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Tuesday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and some of the surge in commentary on space-related events tied to NASA’s final shuttle mission. Two U.S. International Space Station astronauts embark today on the Atlantis mission’s only spacewalk. The shuttle crew moved the Raffaello cargo module from Atlantis to the station on Monday. Mission managers extend the Atlantis mission from 12 to 13 days to continue the work of the astronauts at the space station. The nation’s human space flight future desperately needs stronger presidential leadership, writes one historian. Is the shuttle’s retirement without a replacement a sign of scientific illiteracy? NASA’s technical workforce copes with transition. Looking back at the mood surrounding NASA’s final shuttle launching. The challenges to overcoming the threat posed by orbiting space junk.
1. From Space.com: Space station astronauts Mike Fossum and Ron Garan embark on the Atlantis mission’s only scheduled spacewalk on Tuesday. Fossum and Garan will place a failed space station thermal control system pump aboard Atlantis. Once back on the Earth, the pump will be examined to determine the cause of a breakdown last July.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/12247-shuttle-atlantis-space-station-spacewalk-preview.html
2. From Spaceflightnow.com: The Atlantis crew moves their big cargo van from the shuttle’s cargo bay to the space station on Monday. The cargo pod holds enough supplies to ensure six person space station crew activities through 2012 — long enough for NASA to transition to commercial supply services.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts135/110711fd4/index2.html
A. From Florida Today.com: NASA adds a day to the shuttle program’s final mission. The flight, now planned for 13 days will end with an early morning landing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on July 21.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110712/NEWS02/107120325/Atlantis-crew-gets-extra-day-space?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home
3. From the Washington Post: In an op-ed, long time space historian John Logsdon takes the nation’s political leadership to task on the plight of the U.S. human space program, in the aftermath of the shuttle’s retirement. NASA’s leadership offers a vision of the future that is not resonating with its workforce, he writes. The White House and Congress are at odds as well. “It does no honor to the achievements of the space shuttle program to have its end come with no clear sense of what will follow,” according to Logsdon.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/the-us-space-programs-leadership-black-hole/2011/07/11/gIQADj538H_story_1.html
A. From Time Magazine: Is the retirement of NASA’s shuttle program a reflection of the nation’s scientific illiteracy? “Scientific literacy is part of good citizenship,” writes essayist Jeffrey Kluger.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2082213,00.html
B. From National Public Radio: Former NASA shuttle astronaut, physician and businessman Dr. Bernard Harris talks about the significance of inspiration and breaking barriers in space. Harris, the first African American to walk in space, emphasizes the importance of science education.
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/11/137766609/space-exploration-to-embark-on-a-new-beginning
C. From the Washington Post: What happens to NASA’s workforce: Some are suited for the transition ahead, many are not.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/what-happens-to-nasas-space-shuttle-workers-after-atlantis/2011/07/11/gIQA8Z8t8H_story.html
4. Two from The Space Review:
A. In “Once more, with feeling,” TSR editor Jeff Foust recounts the scene that surrounded last Friday’s launching of Atlantis on the final NASA shuttle mission. He found drama in the rapidly changing weather outlook and a last second technical issue that toyed with the last seconds of the countdown. There was emotion as well, but not the feeling of a “grand finale,” as some reported, writes Foust.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1882/1
B. In “The Space Shuttle and the Dreams of a 10-year-old,” Andrew J. Page dials back through a recently discovered 1972 newspaper article describing the promise of the then soon to be developed space shuttle. The vision included the prospects that writers and artists would fly like tourists on the shuttle and that scientists could launch their own satellites. Those forecasts failed to materialize, though Page recalls he found the inspiration in them to become a physicist and freelance writer. Page wonders what now will serve to inspire today’s youngest generation.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1879/1
5. From MSNBC: Addressing the hazards posed by space debris. The amount of man made junk in orbit is on the rise. Some of the debris is so small it’s difficult to detect with existing detection technologies.
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/07/11/7062471-space-junk-solution-in-the-works