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Tuesday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related events from around the world. NASA signs a contract extension with Roscosmos for astronaut transportation of the International Space Station. The extension includes a price increase. The next Soyuz mission is delayed by a capsule communications problem. At Cape Canaveral, a worker falls in a launch pad mishap. The chair of a House oversight panel urges the Obama Administration to back work on a new heavy lift rocket and multipurpose crew capsule. The grains of an asteroid recovered by a Japanese spacecraft date back to the formation of the solar system. The disastrous March 8 earthquake shifts the Earth’s rotation. In commentary, two writers challenge the definition of U. S. leadership in space and question Russian transparency in the operation of their Soyuz spacecraft.
1. From Space.com: Roscosmos raises to nearly $63 million the price per seat for the transportation of NASA, European, Japanese and Canadian astronauts to the International Space Station to fly. The raise is included in a contract extension involving the launch of 12 astronauts aboard Soyuz capsules in 2014-15. http://www.exploredeepspace.com/11125-nasa-russia-soyuz-deal-spaceflights.html
A. From Spaceflightnow.com: Russia announces a delay in the March 30 launching of the next U. S. and Russian crew to the International Space Station. The delay of a “few days” is blamed on a problem with communications equipment in the Soyuz capsule. The crew includes NASA’s Ron Garan and cosmonauts Andrey Borisienko and Alexander Samokatyaev
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/station/exp27/110314delay/
2. From Florida Today: A 53-year-old United Space Alliance engineer dies Monday in a launch pad mishap at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The cause is under investigation. http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110315/NEWS02/103150316/KSC-engineer-dies-fall?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home
3. From The Hill: In an op-ed, U. S. Rep. Ralph Hall, chair of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, takes issue with the Obama Administration over the bi-partisan road map developed under the banner of the 2010 NASA Authorization Act.. Hall urges the timely development of a heavy lift rocket and multipurpose crew vehicle to pursue human deep space exploration.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/technology/149233-the-future-value-of-nasa-depends-on-priorities
4. From Spaceflightnow.com: In mid-2010 the Japanese spacecraft Huyabusa returned to Earth following a distant rendezvous with the asteroid Itokawa. As it turns out, the probe returned with small grains of Itokawa that date back to the start of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. These same grains are common to the meteors that fall to the surface of the Earth. http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1103/13hayabusa/
5. From the New York Times: The disastrous Earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan moved the Asian nation closer to the United States and shortened the length of a day by 1.8 millionths of a second.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/world/asia/14seismic.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=NASA&st=cse
6. From The Space Review:
A. In “American leadership in space: leadership through capability” Christopher Stone, a Washington policy analyst, suggests the United States cannot establish leadership unless it is first in global capabilities — exploration, commercial and military. “The United States’ goal should be leadership through spacefaring capabilities, in all sectors,” Stone writes.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1797/1
B. In “Soyuz landing tests new systems and old secrecy habits,” James E. Oberg, the journalist and former flight controller, reveals issues facing the Russian spacecraft that launched an American and Russian crew scheduled to descend to Earth early Wednesday. Oberg questions whether Soyuz operations will become less transparent once the U. S. shuttle retires and NASA becomes wholly dependent on the Russians for the transportation of astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1799/1
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