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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Summer tests set for Space Launch System heavy lift rocket engine controller. NASA briefs U.N. committee this week on latest efforts to identify asteroid threats, exploration plans. NASA accepts recommendations to improve planet defenses against asteroid impacts. ATK will refurbish Florida launch pad for key 2018 Orion capsule abort system test flight. U.S. needs changes to legislative environment to reap benefits of growing space economy, according to legal expert. Might water flow on modern day Mars? Instruments aboard NASA’s Mars bound MAVEN mission check out following Nov. 18 lift off. China acknowledges Yutu, Jade Rabbit lunar rover loss. Last person on Mars…now what? Planet Labs cubesats flow from the International Space Station on Thursday. Veteran American astronaut Jeff Williams among newly named future space station crew members. DARPA close to contractor selection for experimental low cost reusable launch vehicle. Italian space agency chief steps aside for investigation. NASA Commercial Crew Program cost/benefit analysis underway. Public faces off in hearing over new commercial Florida launch site. NASA Langley researchers identifying space, aviation uses for carbon nanotubes. Demand for new generation of small satellites grows. Arianespace asks for funds to support Ariane 5 operations in response to new competitors. Auditors question plans to retire ESA’s medium lift Soyuz rocket variant for Ariane 6 launcher. Virgin Galactic looks to start of suborbital passenger flights from New Mexico in second half of 2014.
Human Deep Space Exploration
RS-25 second life: SLS core stage engine set for summer testing
NASAspaceflight.com (2/11): Engines assigned to the development of NASA’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket will undergo ground tests this summer to evaluate engine controllers. The SLS is in development to launch U.S. explorers on future missions of deep space exploration.
NASA experts continue to engage United Nations on NASA’s asteroid initiative
NASA (2/11): U.S. space agency experts appear before the U.N.’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in Vienna this week with an update on the agency’s plans to identify and deflect asteroids that pose an impact threat to the Earth. The Asteroid Grand Challenge is part of a larger strategy to launch U.S. explorers on a mission to explore an asteroid by 2025.
NASA report: How to defend planet from asteroids
Space.com (2/11): NASA responds to a two part 2013 work shop sponsored by the space agency to elicit recommendations for protecting the earth from an asteroid impact as well as to launch U.S. astronauts on an asteroid encounter mission.
Space Florida selects ATK to complete space launch complex 46 communications system upgrade
Space Florida (2/11): Space Florida contracts with ATK for improvements to Launch Complex 46 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. NASA intends to launch its Orion/Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Abort 2 test flight from the pad in 2018, a milestone in the effort to re-establish a U.S. human deep space launch capability.
Professor: Boost space industry: front & center
Orlando Sentinel (2/11): The U.S. Congress must create a legal environment favorable to commercial space if the U.S. economy is to benefit, writes the University of Nebraska’s Matthew Schaefer, an expert in space law.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Study: Water could be flowing on Mars now
CNN (2/10): Observations with two NASA Mars orbiters, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey, identify unique features that may point to a seasonal presence of a briny water source on the red planet.
Signs of salty water stain slopes on Mars
Discovery.com (2/10): Liquid water on Mars, if present, is almost certainly a brine to avoid freezing in the cold temperatures.
Science instruments perfect as NASA’s MAVEN orbiter speeds to red planet
Universe Today (2/11): Launched Nov. 18, NASA’s MAVEN Mars orbiter spacecraft is on course to maneuver into orbit around the red planet in late September. All of the probe’s instruments have checked out. MAVEN is equipped to address key questions about changes to the Martian atmosphere and magnetic field.
Earth bids China’s Yutu moon rover farewell forever!
Universe Today (2/12): China daily discloses loss of Yutu, or the Jade Rabbit lunar rover. The machine experienced a mechanical failure as lunar night fell in late January. The rover did not respond as sunlight returned to the landing site earlier this week.
China Daily (2/12): Chinese respond to loss of the Yutu lunar rover.
Wall Street Journal (2/11): What if you were the last person on the red planet? Andy Weir’s meticulously researched debut novel, “The Martian” goes one on one with the premise.
Low Earth Orbit
Planet Labs cubesats deployed from ISS with many more to follow
Space News (2/11): Four of a 28 constellation of Planet Labs Earth imaging satellites depart the International Space Station early Tuesday. Four more were to follow overnight as flight control teams at NASA and in Japan schedule the remainder in the constellation. In all, 33 CubeSats were launched to the space station aboard Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus space station re-supply mission in January.
First ‘cubesats’ in record-breaking fleet launched from ISS
Space.com (2/11): Four small Earth imaging satellites are launched from the International Space Station early Tuesday for Planet Labs. More were to follow overnight and into February. In all, the space station crew is to place 28 Planet Lab “CubeSats” into orbit as part of a commercial venture.
NASA, International Space Station partners announce future crew members
NASA (2/11): NASA and its space station partners name future crew. Veteran NASA astronaut Jeff Williams is picked for his third long duration journey to the six person orbiting science laboratory. Williams will serve as a station flight engineer and commander in 2016.
New U.S. military space plane aims for 2017 liftoff
Space.com (2/11): The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency looks to May for a contract award to support the Experimental Space Plane, or XS-1. DARPA is aiming for a re-usable spacecraft that could deliver up to 5,000 pounds of cargo to orbit for less than $5 million a mission.
Italian Space Agency Chief offers to resign amid corruption probe
Space News (2/11): Italian Space Agency (ASI) President Enrico Saggese offers to step aside as authorities carry out a corruption investigation that targets ASI and other Italian agencies, the trade publication reports.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Briefs: Commercial crew study, SOARS Act update
Spacepolitics.com (2/12): NASA initiates a cost/benefit study of its Commercial Crew Program as required by the 2014 Omnibus appropriations bill approved by Congress and the White House earlier this year. The study is required prior to the release of $171 million of the $696 million approved for the program in 2014.
Shiloh’s future draws spirited crowd
Florida Today (2/11): Environmentalists and backers of a Florida commercial spaceport face off in the latest public hearing on the issue this week. The spaceport is proposed for the northern fringes of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
Researching “super dust” and other materials that could reduce the cost of air and space travel
Washington Post (2/11): At NASA’s Langley Research Center, experts focus on advances in nanotechnology that hold promise for lowering the weight of spacecraft and improving the flight controls of aircraft.
New study: Big growth in small satellites
Coalition for Space Exploration (2/11): New study by Spaceworks of Atlanta finds growing interest and market for new generation of small satellites.
Arianespace to ESA: We need help
Aviation Week & Space Technology (2/11): Europe’s Arianespace seeks government subsidies to compete with Space X and overcome unfavorable exchange rates for the launch of Earth orbiting satellites.
European auditors question plan to phase out Europeanized Soyuz rocket
Space News (2/11): French auditors question plans to supplant a Russian Soyuz launch vehicle derivative with an Ariane vehicle for missions from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana as financially threatening.
Suborbital
Virgin Galactic space flights set for this year
CNN Money (2/11): Virgin Galactic looks to the second half of 2014 to begin passenger suborbital flights from Spaceport America in New Mexico. The company awaits an FAA licensing decision.
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