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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. 2014 helped to set the stage for future space exploration, according to summaries of the top developments for the year past from Space News, VOA and Spaceflightnow. Hawaiian volcano serves as backdrop for human exploration of Mars. Orion capsule set for 2018 unpiloted launch abort system test. NASA, ATK look to March for ground test of Space Launch System solid rocket motor. Army officer has her heart set on Mars. Retired NASA Apollo engineer joins Dec. 5 Orion recovery effort. Mars methane mystifies. NASA’s Mars Opportunity rover at home on Endeavour crater rim after 11 years on the red planet. NASA’s Dawn probe nearing large asteroid Ceres. Comet Lovejoy reaches naked eye brightness. DSCOVR mission launch moves to Jan. 29 at the earliest. Strange oceans on Venus. Japan urged to pursue lunar, Mars surface missions. Geysers on Jupiter’s Europa hide from Hubble. Hubble spots new dwarf galaxy. Sky-watching in 2015. International Space Station basks in new missions. Space station good to 2028, says Russia. Russia to emphasize re-usability in Soyuz replacement. NASA’s Commercial Crew Program set for strides in 2015. NASA enlists commercial partners to hasten a range of technology transfers. A look at early space-related activities planned for 2015.
2014 Sets Stage for 2015
Space News 2014 Year in Review
Space News (12/26): Early in 2014, the White House proposed a extension of International Space Station operations to 2024. As the year unfolded, tensions between Washington and Moscow over Russia’s annexation of Crimea leads to U.S. congressional ban on the use of Russian rocket engines. The U.S. commercial space sector weathers the loss of a space station re-supply mission. A SpaceShipTwo test mission claims the life of a pilot. The new NASA/Lockheed Martin Orion space capsule achieves a successful unpiloted test flight..
2014 Year of Space Technology Benchmarks, Setbacks
Voice of America (12/25): The European Space Agency’s comet landing is among the 2014 highlights in space. India placed its first Mars mission spacecraft into orbit. NASA’s Orion spacecraft carried out a successful unpiloted test flight to close out the year.
2014’s top stories in spaceflight
Spaceflightnow.com (12/30): The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission comet landing and the NASA/Lockheed Martin unpiloted Orion capsule test flight lead the five-item Spaceflightnow list.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Reagan’s big lesson for America
CNN (12/26): The U.S. needs more “moon shots” like the Apollo lunar exploration missions, the Global Positioning System satellite navigation network and the unraveling of the human genome to underpin future economic growth, writes Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN’s Global Public Square. Zakaria is scheduled to be joined by experts on the topic for a special segment on his Global Public Square broadcast this Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. EST. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden is among the show’s guests. The future human exploration of Mars will be discussed.
First Step to Mars Begins at Volcano Here on Earth
NBC NEWS (12/28): Six volunteers are isolated atop a Hawaiian volcano, where they are simulating life on Mars over eight months. These men and women are living on space food and dressing in space suits before they leave their base to explore the surroundings. They use a time delay in their outside communications as well.
Mandatory Ascent Abort System Launch Test Lies Ahead Before Orion’s First Crewed NASA SLS Blastoff
AmericaSpace (12/30): The Orion spacecraft under development by NASA and Lockheed Martin faces new unpiloted flight testing in the aftermath of the successful Dec. 5 two-orbit mission. Before astronauts board Orion, the capsule will conduct a launch abort test from Central Florida. The in flight test of the Launch Abort System is planned for 2018.
ATK Schedules First Full-Scale SLS Booster Qualification Motor Test Fire for March 2015
AmericaSpace (12/31): NASA and ATK are looking to a March firing of Qualification Motor-1 on a Utah test range. QM-1 represents a crucial part of NASA’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket development. Five segment solid rocket motors based on the design are to increase the lift of future SLS/Orion missions with astronauts assigned to deep space missions.
An Aspiring Martian Continues To Pursue The Red Planet
NPR (12/27): U.S. Army Lt. Heidi Beemer is determined to reach Mars one way or another. When not engaged in terrestrial simulations of life on the red planet, Beemer is competing her way through the Mars One selection process. She hopes to be among the few who launch for the neighboring planet in the mid-2020s.
An engineer who recovered eight Apollo capsules from the Pacific tells of fishing Orion from the sea
Houston Chronicle (12/24): NASA’s Milt Heflin, a retired Johnson Space Center engineer, was at sea for the recovery of eight Apollo mission capsules. On Dec. 5, he was aboard the USS Anchorage in the Pacific Ocean for the recovery of the NASA/Lockheed Martin Exploration Flight Test-1 Orion capsule. Like Apollo, Orion is to head for new destinations in deep space with U.S. astronauts.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Air and Space Magazine (12/24): Reports from scientists linked to NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover mission of background methane on the red planet and 10-fold spikes in the concentrations have left astrobiologists pleased but mystified. Sources of the gas range from biological to geological. Unsorting the implications of the methane findings will take time, new missions.
Spaceflight Insider (12/24): NASA’s Opportunity rover has been exploring the Martian surface since early 2004. Now exploring the rim of Endeavour Crater, Opportunity is struggling with computer difficulties.
