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Friday’s CSExtra includes the latest reports on NASA’s decision to delay the final shuttle missions. The decision Thursday allows more time to prepare research gear and other equipment headed to the International Space Station. The European and Canadian space agencies speak with the Russians about more Soyuz access to the station. Commercial imaging satellites are big business. Scientists make new discovery from Apollo 17 moon rocks.
1. From Spaceflightnow.com: NASA selects new targets launch dates for the final two shuttle missions. Discovery (STS-133) moves from September, to Nov. 1. Endeavour (STS-134) moves from late November to Feb. 26, 2011. A decision on whether Atlantis will fly again, which would require additional funding, is now anticipated in August.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts133/100701dates/
A. From the Galveston Daily News: The shuttle extension could delay some layoffs as the shuttle program winds down.
http://www.galvnews.com/story/160366
2. From Spaceflightnow.com: The European and Canadian space agencies begin talks with Russia to obtain additional access to the International Space Station with the purchase of transportation aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Both agencies are looking for short term access between 2013 and 2016.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1007/01soyuz/
3. From USA Today: One of the hottest arenas in commercial space is satellite photography. Imagery of the Earth from above is now common place in news stories, advertisements. Much of it in the U.S. comes from two competitors, Digital Globe of Longmont, CO, and Geo Eye of Dulles, VA. During the Bush administration, the CIA turned increasingly to commercial providers, and that trend is continuing. “We are hiring like crazy,” says Geo Eye’s CEO. “It’s a great time to be in the space imagery biz.”
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2010-07-01-spysatellites01_ST_N.htm
4. From Space.com: A new study of moon rocks collected during the Apollo 17 mission has revealed graphite, a form of carbon. Scientists believe the source was an asteroid that slammed into the moon about 3.8 billion years ago. The Earth was undergoing a similar pounding at the time, a point when life was beginning to emerge. The graphite find suggests these impactors may have been the source of organic carbon that contributed to the rise of life.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/scienceastronomy/apollo-moon-rock-graphite-100701.html
5. From the New York Times: A look at Japan’s response to the June 13 recovery of the Hayabusa mission capsule in Australia. The recovery is giving the nation new faith in its technology and manufacturing prowess. Whether the spacecraft returned from its long mission to an asteroid with samples of the planetary body, however, is still in question.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/business/global/02space.html?_r=1&src=busln
6. From Space.com via MSNBC: Engineers find a sluggish reaction control wheel during a check of the Dawn spacecraft’s attitude control system. NASA’s Dawn, launched in 2007, is headed for the asteroids Vesta and Ceres.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38037420/ns/technology_and_science-space
7. From Discovery.com: The Milky Way’s oldest stars likely migrated from smaller galaxies that experienced cataclysmic events, according to computer simulations.
http://news.discovery.com/space/milky-way-stars.html
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