Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - December 30, 2013

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: December 30, 2013 9:16:56 AM CST
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - December 30, 2013

 

NASA TV: www.nasa.gov/ntv

·         10 a.m. - 11 a.m. Central - Replay of Space Station Research: Top 10 Results; Parts 1 and 2 (preempts Space Station Live)

 

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: ISS astronaut Rick Mastracchio captured a "selfie" of fellow astronaut Mike Hopkins on Christmas Eve during the second of their two spacewalks to switch out a failed pump module on the ISS. The picture was seen on the ABC World News, which reaches about 7.4 million people, the NBC News "PhotoBlog" which reaches about 6.8 million people along with other news sources. It was tweeted by Mastracchio (@AstroRM) and retweeted by 3,140 Twitter users. See the photo: http://go.nasa.gov/JF0wiv

 

 

NASA and Human Spaceflight News

Monday – Dec. 30, 2013

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

5 Most Amazing Spaceflight Feats of 2013

Elizabeth Howell --  Space.com

 

The year 2013 marked an incredible one for spaceflight, with space agencies around the world making giant leaps in their own exploration of the solar system, while NASA welcomed the addition of a new commercial cargo ship to its list of supplies for the International Space Station.

Space History: 2014 promises tourism, up close look at a comet

Dave Dooling – Alamogordo (N.M.) Daily News

The first space tourists blast off from Spaceport America, Mars gets two new satellites while the moon welcomes a new rover. And mankind makes its first soft -- very soft -- landing on a comet during 2014.

Cosmonauts Hit Snag with HD Cameras in Record-Breaking Spacewalk

Tariq Malik – Space.com

Two Russian cosmonauts installed new HD camera eyes on the International Space Station during a record-setting spacewalk Friday, only to have to return the devices inside due to an unspecified data glitch.

Long day of headaches for Russian spacewalkers

 

Monte Morin -- Los Angeles Times

It was a day of headaches and broken records for two Russian spacewalkers Friday as the cosmonauts spent over eight hours installing two cameras on the exterior of the International Space Station, only to remove them when they failed to work.

SpaceX sets Jan. 3 for first launch of new year

Communications satellite will serve parts of Asia, Africa

 

James Dean – Florida Today

 

SpaceX is targeting the Cape's first launch of 2014 on Jan 3.A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to blast off with Thaicom Plc.'s Thaicom 6 television satellite at 5:50 p.m. next Friday, the opening of a window that extends to 7:17 p.m.

 

After Series of Delays, Russia Launches New Soyuz Rocket

 

RIA Novosti

 

MOSCOW – A new Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia on Saturday after numerous delays earlier this week, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The ministry said the launch took place at 16:30 Moscow time (12:30 GMT).

Russia launches new Soyuz rocket

Reuters

MOSCOW - Russia successfully launched an upgraded version of its Soviet-design Soyuz rocket on Saturday, the Defence Ministry said, giving a boost to the country's troubled space program.

The Hunt For Meteorites Begins In Antarctica

 

Rae Ellen Biche – NPR

 

Antarctica is one of the best places on Earth to spot these fallen stars.Each winter — which is summer in down south — a team of geologists camps out on an Antarctic glacier in the middle of nowhere, often where no human has ever tread. It's kind of like a space voyage, but a lot cheaper.

 

Chris Hadfield urges space co-operation with China

'It's the next logical step'

 

The Canadian Press

 

Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is calling for more co-operation with China in space and he wants it to be part of any international effort to return to the moon.And he's not alone in his thinking. Space experts agree the Chinese can no longer be left out.

U.S. can still beat China back to moon

Beijing's recent lunar landing shows its advances. U.S. public-private ventures way to go.

 

Mark Whittington – USA Today (Commentary)

 

The Chang'e-3 mission that landed a rover called Yutu on the Bay of Rainbows on the lunar surface proves China's space exploration program has one thing that America's does not -- a clear direction. Its piloted space program has featured missions of increasing complexity, with the latest being two visits to the Tiangong-1 space module, a predecessor of a planned Chinese space station.In the meantime America's space exploration is fraught with confusion, controversy and a conspicuous lack of funding and direction. Ever since President Obama cancelled President George W. Bush's Constellation program that would have returned Americans to the moon, NASA has been headed for an asteroid in the near term. Which asteroid and how Americans will get there are still open questions. … All is not lost:

 

Beidou to cover world by 2020 with 30 satellites

Yang Jian -- Xinhuanet 

BEIJING -- China is planning to expand its homegrown Beidou navigation system by 2020 and make it accurate to within centimeters.

