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Tuesday’s CSExtra features the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from around the world. Discovery’s mission is extended from 11 to 12 days, following a successful spacewalk outside the International Space Station by two of the astronauts. Shuttle Endeavour moves to the Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building as preps for an April 19 lift off continue. Suborbital researchers ink a launch deal with Virgin Galactic. Accelerating robotic technologies could make machines rather than humans the best candidates to explore Mars. India to spend more on space. Spot NASA’s NanoSail-D, win cash.
1. From Spaceflightnow.com: NASA extends shuttle Discovery’s mission to a 12th day, adding another 24 hours for the shuttle crew at the International Space Station. The six astronauts will use the extra time to unpack the station’s new equipment storage module Leonardo, which will be moved from the shuttle’s cargo bay to the orbital lab today. Also on Monday, Discovery astronauts Al Drew and Steve Bowen completed the first of two shuttle mission spacewalks outside the International Space Station, retrieving a failed thermal control system pump and pre-staging it near the station’s airlock for a return to Earth this summer aboard the orbiter Atlantis. With the extension, Discovery will return to Earth on March 8, touching down at the Kennedy Space Center at 11:35 a.m., EST.
A. Discovery mission extended.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts133/110228fd5/index6.html
B. First spacewalk a success.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts133/110228fd5/index5.html
C. From Florida Today: Monday’s spacewalk ends with an educational exercise. Al Drew and Steve Bowen open a small metal canister furnished by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and “fill” it with the vacuum of space. The canister, inscribed with the names of astronauts, will become part of a Japanese science exhibit.
http://space.flatoday.net/2011/02/spacewalk-capped-with-message-in-bottle.html
D. From Central Florida News 13: Orbiter Endeavour is towed from its Orbiter Process Facility hanger at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to the Vehicle Assembly Building, last stop of the way to Launch Pad A in March. Endeavour’s final mission is set for launching around April 19. It’s another milestone in the shuttle program’s imminent retirement.
http://www.cfnews13.com/article/news/2011/february/212940/Crowd-gathers-for-space-shuttle-Endeavours-final-rollout
2. From the New York Times: Scientists move to join wealthy tourists as the first suborbital commercial spaceflight passengers. The $200,000 price for a ticket limits the adventure to the wealthy, but the cost may represent a savings to NASA and other research agencies who would otherwise have to finance a rocket launch, explains Alan Stern, who is one of those spearheading the movement.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/science/space/01orbit.html?_r=2&ref=science
A. From Space.com: The Southwest Research Institute of Boulder, CO buys two seats from Virgin Galactic for suborbital research flights and makes reservations for six more. The deal is worth $1.6 million.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/10979-virgin-galactic-commercial-spaceflight-scientists.html
B. From Spacepolitics.com: The FAA’s proposed 2012 budget includes $5 million for a space access prize. George Nield, the agency’s associate administrator for commercial space transportation, announces the award at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference in Orlando.
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2011/02/28/faa-2012-budget-proposal-includes-space-access-prize/
3. Two from The Space Review:
A. In “Suborbital back out of the shadows,” TSR editor Jeff Foust looks at the swings in interest in commercial suborbital and orbital space transportation. The pendulum swung to orbital as NASA opened a marked for cargo and crew transportation to the space station earlier in this decade. But suborbital may be headed back into the spotlight, as researchers and perhaps educators look to the virtues of suborbital flights. Foust sees Virgin Galactic, XCOR, Armadillo, Masden continuing to make progress with their suborbital ventures.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1790/1
B. In “When will our Martian future get here?” Andre Bormanis, a Los Angeles television producer, tracks the advances in robotics and bandwidth and finds them outpacing advances in space transportation. Bormanis envisions a future in which capable robotic rather than human explorers spread across the Martian surface.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1789/1
4. From Outlook India.com: The nation’s space science sector will receive a budget increase of more than 30 percent. Much of the funding will go to human spaceflight and the Chandrayaan – II joint lunar/orbiter mission with Russia.
http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?713417
5. From the Huntsville Times: Photograph NASA’s orbiting NanoSail-D satellite and win cash. The experimental satellite will be visible across North America this week. This spacecraft was launched from Alaska in December as part of a Marshall Space Flight Center technology development effort.
http://blog.al.com/space-news/2011/02/nasa_satellite_nanosail-d_will.html
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