In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Components of NASA’s late 2018 Exploration Mission-1 test flight of the Space Launch System and Orion capsule are taking shape in the U.S. and Europe. Ohio paid tribute over the weekend to native son John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Orion service module engine shipped to Europe
Spaceflight Insider (12/17): The NASA-furnished rocket engine that will fit onto the Orion capsule slated for a crucial late 2018 unpiloted test launch of the Space Launch System exploration rocket has been shipped to Europe. There it will be mated to Orion’s European furnished service module. The European service module provides power and propulsion for Orion. The rocket engine shipped to Europe has flown aboard multiple NASA space shuttle missions as part of the Orbital Maneuvering System. During Exploration Mission-1, planned for November 2018, the engine will provide propulsion for lunar orbit insertion and trans Earth injection. Orion is to loop around the moon and return to Earth for splashdown and recovery.
Boeing and NASA prepare for the assembly of the first SLS rocket
NASAspaceflight.com (12/16): Working with NASA at the Michoud Assembly Facility, prime contractor Boeing is bringing together the five major elements of the Space Launch System core, or first stage. The large rocket, cornerstone of plans to launch humans on missions of deep space exploration, is being prepared for its first unpiloted test flight in late 2018. NASA and Boeing are dealing with a challenge of welding pieces of the liquid hydrogen and oxygen fuel tanks together.
Why Mars? To discover how life originates
Huffington Post (12/14): Mars, with its rocky terrain and evidence for past bodies of surface water, shares more similarities with the Earth than the moon or neighboring Venus. The red planet offers the best opportunity for skilled human explorers to look for evidence of past or even present life, writes Ramses Ramirez, Cornell University planetary scientist and astrobiologist.
Senator Nelson discusses space travel future
WTXL-TV, of Tallahassee (12/16): U.S. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida envisions the U.S. regaining a human space launch capability within 18 months. Astronauts will reach the Martian environs in the 2030s, Nelson predicts in a wide ranging interview.
Space Science
If an asteroid hits the ocean, does it make a tsunami? (Probably not)
Seeker (12/17): An ocean impact far from shore might be the best option for a much unwanted asteroid collision, according to Galen Gisler, a scientist from the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Gisler modeled the ocean impact case for a presentation before the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco.
What’s an Earth-like planet anyway?
Space.com (12/16): Thanks to NASA’s Kepler space telescope mission, astronomers may look out to a universe with many planets like Earth, potentially more of them in the Milky Way galaxy alone than there are people on the Earth. An Earth-like planet is rocky, half to one and a half the size of the Earth and circling its star at a distance that permits liquid water on the surface, a crucial factor for possible biological activity.
Low Earth Orbit
Ohio bids farewell to John Glenn, its ‘joyous adventurer’
Columbus Dispatch, of Ohio (12/18): Vice President Joe Biden and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden joined those paying tribute to Mercury astronaut John Glenn at Ohio State University on Saturday. The two leaders remember the first American to orbit the Earth as a patriot, model citizen, husband and father as well as a U.S. Marine, public servant and accomplished NASA astronaut and pilot. Glenn lifted the U.S. into orbit on February 20, 1962. He died December 8 in his native Ohio.
Mark and Scott Kelly: John Glenn, our hero
Washington Post (12/17): Retired NASA astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly recall a childhood hero, Mercury astronaut John Glenn, who became the first American to orbit the Earth. The risky near five hour mission helped set the station for the nation’s Apollo moon missions. “To this day, Glenn’s journey remains as awe-inspiring as it was audacious. It was an act of patriotism and heroism in a life full of them,” write the Kelly brothers.
Space sensors will help missile defense meet the next generation of threats, experts say
Space News (12/15): Experts urge the U.S. Missile Defense Agency to gather more sensors designed to detect and track ballistic missiles launched by potential adversaries into space rather than continue to deploy them at sea and on land. The change in perspective could be especially effective as missiles gain velocity.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Atlas V rocket launches EchoStar 19 broadband internet satellite into orbit
Space.com (12/18): A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 placed the Echo Star XIX communications satellite in orbit following liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on Sunday afternoon. The new satellite is to provide high speed Internet service to customers of HughesNet across North America.