Friday’s CSExtra includes reporting and commentary on space policy and NASA’s future. A Mars celebration. Japan launches a Venus probe. Meanwhile, spacewalking astronauts from the shuttle Atlantis are scheduled to complete a battery exchange outside the International Space Station. The third and final mission spacewalk is scheduled to get under way at 5:45 a.m., CDT. For shuttle updates, http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts132/status.html
1. From Florida Today: An editorial endorses the development of both commercial and NASA rockets for missions to the International Space Station. Florida Today’s scenario would support testing of rockets like SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and NASA’s Ares 1. The dual track offers the best chance of success, according to the editorial.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20100521/BREAKINGNEWS/305210002/1086/Our+views++Uncertainty+in+commercial+rockets+shows+why+NASA+should+fly+too
2. From Project Syndicate: A World of Ideas, an op-ed from Esther Dyson, investor and member of NASA’s Advisory Council, who praises the space policy choices of President Obama.
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson20/English
3. From Discovery.com: NASA celebrates as the Mars rover Opportunity becomes the longest running mission on the Red Planet, breaking the previous record of 6 years, 116 days held by Viking 1.
http://news.discovery.com/space/mars-rover-opportunity-viking-record.html
4. From the BBC: Japan launches a planetary probe to Venus. The lift off was delayed Monday by bad weather. Akatsuki will reach Venus in December for studies of lightning and volcanism.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10135158.stm
A. From spaceflightnow.com: Japan’s mission to Venus will test fly a solar sail.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/h2a/akatsuki/100520ikaros/
5. From Universe Today: NASA’s Terra Satellite captures an image of the Gulf oil spill reaching the loop current, which suggests the spilled oil could contaminate beaches on the U.S. East coast.
http://www.universetoday.com/2010/05/20/oil-slick-on-the-move-towards-florida-possibly-east-coast-of-us/#more-64750
6. From the AP via USA Today: Atlantis astronaut Piers Sellers treats a picture of Isaac Newton and a chip from the Apple Tree that inspired his theories of gravity to the wonders of weightlessness aboard the International Space Station.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2010-05-20-astronauts-newton_N.htm
7. From Space.com: The SpaceX Falcon 9 test flight could happen as soon as May 28. The operation will be widely watched as SpaceX is committed to the commercial launch of cargo and perhaps humans to the International Space Station. In an update earlier this week, the possible dates were listed as May 27-28. The latest indicates SpaceX will wait until shuttle Atlantis lands on May 26.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/missionlaunches/spacex-falcon9-test-launch-100520.html
8. From NASAwatch.com: In Spain, a photographer captures a picture of the International Space Station with shuttle Atlantis trailing as they cross the face of the sun.
http://nasawatch.com/archives/2010/05/atlantis-and-is.html
9. From Astronomynow.com: Not all exploding stars are the same. A summary of a report from Nature on a new category of these powerful events.
http://www.astronomynow.com/news/n1005/20sn/
10. From Space.com: In Montgomery, AL., engineers inflate a 235 foot long air ship that may one day carry out a range of civilian and military duties, from serving as a weather eye to a battlefield sentry. Inaugural flight possible later this year. Airship could take on some of the duties carried out by satellites.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/businesstechnology/worlds-largest-airship-stratellite-100520.html
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