Tuesday’s CSExtra includes the latest on the U.S. Air Force and United Launch Alliance attempt to launch the first in a new generation of GPS satellites. Shuttle Atlantis to surpass the 120 million mile mark before a planned return to Earth early Wednesday — weather at the Kennedy Space Center permitting. Today marks the opening of the two-day Exploration Enterprise Workshop in Galveston, Texas. In other developments, NASA ends efforts to communicate with the Phoenix Mars Lander and NASA’s educator-astronauts reminisce.
1. From Spaceflightnow.com: A last second countdown hold late Monday halts the the lift off of a Delta 4 rocket with the first in a new generation of GPS satellites. The hold involves an issue with the steering system on the Delta’s solid rocket boosters. Further launch attempts will await the landing of shuttle Atlantis.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/delta/d349/status.html
2. The Atlantis astronauts surveyed the heat shield of their space ship on Monday and checked out the steering systems early Tuesday, as the orbiter’s final scheduled mission draws to a close. Landing is set for Wednesday at 8:48 a.m., EDT. The outlook includes a chance of showers on Wednesday and Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts132/status.html
A. From the Orlando Sentinel: Atlantis, on its 32nd and final scheduled flight, will surpass the 120 million miles traveled mark before a touchdown on Wednesday.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/2010/05/space-shuttle-atlantis-to-pass-120m-miles-on-last-ride-home.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+news%2Fspace%2Fspace_blog+%28Space+Blog+The+Write+Stuff%29
3. From the Los Angeles Times: NASA’s Mars Phoenix Lander, last heard from in 2008, remains silent in a just ended search by the space agency for signs of recovery from a harsh winter at the probe’s Martian north pole landing site. A new photo of the lander suggests solar panel damage from an accumulation of winter ice.
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-05/nasa-pronounces-phoenix-mars-lander-officially-dead
4. From Spacepolicyonline.com: On Monday, NASA posts briefing documents from the Exploration Enterprise Workshop the agency is hosting in Galveston, TX, on Tuesday and Wednesday.
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/
5. From the Spokesman Review of Idaho: Barbara Morgan, NASA’s first educator astronaut, talks about education and spaceflight.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/may/24/barbara-morgan/
A. From the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin of Washington: Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger discusses education and spaceflight as well. Metcalf-Lindenburger is the fourth educator astronaut to fly in space.
http://union-bulletin.com/stories/2010/05/24/q-a-whitman-grad-talks-about-education-and-spaceflight
6. From the Huntsville Times: Students at the University of Alabama Birmingham and Jackson State University develop a technique for using satellite imagery to identify “Times Square” for ticks — habitats rich in leaf compost..
http://blog.al.com/space-news/2010/05/scouting_for_ticks_from_space.html
7. From Sky and Telescope: Meet Ceres, a minor planet that NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is hurtling toward. Dawn will maneuver into orbit in February 2015.
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/94737944.html
8. From Discovery.com: Astronomers find alien planets in strange orbits with some detective work using the Hubble Space Telescope and the McDonald Observatory at the University of Texas.
http://news.discovery.com/space/bizarre-exoplanets-hint-at-disturbed-upbringing.html
9. From Space.com: Astronomers capture a 3-D image of a comet falling into the sun using a NASA spacecraft called STEREO. http://www.exploredeepspace.com/scienceastronomy/comet-collision-with-sun-aas216-100524.html
10. Two from Monday’s The Space Review on the nation’s future space policy:
A. Twin hurdles for commercial space flight. Editor Jeff Foust examines the debate over the transition from NASA/government to commercial crew launch services. Perhaps too much burden has been placed on Elon Musk and SpaceX to succeed with the inaugural Falcon 9 flight, which may take place as late this week. Further into the article Jeff Foust examines a range of other issues, including whether “commercial” is really commercial when the market at the moment is NASA.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1633/1
B. The View from Austin on commercial space. Jonathan Coopersmith, a historian of technology at Texas A&M, writes on the issues policy makers are beginning to address with the new emphasis on commercial space. One of the largest seems to be a change in perspective, away from a mission centric view to an applications centric view of space exploration. The global annual space commerce market is now estimated at $260 billion. The transition has “fractionated” the space community, as some are faced with job loses in order to create new opportunities for others. Some of the losses mean a loss of expertise and experience in the difficult field as well. Jonathan Coopersmith draws his assessment from the Space Economic Leadership Conference of early May.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1630/1
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