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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Advanced composites strengthen, lower cost of NASA’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket. NASA Orion crew capsule activated ahead of 2014 unpiloted flight test. James Webb Space Telescope emerges from U.S. Government shutdown on cost, schedule for late 2018 lift off. Global scientists find likelihood of Chelyabinsk like meteor impacts greater than previously estimated. Kepler discoveries raise enthusiasm for intelligent extraterrestrial life. Hubble peers deeply into space. Sun unleashes major solar flare. U.S., Russian and Japanese astronauts arrive at the International Space Station early Thursday with a symbolic Olympic torch; the unlit torch will accompany spacewalkers on Saturday. Prospects for sequestration, U.S. Government shutdown fuel aerospace earnings concerns. Lady Gaga to sing before landmark suborbital launch.
Human Deep Space Exploration
ATK research on NASA advanced booster shows options on increasing performance, reducing cost
Hispanic Business.com (11/13): NASA’s Space Launch System advances development of composite solid rocket booster cases to further the heavy lift rocket intended to start future U.S. explorers on missions of deep space exploration. Composite development means stronger materials, lower cost.
NASA’s Orion spacecraft comes to life
Hispanic Business News (11/13): NASA activates the Orion crew exploration capsule assigned to an unpiloted test flight in September 2014. The spacecraft is undergoing flight preparations at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for a September 2014 lift off.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
JWST on cost, on schedule after shutdown
Space News (11/6): The James Webb Space Telescope emerged from the October U.S. Government shutdown in a good financial posture, agency officials inform the National Research Council. NASA continues to address technical issues ahead of a planned late 2018 lift off for the observatory designated to replace the Hubble Space Telescope.
Scientists say Russian fireball shows meteors are bigger threat to Earth than they realized
The Associated Press via The Washington Post (11/6): Scientists studying the terrifying meteor that exploded without warning over a Russian city last winter say the threat of space rocks smashing into Earth is bigger than they thought.
Chelyabinsk asteroid smashed glass, burned skin, defied expectations
Los Angeles Times (11/6): Small, potentially destructive asteroids like the one that impacted with Earth over Chelyabinsk, Russia, on Feb. 15 may be more common that calculated using ground based telescopes, say experts who published their findings in the journals Science and Nature. More than 1,000 were injured by the blast.
More Asteroid Strikes are likely, scientists say
New York Times (11/6): The Earth is more vulnerable than previously believed to impacts with small asteroids of the type that disintegrated over Chelyabinsk, Russia on Feb. 15, say scientists who published their findings in the journal Nature this week.
Chelyabinsk asteroid glowed at 30x strength of sun
CBS News.com (11/6): The meteor that impacted the Earth in mid-February detonated and glowed with an intensity 30 times brighter than the sun. On the ground, witnesses were sunburned.
The Chelyabinsk lesson: beware small asteroids
Popular Mechanics magazine (11/6): Asteroids similar to the meteor that struck Chelyabinsk on Feb. 15 are more common than studies with ground based telescopes suggested, according to scientists who participated in three Nature and Science journal reports on the alarming incident.
Huntsville Times, of Alabama (11/6): The Earth may be more vulnerable to damaging small asteroid impacts than previously indicated, say scientists who made a long running study of the meteor that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in mid-February.
Earth at higher risk of asteroid impact, Russian meteor explosion reveals
Space.com (11/6): Studies of the Feb. 15 Chelyabinsk asteroid impact suggest the Earth is more vulnerable to damage from small meteors than believed.
Discovery of Earth sized planets rouses search for intelligent life
PBS News Hour (11/5): Scientists supporting NASA’s Kepler space telescope mission calculate that one in five sun-like stars hosts an Earth-like planet.
How Astronomers came to think we are probably not alone
The Atlantic (11/6): Evidence for the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe has been slowly building. Evidence for water widespread in the cosmos as well as the materials carried across the solar system by comets and asteroids boosted the prospects.
‘To Hold Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand’ NASA’s Frontier Fields
AmericaSpace.com (11/7): The Hubble Space Telescope, with 23 years in orbit, looks deep into space to make new discoveries.
Strongest solar flare of 2013 erupts from Sun (Video)
NASA (11/6): The sun unleashes a powerful solar flare earlier this week.
Low Earth Orbit
New crew launches to space station with Olympic torch on board
NASA (11/6): Russia’s latest Soyuz launch carries NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio, Japan’s Koichi Wakata and Russia’s Mikhail Tyurin to the International Space Station for six months in orbit.
Spaceflightnow.com (11/7): Soyuz crew with Mikhail Tyurin, Rick Mastracchio and Soichi Wakata, new Russian, U.S. and Japanese crew members, dock with the International Space Station at 5:27 a.m., EST. Updates on the arrival.
Olympic torch heading to the Space Station
Discovery.com (11/6): A veteran U.S., Russian and Japanese crew carried an unlit Olympic torch to the International Space Station early Thursday. The ceremonial torch, commemorating the 2014 Winter Games set to open in Sochi, Russia in February, will accompany two of the astronauts on a spacewalk Saturday, one day before it returns to Earth.
Russian Soyuz spacecraft with Olympic torch launches into orbit
Itar-Tass, of Russia (11/7): New space station crew members carry unlit Olympic torch to space station in anticipation of a Saturday spacewalk.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Boeing’s Muilenburg on defense, space challenges
Aviation Week & Space Technology (11/7): Sequestration and the U.S. government shutdown in October are creating hardship for U.S. aerospace, Dennis Muilenburg, president and CEO of Boeing’s Defense, Space & Security unit, informs the publication’s editorial board.
Suborbital
U.S. Weekly (11/6): Entertainer Lady Gaga is among those lined up to launch into suborbital space aboard Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo. She plans to sing first at New Mexico’s Spaceport America in early 2014.
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