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Wednesday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space-related events from around the world. NASA’s Stardust spacecraft transmits images of its Valentine’s Day rendezvous with comet Tempel 1 back to Earth. New commentary on President Obama’s proposed 2012 budget and the consequences for NASA of a proposed long term spending freeze. In Kourou, French Giuana, the European Space Agency’s second Automated Transfer Vehicle, the Johannes Kepler, experiences a launch scrub that could affect efforts late this month to dispatch shuttle Discovery on a long-delayed mission to the International Space Station. Japan makes plans for a space station robot. An active sun unleashes a powerful solar flare. In the Northeastern United States, observers spot a rare bright daytime meteor.
1. From the Denver Post: NASA’s Stardust spacecraft successful transmits close up images of the Comet Tempel 1 back to Earth. Stardust darted close to the comet late Monday. A software issue prompted a delay of several hours in the transmission of the images to Earth.
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_17393067
A. From the New York Times: Scientists are thrilled by the Stardust images.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/science/space/16comet.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=NASA&st=cse
B. From the Los Angeles Times: Comet Tempel 1 displays a fragile structure in the images gathered by Stardust. The photos show changes in the comet since it was slammed into on July 4, 2005 by another NASA spacecraft, Deep Impact.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-stardust-20110216,0,5972961.story
2. From Florida Today: In an editorial, the newspaper suggests that when politicians campaign with a pledge to cut spending, the consequences are not always clear. The fog lifted, though, as President Obama unveiled his proposed 2012 budget earlier this week. Florida Today urges lawmakers to think carefully about the consequences of the austere spending plan on NASA. They are a microcosm of the nation’s economic ills, the newspaper writes.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110216/OPINION/110215024/-1/pluckpersona/Our-Views-Deficit-cutting-reality?odyssey=nav|head
3. From the Orlando Sentinel : In Kourou, French Guiana, the European Space Agency’s second Automated Transfer Vehicle, Johannes Kepler, an unmanned cargo craft destined for the International Space Station fails to launch on Tuesday. The delay could force shuttle Discovery’s long-delayed assembly mission to the space station to delay another day as well. A second attempt to launch the ATV is planned for Wednesday at 4:50 p.m., EST. A successful departure would bump Discovery’s lift off to Feb. 25.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-nasa-shuttle-delay-0216-20110215,0,4291859.story
4. From the Wall Street Journal: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has plans for a humanoid robot that would be launched to the International Space Station. It would join Robonaut 2, the humanoid developed by NASA and General Motors that awaits a launching to the station aboard the shuttle Discovery. Japan’s robot would communicate with words and Tweet.
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/02/16/in-space-japan-robot-may-hear-you-tweet/?KEYWORDS=NASA
5. From CNN: A more active sun unleashes the largest solar flare of the year.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/15/sun-has-biggest-solar-flare-of-the-year/
6. From Space.com: Observers say a bright meteor lit up the late afternoon skies from Maryland to Maine on Monday.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/10873-daytime-fireball-meteor-united-states.html
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