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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA and Lockheed Martin’s unpiloted Exploration Flight Test-1 Orion spacecraft is poised for a Dec. 4 lift off and first taste of space. USS Anchorage and U.S. Navy ready to recover EFT-1 Orion capsule from the Pacific. Stars of Sesame Street join Orion countdown. Astronauts, robots to merge their exploration talents. Nutritionists study healthy breakfast bar for deep space missions. Japan readies Hayabusa-2 for asteroid mission launch. South Africa plots lunar mission. NASA, Made in Space 3-D printer makes its debut this week aboard the International Space Station. Grateful NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station await Thanksgiving. NASA rebids disputed space medicine contract.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Photos: Delta 4-Heavy ready for Orion flight test
Spaceflightnow.com (11/25): NASA, Lockheed Martin ready the Exploration Flight Test-1 Orion spacecraft for its first trip to space. The unpiloted, two-orbit mission is scheduled to lift off Dec. 4 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Orion is under development to start future human explorers on missions to asteroids and Mars.
USS Anchorage Poised to Collect NASA’s Orion Spacecraft after Historic Mission
Spaceflightinsider.com (11/25): The USS Anchorage and its U.S. Navy crew will be positioned in the Pacific Ocean west of California’s Baja Peninsula to recover the unpiloted Orion capsule after Exploration Flight Test-1.
By the letters EFT: Sesame Street muppets count down to NASA Orion launch
Collectspace.com (11/25): The stars of Sesame Street, Elmo and the Cookie Monster, join the countdown for the NASA/Lockheed Martin Exploration Flight Test-1 mission. The unpiloted Dec. 4 test flight is to mark the Orion crew exploration capsule’s first trip to space.
Orion controllers conduct dress rehearsal
WAFF-TV (11/25): Flight control teams rehearsed their duties this week for the unpiloted Dec. 4 Exploration Flight Test-1 two-orbit mission.
The Future of Astronaut Activity
Space News (11/24): The future holds new promise for the world’s astronauts as they team up with new generations of technologies developed for space travel and designed to expand the economic sphere, writes Madhu Thangavelu, a member of the engineering faculty at the University of Southern California, in an op-ed.
NASA is Working on a 700-Calorie Breakfast Bar
SEN (11/25): NASA’s food lab experts hope to keep astronauts assigned to future deep space missions adequately fed. One promising option is a breakfast bar filled with the calories and nutrition needed to start the day. Explorers assigned to destinations like the asteroids and Mars, where it will be difficult to send a steady stream of new supplies, will need foods that are small in volume and lightweight with a long shelf life.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Hayabusa 2 preps for 5.2-billion-km journey
Nikkei (11/30): The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency plans for the launch of Hayabusa 2, the agency’s second robotic mission to an asteroid. The sample return mission is set for a Nov. 30 lift off, Nov. 29 in the U.S. Hyabusa’s return is planned for late 2020.
Africa sets its sights on the Moon
SEN (11/26): South Africa initiates a crowd-funding initiative for an unmanned lunar mission, Africa2Moon, that will serve as an inspiration for the nation’s youth. No date for the mission has been set, nor whether it will aim for lunar orbit or the moon’s surface.
Low Earth Orbit
The First 3-D Printer in Space Makes Its First Object: A Spare Part
NBC News (11/25): Aboard the International Space Station, NASA’s Butch Wilmore shepherds the production of the first spare part in space. Additive manufacturing, when mature, could alter the way space missions are prepared for flight and spacecraft far from Earth deal with component breakdowns.
Thanksgiving In Space – What’s On The ISS Menu? | Video
Space.com (11/25): The menu, at least, for NASA’s space station astronauts follows traditional Thanksgiving themes. NASA’s Butch Wilmore, the station’s current commander, explains why he has much to be grateful for, though he is far from family for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Commercial to Orbit
NASA Puts $1 Billion Space Medicine Contract Out for Bids, Again
Space News (11/25): NASA puts a lucrative space medicine contract up for bidding. The space agency believes the competition could end legal sparring over work between Wyle Laboratories and SAIC.
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