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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft photographs Pluto and its moon Charon. Rosetta imagery of Comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko grows more dazzling each day. Experts debate the timing for messaging potential alien civilizations. Comet Lovejoy is still visible to those who search with telescopes and binoculars. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter passes lap 40,000. Experts clear up radar images of Saturn’s moon Titan, discuss future robotic submarine mission to the Earth-like moon’s hydrocarbon lakes. Four NASA shuttle astronauts have been selected to enter the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. NASA objects to offshore oil and gas drilling near Virginia’s Wallops Island Flight Facility. U.S. House panel hears concerns for weather satellite gap. Commercial no way to go for weather satellites, cautions government official. Future International Space Station crews don Star Wars inspired garb. China’s first female astronaut enters motherhood. NASA expresses regret at need to purchase more Russian Soyuz rockets seats in 2018. Virgin Galactic announces plans to build satellite launch services company in Long Beach, Calif.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Daily dance of Pluto and moon Charon spied by NASA probe (video)
Space.com (2/12): NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft spies Pluto and its moon Charon in the distance. New Horizons is on a course to conduct the first flyby of the pair in mid-July.
These spectacular comet photos from Rosetta will only get better
Space.com (2/12): The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft transmitted a new round of images of the Comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The crispness of the photos promises to improve even more as Rosetta moves within six kilometers of the comet’s surface on Saturday.
Sky and Telescope (2/12): Comet Lovejoy remains a lure to ground observers with telescopes, or binoculars.
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter clocks up 40,000 orbits
Sen (2/12): Launched in 2005, NASA’ eagle eyed Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been orbiting the red planet since 2006 furnishing the highest resolution images of the alien terrain ever.
New technique provides better, clearer radar images of Titan’s amazing surface
AmericaSpace.com (2/12): A new technique for processing radar imagery, despeckling, is clearing up views of Titan, the moon of Saturn. The radar imagery gathered by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft and subjected to the process is revealing the features of an Earth-like terrain in new detail, including dunes and lake shores.
NASA wants to send a submarine to Titan’s seas
Discovery.com (2/12): Engineers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center develop a concept for a robotic submarine that could explore the bodies of liquid hydrocarbon on Saturn’s moon Titan.
Low Earth Orbit
Four space shuttle fliers to be inducted by Astronaut Hall of Fame
Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex (2/12): The inductees John Grunsfeld, Ph. D., Kent Rominger, Steve Lindsey and M. Rhea Seddon, M.D., will be formally inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in Titusville, Fla., on May 30.
NASA concerned with potential Atlantic drilling
USA Today (2/12): NASA protests plans for an off shore oil and gas lease close to the Virginia coast near the Wallops Island Flight Facility. The exploration and drilling could interfere with rocket launches. Launch hazard areas are regularly monitored during countdowns.
One reason your weather forecast might get much worse
ABC News (2/12): U.S. House oversight panel hears testimony Thursday that current plans for new weather satellites are not unfolding at a pace adequate enough to replace aging predecessors.
New NOAA satellite boss shoots down commercial weather pilot program
Space News (2/12): U.S. weather observing satellites are best maintained by the U.S. federal government rather than by the private sector, a NOAA official tells a House oversight panel on Thursday.
Future space station crew dons Jedi robes for Star Wars-inspired poster
Collectspace.com (2/12): Astronauts, cosmonauts assigned to 2015 duty aboard the International Space Station don Star Wars inspired garb for their mission poster. The flight crew includes NASA and Russian one year space station crew members Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko. They are prepared to lift off in late March.
China’s 1st female astronaut becomes mom, resumes training
Associated Press via New York Times (2/12): China’s first female astronaut, Liu Yang, enters motherhood, and resumes future mission training.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
With regret, NASA readies checkbook for backup Soyuz seats
Space News (2/12): Earlier this month, NASA announced plans to purchase a half dozen trips to the International Space Station aboard Russian Soyuz rockets. It’s an insurance policy essentially, NASA explains, in the event efforts to foster a pair of new U.S. commercial crew transportation services, provided by Boeing and SpaceX, are not complete by late 2017 as planned.
Virgin Galactic to build satellite-launching rocket in Long Beach
Los Angeles Times (2/12): In Long Beach, Calif., officials celebrate a decision by Virgin Galactic to develop a new satellite launch services company.
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