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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA turns a corner with a successful December Orion flight test, says member of final space shuttle crew. Now, back at its assembly facilities at the Kennedy Space Center, the NASA/Lockheed Martin Orion capsule that circled the Earth twice unmanned on Dec. 5 is undergoing disassembly and check out. NASA’s Stennis Space Center hosts the first in a series of test firings for the Space Launch System first stage rocket engine. China advances its robotic lunar sample return mission plans. NASA’s long-running Kepler alien planet hunter and Sofia space observatory missions embrace financial challenges. An optimistic assessment of SETI contact. Comet Lovejoy poses for pics. Milky Way’s central black hole flares. Astronomers find spiral arm wrapping around Milky Way. U.S. Department of Energy approves funding for world’s largest digital camera, part of Chilean observatory. Japan bends space policy toward national security. Latest U.S. commercial re-supply mission reaches International Space Station early Monday. British entertainer Sarah Brightman to train for September International Space Station visit. A look at major space policy related activities planned for the week ahead.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Astronaut’s post-shuttle blues give way to optimism about Orion
Houston Chronicle (1/11): NASA astronaut Rex Walheim, was among the astronauts assigned to NASA’s final space shuttle mission in July 2011. Upon landing, months of preparation turned to anticipation about the space agency’s future. Where next? The apprehension stemmed in early December as NASA’s Orion crew exploration capsule carried out a successful unpiloted two orbit flight test. “This transition, it has been really hard,” says Walheim. “We’ve turned the corner.”
Lockheed Martin begins taking apart first flown Orion capsule
Spaceflightnow.com (1/9): After a successful two orbit test flight around the Earth on Dec. 5, NASA’s Orion capsule is prepared for disassembly and examination by engineers from prime contractor Lockheed Martin.
NASA completes first test firing of SLS core stage engine (updated)
Planetary Society (1/9): NASA’s Stennis Space Center hosted the first test firing of the RS-25, the first stage rocket engine that will power the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket under development to start U.S. astronauts on future missions of human deep space exploration.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
China plan for unmanned Moon landing, Earth return advances
Associated Press via ABC News (1/11): China makes strides in previously announced plans for a future robotic lunar sample return mission. State media report that a test vehicle from a previous Chinese lunar mission has returned to lunar orbit from a journey to a more distant lunar LaGrange point. The return vehicle served as a service module for a Chinese moon orbiter in 2014.
Kepler and SOFIA survive technical and fiscal challenges
Space News (1/9): The revived alien planet hunting Kepler Space Telescope and Sofia, a joint NASA/German Space Agency airborne infrared observatory, face financial challenges, though the December passage of a NASA budget for 2015 assured their survival. Kepler, which continues to spot new extra solar planet candidates, is operating with a backup pointing strategy after technical problems. Sofia was faced with being ‘mothballed’ if NASA did not receive more support from partner agencies. Congress provided a cut for the year but enough to continue observations. The status of the two projects was briefed to the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle last week.
National Public Radio (1/9): SETI astronomer Seth Shostak predicts we are just decades away from confirming the existence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.
Green comet Lovejoy photobombs night sky photos by stargazers
Space.com (1/9): As comet Lovejoy grows brighter, amateur astronomers are gathering some fantastic images.
America Space (1/9): Astronomers turn to the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory to unravel the energetic activities under way around Sagittarius A, the massive black hole that resides at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
A spectacular spiral may encircle the Milky Way
Scientific American (1/8): One of the Milky Way’s spiral arms may wind around the galaxy, according to Chinese astronomers. The study was made using a radio telescope observatory.
World’s largest digital camera gets funding go-ahead
NBC News (1/10): The U.S. Department of Energy approves a new round of development for the world’s largest digital camera. The camera is in line to become a powerful part of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope in Chili.
Low Earth Orbit
Basic plan on space policy to emphasize national security
Yomiuri Shimbun (1/10): Japan embraces a 10-year space policy strategy that will emphasize national security. The plan has three fronts: ensuring space security; promoting the creation of new aerospace industries and other uses of outer space; and maintaining and reinforcing the basis of industrial and scientific technology, the newspaper reports.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Live coverage: Dragon delivers fresh supplies to space station
Spaceflightnow.com (1/12): The latest U.S. commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station rendezvoused with the six person orbiting laboratory early Monday. ISS commander Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore grappled the 14-foot long SpaceX Dragon re-supply capsule at 5:54 a.m., EST, with assistance from European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforreti. Berthing of the capsule that was launched Saturday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., was expected later Monday morning. The grapple unfolded 18 minutes earlier than scheduled.
SpaceX launches station supply ship; booster landing unsuccessful
CBS News (1/10): A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon capsule departed Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., early Saturday bound for the International Space Station with just over 5,000 pounds of supplies and research hardware. Efforts to recover the rocket’s first stage with a controlled landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean off Florida’s Atlantic Coast were unsuccessful.
Sarah Brightman to start training for space journey Thursday
ITAR TASS of Russia (1/12): The British singer begins her Russian spaceflight training this week. Brightman is to visit the International Space Station in September, following a Soyuz launch. The flight is to span 10 days.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of Jan 12-16
Spacepolicyonline.com (1/11): The outlook is dominated by U.S. Congressional oversight committee business related to space activities and NASA Advisory Council sessions.
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