In Today’s Deep Space Extra… During a visit to NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) on Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence pointed to 2024 as the date U.S. astronauts will occupy the new Gateway. Slated to launch in early January, India’s Chandrayaan-2 lunar mission is to deploy a lander and rover to touch water ice at the Moon’s south pole. NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope turns 15 on Saturday.
Human Space Exploration
U.S. astronauts could fly to Moon-orbiting station by 2024, Pence tells NASA
Coalition Member in the News – Boeing
Space.com (8/23): Vice President Mike Pence pointed to 2024 as the target date for human occupancy of NASA’s proposed Gateway. The lunar orbiting outpost, now known as the “Gateway,” is to be assembled with NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), starting in 2022. The outpost represents NASA’s turn in human exploration focus from low Earth orbit to deep space. Pence, who chairs the White House National Space Council, spoke Thursday at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC).
Pence reassures Johnson Space Center (JSC) that its best days lie ahead
Spacepolicyonline.com (8/23): Vice President Mike Pence, chair of the White House National Space Council, promised NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) workforce that its best days lie ahead during a visit to the Houston installation on Thursday. He toured the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, a large swimming pool in which astronauts train for spacewalks like those that assembled the International Space Station (ISS), and the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility, in which the Apollo mission Moon rocks are archived. “The Johnson Space Center is a national treasure, and all the men and women who work here are a national asset,” said Pence as he urged them on to establish a permanent human presence on and around the Moon.
NASA chief wants to send humans to the Moon ‘to stay’
Space.com (8/23): Speaking recently at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC), NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said he wishes to avoid another gap in human spaceflight, like that one that prevailed between 1975 and 1981, the end of the Apollo program and the first mission of the space shuttle. The shuttle program also ended in mid-2011 and the U.S. still lacks a means of transporting its own astronauts to and from Earth orbit. The agency now faces an additional gap if it ends direct oversight of the International Space Station (ISS) by 2025 without a successor.
This group of NASA veterans wants to build their own space station
Coalition Member in the News – Axiom Space
Air and Space Magazine (September 2018): Axiom Space, whose personnel include a former NASA International Space Station (ISS) program manager and veteran astronaut, outline their plan to establish a commercial successor to the Space Station, an orbital outpost that would welcome tourists and a range of professionally trained astronauts for research and technology development activities.
Space Science
15 years in space for NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope
NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (8/23): NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, like the Hubble Space Telescope, one of the agency’s great observatories from three decades ago, will mark the 15th anniversary of its launch on Saturday. Spitzer has observed some of the universe’s oldest galaxies and assisted in the discovery of extra solar planets. Spitzer operations are expected to continue into late 2019.
NASA’s finding useful, Chandrayaan-2 will dig deep for water on Moon
Times of India (8/22): Earlier this week, scientists reported a fresh look at lunar data gathered by a NASA instrument aboard India’s orbiting Chandrayaan-1 mission of 2008 that detected frozen water deposits in the polar regions of the Moon. India’s follow on mission, Chandrayaan-2, is to be launched in early January to reach the south pole region of the Moon to explore further with a lander and rover.
Other News
Morhard emphasizes managerial expertise at Senate confirmation hearing for NASA post
SpaceNews.com (8/23): President Trump’s nominee to be NASA’s deputy administrator, James Morhard, appeared before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday as part of his confirmation process. Though lacking, perhaps, in technical expertise, Morhard told lawmakers he’s qualified from a managerial standpoint. In other testimony, Morhard supported restrictions on bipartisan cooperation in space with China. He said he believes humans are a factor in climate change. The Committee is to vote August 29 on whether to send his nomination to the full Senate for consideration.
New Office of Space Commerce director to focus on advocacy and regulatory issues
SpaceNews.com (8/23): Kevin O’Connell is the new director of the U.S. Office of Space Commerce. “Our initial strategy for the Office of Space Commerce involves four basic elements: advocacy, moving regulatory barriers, industry engagement and improving our understanding” of the space industry’s benefits, he said in recent remarks at Arizona State University. The advocacy role is the office’s most challenging, he explained.