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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin urges Congress to support human colonization of Mars. The moon could offer human explorers resources to push deeper into space, according to former NASA astronaut Ron Garan. Orbital ATK adds “flight avionics” to a March ground test of a Space Launch System solid rocket booster in Utah. SETI pioneer Frank Drake finds the search for alien intelligence in funding jeopardy. Ames director to leave NASA to pursue academic opportunities. U.S. astronauts await a NASA decision on a Sunday spacewalk outside the International Space Station. NASA’s Earth Sciences Division marks banner year. Insurers collide over repairs to Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport launch pad. World View Enterprises offers high altitude balloon alternative to suborbital rocket tourism.
Human Deep Space Exploration
U.S. needs a Mars colony, Buzz Aldrin tells Senators
Space.com (2/26): Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin urged the U.S. Senate Space, Science and Competitiveness Subcommittee to place Mars at the top of the nation’s human space exploration agenda with a plan to settle the red planet. “In my opinion, there is no more convincing way to demonstrate American leadership for the remainder of this century than to commit to a permanent presence on Mars,” said Aldrin.
Why astronaut Ron Garan thinks we should colonize the moon before Mars
Huffington Post (2/26): The Earth’s moon offers the best fit for humanity’s next destination in space, says the former NASA astronaut Ron Garan. The moon has natural resources, including water that can be used to explore deeper in space, Garan tells the Huffington Post.
NASA, Orbital ATK to debut ‘flight-like avionics’ during upcoming SLS booster firing
America Space (2/26): The ground test firing of an Orbital ATK five segment booster for NASA’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket is scheduled for Mar. 11 in Utah. Flight like avionics will participate in the milestone test. NASA and its team of contractors are developing the SLS to start U.S. astronauts on future missions of deep space exploration.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
The father of SETI: Q&A with astronomer Frank Drake
Space.com (2/26): SETI pioneer Frank Drake finds the long search for evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence in jeopardy because of funding difficulties.
Pete Worden leaving NASA to pursue private sector dreams
Space News (2/26): Worden announces this week he will retire from NASA as director of the Ames Research Center in California to pursue private sector opportunities, possibly in education. Worden has served at Ames since 2006.
Low Earth Orbit
Spaceflight Insider (2/26): U.S. astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Terry Virts await a decision from International Space Station mission managers on Friday regarding a spacewalk on Sunday. As planned, the spacewalk would close out their efforts this week to prepare the six person orbiting science lab for a pair of docking ports for U.S. commercial launch vehicles able to transport astronauts to low Earth orbit by the end of 2017. The managers are assessing the source of water in Virts’ space suit helmet at the end of Wednesday’s spacewalk.
NASA’s Earth Sciences Division to celebrate busiest year in more than a decade
Pasadena Star-News, of California (2/26): NASA’s Earth Sciences Division logs five new mission launches in one year, the organization’s busiest 12 months in more than a decade. Some have found a home on the International Space Station, some as independent orbiters. All are revealing more about the Earth’s weather and climate.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
U.S. rocket launch pad repair set to halt in funding spat
Reuters (2/26): An insurance dispute threatens to halt work on repairs to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Va., the MARS pad was damaged by an Oct. 28 post launch explosion involving an Orbital ATK Antares rocket with supplies headed to the International Space Station.
Suborbital
Would you take a balloon to the edge of space?
Christian Science Monitor (2/26): World View Enterprises, of Tucson, moves ahead with plans to offer a high altitude passenger balloon service that would offer tourists a luxury view of the Earth’s curvature and the blackness of space from 100,000 feet. The descent would be controlled by a parafoil that underwent a critical flight test last week.
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