In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA’s bold, seven-year Osiris-Rex asteroid mission seeks insight into planet forming processes, emergence of life on Earth.
Space Science
OSIRIS-REx probe launched to asteroid in compelling search for the origins of life
Spaceflightnow.com (9/8): NASA’s Osiris-Rex, the first U.S. attempt to retrieve pieces of an asteroid, successfully lifted off late Thursday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The $1 billion round trip mission will span seven years. “We’re going to an asteroid that represents the first building blocks of the planets in our solar system,” said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator with the University of Arizona.
Pieces of Heaven: A Brief History of Sample-Return Missions
Space.com (9/8): NASA’s ambitious seven year, Osiris-Rex sample return mission to the asteroid Bennu represents a bold move by the U.S. However, it’s not the first such mission. NASA’s Apollo astronauts gathered moon rocks. Other spacecraft have traveled far to collect particles from a comet and the solar wind. NASA is planning a Mars sample return mission as well. Japan’s troubled Hayabusa sample return odyssey to the asteroid Itakawa demonstrates that such robotic expeditions are not always fully successful.
This Telescope Will Probe Alien Atmospheres
Seeker (9/8): Backers are raising funds for a new telescope in Hawaii. The Polarized Light from Atmospheres of Nearby ExtraTerrestrial Systems (PLANETS) telescope would assist astronomers as they seek signs of habitable environments, and possibly life, in the atmospheres of planets beyond the solar system. If successful, the new observatory would be ready for action by mid-2018.
Low Earth Orbit
Tiangong-2 to launch next week in step towards Chinese space station
GB Times (9/8): China is prepared to launch Tiangong-2, a successor to its Tiangong-1 space station on Sept. 15. A pair of Chinese astronauts will follow in October. China has not flown humans in space since 2013, but the latest venture is a step toward the launch of a larger space station in 2018 that could be accessed by other nations. Tiangong-2 will host technical and repair related space activities, according to the report.
GSLV rocket blasts off with INSAT-3DR weather satellite
Spaceflight Insider (9/9): The Indian Space Research Organization successfully launched an advanced weather satellite, INSAT-3DR, on Thursday. The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle included a cyrogenic upper stage.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Investigation begins into SpaceX rocket explosion
Washington Post (9/8): Nearly two dozen representatives from the aerospace industry as well as government stakeholders NASA and the U.S. Air Force and FAA are investigating the Sept. 1 launch pad explosion of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. SpaceX is leading the probe as it did the post launch breakup of a Falcon 9 carrying cargo to the International Space Station in June 2015. It’s unclear how long the investigation will take or how long it will be to repair the launch pad, according to the report.
Op-ed | Despite SpaceX setback, future of private space exploration is bright
Space News (9/8): The reaction to a Sept. 1 SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket explosion at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., seems overwrought, writes Greg Autry, a University of Southern California business professor. The rocket and its satellite payload were lost as the rocket was being fueled for a pre-launch test. “We have put men on the moon and sent probes to the furthest reaches of our solar system. Imagine the miracles you will experience in your lifetime, as long as we never turn back from our failures,” Autry writes in an op-ed.
Suborbital
Blue Origin plans next New Shepard test for October
Space News (9/8): The suborbital launch services company plans a test of the New Shepard rocket’s in flight abort system during a test launch planned for early October in West Texas. The abort will be triggered during maximum dynamic pressure, a stressful regime in the ascent at about 16 seconds after liftoff. It will be the fifth flight for the reusable booster, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos noted in a Sept. 8 e-mail to followers outlining the test plan.