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Thursday’s CSExtra offers a roundup of the latest reporting on space-related activities from around the globe. The six-member shuttle Endeavour crew returns to the Kennedy Space Center early today to make a second bid to launch their 16-day mission to the International Space Station. The countdown begins early Friday. Lift off is set for Monday at 8:56 a.m., EDT. In Washington, an emerging heavy lift rocket strategy at NASA draws early fire. A DARPA/NASA team solicits program ideas for an interstellar spacecraft. An influential legislator draws a line at U. S./China cooperation in space. NASA’s Dawn probe images Vesta, the spacecraft’s asteroid destination. India plans for a shuttle-like reusable manned spacecraft.
1. From Spaceflightnow.com: Endeavour’s six astronauts fly from Houston to Cape Canaveral, Fla., today. Their arrival at the Kennedy Space Center is anticipated at 9 a.m., EDT. The countdown for Endeavour’s 16-day mission starts Friday at 7 a.m. Endeavour’s lift off is scheduled for Monday at 8:56 a.m., EDT. Endeavour’s final flight was scrubbed April 29 by an electrical problem with a hydraulic system fuel line heater.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts134/status.html
A. From Florida Today: Engineers complete tests of the new Loads Control Assembly and wiring installed in Endeavour to overcome the hydraulic system heater problem that prompted Endeavour’s April 29 launch scrub.
http://space.flatoday.net/2011/05/tests-on-spare-shuttle-switching-box.html
2. From the Orlando Sentinel: NASA seems to be closing in on a new heavy lift rocket strategy that has some in Congress unhappy. The strategy would use shuttle components, including the External Tank and twin solid rocket boosters, as propulsion elements to flight test an Orion-like Multi-purpose Crew Vehicle, starting in 2013. In the meantime, NASA would host a competition for a new Space Launch System, or heavy lift rocket meeting the more challenging 130 ton lift requirements of the NASA Authorization Act of 2010. The $10 billion interim strategy could help keep thousands of aerospace workers employed as the shuttle retires and advance a future human exploration agenda. However, critics believe it would be money spent on a “rocket to nowhere,” further delaying decisions on the future of NASA’s human spaceflight program. NASA plans to present the plan to Congress in June, the Sentinel reports.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/os-nasa-recycled-shuttle-20110515,0,7080265.story
A. From Space.com: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, in partnership with NASA, calls for ideas to advance their 100-year Starship Project, an initiative to organize an interstellar journey sometime over the next century.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/11639-darpa-100-year-starship-study-ideas.htmll
3. From Spacepolicyonline.com: U. S. Rep. Frank Wolf, chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over NASA, amplifies his opposition to U. S. cooperation with China in space. Wolf, a Virginia Republican, speaks at a U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission hearing.
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1563:rep-wolf-reaffirms-opposition-to-space-cooperation-with-china&catid=91:news&Itemid=84
4. From Space.com: NASA’s Dawn probe snaps its first image of Vesta, the big asteroid, from a distance of 750,000 miles Dawn is on course to maneuver into orbit around Vesta on July 16, a first for a robotic mission. Dawn was launched in 2007.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/11634-nasa-spacecraft-asteroid-photo-vesta.html
5. From the Times of India: India eyes a reusable winged spacecraft, a ship that could launch in the 2030 time frame.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhubaneswar/India-designing-reusable-spacecraft/articleshow/8253669.cms
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