The sun shook off some of its lethargy in December. Bob Zimmerman gives an update on the entry in the solar cycle data: Yippee! Solar scientists finally get it right – Behind The Black.
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A big solar flare this week led to the delay of the Orbital Sciences Antares launch of the Cygnus cargo delivery to the ISS: Orbital Sciences Launch to Space Station with NASA Research Reset for Thursday | NASA
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More at Spaceweather.com – Jan.8.14.
Update: Check out this impressive timeline of the Struggle for 21st Century U.S. Human Spaceflight-Capabilities created by John Kavanagh. It shows the
announcements, awards, cancelations, transformations, launches and landings as America stumbles to develop new capabilities for human spaceflight in the 21st century.
More space policy/politics related links:
Update 2:
This NASA video is of an event to mark the 10 years of Mars exploration by the Spirit and Opportunity rovers:
NASA and the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum Media held public events at the museum to commemorate 10 years of roving across Mars. Activities highlighted the images and achievements of Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity and how Mars robotic exploration and discovery will aid plans for a future human mission to Mars. NASA landed the rovers on Mars in January 2004 and both completed three-month prime missions in April 2004. Although Spirit stopped communicating with Earth in March 2010, Opportunity continues to explore. The rovers have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life.
See also Mars Exploration Program: Spirit & Opportunity 10-Year Highlights
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The latest selection of space policy/politics related posts:
Recent online space policy discussions:
Meg Schwamb of the citizen science program Planet Hunters posts a video of a rehearsal of the talk she gave at the American Astronomical Society conference underway in Washington DC this week: AAS Talk – Planet Hunters: Kepler by Eye – Planet Hunters
