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Thursday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space-related activities from across the globe. The $1.5 billion NPOESS Preparatory Project mission developed by NASA and other civilian agencies grows in significance under a weakened economy. NASA outlines the financial constraints of the Commercial Crew Development initiative in testimony before a House oversight panel. Hurricane Rina prompts an early end to NASA’s NEEMO undersea analog mission off Key Largo, Fla., Lawmakers look to a financial rescue plan for the over budget James Webb Space Telescope. Virgin Galactic, the emerging suborbital commercial transportation service, hires a pilot. In an op-ed, Mars advocate Robert Zubrin sounds an alarm over the future of planetary exploration. A look at the dwarf planet Eris.
1. From Spaceflightnow.com: Amid the budget chaos, the NPOESS Preparatory Project mission is likely to take on new significance in the realm of weather forecasting and global climate research. The $1.5 billion mission, scheduled to lift off Friday from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., will introduce new generations of observing instruments into polar orbit.
A. From Space.com: The weather outlook for the NPP mission launch at 5:48 a.m., EDT, is promising.
2. From Space.com: Members of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee express skepticism on Wednesday as they listen to testimony from NASA and private companies involved in the agency’s Commercial Crew Development program. Sticking points include cost and schedule and whether there is a market for commercial orbital transportation services beyond the launching of astronauts to the International Space Station.
A. From Florida Today: Without adequate funding, the NASA fostered effort to establish commercial transportation services to the space station must be altered, the agency’s top human spaceflight official tells the House panel. The White House seeks $850 million annually through 2016 to foster at least two companies. So far, the Senate has allotted $500 million for 2012. The House has agreed to $312 million. Meanwhile, NASA is paying Russia $450 million a year Soyuz crew launch services. Without adequate funding to establish more than one commercial provider, efforts to initiate services in 2015-16 could be delayed by two years.
3. From the Houston Chronicle: NASA’s NEEMO asteroid analog mission ends early on Wednesday, when forecasters predict the late season Caribbean Hurricane Rina will move toward the Aquarius undersea habitat off Key Largo, Fla.
A. From Discovery.com and AFP: Jet packs scored high in the asteroid mobility evaluations by the NEEMO under sea crew earlier this week. However, the devices have their limitations on planetary bodies with minimal gravity.
4. From the Washington Post: U. S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski opens a display for the James Webb Space Telescope at the Maryland Science Center with an appeal to save the delayed and over budget successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. The Senate is likely to approve a spending bill next week to continue work on the observatory with about $500 in 2012 funding, according to Mikulski, who chairs the Senate appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over NASA. In the House, cancellation is a possibility, though Frank Wolf, Mikulski’s counterpart in the House, has soften his opposition.
5. From the Los Angeles Times: Virgin Galactic selects a pilot to join flight training and tests of the WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo. Keith Colmer is a former USAF test pilot.
6. From the Washington Times: In an op-ed, Robert Zubrin finds the U. S. prepared to abandon robotic exploration of the universe in response to the nation’s economic difficulties. Other potential casualties include the Kepler Telescope, a mission launched to search for Earth-like planets around other stars. The country should not be hasty in actions that could relinquish leadership in the space science field to others, writes Zubrin, an advocate for the human settlement of Mars.
7. From National Geographic Daily News: A look at distant Eris, a dwarf planet with many similarities to Pluto. Currently nine billion miles from the Earth, Eris appears to have a bright frosty surface, suggesting the planetary body possesses an atmosphere that has frozen and collapsed to the ground.
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