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

5 Most Amazing Spaceflight Feats of 2013

by Elizabeth Howell --  Space.com

The year 2013 marked an incredible one for spaceflight, with space agencies around the world making giant leaps in their own exploration of the solar system, while NASA welcomed the addition of a new commercial cargo ship to its list of supplies for the International Space Station.

Also this year, Virgin Galactic and other private spaceflight companies made strides in their work to make space tourist flights a reality, while one Canadian astronaut became a social media mega-star by showing what life is truly like in space.

Here's a look at five of the most amazing spaceflight feats of 2013:

1) China rover lands on the moon

When China's Chang'3 spacecraft landed on the moon on Dec. 14, it marked the first soft lunar landing in 37 years and the country's first-ever successful touchdown on an extraterrestrial surface. Chang'e 3 also delivered the rover Yutu ("Jade Rabbit") to the lunar surface for a three-month exploration mission.

China is the third country to achieve a soft landing on the moon after Russian and the United States, Chang'e 3 beamed live views of its landing on the moon's Sinus Iridium (Bay of Rainbows), as well as the Chinese flag on Yutu — a symbol of how far China's space program has come in a short while. Chang'e 3 is China's third moon mission, following two orbiter flights, and is expected to spend a year studying the lunar surface. It is named after the legendary Chinese moon goddess Chang'e, with Yutu named after her mythical pet rabbit.

In another milestone for China, three astronauts aboard Shenzhou 10 docked with a small space station prototype Tiangong 1 in June, paving the way for the country to achieve its goal of making a larger space station in the future, analysts say.

2) Private rockets and spaceships blast off

Both dragons and swans visited the International Space Station in 2013, courtesy of two private companies that have multimillion-dollar agreements with NASA to send cargo to the orbiting complex.

The Dulles, Va.-based Orbital Sciences Corp. made its first demonstration in September with its Cygnus spacecraft and Antares rocket, marking a major leap forward for commercial spaceflight. Orbital Sciences has a $1.9 billion contract for eight cargo delivery mission to the space station for NASA using its Antares rockets and Cygnus spacecraft.

The Antares booster launched its first test flight from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va., in April, setting the stage for the September Cygnus debut. Orbital is now slated to launch its first official cargo mission to the station on no earlier than Jan. 7 after a a delay due to an unrelated space station cooling system malfunction.

Meanwhile, the Hawthorne, Calif.-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp. — known better as SpaceX — launched its own unmanned Dragon space capsule on a cargo mission to the space station March this year. It was the second of 12 cargo missions to the station for NASA under a $1.6 billion deal.

SpaceX also test flew a new version of its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, made its first west coast launch from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, and made advances in reusable rocket technology using its Grasshopper prototype. The company's manned version of the Dragon spacecraft also passed key design reviews in 2013. SpaceX's next launch of a Falcon 9 is set for Jan. 3 from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida carrying the Thaicom 6 communications satellite.

3) India and NASA double-team Mars

India's space program went interplanetary in 2013, when the couintry launched its first mission to Mars. The $73.5 million Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) thundered into space successfully in November on its 300-day journey. Engineers initially struggled with an engine problem in the days following the launch, but MOM is now winging its way over on a mission to search for elusive methane on Mars, and to test long-distance communications and space technology.

Meanwhile, NASA's newest robotic mission to Mars looked like it would be pushed back by the government shutdown, but the agency received a special exemption to launch MAVEN on time in mid-November. The $650 million MAVEN mission to Mars — the name is short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution — will be a communications relay for the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers on the surface while also probing the origins of Mars' atmosphere from orbit.

4) Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo makes powered test flights

Space tourism took a huge leap closer to reality in 2013, when Virgin Galactic made two powered test flights of SpaceShipTwo.  Launching from California's Mojave Air and Space Port, the private company's spacecraft zoomed faster than the speed of sound, high above the desert.

On the second flight, pilots also tested the feathered re-entry system that will bring SpaceShipTwo safely back to Earth after a trip into suborbital space. British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, who owns the company, plans to be on the first spaceflight with his family before commercial flights begin in 2014.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is a reusable spacecraft designed to launch paying customers on short flights into space and return them to Earth. The spacecraft is launched from the air by its huge carrier aircraft WhiteKnightTwo and can reach suborbital space, but is not built to launch into orbit. It can carry eight people — two pilots and six passengers — with tickets on sale for $250,000 a seat.

SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo are an evolution of the SpaceShipOne and WhiteKnight vehicles built by aerospace veteran Burt Rutan and his Mojave, Calif.-based firm Scaled Composites to win the $10 million X Prize for reusable private spaceflight.

5) Astronaut Chris Hadfield brings space down to Earth

Chris Hadfield became a space star, as he found time to hobnob with Star Trek stars and create a David Bowie music video tribute in between running an extremely productive science mission on Expedition 35 aboard the International Space Station. The Canadian astronaut commanded the expedition while posting daily tweets, videos and pictures about life in space, charming people all over the world.

Shortly after landing in May, Hadfield announced his retirement from the astronaut corps — but instead of relaxing, he stepped on the accelerator. He released a book and is now on a multicountry tour that, again, is attracting crowds and celebrities (most recently, in London, physicist Stephen Hawking). Then, in fall 2014, Hadfield will start teaching at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.

 

Space History: 2014 promises tourism, up close look at a comet

By Dave dooling – Alamogordo (N.M.) Daily News

The first space tourists blast off from Spaceport America, Mars gets two new satellites while the moon welcomes a new rover.

And mankind makes its first soft -- very soft -- landing on a comet during 2014.

This Week in Space History normally highlights an anniversary in our exploration of space. Today, we look at events in 2014 that will become future anniversaries, starting with a current anniversary.

Ten years ago this month, the twin Mars Exploration Rovers bounced to a landing on the Red Planet -- Spirit on Jan. 5 and Opportunity on Jan. 25. Both far exceeded their 90-day warranties.

Spirit lasted three years before getting stuck in the sand in 2009 and losing contact in March 2010, with 4.8 miles on its odometer. Opportunity, with almost 24 miles, will have made the full 10 years (5.3 Mars years) if it's still calling in on Jan. 25.

One can almost hear it in the plaintive voice of Marvin, the Paranoid Android from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy": "Ninety days. You said this gig was for 90 days. It's been 10 years. I don't suppose you're coming back for me. Did you know that Joint-1 in my arm keeps freezing up because of a heater problem? Not that you'd care. Sigh. Ninety days."

To add insult to injury, attention now is on Curiosity, which landed Aug. 6, 2012, the rover that carries a laser to vaporize rocks for chemical tests (more than 102,000 zaps so far) and cheerily tweets: "I date rocks. 1st Mars rock-exposure age measurements may help in the search for signs of organic carbon." Curiosity will spend 2014 continuing its 12-mile trek from Gale Crater up Mount Sharp, albeit with wheels that are wearing faster than expected. Two new Mars orbiters arrive, NASA's MAVEN -- Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution -- on Sept. 22 and India's Mangalyaan on Sept. 24. This will make India the fourth nation to reach Mars. MAVEN will become the seventh node in the slowly growing interplanetary Internet.

Earthlings will get more views from the first lunar rover since the Soviet Union's Lunkhod 2 on Jan. 15, 1973. Chang'e 3, launched by the People's Republic of China on Dec. 1, touched down on Dec. 14 in Sinus Iridum (Bay of Rainbows). A few hours later its Yutu (Jade Rabbit) rover rolled off to explore the surface near the lander and beam images back. The mission -- another 90-day gig -- is part of a long-range program by China to develop human flights to the moon and beyond.

The European Space Agency attempts the first-ever landing on a comet with the Rosetta spacecraft, launched March 2, 2004. After flybys of Earth, Mars and two asteroids, Rosetta has been hibernating since June 2011. It awakes on Jan. 20, and ESA starts preparing it to orbit comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in April and map the surface.

In November, Rosetta deploys Philae, named for the island where the Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1799. Because the comet's gravity is so low (it's only 2.4 miles wide), Philae's landing pads will extend screws to secure it to the comet's ice. Like their namesakes, the two craft will help us decode the origins of the solar system.

Elsewhere in the solar system, NASA's Cassini marks its 10th anniversary orbiting Saturn on June 11, and during the year will make another 12 flybys of Titan, Saturn's moon that has a nitrogen atmosphere and hydrocarbon lakes. In January, NASA's Juno crosses the orbit of Mars on its way to Jupiter in 2016. New Horizons crosses the orbit of Neptune on Aug. 24 its way to the first-ever flyby of Pluto on July 14, 2015.

