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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Human space analog missions reveal challenges of deep space isolation, communications delays. The critical assembly phase for the next unpiloted NASA Orion test capsule to begin. Mars: the ideal destination for human explorers and one suited to bi-partisan support, according to an op-ed. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, others discuss the Hubble Space Telescope’s accomplishments and what comes next. New Horizons’ Pluto flyby is no lock. U.S. Air Force general warns of increased Chinese, Russian threats to Earth orbiting satellites. Latest SpaceX Falcon 9 first-stage recovery test encountered a possible throttle valve issue. NASA’s Kennedy Space Center considers additional launch pads to achieve multi-user goals. Boeing previews crew selections for CST-100 test flight. Rocket Lab, Ltd., looks to batteries, 3-D printing for launch vehicle improvements.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Panel: Earth simulations offer taste of space, practice for exploration
Florida Today (4/15): Whether it’s in simulations under sea, in the Canadian Arctic or remote regions of Hawaii and Washington State, scientists, engineers and astronauts are gathering valuable lessons about human interactions and the limitations imposed by the isolation likely to accompany future human deep space exploration.
EM-1 Orion crew module set for first weld milestone in May
NASAspaceflight.com (5/15): Weld assembly of the Orion crew capsule designated for an unpiloted 2018 test flight aboard the first Space Launch System heavy lift rocket is scheduled to get underway in May at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility. The test crew capsule will incorporate improvements made in response to the successful Dec. 5, 2014 two-orbit test flight of an uncrewed Orion capsule launched on a Delta 4 Heavy. The assembly features “seamless” friction stir welding. The high performance of the heat shield in December’s test will permit some weight savings, according to the report.
Op-ed | Prescription for Mars: Stay the course, don’t screw up
Space News (4/13): Explore Mars Inc., executive director Chris Carberry urges the space community to maintain a focus on Mars as the next destination for human explorers, using NASA’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket and the Orion crew exploration capsule as enablers. To do otherwise is to become locked in a cycle of reinventing a space program over and over, writes Carberry in an op-ed. He calls on fellow supporters to speak forthrightly about the technical challenges and costs of the Mars venture.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Hubble Q&A with science rock star Neil deGrasse Tyson
USA Today (4/15): The 25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope launching falls on April 24th. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, also host of the Cosmos television series inspired by the late Carl Sagan, discusses the challenges of developing the orbiting observatory and its many accomplishments. “One of (Hubble’s) first tasks was to establish the age of the universe. And it did that,” he recalls. “The age of the universe as discovered by Hubble is about 13.8 billion years.”
Beyond Hubble: Will future space telescope seek alien life by 2030?
Space.com (4/15): Astrophysicist Mario Livio, who helps to tend to the Hubble Space Telescope from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, envisions a future 39-meter space telescope with a view 25 times sharper than the 25-year-old Hubble Space Telescope. Livio is looking beyond even the James Webb Space Telescope for an observatory that could probe the atmospheres of Earth-like exo-planets for signs of biological activity.
NASA’s journey to Pluto: Here’s what might go wrong
Los Angeles Times (4/15): NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is on course for a July 14 flyby of distant Pluto. In flight for nearly a decade, New Horizons has been an able performer. What could go wrong with the encounter? There could be debris left over from collisions among Kuiper Belt Objects too dim to detect, NASA officials explained this week. Pluto may have yet-to-be discovered rings as well.
Low Earth Orbit
U.S. General says Russian, Chinese launches demonstrate growing space threat
Space News (4/15): Recent suspicious launches by China and Russia suggest a growing risk to all satellites, according to Lt. Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, commander of the Air Force Space Command’s 14th Air Force and of Strategic Command’s Joint Functional Component Command for Space. Raymond spoke before the annual Space Symposium underway this week in Colorado Springs. He also called for increased U.S. space awareness in the increasingly congested orbital realm opening to growing numbers of small satellites.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
SpaceX checks throttle valve after flawed Falcon 9 recovery attempt
Aerospace Daily and Defense Report (4/16): SpaceX looks to a possible difficulty with an engine throttle valve as the source of a steering issue at the conclusion of its latest Falcon 9 first-stage booster recovery test, according to the report. The test followed Tuesday’s Falcon 9 launch of a commercial re-supply mission to the International Space Station. The rocket stage descended toward a target barge in the Atlantic waters off Florida’s east coast before colliding.
LC-39A major part of NASA’s “master plan” for Kennedy Space Center
Spaceflight Insider.com (4/15): NASA looks to new launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center as part of a strategy to become a multi-user launch complex.
Boeing to unveil crew, spacesuits for CST-100 test flight this summer
Space News (4/15): An announcement from Boeing on the two test pilots assigned to the first crewed flight of the CST-100 space capsule under development as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is expected this summer. The company will reveal the pressure suits selected for the commercial test flight planned for 2017 as well. Boeing discussed its progress at the Space Symposium underway this week in Colorado Springs.
Rocket Lab unveils battery-powered, 3D-printed rocket engine
Space News (4/15): The U.S.-New Zealand company, Rocket Lab Ltd., unveiled plans to pursue a small satellite launch strategy using a main engine produced with advanced technologies, including 3-D manufacturing and small high-powered batteries. The rocket would power Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle. Rocket Lab introduced its plans at the Space Symposium underway this week in Colorado Springs.
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