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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. The Martian moon Deimos: a destination for human explorers within reach? NASA’s Space Launch System gaining unmanned as well as human deep space destinations. New feature film Interstellar offers a vision of what’s to come, according to NASA. Google Lunar X-Prize contestant Moon Express joins with NASA to prepare robotic lander for the moon. U.S. commercial space enterprise urged to investigate Antares and SpaceShipTwo tragedies, then recover. The NTSB returns to Washington to complete what could be a 12 month investigation into the fatal SpaceShipTwo loss. Orbital Sciences names a seven member panel to investigate the Oct. 28 post launch loss of the Antares rocket and its cargo of supplies bound for the International Space Station. Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo and Orbital Sciences’ Antares losses echo the tragedies of the early days of heavier than air flight, according to an aviation historian. International Space Station astronaut Reid Wiseman predicts U.S. commercial spaceflight will overcome last week’s tragedies. Experts differ over the outcome of the Antares and SpaceShipTwo losses, with one expert predicting the impacts may be quite unrelated. How safe is safe, when it comes to personal spaceflight?

Human Deep Space Exploration

Destination Deimos (part 1)

The Space Review (11/4): The small Martian moon Deimos is a worthy destination for human deep space exploration, write James S. Logan and Daniel R. Adamo, former NASA flight surgeon and flight dynamics officer. Deimos is a worthy challenge to deep space exploration technologies, a worthy science target and an opportune staging area from which to establish a telerobotic presence on Mars, write the co-founders of the Space Enterprise Institute.

SLS manifest targets Europa and Mars sample return missions

NASAspaceflight.com (11/3): NASA planning suggests the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket will propel ambitious unmanned as well as human deep space exploration missions, according to the report. An emerging manifest reflects the launch of a mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa as well as a Mars sample return mission, all by the middle of the next decade. An uncrewed SLS test flight is planned by late 2018.

How close is NASA to going Interstellar like McConaughey?

Houston Chronicle (11/3): Not close. Nonetheless, NASA says its pursuit of near term human deep space exploration could lead to the stuff that is considered science fiction now — like the feature film Interstellar that opens in theaters this weekend.

Unmanned Deep Space Exploration

Bold talk from team aiming for Google’s Lunar XPRIZE

Florida Today (11/4): NASA teams with Google X-prize entrant Moon Express to test the prototype for a lunar lander that could demonstrate a landing in two years and make an unpiloted round trip to the moon in four years.

Commercial to Low Earth Orbit

The importance for commercial spaceflight to recover and respond

SpaceReview.com (11/4):  Every mode of human travel, from walking to flight, encounters difficulties, notes spacereview.com editor Jeff Foust. “How we respond to, and recover from, an accident is critical. Commercial space transportation is no exception to this,” he writes.  The losses of Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket as it lifted off with supplies for the International Space Station and Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo are linked only by close proximity in time, he notes.

NTSB provides timeline of SpaceShipTwo mishap

Spaceflightnow.com (11/4): The National Transportation Safety Board establishes a timeline for the loss of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo last Friday, wrapping up the on-site phase of its investigation into the fatal accident over California’s Mojave Desert. The NTSB moves back to Washington for the remaining work, which may take a year to complete. Virgin Galactic’s plans to commence passenger flights are on hold.

Virgin Galactic crash investigators to study SpaceShipTwo’s pilot interface

Space.com (11/4): The NTSB forms a pilot interface working group as it moves ahead with the next phase of its investigation into the fatal breakup of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo last Friday. The panel will focus on why the rocket ship’s feathering system was deployed too early in flight.

NTSB not sure which pilot moved feather system from lock to unlock

Spacepolicyonline.com (11/4): NTSB acting chairman Christopher Hart said late Monday it’s not clear which of the SpaceShipTwo pilots, Michael Alsbury or Peter Siebold, prematurely moved the tail boom feathering system from the lock to unlock position. In earlier statements, the NTSB said it was Alsbury, who died in the accident. Siebold remains hospitalized after managing to parachute away.

Orbital names AIB members, focuses on event timeline

Spacepolicyonline.com (11/3): Orbital Sciences Corp. establishes a seven member board that will investigate the Oct. 28 failure of the company’s Antares rocket seconds after lifting off from the Virginia coast with a cargo of supplies for the International Space Station. The panel is comprised of experienced company, NASA and former NASA personnel.

A view to die for

New York Times (11/03): Last week’s  commercial spaceflight tragedies echo the risks faced by pioneers of heavier than air flight in the early 20th Century, writes Sam Howe Verhovek, Jet Age historian and former Times correspondent.

Station astronaut calls private spaceflight ‘next breakthrough.’

Spaceflightnow.com (11/3): Due back on Earth next weekend after 165 days in orbit, International Space Station astronaut Reid Wiseman voices optimism that U.S. commercial space pioneers Orbital Sciences Corp. and Virgin Galactic will emerge from a pair of in-flight tragedies last week. Wiseman spoke Monday with CBS News.

Is private spaceflight safe? What Virgin Galactic’s fatal crash means

Space.com (11/3): The responses from experts range from yes from those invested to it’s too early to tell from those knowledgeable but less engaged. One expert believes the losses of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo and Orbital Sciences’ Antares will have different impacts on the U.S. commercial space sector.

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