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Tuesday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space-related topics from around the world. China prepares to launch a space station module and an unpiloted Shenzhou capsule as part of an orbital docking test later this year. Astronomers detect an astounding amount of water in a vapor cloud near a distant quasar. Houston’s space veterans express concern for the future of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. In a series of commentaries pegged to the shuttle’s retirement, experts say U. S. human space exploration, once a non partisan pursuit, faces a change in climate — partisan politics. Yellow Stone Park could face an increased fire threat because of climate change, new computer modeling suggests. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter finds surprising silica rich deposits on the moon’s far side. Searchers find a huge meteorite in remote China.
1. From Space.com: China readies the nation’s first space station module and an unmanned Shenzhou crew capsule for launching in the third and fourth quarters of 2011, as cornerstones of a first ever docking demonstration. Meanwhile, recent public statements suggest that Chinese docking hardware is not compatible with that of the International Space Station.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/12411-china-space-station-tiangong-readied-launch.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+spaceheadlines+%28SPACE.com+Headline+Feed%29
2. From Wired.co.uk: Astronomers make a record water discovery in a distant quasar. The reservoir contains an estimated 140 trillion times as much water as held by the Earth’s oceans and is 12 billion light years distant. The vapor formed when the universe was 1.6 billion years old. Telescopes in California and Hawaii were used to make and characterize the discovery. http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-07/25/the-universes-largest-water-reservoir
3. From the Houston Chronicle: Houston, home to NASA’s astronaut corps and Mission Control, shares a distinction with no other city. “Houston” was the initial word uttered by the first astronauts to reach the surface of the moon. However, some of the Texas city’s space veterans are wondering if NASA’s Johnson Space Center has a future. Several thousand have or will face the loss of jobs as NASA retires the shuttle and turns to new programs that have not been clearly defined. Part of the reason for JSC’s murky future may be that regional leaders took Houston’s position atop human spaceflight for granted, says one veteran.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7669242.html
4. Three essays from Monday’s The Space Review examine the end of the shuttle program.
A. In “The beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning,” Roger Handberg observes a sea change for NASA and human spaceflight. The pursuit is slipping from nonpartisan to partisan politics, writes Handberg, chairman of political science studies at the University of Central Florida. He sees deficit reduction as the underlying reason, and Handberg finds NASA as weak overall politically. The primary support for the agency and its programs comes from the legislators whose districts are most affected, he writes. These steering currents are unlikely to change until the 2012 elections, he predicts. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1890/1
B. In “Wheels Stop,” TSR Editor Jeff Foust, suggest the shuttle’s retirement marks the end of the first space age. He reasons the shuttle was nurtured by the momentum of the Cold War moon race, a force now exhausted. The space community is largely still in search of a rationale for a long running, government supported human space flight program, Foust writes. And the community is doing so in the midst of national malaise.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1892/1
C. In “The Best of Spacecraft, the Worst of Spacecraft,” Andre Bormanis offers a nod to the space shuttle and the high expectations that accompanied its introduction. Like Thomas Edison’s quest to develop the light bulb, it may take many failures before the shuttle’s original goals of frequent flight and low cost are achieved, writes Bormanis, a Los Angeles television writer and producer. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1891/1
5. From Spaceflightnow.com: NASA’s commercial International Space Station re-suppliers look to December and February for their first deliveries. http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1107/25cotsdemo/index.html
6. From USA Today: Scientists warn Monday that climate change — especially the warmer temperatures of spring and summer — could drastically step up the frequency of major fires in Yellowstone National Park. The usual ignition source for these fires is lightning, and rain and snow melt usually keep the vegetation too wet to burn during the early parts of the year. The findings are based on computer modeling.
7. From the New York Times: Scientists find surprising dome shaped volcanic deposits on the moon’s far side. The origin of the silica rich rocks found in the deposits is not known, but they are thought to have formed about 800 million years ago. High resolution cameras on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched in 2009, identified the deposits.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/science/26obmoon.html?_r=1
8. From Space.com: The Chinese unearth a huge iron meteorite in the remote northwest part of the country.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/12416-giant-meteorite-china-discovery.html
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