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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Can the recent Pioneering Space National Summit in Washington unify exploration advocates? The latest in a series of ground rocket test firings on Thursday advances development of NASA’s Space Launch System exploration rocket. NASA selects five proposals from the global community to deal with the radiation threat that accompanies human deep space travel. Hearty microbes could reach Earth on meteorites — if they can dodge UV radiation. As best scientists can determine, NASA’s New Horizons mission spacecraft can speed by Pluto on July 14 without colliding with unseen moons or rings. The giant asteroid Ceres hosts crater atop crater. NASA’s next Mars lander, InSight, under goes rigorous ground testing before a March launch. Top Chinese astronaut calls for space cooperation with the U.S. and others. NASA marathon astronaut Scott Kelly’s girlfriend discusses the challenges of separation. The California Science Museum adds the final NASA space shuttle external fuel tank to Los Angeles display. Orbital ATK plans to resume launches of its Antares rocket in March with changes to the first stage rocketry. Mobile communications helps spur satellite industry growth.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Op-ed | The Summit, the solution, the possibility
Space News (5/28): In an op-ed, space advocate Rick Tumlinson explains the purpose of the recent Pioneering Space National Summit, a two day Washington meeting to bring advocates of human space exploration and settlement together without debates over politics, destinations nor launch systems. “We posited that pioneering includes both exploration and settlement in its definition, and that both the government and people can pioneer and explore, but only the people can settle,” he writes in the second of his two part discussion of the February summit and U. S. space policy.
Stennis fires up RS-25 engine for full duration test
NASAspaceflight.com (5/28): NASA’s Stennis Space Center hosted a test firing of a developmental RS-25 rocket engine Thursday. The test engine, left over from NASA’s space shuttle program, is similar to the four engines that will power the first stage of NASA’s Space Launch System exploration rocket. The first unpiloted SLS test flight is planned for 2018. Test firings this year will demonstrate a new engine controller and software for SLS propulsion.
5 Mars mission radiation shield ideas win NASA challenge
Space.com (5/29): NASA has selected five proposals from the global community for further study as possible ways of dealing with the solar and galactic radiation exposures that human explorers will face as they travel to Mars. NASA intends to seek a new round of ideas in late June. The top proposal from United Arab Emirates nuclear engineer George Hitt earned him $5,000. Four others will split $7,000.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Microbes can survive in meteorites if shielded from UV radiation, study says
Astrobiology Magazine (5/28): If they can avoid ultraviolet radiation, microbes traveling in meteorites can survive, according to a new study. “Results from this study are relevant to understanding the adaptation and evolution of life,” according to Rocco Mancinelli, a senior research scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute, a nonprofit space and atmospheric science research group.
Coast is clear! No deadly debris seen in Pluto flyby path
Discovery.com (5/28): At least for now, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft teams believes their Pluto bound probe can carry out the first ever flyby of the distant planetary body on July 14 without smashing into undiscovered moons and rings.
Where’s Pluto? How to find the dwarf planet in the sky
Space.com (5/28): Small and distant, Pluto is a challenge for Earthlings to observe.
On Mauna Kea, astronomers and Hawaiians can share the skies
Scientific American (5/28): Hawaii’s Gov. David Ige struggles to meet the aspirations of astronomers and the desire of the island’s natives to preserve their culture during the construction of the powerful new Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea.
It’s crater-palooza on dwarf planet Ceres (new photo)
Space.com (5/28): NASA’s Dawn mission spacecraft is capturing images of the giant asteroid Ceres with unprecedented clarity. The imagery reveals a battered terrain.
NASA’s next Mars lander begins tests for 2016 launch
Space.com (5/28): NASA’s next Mars lander, InSight, is nearing a March 2016 lift off. First, though, the spacecraft must go through rigorous ground testing that simulates the rigors of launch, travel through space, the landing and science operations.
Low Earth Orbit
Chinese astronaut calls for cooperation, access to International Space Station
CNN (5/28): Chinese astronaut Nie Haisheng calls for greater cooperation with the United States in space exploration. Current legislation prohibits the U.S. from bi-lateral cooperation with China.
Out of this world: Astronaut Kelly, girlfriend learn to live apart
Houston Chronicle (5/27): In late March, veteran NASA astronaut Scott Kelly lifted off on a yearlong stay aboard the International Space Station with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko. Among the many challenges of the long mission is the human separation, explains Kelly’s girlfriend, Amiko Kauderer. Kelly and research teams believe the long mission will help to define the medical and psychological challenges of future deep space exploration. “One of the things I miss most is human touch, having someone touch back, holding hands,” says Kauderer.
NASA’s last space shuttle external tank to complete Endeavour L.A. exhibit
Collectspace.com (5/28): Thanks to NASA’s donation of the final space shuttle external fuel tank, the California Science Museum, of Los Angeles, plans to offer the only launch ready display of shuttle hardware by 2018. The museum is already home to the shuttle orbiter Endeavour.
Commercial to Orbit
Orbital ATK’s new Antares on track for March 2016 launch
Spacepolicyonline.com (5/28): Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket will return to flight in March 2016, according to company president David Thompson. The company experienced the loss of an Antares rocket on Oct. 28 seconds after liftoff from a Virginia launch complex on a NASA contracted re-supply mission to the International Space Station. Orbital plans rocket engine changes to the Antares as part of the recovery.
Satellite sector sees modest growth in 2014
Space News (5/28): The Satellite Industries Association reports that mobile satellite communications is the fastest growing segment of the sector. The overall global satellite industry market generated $203 billion in revenue during 2014, up 4 percent over the previous year.Brought to you by the Coalition for Space Exploration, CSExtra is a daily compilation of space industry news selected from hundreds of online media resources. The Coalition is not the author or reporter of any of the stories appearing in CSExtra and does not control and is not responsible for the content of any of these stories. The content available through CSExtra contains links to other websites and domains which are wholly independent of the Coalition, and the Coalition makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or authenticity of the information contained in any such site or domain and does not pre-screen or approve any content. The Coalition does not endorse or receive any type of compensation from the included media outlets and is not responsible or liable in any way for any content of CSExtra or for any loss, damage or injury incurred as a result of any content appearing in CSExtra. For information on the Coalition, visit www.space.com or contact us via e-mail at Info@space.com.