In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Families of the three astronauts who perished in NASA’s January 27, 1967 Apollo 1 fire endorse plans for a public tribute that includes the hatch from the charred space capsule. Houston, host to the NFL’s Super Bowl 51, will offer fans and visitors to the city a look inside NASA’s plans to launch humans to Mars.
Human Deep Space Exploration
NASA displays Apollo capsule hatch 50 years after fatal fire
Associated Press via New York Times (1/25): An historic artifact from America’s first space tragedy, the Apollo 1 fire from 50 years ago Friday at Cape Canaveral, Florida, is scheduled to go on public display at the Kennedy Space Center. The blaze, triggered inside the space capsule by electrical and life support system flaws, claimed the lives of Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chafee. The three men were to fly the first crewed test flight of the capsule that would go on to transport U.S. astronauts to the moon. The hatch from the Apollo 1 capsule will go on public display. A tribute to the three men and their families is planned for Thursday. The tragedy prompted a fast paced overhaul of the Apollo capsule.
Super Bowl Live ride aims to inspire astronauts of the future
Houston Chronicle (1/25): The NFL’s Super Bowl 51 is offering Houston, sometimes known as Space City, a chance to show-off. The opportunity has not been lost on NASA’s human space flight program, which will be a feature of Super Bowl LIVE, a week-long festival that in part seeks to showcase the agency’s exploration and educational initiatives to visitors. Future Flight, one of the attractions, offers a chance to experience a launch to Mars and landing. The area also features numerous exhibits staffed by subject matter experts and hands-on STEM activities provided by six industry sponsors: Aerojet Rocketdyne, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Orbital ATK and Raytheon.
Space Science
NASA resumes JWST vibration testing
Spaceflightnow.com (1/25): The James Webb Space Telescope, the multinational successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, has resumed vibration testing at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The ground testing was suspended last year when a problem eventually traced to a mirror restraint mechanism surfaced. The “shake” tests, designed to make sure the large observatory can withstand launch forces, will be followed by low temperature exposure tests this year at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The JWST remains on track to lift-off in October 2018 for a point in deep space about one million miles from the Earth. JWST is designed to observe the earliest star and galaxy formation as well as to search for evidence of biological activity in the atmospheres of alien planets.
Nearby alien planet’s climate swings may be too wild for life
Space.com (1/25): Wolf 1061c is an exo-planet that orbits within the habitable zone of its host star, and it’s not that far from the Earth — just 14 light years. But new observations suggest the Wolf 1061c may be way too hot for life, like Venus.
JUNO just took one of the best images of Jupiter ever
Universe Today (1/25): NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which maneuvered into orbit around Jupiter in July, has transmitted one of its best close up images of the giant planet. The image of the planet’s northern latitudes was snapped in December.
No changes to NASA research or communications under new administration
Space News (1/25): NASA’s public and research communications are unchanged with the transition from the Obama to the Trump administration, according to Michael Freilich, who leads the space agency’s Earth sciences division. Freilich spoke before the American Meteorological Society conference in Seattle.
Low Earth Orbit
Spinal taps and sleeping sacks: Astronauts try to learn why vision changes in space
Houston Public Media (1/25): Researchers employ some unusual detective work to pursue a link between the vision changes that some astronauts experience during months of weightlessness aboard the International Space Station. NASA is pursuing countermeasures to the changes, some permanent, which could be a factor in planning for future human deep space exploration.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Boeing unveils new spacesuits for Starliner astronaut taxi (photos)
Space.com (1/25): Boeing has previewed the fashionable blue space suits that astronauts assigned to launch aboard the company’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft will wear. Boeing is working with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program to develop a spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
A private space station might reuse pieces of the ISS
Space.com (1/25): The private space company Axiom has ambitions for a private sector space station that would succeed the International Space Station. The early elements of the Axion station would get their start docked to the ISS and possibly even inherit some of the station’s modules.
Russia says technical checks may delay some space rocket launches
Reuters (1/25): Russian Proton-M launches planned for this year may be delayed to accommodate propulsion checks, according to Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency. The Proton is a source of rocket launches for U.S. and European companies as well as Russian customers.
DARPA’s satellite-servicing project comes under congressional fire
Space News (1/25): Some in Congress question plans by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to sponsor a satellite repair demonstration mission later this year. The legislators believe DARPA may be encroaching on activities the private sector could deliver.