Environmental Fruitcakes: 2012

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: December 31, 2012 5:51:01 PM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: SPECIAL EDITION: A Look Back at Human Spaceflight (and more) News in 2012 & Look Ahead to 2013

Human Spaceflight (& Mars) News – 2012 & 2013
January – December 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Curiosity self portrait taken Oct 31 & Nov 1, 2012

HEADLINES AND LEADS

2012: The year that shipped out the space shuttles

The photography highlight throughout 2012 was the delivery of the space shuttle orbiters to their final resting places, and Spaceflight Now's team captured some remarkable shots along the way. Here are our favorite shots from the past year of Discovery going to the Smithsonian, Endeavour heading west to Los Angeles and Atlantis transferring to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. (NO FURTHER TEXT)

The Year in Space: Hello to Mars ... farewell to Neil Armstrong

Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log

Every year marks beginnings and endings, but when it comes to space exploration, 2012 ranks as a big year for both starts and stops. SpaceX opened what could be a new era for commercial spaceflight. NASA's Curiosity rover began what could turn out to be a decade-long mission on Mars. First moonwalker Neil Armstrong, arguably the world's best-known (and most private) astronaut, passed away. So did Sally Ride, America's first woman astronaut. And after 30 years of service, the space shuttle fleet finally settled into museum retirement. Here's our 16th annual "Year in Space" roundup…

2012 review: The year in space

New Scientist

A Mars rover's daredevil landing, a private spaceflight boom, and a man leaping from the stratosphere were among the top space news events this year.

When Dragon made commercial spaceflight a reality

Charles Black - Space Exploration News (SEN.com)

2012 was the year of the Dragon - the first private spacecraft to deliver cargo supplies to the International Space Station. It took SpaceX, the privately owned space business founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk, just 10 years to design and build Dragon, and the rocket which launched it. In the last two years SpaceX has achieved a number of firsts. In June 2010 the company's Falcon 9 had its inaugural flight and became the first private rocket to reach orbit. In December 2010 Falcon 9 had its second launch, and this time its Dragon spacecraft separated from the rocket and entered orbital flight for the first time.

Commercial spaceflight showed its ambitions in 2012

Charles Black - Space Exploration News (SEN.com)

2012 saw commercial space make big strides and announce ambitious plans. Although astronauts continued to be ferried to and from the space station aboard Russian Soyuz vehicles, several companies made progress towards offering human spaceflight capability. The potential of commercial operators was highlighted by US company SpaceX which completed two successful trips to the space station with the cargo version of its Dragon spacecraft.

The Year's Most Audacious Private Space Exploration Plans

Adam Mann - Wired.com

It has been a remarkable and exciting year for commercial spaceflight companies. Private asteroid mining! Commercial trips to the moon! Mars settlements! We barely had time to catch our breath from the last secret organization announcement when suddenly some other team was cropping up and declaring a bold new adventure in space. "You had the unveiling of these really audacious business plans that at first blush you would dismiss as impossible," said journalist and aerospace analyst Jeff Foust, editor and publisher of the space-industry-watching The Space Review. "But when you look at both the technical and financial pedigree of the people backing these systems, you step back and say, 'Well, maybe there's something here.'"

13 New Space Missions to Watch In 2013

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

This year has been a busy one for space missions, and it looks like next year will ramp things up even more. Though NASA has retired its space shuttles, astronauts and cosmonauts are still launching regularly on Russian rockets to the International Space Station, and will continue to do so. Plus, China is planning another manned docking mission for 2013, and many more countries, such as South Korea, India, Canada and a coalition of European nations, will launch robotic science probes next year. Here's a look at 13 notable launches to look out for in the coming year…

Looking Back-Looking Forward: 50 Years with NASA

Emma Sylvester Brown - AmericaSpace.org

For the past 50 years, NASA has been responsible for achievements in space—and on Earth. In the past year alone, NASA succeeded in landing the most sophisticated rover on the surface of Mars, carried out the first-ever commercial mission to the International Space Station, and advanced the systems needed to send humans deeper into space. "We are able to keep the United States the world leader in space exploration—and continue to implement America's bipartisan space plan—because of our talented and dedicated work force," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

Russia to Spend $70 Billion on Space Program in 2013-2020

Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.org

Russia is expected to spend 2.1 trillion rubles—about $70 billion—on the development of its national space industry in the next eight years, according to a statement last week by Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, which was quoted by Space Daily and RIA Novosti. At present, the International Space Station is a crucial arm in that program, with approximately a third of the Earth-orbiting outpost constructed and operated by Russia. Their hardware includes the Zvezda service module, which provides primary attitude control and living quarters, together with the Zarya control module, the Pirs airlock, the Poisk and Rassvet Mini-Research Modules, and the Soyuz and Progress crew and cargo vehicle. More than a decade later, the Russian Segment remains a critical component of the ISS, although its final scheduled element, the Nauka science module, has been the subject of significant delay and is not expected to arrive until 2013 at the earliest.

