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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Tuesday marked the 48th anniversary of NASA’s fatal Apollo 1 launch pad fire. On Jan. 28, the space agency pays tribute each year to the 17 astronauts that perished in three space exploration tragedies. Wednesday marks the 29th anniversary of the shuttle Challenger loss. The U.S. House panel that oversees civilian space policy for the nation gets off to a partisan start. Astronomers use NASA’s Kepler space telescope to identify the oldest planetary system yet; the discovery suggests planets where conditions were right for life were around long before the Earth. NASA’s eagle-eyed Dawn probe captures images of asteroid Ceres’ rugged terrain. Water may have flowed on Vesta. Alien moons seem a promising place to look for biological activity. Florida high school students design a robot for launch day weather balloon releases under hazardous conditions. ATK, Orbital Sciences ready to merge. Boeing could be the first of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program partners to resume the launching of U.S. astronauts. U.S. and Russia will likely include cosmonauts as well as astronauts in their respective spacecraft crews.
Human Deep Space Exploration
‘Fire in the cockpit’: Remembering the sacrifice of Apollo 1
NASAspaceflight.com (1/27): Tuesday marked the 48th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire that claimed the lives of three NASA astronauts. Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. The three men were to be the first to test fly an Apollo capsule, the spacecraft that in July 1969 would usher two Apollo 11 astronauts to the surface of the moon. In all, the anniversaries of three NASA tragedies fall close together. The loss of the crews of the shuttle Challenger and Columbia came on Jan. 28, 1986 and Feb. 1, 2003. NASA’s Day of Remembrance, each Jan. 28, honors the 17 astronauts who perished in all three of the tragedies.
The Challenger disaster, Jan. 28, 1986
Politico (1/28): The U.S. Congress joined in a tribute, then President Ronald Reagan postponed his State of the Union address after the shuttle Challenger shattered over the Atlantic Ocean 73 seconds into flight on Jan. 28, 1986, claiming the lives of all seven astronauts. “To the crew of the Challenger we say goodbye, but we will not forget you and your dream,” said lawmakers as part of their resolution. “We will never forget them,” Reagan would say later. The Challenger crew included Dick Scobee, Mike Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Judy Resnik, Ron McNair, New Hampshire school teacher Christa McAuliffe and Hughes Aircraft engineer Greg Jarvis.
House SS&T Committee starts off 114th Congress on partisan footing
Spacepolicyonline.com (1/27): The U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee starts 2015 on a partisan note. The panel is responsible for setting space policy.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Found! 5 ancient alien planets nearly as old as the universe
Space News (1/27): Earth-sized planets have been an element of the universe almost from the start, a global team of astronomers reported on Tuesday in the Astrophysical Journal. The discovery follows from the identification of Kepler-444, a star 177 light years from Earth that is host to five planets ranging between Mercury and Venus in size. Using the Kepler space telescope, experts estimate the age of Kepler-444 and its planets at 11.2 billion years old. The age of the universe is currently estimated at 13.8 billion years.
Telescope detects galaxy’s oldest known solar system
Science (1/27): The honor falls to Kepler-444, a star with five planets that formed less than three billion years after the big bang.
9 News Denver (1/27): Scientists in Boulder, Colo., are among those responsible for identifying an 11 billion year old solar system in the Milky Way Galaxy, the oldest planetary system on record. The universe started with the big bang 13.8 billion years ago. The sun and planets in our solar system emerged 4.6 billion years ago. The star Kepler -444 hosts five planets similar in size to Mercury and Venus. The finding suggests life may have arisen on a distant planet long before the Earth appeared.
NASA probe gets best ever view of dwarf planet Ceres
Discovery.com (1/27): NASA’s Dawn probe takes the clearest images yet of the large asteroid Ceres. Dawn is close to its goal of maneuvering into orbit around the dwarf planet on March 6.
Surprise! Water once flowed on huge asteroid Vesta
Space.com (1/27): NASA’s Dawn probe is closing on the large asteroid Ceres. Not that long ago, Dawn visited another big asteroid. Vesta. There, it found evidence water once flowed on Vesta.
Why we’re looking for alien life on moons, not just planets
Wired.com (1/27): Findings from NASA’s Kepler space telescope suggest the moons around extra solar planets could be fertile for the rise of life.
Low Earth Orbit
Students’ pink robot could save space industry millions
USA Today (1/27): Central Florida high school students devise a pink robot for the release of weather balloons in severe weather during rocket launch countdowns. The balloons gather valuable weather data, but in adverse weather humans are not permitted to release them. A weather bot, however, could brave the lightning to continue the scheduled balloon releases.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Orbital Sciences Corp.’s stockholders approve Feb. 9 merger with ATK
Spaceflightinsider.com (1/27): Stockholders from the two companies agree to a merger on Tuesday. The new company is designating itself Orbital ATK.
Boeing expected to win first operational space taxi order
Spacepolicyonline.com (1/27): The Boeing Co., expects to receive the call from NASA for the first launch of astronauts to the International Space Station under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. SpaceX as well as Boeing are partnered with NASA to develop the private sector transportation services, with test flights unfolding in 2017.
NASA expects mixed crews aboard Soyuz, U.S. ferry ships
CBS News (1/27): NASA expects its Commercial Crew Program Partners to launch Russian as well as U.S., European, Japanese and Canadian astronauts to the International Space Station. U.S. astronauts will likely continue to ride Russia’s Soyuz as well, just as they have since the pending retirement of NASA’s space shuttle in 2011, “I would not call it a barter for seats. I would call it more of an operational understanding,” said Mike Suffredini, NASA’s ISS program manager. The arrangement would permit the emergency return to Earth of a space station crew member from any nation with the least disruption, he explained to CBS. The launching of U.S. commercial crew transportation systems is expected to start in 2017.
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