In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA Kepler spacecraft recovers from emergency mode.
Human Deep Space Exploration
A major role for the EU in lunar development
The Space Review (4/11): NASA’s efforts to reach Mars with humans in the 2030s creates a large incentive for European powers to lead a lunar development initiative, according to four experts who are part of the International Lunar Decade Working Group. The effort, which would include an international Moon Village, could prove a catalyst in addressing global concerns ranging from climate change and planetary defense to food production, they write.
Space Science
NASA Kepler spacecraft recovers from emergency mode, but what triggered it?
Los Angeles Times (4/11): NASA’s planet-seeking Kepler space telescope has returned to action, NASA reported Monday. The Kepler mission team plans to study transmissions from the space telescope that resumed Sunday to determine whether Kepler can take part in a limited campaign with a ground-based telescope to search for homeless planets and planets that orbit far from their host stars. Kepler did not check in as it was supposed to last week, just before it was to turn its aim to join the Campaign 9 search. Ground-based observatories began their search as planned on April 7.
Stephen Hawking to unveil new space exploration project Tuesday
Space.com (4/11): The initiative called Starshot is scheduled to be unveiled by astrophysicist Stephen Hawking and billionaire Yuri Milner from New York City on Tuesday. Last July, the two men also announced Breakthrough Listen, a decade-long campaign to find extraterrestrial intelligence.
‘Bizarre’ group of distant black holes are mysteriously aligned
Discovery.com (4/12): A South African-led astronomy team seeks an explanation for a strange alignment of 10 super massive black holes at the centers of galaxies in a region of space called ELAIS-N1. Each is separated by millions of light years, but may have ties that date back to the early universe.
Low Earth Orbit
Obama talks about astronaut’s year in space on Discovery News
Discovery.com (4/11): The president offered praised for Scott Kelly, the now retired NASA astronaut who returned to Earth in early March after a U.S. record 340 days in space. Kelly and his Russian cosmonaut colleague Mikhail Kornienko served as subjects in a range of experiments to monitor their physical and psychological health during the long flight. On Monday night, Obama began his week-long stint as guest presenter on Science Presents Discovery News by talking about just how critical Kelly’s long stay in space is to the future of human space travel.
Last NASA space shuttle external tank set for LA to L.A. sea voyage
Collectspace.com (4/11): A last-of-its-kind NASA space shuttle external fuel tank is scheduled to depart the New Orleans area this week for a sea voyage through the Panama Canal to Los Angeles, where it will join the retired shuttle orbiter Endeavour at the California Museum of Science. A new shuttle display that will feature Endeavour, the external tank and two solid rocket boosters is expected to open for public display in 2019. The tank was fabricated at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Private space habitat to launch in 2020 under commercial spaceflight deal
Space.com (4/11): United Launch Alliance and Bigelow Aerospace announced plans Monday to launch a pair of large expandable human space habitats in 2020. A prototype for the BEAM 330 module was delivered to the International Space Station early Sunday aboard a NASA-contracted commercial resupply mission. The Bigelow Expandable Activities Module will undergo a two year space station based trial. The announcement Monday at the 32nd annual Space Symposium in Colorado Springs marks the first collaboration between launch services and space habitat providers. Targeted for launch in 2020, a large post development Bigelow Aerospace expandable would become a destination for space tourists and research projects. Another might be located at the space station.
Major space industry meeting launches in Colorado this week
Space News (4/11): The 32nd annual Space Symposium got underway Monday in Colorado Springs. The annual gathering sponsored by the nonprofit Space Foundation unites civil, military and commercial space leaders who are shaping future space endeavors. More than 4,000 from around the world will attend the four-day symposium.
Commercial competition finding way onto ISS
Aerospace Daily and Defense Report (4/11): Increasingly, commercial competition is making its way to the six-person International Space Station. Competitors Orbital ATK and SpaceX are providing access through their NASA resupply contracts. Made in Space, for instance, recently delivered the Additive Manufacturing Facility, a 3-D printing device that can produce components for hardware and equipment that does not have to be launched. A new habitat, the Bigelow Activities Experiment Module, arrived at the space station last Sunday and could provide a new kind of commercial space habitat for humans after a two-year trial.
Russia to use Baikonur for space launches at least until 2023
Sputnik International (4/11): Russia intends to continue launching humans aboard Soyuz rockets from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at least through 2023, the Russian deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Monday. As Russia develops a domestic launch complex, it is discussing with Kazakhstan the prospect for other countries to use the existing launch infrastructure at Baikonur.