In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA prepares to start work on a powerful new Space Launch System upper stage to extend human deep space exploration.
Human Deep Space Exploration
NASA’s Bill Hill talks SLS scheduling and Exploration Upper Stage
Spaceflight Insider (1/29): As early as next week, NASA plans to kick off development of the Exploration Upper Stage, a more powerful second stage for the Space Launch System exploration rocket, according to Hill, NASA deputy associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development. The powerful EUS would sit atop the core stage of the SLS to become part of Exploration Mission-2, the first crewed test flight of the powerful new exploration rocket, a mission that would send astronauts in an Orion capsule around the moon and back to Earth for an ocean splashdown and recovery. The space agency is aiming for an August 2021 lift off for EM-2.
NASA stays on course for Asteroid Redirect Mission
Planetary Society (1/28): The Asteroid 2008 EV5 remains the target for NASA’s robotic, solar electric propelled Asteroid Redirect Mission, a journey to gather a boulder from the surface of the 400 kilometer, or 248 mile, wide planetary object and steer it into orbit around the moon. The boulder would become a destination for U.S. astronauts launched in NASA’s Orion capsule atop a Space Launch System exploration rocket. “We’d like to go to something we haven’t been to before.” Michele Gates, the ARM program director, told a science gathering in Monrovia, Calif.
When NASA moves out of low Earth orbit, will private companies move in?
Christian Science Monitor (1/28): In order to meet its goals of exploring Mars with humans, NASA must leave low Earth orbit to the U.S. commercial sector.
Space Science
Violent impact that created Moon mixed lunar and Earth rocks
Space.com (1/28): New research builds on the theory that a violent collision between a second planetary object and the Earth about 100 million years after the solar system formed was responsible for creating the moon. Debris from the blow thoroughly mixed before separating into the Earth and the moon, suggesting the collision was more than glancing, according to the UCLA scientist who led the studies based on materials gathered from the moon’s surface by NASA’s Apollo astronauts.
Low Earth Orbit
Space warfare with Russia and China? Pentagon urged to prepare for it.
Washington Post (1/27): A new report from the Center for New American Security finds U.S. military satellite systems vulnerable to possible attack from China or Russia. “Space is going to be a vulnerable domain, so we’re going to have to think of ways to mitigate that risk and mitigate those threats,” said the report’s author, Elbridge Colby . “Fundamentally, we’re going to have to find ways to persuade or coerce our adversaries not to take full advantage of their abilities to hurt us in space.”
We never should have mothballed the Space Shuttle
Scientific American (1/28): In an op-ed, retired NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao asserts a decision by policy makers to retire NASA’s space shuttle fleet was a mistake. The shuttle orbiters were the most capable flying machines ever developed in spite of the losses of Challenger and Columbia and their astronaut crews, he writes. NASA and the nation paid tribute Thursday to those who gave their lives in the Apollo1 fire and the two shuttle tragedies with an annual Day of Remembrance.
On Challenger’s 30th anniversary, NASA reflects on its fallen heroes
AmericaSpace.com (1/28): On Thursday, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a former astronaut, led a tribute to the 17 astronauts lost in the Apollo 1 and shuttle Challenger and Columbia tragedies. Bolden visited Arlington National Cemetery as part of NASA’s annual Day of Remembrance.
Wife of astronaut Ron McNair reflects on Challenger disaster
CBS News (1/28): Cheryl McNair, wife of NASA astronaut Ron McNair, who was among seven men and women that perished aboard the shuttle Challenger 30 years ago Thursday, recalled the tragedy. She also speaks of the value of the knowledge of science and engineering McNair gained to become the second African American to travel in space on a mission two years before the tragedy.
Space Station crew goes silent to recall fallen astronauts | video
Space.com (1/28) International Space Station commander Scott Kelly, fellow NASA astronaut Tim Kopra and European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake paid tribute Thursday to the 17 astronauts lost aboard the shuttles Challenger and Columbia and the Apollo 1 fire. Their moment of silence marked NASA’s Day of Remembrance from Earth orbit.