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Wednesday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space-related activities from around the world. Shuttle Endeavour’s crew successfully docked with the International Space Station early Wednesday. Endeavour commander Mark Kelly’s wife is scheduled for surgery early Wednesday. Shuttle Atlantis, designated for NASA’s final shuttle flight, took a step closer to the launch pad. China balks at the exclusion of its news media from Endeavour’s launching. A look at NASA’s post shuttle future under the current administration. NASA looks to a return of the Delta 2. New evidence supporting the habitability of exo-planet Gliese. Newly scheduled U. S. Senate and House hearings will examine contributions of space to national imperatives and the readiness of commercial companies to launch cargo to the space station. Scientists line up to become commercial space passengers.
1. From Spaceflightnow.com: Endeavour successfully docks with the International Space Station on Wednesday at 6:14 a.m., EDT. On Tuesday, the shuttle crew inspects the heat shielding on the spacecraft for launch day damage as they speed toward a rendezvous with the orbiting science lab. An initial look at the shielding suggests Endeavour reached orbit in good shape. For the latest, http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts134/status.html
A. From Spaceflightnow.com: A preview of the docking and the day ahead for the shuttle and space station crews. http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts134/110518fd3/index.html
B. From the Houston Chronicle: Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the wife of Endeavour commander Mark Kelly, is scheduled for surgery early Wednesday. The cranioplasty procedure is the next major step in her recovery from a January gunshot wound, according to the legislator’s staff.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7569160.html
2. From Florida Today: Orbiter Atlantis is wheeled from Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 1 to the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday. If current scheduling holds Atlantis will begin her toll out to Launch Pad 39A on May 31, the eve of shuttle Endeavour’s scheduled landing. Atlantis is expected to launch in early to mid July on the final NASA shuttle mission, a 12-day supply delivery flight to the International Space Station. Tuesday’s transfer became a photo op for hundreds of NASA’s Florida shuttle workers.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110518/NEWS02/105180322/Crew-workers-salute-Atlantis-last-VAB-visit?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Space%20News
A. From the Orlando Sentinel: A date for the launching of Atlantis could be announced soon — late this week, or early next.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/2011/05/date-for-space-shuttle-finale-%e2%80%93-launch-of-atlantis-%e2%80%93-to-be-set-soon.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+news%2Fspace%2Fspace_blog+%28Space+Blog+The+Write+Stuff%29
B. From Xinhua.net of China: Chinese journalists, desiring to attend the launch of shuttle Endeavour, are turned away because of the Wolf clause, a ban of collaboration between the U. S. and China initiated by U. S. Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia, a House Appropriations Committee member. Endeavour’s primary payload, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, includes Chinese contributions. Unless extended the ban will end on Sept. 30. In this op-ed, the writer claims the ban runs recalls Cold War attitudes.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/2011-05/18/c_13879662.htm
3. From the Huntsville Times: Wormbot, the creation of students at the University of Alabama at Huntsville or subsurface lunar exploration, wins a NASA-sponsored competition.
http://www.al.com/42/index.ssf/2011/05/uah_team_takes_nasa_prize_with.html
4. From The Daily Beast: An assessment of NASA’s post shuttle future with President Obama at the helm.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-05-16/shuttle-launch-endeavour-and-nasas-final-countdown/?cid=hp:beastoriginalsC3
5. From Space News: NASA would like to return the United Launch Alliance Delta 2 to the stable of rockets available for science missions.
http://spacenews.com/civil/110516-nasa-add-delta2-list-launchers.html
6. From MSNBC: Evidence accumulates supporting the prospects that the rocky exo-planet Gliese 581, which circles a red dwarf star 20 light years from Earth, is habitable. The latest supporting evidence includes the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that could trap heat to permit liquid water on the surface.
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/17/6661294-case-builds-for-habitable-alien-planet
7. From spacepolitics.com: The Senate Space Subcommittee will hold a hastily announced hearing on Wednesday, entitled “Contributions of Space to National Imperatives.” The Space Foundation and the Aerospace Industries Association are among those who will provide witnesses.
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2011/05/17/senate-hearing-on-space-and-national-imperatives/
A. From spacepolitics.com: The House Science, Space and Technology Committee announce a May 26 hearing on the readiness of commercial space cargo companies to resupply the International Space Station.
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2011/05/17/house-plans-commercial-cargo-hearing/
8. From Popular Science: Scientists line up for commercial spaceflight hopeful the frequency of missions will make it easier to get their research into space.
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-04/how-space-tourism-will-breathe-new-life-suborbital-science?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
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