In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Coalition for Deep Space Exploration recommends space exploration strategy to new administration, Congress.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Coalition for Deep Space Exploration recommends space priorities for next president
Spaceflight Insider (6/27): The space industry led CDSE urges a bi-partisan backed strategy by the new administration and Congress in keeping with the 2010 NASA Authorization Act for the preservation of U.S. space leadership. Those principles would improve commercial access to space, while backing key NASA initiative focused on the human exploration of Mars, including the International Space Station, Space Launch System, Orion crew exploration vehicle, James Webb Space Telescope, Mars Insight and the 2020 Mars Lander.
SFI LIVE: Orbital ATK & NASA conduct QM-2 static test fire
Spaceflight Insider (6/27): NASA and Orbital ATK are supporting live coverage of the final qualification motor ground test firing of the Space Launch System exploration rocket’s five-segment solid rocket motor. The test is intended to clear use of Orbital ATK’s twin SRM design as part of the first uncrewed test launch of the SLS, designated Exploration Mission-1, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in late 2018. The test motor has been chilled to 40 degrees for the qualification firing. The two-minute firing at the test site in Promontory, Utah is planned for 10:05 a.m., EDT. Spaceflight Insider’s live coverage begins at 9 a.m., EDT – watch it here.
— NASA live coverage of the ground test from Promontory begins at 9:30 a.m., EDT, on NASA TV.
Space Science
Jovian fireworks: Juno arrives at Jupiter
The Space Review (6/27): NASA’s Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft is but the latest in a line of U.S. planetary missions to reach their destinations on July 4. The $1.1 billion mission, however, has so far failed to garner the levels of public attention of its precessors, according to essayist Jeff Foust, TSR ‘s editor. The Jupiter mission is intended to investigate some of the giant planet’s mysteries and possibly help to explain why the solar system is structured as it is.
See the best images of Jupiter yet, just in time for NASA’s Juno probe
Washington Post (6/27): Images from some of the world’s best ground-based telescopes are previewing Jupiter’s mystique as NASA’s Juno spacecraft prepares to maneuver into orbit around the giant planet on July 4.
Oxygen finding strengthens case that Mars was once habitable
Spaceflightnow.com (6/27): NASA’s Curiosity rover has detected concentrations of manganese oxide in Martian rocks, suggesting the red planet’s now thin atmosphere was more like the Earth’s in the past. Vein-like structures in the rocks formed in water, and the manganese oxide likely formed in a more oxygen-rich atmosphere. Curiosity has been investigating Gale Crater since its August 2012 landing on Mars.
Ancient Mars used to look a lot like Earth
Washington Post (6/27): A video presentation illustrates emerging theories on how Mars transitioned from a warmer planet with an oxygen-rich atmosphere with liquid water to today’s desert-like environment over four billion years.
Opal-studded meteorite hints at origins of Earth’s water
Space.com (6/27): An Antarctic meteorite find, announced Monday in England, may help to explain the Earth’s source of water. The space rock is studded with pieces of opal, a rock crystal associated with water.
New and improved space weather observatory goes live next month
Spaceflightnow.com (6/27): NOAA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory, launched in February 2015, and now positioned a million miles from Earth, will begin its duties as a solar sentry at the end of July. DSCOVR’s journey to the launch pad was long and political.
Low Earth Orbit
DARPA’s next space project – command and control software
Space News (6/27): Hallmark, a top priority at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, could lead to contract awards for software systems to improve how the U.S. Department of Defense assesses potential threats from space.
Suborbital
Spaceport Business Park gets closer to construction
Midland Reporter-Telegram, of West Texas (6/27): Plans to invest local and state funds were approved Monday to start development of a Spaceport Business Park at the Midland International Air and Spaceport. Work on water and sewer extensions and roadways would occur first.