In Today’s Deep Space Extra… U.S. commercial space pioneer calls for larger NASA budget. Astronauts from four countries launch to and descend from two Earth-orbiting space stations.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Bigelow calls on Trump to sharply increase NASA spending
Space News (11/17): Robert Bigelow, founder of Bigelow Aerospace, called on President-elect Donald Trump to double NASA’s budget in the coming years and shift its human deep space focus from Mars to the moon, which he characterized as more financially achievable and more attractive to potential commercial collaborators. Bigelow, who also predicted U.S. economic growth, spoke during the final day of SpaceCom, a three day commercial space conference in Houston.
Space Science
Time Magazine picks 100 most influential photos of all time
Associated Press via New York Times (11/17): Time’s collection of iconic images include an image of the Earth as seen from the far side of the moon. Earthrise was captured by NASA astronaut Bill Anders, of Apollo 8, on December 24, 1968.
Drilling into the Chicxulub crater, ground zero of the dinosaur extinction
New York Times (11/17): A 100 mile-wide crater in Mexico’s Yucatan, the scar left by a 66 million year old impact with an asteroid that triggered the extinction of the dinosaurs and much of the other life on Earth, is offering new lessons about similar collisions across the inner solar system. The jolt brought up materials from deep within the Earth to form a distinctive ring of hills within the crater rim.
Mysterious radio signals pack power and brilliance
Science News (11/17): Fast radio bursts (FRB), signals from deep space, have intrigued astronomers since the first detections nearly a decade ago. But the mystery surrounding them only deepens with a study published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, which describes a FRB with companion gamma rays, signaling a far more powerful source than thought previously.
‘Perfect’ star is roundest object ever found
Seeker (11/17): Kepler 11145123, a star observed by NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler space telescope, is located about 5,000 light-years from Earth. It may be the most perfectly spherical object discovered in nature, according to an astronomy team led by Laurent Gizon of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research.
Low Earth Orbit
Liftoff! Truly international crew launches to Space Station
Space.com (11/17): Russia’s Soyuz MS-03 lifted off for the International Space Station Friday with NASA’s Peggy Whitson and Russia’s Oleg Novitskiy, both spaceflight veterans, and newcomer Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency. The threesome has trained two and a half years for a busy six month mission. Their liftoff from the frigid Baikonur Cosmodrome at 3:20 p.m. EST started them toward a docking with the space station on Saturday afternoon.
Two Chinese astronauts back on Earth
Spaceflightnow.com (11/18): After more than a month in orbit, Chinese astronauts departed the Tiangong-2 space lab and descended to Earth early Friday. Jing Haipeng, the mission commander, and freshman space flier Chen Dong launched aboard the Shenzhou-11 spacecraft on October 16. Their research and other activities are to pave the way for a much larger Chinese space station. China has invited international participation as well.
Great forecast for Atlas V launch Saturday
Florida Today (11/18): Forecasters offer a favorable forecast for Saturday’s scheduled launch of NOAA’s GOES-R weather satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., at 5:42 p.m. EST. If there is a delay in the launch of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V, there is a backup launch opportunity on Sunday. GOES-R is the first of four upgraded weather sentries that will assist the National Weather Service in the assessment of tropical storms and other forms of severe weather with new speed and precision.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Commercial space industry seeks regulatory reforms in the Trump administration
Space News (11/17): Supporters of U.S. commercial space activity are hopeful of reforms and advances in the regulation of the field from President-elect Donald Trump. Speaking at this week’s three-day SpaceCom conference in Houston, backers favor a larger role for the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation in managing the “space situational awareness” of non U.S. military and national security satellites in Earth orbit. The FAA could also serve as a focal point for U.S. commercial compliance with the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, a move that would encourage lunar and asteroid mining, according to conference participants.
Allies the key to future U.S. space policy, Loverro says
Space News (11/17): Future U.S. advances on the space arena will require close cooperation with international as well as commercial partners, Doug Loverro, the U.S. Department of Defense’s deputy assistant secretary for space policy, told a Maryland Space Business Roundtable session this week in Greenbelt. A post-Cold War assumption that space would become a conflict free zone has failed to materialize. “We started thinking about hey, what if U.S. communication satellites were jammed or were destroyed, how could we easily go ahead and transfer those communications to German communication satellites or French communications satellites?” said Loverro.
Ariane 5 booster soars into orbit with four Galileo navigation satellites
Spaceflightinsider.com (11/17): An Arianespace Ariane 5 launch vehicle placed four European Galileo global positioning satellites into orbit on Thursday. The lift-off from French Guiana started the four satellites on a ride to 14,430 mile-high operational orbit. Fourteen previous members of the Galileo constellation had been launched aboard Russian Soyuz boosters.