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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA, Lockheed Martin build up Orion for first unpiloted test flight in December. U.S. Senate takes turn at NASA Authorization measure, the first for the space agency since 2010. Sun erupts violently Tuesday. Mars, a place without wind-chill. Revived NASA Kepler space telescope pursues popular exo-planet search. New Horizons Pluto probe turning on. Anticipation over Pluto planetary debate builds. NASA’s Swift space observatory earns a top billing. Smoke interrupts life on the International Space Station briefly on Tuesday afternoon. NASA readies “flying saucer” for Pacific flight test Wednesday. SpaceX brings crewed Dragon to Washington for preview. NASA led astronauts to tackle a pair of undersea expeditions. Space smells.
Human Deep Space Exploration
NASA’s Orion spacecraft stacks up for first flight
NASA (6/11): At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center engineers mate the Orion capsule and its service module in preparation for the first unpiloted test flight of the future human exploration vehicle late this year. Orion is in development to start U.S. explorers on future missions of deep space exploration. The unpiloted Exploration Flight Test-1 is planned for December.
Senate continues work on its version of new NASA authorization bill
Spacepolicyonline.com (6/10): U.S. Senate forges ahead with work on a NASA authorization bill for 2015, though without a timeline for passage. The House version of the policy making authorization measure, NASA’s first since 2010, passed the House on Monday.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Sun unleashes 2 major solar flares back-to-back (video)
Space.com (6/10): After quiet period, sun erupts with a pair of powerful solar flares on Tuesday. The eruptions may cause radio interference.
Science News (6/10): Scientists assemble an environmental description of a day on Mars. And there is no wind chill. Nonetheless, future Martian settlers are likely to find the planet cold.
Kepler spacecraft revived and working partially
Sky and Telescope (6/10): NASA’s strategy to revive the prolific exo-planet hunting space observatory kicks off in aftermath of 2013 pointing system failure. Astronomers expect another two years of discovery.
Americaspace.com (6/10): Later this month, the U.S. New Horizon’s spacecraft will begin a pre-encounter check out to prepare the distant spacecraft for its flyby of Pluto in July 2015. Meanwhile, New Horizon scientists have enlisted the help of the Hubble Space Telescope to identify Kuiper Belt Objects beyond Pluto for additional close up observations.
Pluto planet hood debate? Stern challenges Tyson
Space.com (6/10): Alan Stern, New Horizons mission principal investigator, challenges Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey TV host Neil de Grasse Tyson to a debate over Pluto’s status as a planet. Pluto was demoted to minor planet status several years ago.
Cosmic explosion-hunting space telescope earns top rank at NASA
Space.com (6/10): The honor falls to the Swift X-ray observatory, a sentry for the detection of powerful gamma-ray bursts.
Low Earth Orbit
Smoke detected aboard Space Station Tuesday; crew in no danger
NASA (6/10): International Space Station, flight control teams, deal quickly with smoke in Russian segment service module.
NASA to conduct Mars ‘flying saucer’ test on Earth
Associated Press via Houston Chronicle (6/11): NASA looks to Wednesday for the test flight of the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator from the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. The high altitude flight of the flying saucer shaped technology demonstrator has been postponed several times this week by high winds in the region.
First crewed Dragon flight to orbit will carry NASA astronauts
Spacepolicyonline.com (6/10): SpaceX visits Washington with the crewed version of its seven passenger Dragon spacecraft. Dragon, which has visited the space station to deliver cargo, is among three spacecraft in development as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
NASA announces two upcoming undersea missions
NASA (6/10): Multinational crews of astronauts are prepared to descend to an undersea lab on the Atlantic sea bed off the Florida coast in July and September to exercise new exploration technologies.
Astronauts’ well-kept secret: ‘space has a smell’
Washington Post (6/10): It’s metallic.
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