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Tuesday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space activities from around the globe. The U.S. and India announce closer civil space ties during President Obama’s visit as part of his Asian tour. NASA says it will negotiate with 13 companies to develop technologies for a new heavy lift rocket capable of supporting future deep space missions. At the Kennedy Space Center, launch teams and engineers shape a strategy to deal with the launch pad hydrogen leak that forced NASA to scrub shuttle Discovery’s lift off on Friday. SpaceX moves the company’s first test flight of the Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon capsule to Dec. 7 in response to Discovery’s delay. In California, Scaled Composites breaks ground on a commercial spacecraft production factory.
1. From Space News: During President Obama’s official state visit to India, the U.S. removes India from the “Entity List,” which has restricted the export of technologies that could be used for non peaceful purposes. The move is part of an effort to strengthen civil space ties between the two countries. India’s liquid and solid rocket propulsion centers are among the beneficiaries. Altogether, Obama’s visit was intended to strengthen strategic, economic and security ties between the two nations.
http://www.spacenews.com/policy/101108-us-india-civil-space-ties.html
2. From the Orlando Sentinel: NASA selects 13 companies for prospective study contracts leading to technologies for a new heavy lift rocket for exploration missions to Mars, asteroids, the moon and other destinations. The total value of the work is estimated at $7.5 million. The companies NASA will negotiate with include some familiar names, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Space X, and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/2010/11/nasa-heavy-lift-rocket-let-the-studies-begin.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+news%2Fspace%2Fspace_blog+%28Space+Blog+The+Write+Stuff%29
3. From Spaceflightnow.com: Work to recycle the shuttle Discovery is in full swing at the Kennedy Space Center. The launching was scrubbed Nov. 5 by a sizable hydrogen leak at the launch pad. The fixture from which the hydrogen was escaping should be opened by late Tuesday. Meanwhile, engineers are assessing repairs to a crack on the external tank foam that is much longer than initially measured. Discovery’s next launch attempt is expected no earlier than Nov. 30.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts133/101108plan/
4. From Space News: SpaceX postpones the launch date for its next Falcon 9 test flight from Nov. 20 to Dec. 7. The move follows the Nov. 5 launch scrub of the shuttle Discovery. The test flight will be the first for Dragon, the capsule that SpaceX has developed to carry supplies and astronauts to the International Space Station under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program.
http://www.spacenews.com/venture_space/101108-spacex-cots-demo-delayed.html
5. From the Los Angeles Times: Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic team to begin construction of the first commercial spacecraft production factory in Mojave, Calif.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/11/space-tourism.html
6. Two from The Space Review:
A. In “Climate Change and Suborbital Spaceflight,” Space Review editor Jeff Foust examines the impact of a story that coincided with the Oct. 22 dedication of Spaceport America’s runway near Las Cruces, N.M. Spaceport America will serve as the base for commercial SpaceShipTwo operations. The surprise story from the American Geophysical Union warned that carbon emissions from 1,000 annual flights of SpaceShipTwo could jeopardize the climate with carbon emissions.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1723/1
B. In “Solar Power’s Indian Connection,” Space Review editor Jeff Foust finds new threads of interest in Space Based Solar Power, perhaps as a joint project between the U.S. and India and perhaps among other nations. New concepts based on the latest technologies will be discussed in May in Huntsville, Ala., at a bi-lateral forum that will coincide with the annual National Space Society conference. In the 1970s, an orbiting solar power project capable of generating 10,000 megawatts would have required $80 billion and 20 years to develop. Now, there is reason to believe something much less expensive is possible, Foust writes.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1721/1
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