13 people to watch in politics in 2013

Mackenzie Weinger - Politico.com

Who's set to grab headlines in 2013? From a newly appointed senator to a retired astronaut, political observers will have plenty of personalities to watch out for in the next year. And with familiar faces reinventing themselves and new potential powerhouses arriving on the scene, expect noteworthy efforts from the following group of politicians, policymakers and media leaders. Here's POLITICO's list of 13 to watch in 2013. You won't want to miss them:

Mark Kelly

Mark Kelly may not be a politician — yet — but he has a message. The 48-year-old has long been in the public eye, as the husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and as a NASA astronaut, and 2013 will be no different as he takes a high-profile turn speaking out against gun violence. Kelly may not be an elected official, but he has a major platform nonetheless as someone the public, and the media, turns to on the issue of gun control.

Here are four space stories to watch develop in 2013

John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)

You can find summaries of this year's top stories in space anywhere, but what matters more is the top stories in space next year. Here is a quick look at four stories to watch in space in 2013…

Key space issues for 2013

Jeff Foust - The Space Review (Analysis)

The end of the year is a natural time to reflect on the past year's accomplishments and failures. And, in 2012, there's a lot to reflect upon, from the successful landing of the Mars rover Curiosity to the beginning of commercial cargo flights to the International Space Station. There was also plenty of drama about the future of NASA's Mars exploration program and its planetary science program in general (as yet unresolved, along with the rest of the NASA budget); steady, if slow, progress on both large government space projects and smaller commercial suborbital efforts; and the unveiling of some audacious, long-term private space efforts that generated both excitement and skepticism. It is, though, more useful to look ahead: what can we expect for the coming year in space? Several key issues are immediately apparent, from ongoing debates about federal spending, including the looming specter of across-the-board budget cuts, to upcoming milestones for suborbital and orbital commercial vehicles. The success—or failure—of these efforts could have significant implications for both public and private sector space efforts in the years to come.

First 'Alien Earth' Will Be Found in 2013, Experts Say

Mike Wall - Space.com

The first truly Earth-like alien planet is likely to be spotted next year, an epic discovery that would cause humanity to reassess its place in the universe. While astronomers have found a number of exoplanets over the last few years that share one or two key traits with our own world — such as size or inferred surface temperature — they have yet to bag a bona fide "alien Earth." But that should change in 2013, scientists say. "I'm very positive that the first Earth twin will be discovered next year," said Abel Mendez, who runs the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo.

MEANWHILE ON MARS…

Road trip on tap for NASA's Mars rover in new year

Alicia Chang - Associated Press

Since captivating the world with its acrobatic landing, the Mars rover Curiosity has fallen into a rhythm: Drive, snap pictures, zap at boulders, scoop up dirt. Repeat. Topping its to-do list in the new year: Set off toward a Martian mountain - a trek that will take up a good chunk of the year. The original itinerary called for starting the drive before the Times Square ball drop, but Curiosity lingered longer than planned at a pit stop, delaying the trip. Curiosity will now head for Mount Sharp in mid-February after it drills into its first rock.
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COMPLETE STORIES

The Year in Space: Hello to Mars ... farewell to Neil Armstrong

Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log

Every year marks beginnings and endings, but when it comes to space exploration, 2012 ranks as a big year for both starts and stops. SpaceX opened what could be a new era for commercial spaceflight. NASA's Curiosity rover began what could turn out to be a decade-long mission on Mars. First moonwalker Neil Armstrong, arguably the world's best-known (and most private) astronaut, passed away. So did Sally Ride, America's first woman astronaut. And after 30 years of service, the space shuttle fleet finally settled into museum retirement. Here's our 16th annual "Year in Space" roundup:

Top stories of 2012

It's always tough to limit the list to five, so I'm including an "other" category in this bunch…

·         Curiosity goes to work on Mars: After a long cruise and seven minutes of terror, NASA's nuclear-powered Curiosity rover was dropped onto the Red Planet's surface in August to determine whether Mars ever had the chemical requirements for life. Curiosity soon figured out that it landed in the midst of an ancient riverbed, and started sniffing out evidence of complex chemicals. This whole rover thing is working so well that NASA wants to do it again in 2020.