In early January, Europe's Gaia spacecraft, launched on Dec. 19, settles into position at L2, a gravitational balance point between Earth and the moon. It will spend the next five years mapping the locations, velocities and brightness of 1 billion stars. It will also hunt for sun-like stars and Earth-like planets.

The International Space Station stays busy as astronauts and cosmonauts conduct research on fluids, flames and physiology, among other fields. The six-person crews rotate in three-person increments with the Soyuz TMA-12M through -15M launches. Notably, Soyuz TMA-14M will carry Yelena Serova, only the fourth Russian woman in space and the first since 1997, and Soyuz TMA-15M will carry Samantha Cristoforetti, the first woman from Italy.

SpaceX's Dragon commercial resupply craft makes four supply runs to ISS, and Orbital Science's smaller Cygnus makes three (one delayed from late 2013). Additional resupply missions are made by Japan's H-II Transfer Vehicle, Europe's last Automated Transfer Vehicle, and four Russian Progress spacecraft.

Russia makes its last major addition to the ISS with launch of the Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module, delayed from 2007, and a European Robotic Arm in April. The arm, Europe's first, can "walk" to any work site around station.

NASA's Orion spacecraft makes its first test flight in September on Exploration Flight Test-1 with a Delta 4-Heavy on a full-up test of the multi-purpose crew vehicle designed to carry astronauts to the moon and beyond. Although it has been in work since 2004, its first manned flight is still six years away.

Finally, the age of space tourism begins in late 2014 with the inaugural passenger flights of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo from Spaceport America near Truth or Consequences. Passengers on previous U.S. and Russian missions were listed as spaceflight participants, and disliked the tourist designation.

Sir Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Galactic, and his family will be the first passengers. They follow by a few weeks the Sept. 29 10th anniversary of the historic second flight by SpaceShipOne, which won the Ansari XPrize and set the stage for this new era in space. The same craft making a second crewed flight within a week of the first one was the key.

The goal was to open a commercial highway to space. So far it has been a steep on-ramp facing multiple challenges. Still, as rocket pioneer Robert Goddard wrote more than a century ago, "The dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow."

Dave Dooling is education director at the New Mexico Museum of Space History.

 

Cosmonauts Hit Snag with HD Cameras in Record-Breaking Spacewalk

Tariq Malik – Space.com

 

Two Russian cosmonauts installed new HD camera eyes on the International Space Station during a record-setting spacewalk Friday, only to have to return the devices inside due to an unspecified data glitch.

Cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy spent just over eight hours — a new endurance record for Russian spacewalks — working outside the space station to installl the new Earth-watching cameras  for the Canadian company ErtheCast as part of an agreement with Russia's Federal Space Agency. But shortly after the installation, Russian engineers reported a problem receiving data from the imaging system.

"It appears that we have seen an unsuccessful attempt at bringing those two cameras to life," NASA spokesman Rob Navias said during spacewalk commentary. "The exact cause of the problem is not known at this time."

The new cameras are designed to snap detailed views of Earth from space for UrtheCast, which will then provide the imagery to customers via the Internet. They launched to the station in late November on the Russian Progress 53 cargo ship.

"UrtheCast's two cameras will stream unprecedented footage of our evolving Earth to anyone with an internet connection," the company's website promises. "In near real-time, you will be able to visit your favorite locales and learn about current events as they unfold."

The UrtheCast cameras include a high-resolution instrument on a swivel platform for detailed observations, and a medium-resolution instrument attached to a fixed platform. Both cameras were initially installed by Kotov and Ryazanskiy on their respective Earth-facing platforms outside the station's Zvezda service module.

"When the flight control team at the Russian Mission Control Center outside Moscow did not see the expected telemetry and electrical connectivity from the newly installed medium and high resolution cameras, Kotov and Ryazanskiy were directed to remove the cameras and return them to the airlock for further analysis," NASA officials said in a statement. "The spacewalkers also were instructed to take detailed photographs of the electrical connectors mated earlier for additional review."

UrtheCast officials have said the company has up to $21 million worth of annual distribution agreements already lined up, and received letters of interest from potential Earth imagery customers that could be worth $79 million each year, according to a report by SpaceNews.

Kotov and Ryazanskiy also installed a new earthquake-monitoring experiment, called Seismoprognoz, and removed an older experiment that tracked the seismic effects of high-energy particles in the near-Earth environment, NASA officials said. That older experiment, called Vsplesk, was installed in 2008. The spacewalkers disposed of it by tossing the experiment into space in a direction that won't endanger the space station, NASA officials said.

