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Friday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from around the world. NASA’s prototype for a new system of spacecraft that will improve global weather forecasting and studies of climate change lifts off early Friday from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. NASA’s departing chief technologist urges more spending on space engineering. Mayors of two cities that host NASA installations urge President Obama to move ahead quickly with work on the Space Launch System to prevent future aerospace layoffs. Scientist will study closely a large asteroid as it passes close to the Earth on Nov. 8. NASA’s planetary science program prepares to weather a tough budget environment. The agency earns praise for its handling of concerns that comet Elenin posed a collision threat to the Earth.
1. From Spaceflightnow.com: NASA’s $1.5 billion NPOESS Preparatory Project mission lifts off early Friday with a fresh set of orbital sensors that promise to improve both weather forecasting and climate research. NPP lifted off at 5:48 a.m., EDT, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. With updates on the launching and early mission phase.
http://bit.ly/uSUG0P
2. From The Hill: Bobby Braun, who is leaving his position as NASA chief technologist to return to academia, urges more federal investment in space technologies. In an op-ed, he suggests 5 percent of the agency’s annual budget as a goal. NASA’s 2012 budget included $1.04 billion. The request has been cut to $638 million in the Senate, $375 million in the House. The tech investments lead to innovation and jobs, writes Braun
3. From the Huntsville Times: The Mayors of Huntsville, Ala., and Houston, Tex., urge President Obama to prevent job losses by hastening work on NASA’s Space Launch System by hastening work agreements that were originally awarded for work on the cancelled Constellation Program.
A. From the Huntsville Times: NASA’s Space Launch System must go forward to establish credibility for the nation in space exploration, according to a national security policy expert and others who participated in the VonBraun Symposium on Space Exploration. The SLS includes a new heavy lift rocket that has drawn criticism because the U. S. has not decided where it will send astronauts with the booster. “This is not a rocket to nowhere,” said one symposium participant. “It’s a rocket to a lot of places. It’s a rocket to almost anywhere.”
B. From Spaceflightnow.com: At the Kennedy Space Center, NASA plans to upgrade an Apollo-era crawler-transporter and an inactive platform from the cancelled Ares rocket program for launchings of the new Space Launcher System heavy lift rocket. The first launch is planned for 2017 and the work is part of a $2 billion upgrade at the Florida launch site.
4. From USAToday: An asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier, Yu55 will pass close to the Earth on Nov. 8. Studies of an asteroid that could become a future collision threat are planned.
A. From Discovery.com: In Europe, scientist conclude the comet-bound Rosetta spacecraft found a surprise when it flew past the asteroid 12 Lutetia last year. The 75 mile long asteroid is probably the nucleus of a dwarf planet that stopped growing, rather than a fragment from another small planetary body.
http://bit.ly/sBdp7A
5. From Space News: NASA’s planetary exploration program faces some tough budget challenges, but it’s not coming to a close, Jim Green, the head of NASA’s planetary exploration division, tells a NASA advisory panel. Green takes issue with Robert Zubrin, an advocate for the settlement of Mars who offered a grim outlook in a Washington Times op-ed.
6. From Science Magazine: NASA sizes up the collision threat from comet Elenin correctly, according to the science publication. Some had predicted Elenin’s close passage by the Earth on Oct. 16 would trigger Earthquakes and other devastation.
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