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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Space exploration is a transformative experience for humans, writes former International Space Station resident Leroy Chiao. Contractor Lockheed Martin plans to propose heat shield improvements for NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle. A U.S. Senate panel sets a hearing on future space exploration with Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin as key witness. There is water locked in crater slopes facing the moon’s South Pole, according to findings from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. A poll suggests U.S. public skeptical of commercial space prospects and split on government sponsored human exploration. Mars One human settlement mission prompts support, doubt. U.S. spacecraft nearing first ever dwarf planet encounters with Ceres and Pluto. Astronomers find windy black hole. NASA astronauts ready for spacewalks that will establish docking ports aboard the International Space Station for U.S. commercial crew vehicles. Orbital ATK explains upgrade strategy for Antares rocket and re-supply missions to the International Space Station. NanoRacks, space station astronauts make repairs to CubeSat deployer. New Mexico lawmakers consider possible sale of Spaceport America.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Scientific American (2/19): Time in space is transformative, writes Leroy Chiao, a retired NASA astronaut and former International Space Station resident. “My conviction is not simply about space exploration as a foreign policy tool. It is also about doing valuable science,” writes Chiao in an op-ed. “Who knows what we might find by returning to the moon, pushing on to Mars and even beyond?”
Lockheed Martin pressing to simplify Orion heat shield
Space News (2/19): Lockheed Martin, contractor for NASA’s Orion crew exploration capsule, plans improvements to the spacecraft’s critical heat shield following the successful Dec. 5 Exploration Flight Test-1. A lower cost version of the heat shield could be preferable. Company personnel will discuss the prospects with NASA in a formal session March 4.
Buzz Aldrin to headline first Senate Commerce Committee space hearing of 2015
Spacepolicyonline.com (2/19): Aldrin will join younger former U.S. astronauts, an aerospace company executive and policy experts in a hearing before the Space, Science and Competitiveness Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee next week. The topic is U.S. space exploration goals and commercial spaceflight prospects.
Moon water ingredient more plentiful on slopes facing lunar south pole
Space.com (2/19): Studies based on observations with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter suggest future explorers will have the best chance of finding water in the slopes of craters facing the moon’s south pole.
Poll reveals public skepticism of government and private human spaceflight
Space News (2/19): Recent Monmouth University poll suggests Americans are skeptical that private companies will be able to launch ordinary humans into space. They are also split on in their support of government led human space exploration.
Mars trip captures imaginations: Your say
USA Today (2/19): Earlier this week, the Dutch nonprofit announced it has cut to 100 the number of global applicants qualified to pursue the organization’s goal of starting a human colony on Mars in the mid-2020s. Possible or pure fantasy?
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Our dwarf planet dreams are coming into focus: Photos
Discovery.com (2/19): New images from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft reveal a cratered surface on the major asteroid Ceres, the first of two distant dwarf planets due surveillance by NASA spacecraft in 2015. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is also closing in on a mid-July encounter with Pluto.
Monster black hole’s mighty belch could transform entire galaxy
Space.com (2/19): Astronomers find powerful cosmic winds blowing from a super massive black hole at the center of the galaxy PDS 456. The powerful blast promises to shape star formation in the region and possibly starve the black hole itself, according to a study using NASA’s NuSTAR space telescope and the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory.
Low Earth Orbit
Spacewalks kick off major station modifications
CBS (2/19): NASA decides on one day delays for the first two of three closely scheduled spacewalks. The spacewalks will begin the outfitting of the International Space Station with docking ports for future U.S. commercial crew vehicles. The spacewalks by Butch Wilmore and Terry Virts are scheduled to begin Saturday. The 24 hour delay will give ground teams as well as the astronaut’s time to refresh after a look at internal space suit components crucial to the circulation of air and cooling water.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Upgraded Antares rocket to fly to ISS in March 2016
Spacepolicyonline.com (2/19): Orbital ATK outlined additional plans Feb. 19 for its recovery from the Oct. 28 loss of its Antares rocket with supplies bound for the International Space Station. The Antares will launch again in March 2016 with new Russian rocket engines, executives told an investors teleconference.
Astronauts repair Space Station satellite deployer
Space News (2/19): Working with astronauts aboard the International Space Station and the station’s partnership, the commercial space company NanoRacks guides repairs to a CubeSat deployer that faltered aboard the orbiting outpost in August. “It’s a major step forward, using the space station for commercial on orbit repair,” said NanoRacks’ Jeff Manber.
Suborbital
New Mexico Senate panel passes on spaceport sale bill
Associated Press (2/19): State lawmakers advance legislation that would prompt the sale of Spaceport America in response to setbacks that have prevented it from opening with Virgin Galactic as the anchor tenant.
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