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Monday’s CSExtra offers a convenient way to catch up on the latest global developments from the weekend as a new work week gets under way. Shuttle Discovery, the spacecraft’s final mission on hold since Nov. 5, is scheduled to under go more troubleshooting this week. New commentary on the NASA sponsored Dec. 8 test flight of the SpaceX Falcon 9/Dragon. A look at possible Congressional action this week on the federal budget. 2010 is on pace to be the warmest year ever. An update on U.N. hosted climate talks. A new theory on Saturn’s rings. The Geminid meteor shower peak’s tonight with a vivid display.
1. From Florida Today, Dec. 11: At the Kennedy Space Centers workers brave cold temperatures over the weekend to prepare shuttle Discovery for a tanking test on Wednesday. The test is part of NASA’s extended troubleshooting to establish a cause for small cracks in Discovery’s external fuel tank. The test requires the installation of more than 90 strain gauges, temperature sensors and other hardware. Record cold weather could slow preparations. On hold since Nov. 5, Discovery’s final mission could be launched on Feb. 3.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20101211/NEWS02/12110319/1007/Shuttle+needs+to+be+kept+warm
2. From the Houston Chronicle, Dec. 11: An editorial praises SpaceX for its successful Dec. 8 Falcon9/Dragon demonstration mission, and urges support for the expansion of commercial space transportation activities. However, the editorial urges Houston area lawmakers and business development groups to preserve the Johnson Space Center’s role as home to the nation’s astronaut corps.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/7335139.html
A. From the Houston Chronicle: In a question and answer format, the Chronicle talks with George Abbey, a space policy fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and a former director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Abbey terms the Dec. 8 Falcon 9/Dragon demonstration flight a “great achievement,” but calls the decision to retire the space shuttle a mistake.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7335491.html
B. From the Huntsville Times, Dec. 10: An op-ed from the newspaper’s John Peck notes the success of the Dec. 8 flight of the NASA-sponsored SpaceX Falcon9/Dragon mission and suggests Huntsville should embrace the commercial wave under way for orbital spaceflight.
http://blog.al.com/times-views/2010/12/editorial_a_space_agency_in_tr.html
3. From Spacepolicyonline.com, Dec. 11: A short list of space policy events during the coming week. While the House passed a year long 2011 continuing budget resolution last week, the Senate has not. Senators intend to deal with the tax compromise proposal first. SPO wonders if there will be time before Congress adjourns for the session to deal with those and other issues. The current budget continuing resolution, which restricts NASA to 2010 level spending and program commitments, expires Dec. 18
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1278:events-of-interest-week-of-december-13-17-2010&catid=67:news&Itemid=27
4. From the New York Times, Dec. 10: 2010 is on a pace to be the warmest year on record, surpassing 2005, according to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “The record-breaking temperatures appear to have resulted from a combination of man-made climate change and natural warming in the tropical Pacific Ocean earlier this year from El Niño,” Kevin Trenberth, head of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo, tells the NY Times.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/2010-on-pace-to-be-warmest-on-record-nasa-says/?scp=2&sq=NASA&st=cse
A. From the Associated Press via the Washington Post, Dec. 11: Delegates in Cancun, Mexico reach an accord in long running climate talks under the auspices of the United Nations. However, the unspoken buzz revolves around the Republican victory in the U. S. House of Representatives. Changes in the U. S. political landscape are likely to block any meaningful agreements on dealing with rising global temperatures, delegates suggest.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/11/AR2010121101606.html
5. From Space.com, Dec. 12: Saturn’s ring system likely formed when a large moon spiraled into the giant planet 4.5 billion years ago. Gravitational forces stripped the icy layers from the moon to create the rings, according to researchers from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/scienceastronomy/saturn-rings-formation-destroyed-moon-101212.html
6. From Spaceflightnow.com, Dec. 11: NASA’s NanoSail-D, a small solar sail experiment launched earlier in December as part of the FASTSAT mission, has not been heard from. The Marshall Space Flight Center experiment was an effort to demonstrate a technology that could be used to gradually lower satellites out of orbit to reduce the amount of orbital debris.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1012/11nanosaild/
7. From Florida Today, Dec. 12: Is or was Mars habitable? NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory, or Curiosity rover, will attempt to address the issue. Florida Today examines the mission, which is scheduled to land on Mars in August 2012. The ambitious $2.3 billion project is $700 million over budget and two years behind schedule.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20101212/NEWS02/12120324/NASA+aims+Curiosity+for+Mars
8. From USA Today, Dec. 10: The Geminid meteor shower, one of the best displays of this year, is under way and peaks before dawn on Tuesday.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2010-12-10-geminid-shower_N.htm
A. From Space.com, Dec. 13: The 2010 Geminid shower should produce 120 meteors per hour as it peaks. With a map of where to look.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/spacewatch/gemini-meteor-shower-peaking-now-101213.html
9. From Spaceflightnow.com, Dec. 10: Russia clears its venerable Proton rocket to resume launches. The exoneration followed the Dec. 5 loss of three Russian GLONASS navigation satellites following the latest Proton launch. The upper stage may have been improperly fueled.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1012/10protonrtf/
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