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Friday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting on space related activities from around the world. NASA’s Jupiter-bound Juno probe is scheduled for launching today at 11:34 a.m., EDT. Favorable weather at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launch site is forecast. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter finds new evidence of seasonal water flows on the Red Planet, raising the prospects for some form of life. U. S. human spaceflight may have taken a dip with the shuttle’s retirement, but robotic exploration is primed to flourish. Boeing selects the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket to launch the company’s CST-100, a seven person entrant in the NASA funded Commercial Crew Development program. Test flights in 2015 are scheduled.
1. From the Washington Post: NASA readies NASA’s Jupiter-bound Juno probe for launching on Friday at 11:34 a.m., EDT. Juno promises to unlock secrets about the early stages of planet formation in the solar system. Jupiter was the first of the planets to form, say scientists, and Juno is designed to gauge what lies beneath a thick cloud cover, water and possibly a solid core.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/nasas-jupiter-probe-will-peer-back-to-beginning-of-solar-system/2011/08/04/gIQAtjrSuI_story.html
A. From USA Today: The most recent orbital mission to Jupiter, NASA’s Galileo mission, ended in 2003.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2011-08-04-NASA-Jupiter-probe-Juno_n.htm
2. From Astronomy Now: Scientists say NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has found new evidence that liquid water on Mars flows down crater slopes.
http://astronomynow.com/news/n1108/04mars/
A. From the Los Angeles Times: The water is likely salty. Evidence of the flows is visible in darkened troughs on sloped landscapes.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-mars-salty-water-20110805,0,5407337.story
B. From Space.com: The latest findings on Mars raise the prospects for microbial life on the Red Planet.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/12549-mars-water-hints-extraterrestrial-life-search.html
3. From Thompson Reuters: Perhaps by coincidence, the shuttle’s retirement in July coincides with the first in a series of high profile NASA planetary robotic missions. Friday’s launch of the Juno probe is first. A mission to Mars follows in late November.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/04/us-space-science-idUSTRE7733JZ20110804
4. From Florida Today: The Boeing Co., selects the United Launch Alliance Atlas V as the launch vehicle for the CST-100, the company’s participant in NASA’s commercial crew development program. The seven person CST-100 capsule will be ready for test flights in 2015 and the first delivery of U. S. astronauts to the International Space Station in early 2016 — if Congress funds the NASA initiative adequately, say company officials.
http://space.flatoday.net/2011/08/atlas-v-to-launch-test-flights-of.html
A. From Spaceflightnow.com: Scheduling of NASA nurtured commercial crew transportation services depends on Congressional funding decisions, according to Boeing’s lead manager for the CST-100. SpaceX, Sierra Nevada and Blue Origin are also at work on commercial spacecraft for the transportation of astronauts to orbital destinations.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1108/04boeingatlas/
B. Boeing says it selected the Atlas V based on the rocket’s past performance, reliability and cost.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110805/NEWS01/108050317/Atlas-V-s-past-performance-seals-deal-Boeing?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home
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