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Friday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA plans to finish ground testing of, then store the powerful J2-X rocket engine once envisioned as part of the new Space Launch System. NASA lifts U.S. government shutdown restrictions on preparations for the next U.S. Mars mission. MAVEN is slated to lift off on Nov. 18 for studies of the Martian atmosphere. Germany’s third International Space Station astronaut, Alexander Gerst, will fly “blue dot” mission for the European Space Agency. Russia offers computer server access to NASA’s International Space Station program during U.S. government furlough. Russia makes cosmonaut selections. Comet ISON facts. Russia presses ahead with work on new cosmodrome. NASA chief educator Leland Melvin recommends STEM studies, healthy diet. NASA adjusts to U.S. government furlough. Virgin Galactic partners for reality television show.
1. From Aviation Week & Space Technology: NASA plans to place the powerful J-2X once envisioned as a possible upper stage for the new U.S. heavy lift Space Launch System in storage as ground testing wraps up next year. NASA is turning instead to multiple RL-10 engines for near term SLI missions. The J-2X, an upgrade of the Saturn V heritage upper stage, will be stored until the U.S. is ready to launch human explorers on missions to Mars.
http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/asd_10_04_2013_p01-01-623762.xml&p=2
2. From the Planetary Society: Preparations for NASA’s next Mars mission, MAVEN, receive a reprieve from the U.S. government shutdown. Efforts to ready the robotic spacecraft for a Nov. 18 lift off resume. The launch window for a mission to study the Martian atmosphere closes for two years after Dec. 7.
A. Florida Today: NASA’s next Mars mission, MAVEN, at risk of two year delay if launch preparations were not allowed to resume.
B. From Spacepolicyonline.com: NASA’s MAVEN mission preparations receive “emergency exception” to resume during U.S. government shutdown.
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/news/maven-given-emergency-exception-to-proceed-despite-shutdown
3. From the European Space Agency: ESA will begin tests next week of a prototype Mars rover in Chile’s Atacama Desert. Operations will be conducted as though the six wheeled prototype was on Mars. ESA’s Exo-Mars mission is looking to a 2018 lift off.
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering/Desert_trial_for_ESA_Mars_rover
4. From America Space: Germany’s third International Space Station astronaut, Alexander Gerst, will fly the European Space Agency’s “Blue Dot” mission to the orbiting space lab in 2014.
http://www.americaspace.com/?p=43266
5. From Ria Novosti, of Russia: Russia’s Pirate Party offers NASA server space for its space station website during the U.S. government shutdown.
n.rian.ru/russia/20131004/183931414/Russian-Pirates-Offer-NASA-Help-in-Times-of-Crisis.html
6. From Itar-Tass, of Russia: Russia announces the selection of eight new cosmonauts.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c32/900558.html
7. From Discovery.com: Getting up to speed on comet ISON. What you need to know — if ISON is to light up the skies.
http://news.discovery.com/space/astronomy/top-5-comet-ison-list-131003.htm
8. From Space News: Russia pushes ahead with a new cosmodrome to ease its long reliance on Kazakhstan for the use of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The first launch from the Vostochny spaceport in Russia’s far east is targeted for 2015.
http://www.spacenews.com/article/civil-space/37530russia-plows-ahead-with-new-far-east-cosmodrome.
9. From the PR Web via The Houston Chronicle: Study and eat vegetables, Leland Melvin, a former astronaut and NASA’s associate administrator for education, tells a Science, Engineering and Technology Channel audience. Melvin is a former NFL and college football player, as well as a materials scientist.
http://www.chron.com/default/article/My-Son-is-Eating-Vegetables-Because-a-Former-4867218.php
10. From the Washington Post: What’s it like to work for NASA while furloughed but on call? Jason Dworkin, chief of astrochemistry at NASA and project scientist for the agency’s future OSIRISRex asteroid sample return mission, explains.
A. From the Orlando Sentinel: NASA furloughs workers at the Kennedy Visitor Center Complex in response to the U.S. Government shutdown.
11. From NBC News.com: Virgin Galactic, the suborbital space transportation company, joins with NBC for a new reality show. The show’s theme is a contest to win a flight on the company’s SpaceShipTwo.
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/nbc-teams-virgin-galactic-space-race-reality-tv-show-8C11329733
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