort that includes 10 universities will assess criteria for bio signatures in the atmospheres of distant worlds, chemistry that hints at biological activity. “We really have to look for a chemical bio signature because we’re never going to be able to measure little green men running around on the surface of a planet,” noted one researcher.
Russia’s space agency has ambitious plans to find aliens
Moscow Times (4/23): Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, is determined to have a voice in the search for alien life.
Awesome Hubble Telescope pics pop on Times Square screens in NYC
Space.com (4/23): Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s launching. In New York City’s Times Square, images of the observatory’s spectacular views are on display as part of the celebration.
NASA unveils spectacular photo for Hubble Telescope’s 25th birthday
Space.com (4/23): The image posted by NASA and the European Space Agency on Thursday illustrates the Hubble Space Telescope’s fantastic eye on the universe. The star cluster Wunderlund 2 is filled with 3,000 stars, surrounded by Gum 29, a colorful gas cloud punctuated by star birth. Found in the constellation Carina, the vista lies 20,000 light years from the Earth.
James Webb Space Telescope progresses toward launch
Voice of America (4/23): Hubble’s successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, a joint effort between the U.S., European and Canadian space agencies, is undergoing ground tests as it works toward an October 2018 launching. The James Webb will observe in infrared wavelengths to study early galaxy formation and join the search for distant planets.
Low Earth Orbit
Xinhua insight: How China joins space club?
Xinhuanet, of China (4/23): In China, April 24 marks the 45th anniversary of its first satellite launching, the Dongfanghong-1, which continues to orbit the Earth. China became the fifth nation behind the former Soviet Union, the U.S., France and Japan to accomplish the feat.
Russian mission control adjusts ISS orbit to avoid space junk collision
Sputnik News (4/23): Early Thursday, thrusters aboard the International Space Station fired to move the six person orbiting science laboratory clear of a close approach from debris linked to a Soviet era weather satellite launched in 1979.
Three rockets to deliver new Russian modules to ISS rocket manufacturer
TASS, of Russia (4/23): Russia will augment its portion of the International Space Station with three modules, including a Multipurpose Laboratory Module between 2017 and 2019, according to an executive with a top Russian aerospace corporation.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Wanted in space: A better drinking experience
Orlando Sentinel: Engineers fashion a space cup for coffee and other space beverages with pleasant aromas. For astronauts, it could mean an end to drinking fluids in small bags with straws.
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