In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA will add a year to its Asteroid Redirect Mission planning.
Human Deep Space Exploration
NASA slips schedule of Asteroid Redirect Mission
Space News (3/3): NASA representatives say plans for the robotic portion of the planned Asteroid Redirect Mission will be pushed back by a year to March 2021 in order to further develop a mission strategy. The two phase initiative begins with a robotic mission to gather a boulder from an asteroid and maneuver it into a stable lunar orbit. NASA astronauts launched aboard an Orion capsule atop a Space Launch System exploration rocket will then visit the boulder. NASA’s crewed mission to the asteroid bolder will be delayed as well, an agency official told the NASA Advisory Council’s human exploration and operations panel this week. The first phase will feature a demonstration of a Solar Electric Propulsion system that could propel astronauts to future deep space destinations.
Year in space
Houston Chronicle (3/3): Astronaut Scott Kelly’s 340 day mission to the International Space Station suggests NASA and its astronaut corps are serious about the human exploration of Mars. Congress has yet to step up, according to an editorial. Kelly returned to Earth earlier this week.
KSC testing the VS designed to dampen SLS swaying on a windy pad
NASAspaceflight.com (3/3): At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, engineers are preparing to test the Vehicle Stabilizer in a motion simulator. The stabilizer will protect the planned Space Launch System exploration rocket from coastal winds as ground teams prepare it for launching on future human deep space missions. The space agency plans to launch the SLS on its first uncrewed test flight with an Orion capsule in late 2028.
Space Science
Hubble telescope captures farthest galaxy to date
Orlando Sentinel (3/3): The Hubble Space Telescope has provided an astronomy team views of the most distant star system yet. The galaxy GN-Z11 is 13.4 billion light years away and formed an estimated 400 million years after the big bang.
Methane snow-capped peaks on Pluto
Cosmos (3/4): New imagery from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft reveals peaks on Pluto covered in snowy methane. The probe carried out the first ever flyby of the distant Kuiper Belt Object in mid-July.
Total solar eclipse coming next week to Asia and the Pacific
USA Today (3/3): Observers in Indonesia will have the best view of a total solar eclipse next Wednesday. Those in Japan, China and Australian will share views of a partial solar eclipse, however.
Low Earth Orbit
Scott Kelly grew two inches in space but NASA is more interested in changes we can’t see
Washington Post (3/3): NASA’s astronaut Scott Kelly’s U.S. record setting mission to the International Space Station came to a close early Thursday as he returned to his Houston, Tex., home. Kelly is two inches taller than when he launched on Mar. 27, 2015 because of the absence of gravity and its pull on his spine. Kelly’s re-adjustments to gravity will be followed closely by NASA as scientists attempt to identify the physical and psychological challenges that will confront astronauts on deep space missions. Kelly’s flight spanned 340 days.
NASA’s last space shuttle external tank to cross oceans, L.A. streets for display
Collectspace.com (3/3): The last of NASA’s space shuttle external tanks will be shipped from New Orleans to Los Angeles through the Panama Canal to the San Diego area, then trucked over the road to join the winged orbiter Endeavour as part of a vertical display planned for the California Science Center.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
McCain, James trade barbs over RD-180 engines
Spacepolicyonline.com (3/3): The U.S. Senate’s Armed Services Committee chairman, John McCain, and U.S. Air Force Secretary Debora Lee James argued Thursday over future imports of Russian RD-180 rocket engines for the launching of U.S. national security payloads. The engines power the first stage of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V. Lawmakers have appropriated funding to develop a U.S. alternative. The U.S. has imposed sanctions on Russia over Moscow’s activities in Crimea and the Ukraine.