The spacewalkers also planned to jettison the frame of an old material exposure experiment, as well as retrieve a case of samples from a materials space exposure experiment during their work outside the International Space Station.

Friday's spacewalk was the third in a single week for the six astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station. It marked the fifth career spacewalk for Kotov — who currently commands the station's Expedition 38 crew — and the second orbital excursion for Ryazanskiy, a flight engineer. NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio, as well as Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, round out the crew.

The previous two spacewalks, on Dec. 21 and Dec. 24, were performed by American astronauts to replace a vital coolant pump on the space station following a Dec. 11 malfunction. Today's excursion was unrelated to those earlier events, NASA officials said.

The International Space Station is the largest structure in space ever built by humans. Let's see how much you know about the basics of this science laboratory in the sky.

In 2013, astronauts and cosmonauts performed a total of 11 spacewalks outside the International Space Station. Friday's spacewalk lasted eight hours and seven minutes, making it the longest Russian spacewalk in history.

The world record for the longest spacewalk is eight hours and 56 minutes, a title won by NASA astronauts Jim Voss and Susan Helms in March 2001 while working at the space station.

 

Long day of headaches for Russian spacewalkers

 

Monte Morin -- Los Angeles Times

It was a day of headaches and broken records for two Russian spacewalkers Friday as the cosmonauts spent over eight hours installing two cameras on the exterior of the International Space Station, only to remove them when they failed to work.

"Back and forth back and forth," quipped one of the cosmonauts as they hauled the two bulky cameras back into a space station airlock. "It was actually easier to take it out than put it in."

Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy had installed the two cameras ahead of schedule, but had to reverse course when the cameras failed to transmit telemetry and other data to ground controllers.

In the process of installing and uninstalling the equipment, the cosmonauts spent 8 hours and 7 minutes in the vacuum of space -- a new Russian record.

The previous Russian record was set earlier this year at 7 hours and 29 minutes. However, the longest international spacewalk record is 8 hours, 56 minutes and was set by NASA astronauts Jim Voss and Susan Helms on March 11, 2001.

The primary goal of Friday's mission was to attach two high-fidelity cameras to a platform on the Zvedza service module of the ISS, according to NASA. The high- and medium-resolution cameras were to be operated by the private company UrtheCast, of Vancouver, Canada. 

The company, whose name is pronounced like "Earth Cast," intends to live stream images of Earth 260 miles below. "Anyone with Internet access will be able to log onto the website and view the world as the astronauts see it," states the company's website.

The cameras will be examined inside the space station to see if the problem can be resolved.

"Thanks for all your hard work," a ground controller told the cosmonauts as they finally entered the ISS and closed the hatch behind them, around 1 p.m. PST. "We're really sorry it worked out this way."

The spacewalk was streamed live on NASA TV and the conversation between Russian ground controllers and the cosmonauts was translated by an interpreter.

It's been a very busy week for ISS crew members, who performed three separate spacewalks.

The first two spacewalks were aimed at repairing a faulty cooling pump on the space station's exterior, and were executed by NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins. The Russian spacewalk was unrelated to the cooling pump problem.

 

SpaceX sets Jan. 3 for first launch of new year

Communications satellite will serve parts of Asia, Africa

 

James Dean – Florida Today

 

SpaceX is targeting the Cape's first launch of 2014 on Jan 3.

A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to blast off with Thaicom Plc.'s Thaicom 6 television satellite at 5:50 p.m. next Friday, the opening of a window that extends to 7:17 p.m.

The launch would be SpaceX's second from the Cape of its upgraded Falcon 9 rocket, and its second of a commercial communications satellite to a geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles above Earth.

On Dec. 3, SpaceX made history with its first commercial launch, sending into orbit a broadcasting satellite for Luxembourg-based SES, one of the world's largest satellite operators.

The Hawthorne, Calif.-based company is following up that success quickly.The satellite scheduled for launch next week was built by Orbital Sciences Corp. and weighs about 7,300 pounds at launch. It will provide satellite television service to South and Southeast Asia and southern Africa.

 

After Series of Delays, Russia Launches New Soyuz Rocket

 

RIA Novosti

 

MOSCOW – A new Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia on Saturday after numerous delays earlier this week, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The ministry said the launch took place at 16:30 Moscow time (12:30 GMT).t week was built by Orbital Sciences Corp. and weighs about 7,300 pounds at launch. It will provide satellite television service to South and Southeast Asia and southern Africa.

