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Wednesday’s CSExtra offers reporting on two major developments, spacewalking astronauts embark early today on a renewed effort to recover the cooling system aboard the International Space Station. Also, Sean O’Keefe, the former NASA administrator, is among the survivors of an Alaska plane crash that claimed the life of former Alaska U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens late Monday. Details from the remote crash site emerge Tuesday. Stephen Hawking urges humanity into space to survive future disasters. Astronomers awed by close up photos of asteroid Lutetia.
1. From Spaceflightnow.com: Two NASA astronauts will embark on a spacewalk early Wednesday to recover a vital cooling system aboard the International Space Station. On Tuesday, mission managers approve plans for outings Wednesday and no earlier than Sunday to removed a failed cooling system pump. Efforts during a Saturday spacewalk were thwarted by an ammonia leak. Wednesday’s spacewalk was to get under way at 7:55 a.m., EDT, and span six to seven hours.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/station/exp24/100810evapre/index.html
A. For spacewalk updates, Spaceflightnow.com:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/station/exp24/status2.html
2. From the New York Times: Former NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe and his son, Kevin, are listed in critical and serious condition at the Providence, Alaska Medical Center following a plane crash late Monday. The crash claimed the life of former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska and injured others. Rescuers reach the site Tuesday, and news is slow to emerge on the state of the passengers who had joined for a fishing expedition aboard the small float plane. O’Keefe, NASA chief from 2001 to 2005, is currently an executive with EADS North America, the European defense firm.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/11/us/11crash.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=NASA&st=cse
A. From the Washington Post: Bad weather a likely factor in the float plane crash.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/10/AR2010081001953.html
B. From the Houston Chronicle: O’Keefe’s NASA legacy includes an unpopular decision to cancel a final shuttle mission to overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope, a course later reversed; the Mars Expedition Rover landings; and recovery from the shuttle Columbia accident.
http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/2010/08/sean_okeefe_most_remembered_for_hubble_decision.html
3. From Space.com: The future of humanity lies well beyond the Earth, according to famed cosmologist Stephen Hawking. A 200 year clock is ticking, says Hawking.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/news/stephen-hawking-humanity-escape-earth-100810.html
4. From Space.com: A deeper look at Lutetia, the 62 mile wide asteroid recently surveyed by the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft. Images raise questions about the big rock’s origins and history. It may have shattered from a larger asteroid. Boulders seem to have rolled across its cratered surface. Rosetta swung close to Lutetia on its way to a comet encounter.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/scienceastronomy/rosetta-asteroid-encounter-nasa-workshop-100810.html
5. From Spacepolitics.com: The uncertainty over the European Space Agency’s future may be, well, more uncertain than NASA’s. Spacepolitics.com reviews a recent Wall Street Journal article questioning Europe’s commitment to space.
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2010/08/10/europes-space-funding-woes/
6. From New Scientist: Some experts mull using portions of an aging International Space Station for a future asteroid mission.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19292-nasa-mulls-sending-part-of-space-station-to-an-asteroid.html
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