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Tuesday’s CSExtra offers a collection of the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from around the world. In New Mexico, Spaceport America hosts a festive dedication ceremony for its new passenger terminal. Bad weather delays NASA’s plans to begin an undersea asteroid analog mission off the Florida Keys. The General Accountability Office urges the Pentagon to reassess its launch services procurement policy to expand competition. DARPA’s 100-year Starship project unleashes imaginative ways of leaving the solar system. New Space becomes a maturing force in aerospace. Will NASA’s vision of an asteroid mission hold public interest? NASA’s Space Launch System by the numbers reveals an impressive rocket. Filming of a Space Camp feature begins.
1. From MSNBC and Cosmiclog: Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, and New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez host dedication ceremonies Monday for the passenger terminal at Spaceport America. The facility will serve as the launch and landing hub for Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo passenger space operations. If test flights continue to go well, passenger travel could begin in the late 2012-13 timeframe, MSNBC reports.
http://on.msnbc.com/oI2oey
A. From the Los Angeles Times: “Today is another history-making day for Virgin Galactic,” Sir Richard Branson, the company’s founder, said at the festive terminal dedication. “We are here with a group of incredible people who are helping us lead the way in creating one of the most important new industrial sectors of the 21st century.” Many of the 800 who attend the dedication expect to return as passengers.
http://lat.ms/qDArme
B. From the Las Cruces Sun-News. New Mexico hosts the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight this week, following the Spaceport America dedications. The symposium should open new business opportunities.
http://bit.ly/pQEYUT
2. From Space.com: NASA’s plans to start an undersea analog mission to an asteroid are delayed by a tropical depression off the Florida Keys. The 13-day mission aboard Aquarius is re-scheduled for a Thursday start. Astronauts from the U. S., Canada and Japan will participate in the exercise to assess communication’s techniques, mobility issues and science data collection.
http://bit.ly/pvqvuC
3. From Spacepolicyonline.com: The General Accountability Office, the Congressional watchdog agency, on Monday issues a report urging the Pentagon to reassess its long term launch services procurement practices. The GAO recommendations could open the market to new entrants like SpaceX.
http://bit.ly/p0EUy9
4. From the New York Times: A look at the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency’s recent 100-year Starship Study symposium in Orlando, Fla. How might humans make the first interstellar voyage? Perhaps, they can hitch a ride with a asteroid being slung out of the solar system by gravitational forces. DARPA is hopeful those and other ideas to hasten travel to other star systems will have terrestrial applications as well.
http://nyti.ms/qbKDTo
5. Two from Monday’s The Space Review:
A. In “Space is getting its groove back,” Alan Stern, space scientist and aerospace consultant, finds new promise in the emerging New Space industry. He finds more than a half dozen companies with a significant business backlog and growing numbers of employees poised to make profits as they open new markets.
http://bit.ly/p2rNH7
B. In “Is a human asteroid mission a nonstarter?” Anthony Young, who has written several books on space exploration, finds a couple of plausible answers to the question his essay raises. However, he wonders if a months long voyage in space by humans can sustain public interest. The voyage itself could provide information on how to deflect an asteroid that threatens to impact the Earth and provide new information about the solar system’s earliest era, he writes.
http://bit.ly/nAmfVb
6. From the Washington Post: The Post offers a by-the-numbers look at NASA’s Space Launch System, the recently unveiled heavy lift rocket. The SLS is a cornerstone of efforts to resume U. S. human deep space exploration.
http://wapo.st/qYClqF
7. From the Huntsville Times: At the U. S. Space and Rocket Center’s Space Camp filming of “A Smile as Big as the Moon: A Teacher, His Class and Their Unforgettable Journey” gets under way. The movie will recount the story of a special education class as they attend Space Camp.
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