 

The rocket put into designated orbit a small research satellite built by students and young scientists.

The new rocket, dubbed the Soyuz-2.1v, is to feature a completely reworked first stage powered by a NK-33 (14D15) rocket engine built by the NK Engines Company in the Russian city of Samara. The rocket lacks the characteristic four boosters that Soyuz and its ancestors have had since the R-7 missile that launched Sputnik in 1957.

The launch was originally scheduled for Monday and was delayed first until Tuesday and then until Wednesday due to concern over a possible malfunction of one of the rocket's engines.

A Russian defense official, Colonel Dmitry Zenin, said later on Wednesday the launch was postponed again and will take place sometime next year.

A state commission that gathered on Saturday morning, decided to launch the rocket at 14:00, but it was also cancelled minutes before the planned blastoff.

The Soyuz, the most frequently launched rocket in the world, has undergone more than 1,700 launches since its debut in 1966. It is one of only two rockets worldwide that are capable of sending astronauts into orbit, the other being the Chinese Long March 2F.

 

Russia launches new Soyuz rocket

 

Reuters

 

MOSCOW - Russia successfully launched an upgraded version of its Soviet-design Soyuz rocket on Saturday, the Defence Ministry said, giving a boost to the country's troubled space program.

The launch of the Soyuz 2.1v rocket, which features a new engine and digital guidance system, had originally been planned for the beginning of 2012 but was postponed due to an accident during testing which caused engine damage, Interfax reported. It was then scheduled to be launched earlier this week but was delayed again, Interfax reported.

The lightweight launch vehicle blasted off Saturday afternoon from Russia's Plesetsk launch pad in the northwest Arkhangelsk region.

A spokesman said it was a debut launch for the rocket to place a scientific earth-monitoring satellite into orbit.

The Soyuz 2.1v is the latest addition to Russia's Soyuz family of rockets, which has become the world's most frequently used booster since its first launch in 1966. In 1961, a prototype of the Soyuz, Vostok, carried the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space. Today, its descendants are the only way to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station.

Despite an improved budget, Moscow's space program has suffered a series of humiliating launch failures in recent years that industry veterans blame on poor management, the legacy of a decade of crimped spending and a brain drain.

 

The Hunt For Meteorites Begins In Antarctica

 

Rae Ellen Biche – NPR

 

Antarctica is one of the best places on Earth to spot these fallen stars.

Each winter — which is summer in down south — a team of geologists camps out on an Antarctic glacier in the middle of nowhere, often where no human has ever tread. It's kind of like a space voyage, but a lot cheaper.

And it's the meteorite that's done most of the traveling.

"It's an amazing journey to think about, and a very precious rock," says Jani Radebaugh, a planetary scientist at Brigham Young University, from a tent about 500 miles from the South Pole. She's one of eight in an expedition group funded by NASA and based out of Case Western Reserve University.

Each day, she and her team members set out on snowmobiles, scanning the horizon for black specks — samples that will eventually make it to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Most of the meteorites have been lying on the ice since they landed on Earth millions of years ago. The glacier keeps them fairly sterile, preserving the specimens almost as a deep freezer would. And the white-and-blue expanse gives a good backdrop for the search, which is a little like looking for an ant on a white tablecloth — if the tablecloth were million-year-old, mile-thick blue ice.

"As soon as you see that dark black fusion crust on the outside, you just get so excited," Radebaugh says. "Everyone jumps up and just starts waving their hands."

Then, they drop to their knees to measure, photograph and collect the meteorite. They get excited because these rocks can offer precious information — like clues about the early solar system, and whether there was ever life on Mars.

The meteorite hunters are a hardy crew. Sleeping on a creaky slab of ice hundreds of feet thick can be a bit unnerving.

"The only thing I can hear is the popping of the glacier underneath me," Radebaugh says. "You're sitting on a giant, moving body of ice. And sometimes you forget that, until you hear the pops and groans. It's really magical."

Radebaugh and her colleagues will spend close to two months out on the ice, one group of a long line that has collected more than 20,000 meteorites in the last few decades.

This year's expedition is a little different from past years. It's a lot shorter — delayed by about a month because of the government shutdown. Bad weather has prevented the other half of the eight-person crew from landing, despite efforts to smooth a landing strip on the ice for the ski-equipped planes.

