In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Support surfaces for a NASA study of what it would take to add astronauts to Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), the first joint test flight of the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket and Orion crew capsule. The EM-1 astronauts would loop around the moon and return to Earth. NASA announced the assessment last week.
Human Deep Space Exploration
NASA just got real about returning to the moon
Time (2/16): Last week, NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot issued a surprise memo, asking the agency to evaluate the addition of astronauts to the first joint test flight of the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket and Orion crew capsule. Exploration Mission-1, previously targeted for late 2018 and uncrewed, is to launch Orion on a journey around the moon and back to Earth. The addition of crew could change the launch date, Lightfoot acknowledged. The “cis-lunar” journey is one Apollo astronauts carried out in the 1960s, notes Time correspondent Jeffrey Kluger who adds, “It was something America did right and did well. And it’s something we could do again.”
Expert panel supports study to accelerate first crewed SLS mission
Space News (2/18): In testimony last week before a U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee hearing on NASA’s future, U.S. space veterans offered support for a study underway to determine if the first joint test flight of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule could be conducted with astronauts on board. Previously, the test flight designated Exploration Mission-1, was to be launched unmanned in late 2018. Those testifying included former Apollo astronaut Tom Stafford; Tom Young, retired Lockheed Martin executive and adviser to several past presidential administrations on space policy; Ellen Stofan, NASA’s former chief scientist; and Apollo 17 astronaut and scientist Harrison Schmitt.
Senate passes 2017 NASA Transition Authorization Act
Spacepolicyonline.com (2/17): The U.S. Senate passed an updated NASA authorization measure on Friday, one similar to a House measure approved in the last Congress. Formulated with bi-partisan support, the Senate measure urges NASA to study how the Orion capsule might serve as a backup to the commercial crew vehicles under development by Boeing and SpaceX, the CST-100 Starliner and crewed Dragon. The crewed Starliner and Dragon are to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The bill also questions the value of the Asteroid Redirect Mission, a robotic effort that would extract a boulder from an asteroid and maneuver it into orbit around the moon, where it could be studied by astronauts launched aboard a Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew vehicle in the 2020s.
ULA gives sneak peek at SLS’ second stage before it gets shipped to Florida
Spaceflightinsider.com (2/20): The first joint test flight of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) heavy lift rocket and Orion crew capsule, the currently unmanned Exploration Mission-1, is planned for late 2018. The Boeing built Interim Cyrogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) will serve as the SLS second stage. United Launch Alliance featured the ICPS hardware during a recent news briefing at its Decatur, Alabama assembly facility. The second stage will be shipped to the SLS launch site, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
Space Science
Mars might already be building rings from its moons
New Scientist (2/17): Some scientists are predicting Mars may one day have rings like Saturn, structures comprised of debris from the red planet’s two moons, Phobos and Deimos. The prospect gained strength after NASA’s Maven mission spacecraft approached Mars in 2013 and spotted a cloud of dust.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft to remain in extra-long orbit for the rest of its time at Jupiter
Los Angeles Times (2/17): NASA will forego plans to reduce the 53 day orbital period of the Juno mission probe around Jupiter to 14 days, Agency Associate Administrator for Science Thomas Zurbuchen announced on Friday. Juno’s current trajectory was established as it arrived at Jupiter last July 4. Plans to reduce the orbit period in October were cancelled when engineers discovered sluggishness in the valves that pressurize the propulsion system with helium. Current Juno’s data gathering at Jupiter is to continue through July 2018.
This powerful new technology may be the only way to explore Venus
Seeker.com (2/19): Efforts to explore the surface of Venus have been thwarted by high temperatures and a crushing atmosphere. Researchers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center are advancing integrated circuit technologies, however, that may help to overcome the obstacles.
Excited reports of ‘habitable planets’ need to come back down to Earth
Space.com (2/20): The past two decades have produced hundreds of alien planet discoveries. Ultimately, the goal is to find convincing evidence of Earth 2.0. Joshua Tan, a Chilean astronomer, cautions the search is more difficult than most appreciate and prone to hype.
Spaceweather.com (2/21): The gash in the sun’s southern hemisphere is feeding a stream of solar wind that is generating auroral displays as it reaches the Earth’s magnetic field. These displays could persist through February.
Low Earth Orbit
The status of Russia’s human spaceflight program (part 1)
The Space Review (2/20): The economic impact of falling energy prices and sanctions over Ukraine appear factors in Russia’s decision to reduce from three to two cosmonauts assigned to the International Space Station this year. Officially, Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, intends to restore the number of orbiting cosmonauts as soon as it adds the large and long delayed Multipurpose Laboratory Module to the station’s Russian segment, writes Bart Hendrickx, a longtime observer. Caught up the delays are plans by Russia to forge the hardware for exploration of the moon.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
SpaceX launches rocket carrying Space Station cargo
New York Times (2/19): SpaceX launched its tenth NASA contracted re-supply mission early Sunday. The Dragon capsule and its 5,500 pound mostly science cargo should reach the station early Wednesday. The first attempt to launch on Saturday was scrubbed because of a problem with an actuator involved in steering the rocket’s second stage. The launch was the first from the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39A since the final space shuttle lift off in July 2011.
Ex-Im Bank included on White House budget hit list
Space News (2/18): The U.S. Import Export Bank, which has helped U.S. aerospace companies sell hardware and services to foreign customers, could be closed under a proposal authored by the White House Office of Management and Budget.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of February 20-24, 2017
Spacepolicyonline.com (2/21): SpaceX’s NASA contracted Dragon re-supply mission is scheduled to reach the International Space Station early Wednesday. A Russian Progress cargo mission is to reach the space station early Friday following a launch early Wednesday. NASA’s independent Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel is also scheduled to convene Thursday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.