NASA Spacecraft Approaching Dwarf Planet Ceres
Space.com (12/30): Launched in 2007, NASA’s Dawn mission spacecraft is closing in on a March arrival at the large asteroid Ceres. Dawn orbited the asteroid Vesta between July 2011 and September 2012 and would become the first man-made object to circle two solar system bodies.
New Year’s surprise: a comet you can see with the naked eye
Christian Science Monitor (12/30): Discovered in August, Comet Lovejoy is now visible without a telescope. By Jan. 7, Lovejoy will appear near Orion’s bow.
DSCOVR Now Set to Launch no Earlier than Jan. 29
Spaceflightnow.com (12/31): The U.S. Air Force and its partners move the launching of the DSCOVR solar observing mission from Jan. 23 to no earlier than Jan. 29. First proposed by former Vice President Al Gore in the late 1990s as Triana, the spacecraft was later placed in storage. The revived mission will observe solar activity and provide warnings to users including the Air Force, NASA and NOAA.
Venus Gets Weirder: CO2 Oceans May Have Covered Surface
Space.com (12/28): With all the excitement over Mars, it might be easy to overlook Earth’s twin, Venus. However, the cloud-shrouded second planet from the sun is also fertile ground for discovery. Scientists say searing Venus may once have hosted oceans of carbon dioxide.
Japan Times (12/25): An editorial urges Japan’s policymakers to strive for future missions that would enable probes to descend to the surfaces of the moon and Mars. National security from space can be less of a priority, according to the editorial.
Europa’s geysers play hard-to-see
Science News (12/24): Images from the Hubble Space Telescope raised expectations for Jupiter’s moon Europa as a geothermally active body that might host conditions favorable for life. However, follow-up investigations fail to find further evidence of powerful geyser-like eruptions at the ice and ocean-covered moon.
Astronomers find ‘new’ dwarf galaxy in Milky Way’s neighborhood
Los Angeles Times (12/26): Astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to discover a new dwarf galaxy close to the Milky Way.
Supermoon eclipse, meteor showers on 2015 sky-watching calendar
Baltimore Sun (1/1): The New Year promises much to see for amateur sky-watchers. First up, the Quadrantid meteor shower.
Low Earth Orbit
The Atlantic (Jan/Feb): The 15-nation International Space Station is finding new life as the U.S. and its partners ponder longer human missions to deep space destinations. “In the past decade, America has become a truly, permanently space faring nation,” writes The Atlantic. “It’s a little strange when you think about it: Just about every American ninth-grader has never lived a moment without astronauts soaring overhead, living in space.”
International Space Station could operate until 2028, says ex-head of Energia
TASS (12/29): Current operations of the six-person International Space Station could be extended from 2020 to 2024 under a U.S. proposal. But the station is capable of operating until 2028, according to Vitaly Lopota, the former head of Russia’s Energia Space Corp. Russia plans a pair of additions, a multi-purpose laboratory module in 2017 and a power station in 2018-19. However, other Russian space officials have said their use of the station could end in 2020 and that the new hardware could form the basis for a new Russian space station.
Re-entry capsule of Russia’s new generation spacecraft to be used ten times
TASS (12/29): The replacement for Russia’s venerable three person Soyuz spacecraft will transport six on missions to low Earth orbit or four to the moon, according to Vitaly Lopota, the former head of the country’s Energia Space Corp. Work on a Soyuz replacement has been underway since 2009. Originally, the first unmanned launch was scheduled for 2015, and a manned launch for 2018. The dates have now been moved to 2021 and 2024 respectively, TASS reports.
Russia Launches European Communications Satellite Atop Proton-M Rocket
Sputnik News (12/28): The Baikonur Cosmodrome was the site for Russia’s launch of a European Astra-2G satellite early Sunday.
Chinese military spy satellite deployed in orbit
Spaceflightnow.com (12/27): China launched an Earth observing satellite early Dec. 27. Reports vary as to its civilian or military purposes.
Russia puts new military comsat into orbit (VIDEO)
Russia Today (12/25): A Russian military communications satellite rises to orbit atop a Soyuz launcher from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.
China launches meteorological satellite Fengyun-II 08
China’s Fengyun-II 08 weather satellite lifts off and reaches orbit on Dec. 31.
Commercial to Orbit
What’s Ahead for Commercial Crew in 2015: One-on-One Interview with NASA’s Phil McAlister
AmericaSpace (12/28): NASA’s efforts to foster the development of two commercial U.S. launch services capable of taking astronauts to and from Earth orbit by the end of 2017 are grounded in 2014 development milestones. Those include the award of two contracts, one to Boeing and the second to SpaceX, who will work under Commercial Crew Transportation Capability agreements awarded in September.
New NASA Pacts Look To Rush Commercial Space Tech to Shelves
Space News (12/31): NASA expects to hasten the transfer of space technologies for commercial use through a collection of unfunded Space Act Agreements with companies like ATK and United Launch Alliance. The focus of activities ranges from satellite repair and refueling to space suit design.
The Week Ahead
What’s Happening in Space Policy January 1-9, 2015
Spacepolicyonline.com (1/1): The earliest days of the New Year include astronomy and aeronautical conferences in Seattle and Kissimmee, Fla., and a re-supply mission to the International Space Station. Congress reconvenes as well.
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