The team that is on the ground is doing its best, enjoying 24 hours of daylight and the thrill of finding chunks of other worlds.

 

They'll celebrate New Year's Eve under the midnight sun, listening to the popping glacier, and perhaps dreaming about popping a cork.

 

Chris Hadfield urges space co-operation with China

'It's the next logical step'

 

The Canadian Press

Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is calling for more co-operation with China in space and he wants it to be part of any international effort to return to the moon.

And he's not alone in his thinking. Space experts agree the Chinese can no longer be left out.

"I think right now a lot of people see it as kind of crazy to co-operate with the Chinese, but I think it's the next logical step," Hadfield recently told The Canadian Press.

China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003 and Hadfield noted the country's ambitious space program aims to eventually put an astronaut on the moon.

On Dec. 15, a Chinese Chang'e 3 rocket landed a rover on the lunar surface, making China the third country to do so after the United States and the former Soviet Union.

It was the world's first soft landing of a space probe on the moon in nearly four decades.

Offer to train foreign astronauts

He also pointed out that China launched an experimental space station in 2011. It will be replaced with a more permanent one which will be completed in 2020.

A Chinese astronaut said in September his country is willing to open its space station to foreign astronauts and even train them for such missions.

China was barred from participating in the current orbiting space station, largely because of U.S. objections over political differences.

Hadfield added that after the Russians launched the Mir Space Station in February 1986, other nations dropped in for a visit during its 15 years in orbit.

NASA says on its website that Mir hosted 125 cosmonauts and astronauts from 12 different nations before it was deorbited and sunk into the ocean in 2001.

Hadfield, who became a Canadian astronaut in 1992, visited Mir in November 1995 on the U.S. Space Shuttle Atlantis. He was the only Canadian to ever board the Russian space station.

"If you predicted in 1989 that I would fly on an American shuttle to go build a Russian spaceship, people would have said you were crazy," said Hadfield, who last March became the first Canadian to command the International Space Station.

"So I think looking forward, there's a great opportunity to include the Chinese in the world space program — the international space program."

To the moon

Hadfield said a logical progression would be to include as many countries as possible in an international mission beyond Earth — "hopefully including China and India and the other countries that have launch capability and then progress to the next stepping stone, the next natural waypoint out to space, which is the moon."

Iain Christie, executive vice-president of the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada, says China's presence in space cannot be ignored. The association represents the interests of more than 700 aerospace companies across Canada.

'I think China is back where we were in North America 50 years ago. They're excited about space.'- Iain Christie, Aerospace Industries Association of Canada

"I think China is back where we were in North America 50 years ago," he said in an interview from Ottawa. "They're excited about space, they're not spending their time justifying why they're in space, they're spending their time justifying why they're not doing more.

"I am hopeful that their enthusiasm for space becomes infectious to the rest of us."

Christie said decisions will have to be made in the coming years.

"We're going to have to decide what to do about engaging with China in space — whether it's to be more collaborative or more competitive," he said. "I don't know which one we'll choose."

Walt Natynczyk, the new president of the Canadian Space Agency, was in China in September to attend the annual International Astronautical Congress in Beijing. It was described as an opportunity to visit some major space actors in the country.

Meantime, as Natynczyk continues work on a long-term space plan, Hadfield said Canada must look at where the world's space program is headed.

"Canada needs to choose what makes sense to us," he said. "There's so much technology that we need in power generation, in navigation, in communications, in environmental recycling — there's all sorts of technical issues that we need to solve that will also have use for us here back in Canada."

 

U.S. can still beat China back to moon

Beijing's recent lunar landing shows its advances. U.S. public-private ventures way to go.

 

Mark Whittington – USA Today (Commentary)

The Chang'e-3 mission that landed a rover called Yutu on the Bay of Rainbows on the lunar surface proves China's space exploration program has one thing that America's does not -- a clear direction. Its piloted space program has featured missions of increasing complexity, with the latest being two visits to the Tiangong-1 space module, a predecessor of a planned Chinese space station.

In the meantime America's space exploration is fraught with confusion, controversy and a conspicuous lack of funding and direction. Ever since President Obama cancelled President George W. Bush's Constellation program that would have returned Americans to the moon, NASA has been headed for an asteroid in the near term. Which asteroid and how Americans will get there are still open questions.

After China's successful series of robotic landings on the moon, many space experts agree the Chinese will probably execute a moon walk sometime in the 2020s. If and when that happens and if Americans are not on the moon to greet them, China becomes the world's space exploration leader and all that implies.

All is not lost:

--NASA currently has the robotic Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer) in lunar orbit.

--A private-sector contest, the Google Lunar X Prize, might result in another lunar landing or landings likely by at least one American team, by the end of 2015. This depends on one or more of these private groups raising enough money to pay for both their own lunar rover and lander and a rocket launch to the moon.

--Bigelow Aerospace, which proposes to build its own space station made of inflatable modules, recently produced a report calling for a commercial lunar base. The base would be established using a model in which NASA provides financing and resupply contracts for private space craft to service the International Space Station.

In one scenario, NASA could provide the manned Orion deep space craft which would be launched with the heavy-lift rocket, Space Launch System, while the private sector could provide lunar landing vehicles and the habitats that would comprise a lunar base. The lunar base would be established and owned by a commercial enterprise and NASA would be a core customer leasing space.

The Bigelow plan also calls for establishing a regime respecting private property rights on the moon, necessary if any commercial entity plans to start mining operations and other money making enterprises. This would likely require some kind of international agreement on the scale of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 that prohibited claims of sovereignty on other worlds.

With Chang'e-3 moon landing on Dec. 14, China is doing a great job pursuing the Apollo model of space exploration. NASA could do the same. And if NASA were to partner with commercial entities it would do even better. The strength, experience and resources of NASA would be married to the flexibility and imagination of the commercial sector. If that is made to happen, America would be able to leave China in the lunar dust in the new space race.

Mark Whittington writes about space for Yahoo and other venues. He is the author of The Man from Mars: The Asteroid Mining Caper.

 

Beidou to cover world by 2020 with 30 satellites

Yang Jian -- Xinhuanet 

BEIJING -- China is planning to expand its homegrown Beidou navigation system by 2020 and make it accurate to within centimeters.

Currently the system can reach an error margin as low as 5 meters in trials and can be further improved to within centimeters to compete with the dominant US Global Positioning System, officials said yesterday.

The navigation system has been providing accurate and stable services to Asia-Pacific users since China launched it a year ago and other countries in Asia are welcome to use it, Ran Chengqi, director of the China Satellite Navigation Office, told a press conference in Beijing.

Beidou, which means the Big Dipper in Chinese, has functionality and performance "comparable" to the GPS system, Ran said.

The Chinese system has 16 satellites serving the Asia-Pacific so far and the number is expected to grow to 30 by 2020.

Accuracy can be within 7 meters in Beijing, Zhengzhou, Xi'an and Urumqi in central and north China and can reach an accuracy of 5 meters in some low-latitude Asian countries, according to an evaluation of its trial operation, Ran said.

The Beidou Ground Base Enhancement System's 11 base stations are expected to help improve Beidou's positioning accuracy from an error margin of 10 meters to within several centimeters or even millimeters under optimum conditions, similar to or better than the US-developed GPS, experts in Shanghai said earlier.

Shanghai has the ability to improve the accuracy of Beidou to within 50 centimeters with the building of two enhanced ground stations, the experts said.

"Two stations have been set up in Shanghai to provide positioning services especially for mobile devices that have been able to cover the whole city," said Shen Xuemin, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' navigation department.

Beidou is the only satellite navigation system that offers telecommunication services. That means that, apart from giving users location and time information, Beidou can also send users' information to other people and communicate with users via text messages.

China is encouraging other countries in Asia to adopt it by offering the service free, as the United States does with the civilian GPS network, said Liu Qixu, director of the Beidou Satellite System Application Center.

Stations are being built in Pakistan to improve the service there and Thailand has signed up to use Beidou for disaster forecasting.

The United States' system is currently the dominant provider of navigation services for vehicles in China, with its GPS system used in 95 percent of the country's navigation market.

China has invested billions of yuan in the development of Beidou, Ran said. During the trial operation, more than 100,000 vehicles in nine provinces and cities across China are using the Beidou system.

In Guangzhou, some 10,000 officials' cars have been installed with the system to supervise their use and cut down on unauthorized private use.

China launched the first satellite for the Beidou system in 2000, and a preliminary version of the system has been used in traffic control, weather forecasting and disaster relief work on a trial basis since 2003.

More than 1,000 Beidou terminals were used after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake to provide information from the disaster area. The system was also used during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the 2010 Shanghai Expo to pinpoint traffic congestion and supervise venues.

 

 

END

 

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