·         Godspeed, Neil Armstrong: Just as Curiosity was settling in for the long haul, Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong died of complications from heart surgery in August, at the age of 82. A nation mourned, and Apollo 13's Jim Lovell said Armstrong's passing "closed the book on the Camelot of manned spaceflight." The farewell to Armstrong came just a month after Sally Ride died at the age of 61, after a battle with pancreatic cancer. After her death, revelations about her complicated personal life stirred up controversy.

·         SpaceX delivers the goods: The company founded by dot-com billionaire Elon Musk a decade ago finally sent a Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station during a demonstration flight in May, marking the space station's first commercial delivery. SpaceX did it again in October, turning what once seemed like science fiction into the new routine. SpaceX is also among three ventures getting a total of $1.1 billion to develop new spaceships capable of carrying astronauts to and from the space station.

·         Farewell tour for shuttles: After months of decommissioning, all three of the retired space shuttles completed their final journeys to their new museum homes. Discovery went to the National Air and Space Museum's annex, near Washington. Endeavour made a cross-country flight and cross-town trek to the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Atlantis was towed to Kennedy Space Center's visitor complex. And the prototype shuttle Enterprise was shifted from the Smithsonian to New York's Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. In October, the Enterprise got a buffeting from Superstorm Sandy.

·         Asia's space efforts rise: China reached new milestones in June by putting its first woman in space, on a mission that marked the Chinese space program's first crewed docking. The test marked a significant step toward setting up an orbital space station, which China wants to do by 2020. In December, North Korea put a satellite in orbit, stirring new concerns about the isolated country's intentions. (The satellite went into a tumble, and all the signs suggest that whatever orbital mission it had ... has failed.)

·         Other stories: June's transit of Venus marked the last event of its kind until 2117. NASA's Messenger probe detected water ice on Mercury. NASA's twin Grail probes arrived in lunar orbit, did their job and crash-landed on the moon, all in the course of a year. In November, a total solar eclipse wowed skywatchers, including yours truly.

Top trends of 2013

For some reason, my crystal ball is showing a fuzzy picture when it comes to the next year's trends. Maybe that's because we're in the midst of a hiatus for U.S. human spaceflight, or maybe I'm just missing the big picture. It's up to you to tell me in the comment section what I'm forgetting.

• Commercial astronauts take off: Virgin Galactic is closing in on the first powered flight of its SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, and commercial test pilots could soon break the space barrier for the first time in more than eight years. Under the most favorable circumstances, it's even conceivable that paying passengers could be going on Virgin Galactic's suborbital space tours by the end of 2013. But we've heard all this before ...

• Space gets a business case: In November, Uwingu announced that it would launch a planet-naming project to raise money for researchers (and investors). Meanwhile, two dozen teams are jockeying for position to send rovers to the moon and win a piece of the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize. Crowdsourcing is powering space elevator ideas and DIY satellite projects. Planetary Resources has a plan to make enough money building space telescopes to fund an asteroid-mining venture. Will spacey ideas like these actually pay off in 2013? Stay tuned.

• Earth's twin detected at last: Astronomers are already detecting planets in cosmic environments that just might support life as we know it. But they're aiming for an even more ambitious goal: to find Earthlike worlds, in Earthlike orbits, around sunlike stars. As NASA's Kepler mission builds up its database, will the data point to such planets? Or is it still too soon?

• Will NASA change direction? NASA is working on a next-generation heavy-lift rocket and a heavy-duty spaceship, with the aim of launching test flights as early as 2014, crewed flights in 2021, and a human mission to a near-Earth asteroid in the mid-2020s. But some experts are questioning whether NASA is on the right path. Tight budgets for planetary science add to the uncertainty, particularly with a fiscal cliff looming. Will there be more shifts (or downsizings) in America's space vision?

• Comets in the spotlight: Two comets have the potential to wow Northern Hemisphere observers in 2013: Comet PANSTARRS in March, and Comet ISON in November. It's too early to tell whether these alien visitors will live up to high expectations, but if the cosmos plays its cards right, the brightest highlights of the coming year may well turn out to be these "stars of wonder."

• Other trends: The sun is due to reach the height of its 11-year solar activity cycle in 2013, although so far this solar max is looking relatively wimpy. NASA's MAVEN mission to Mars is set for launch in November. Meanwhile, China is planning to launch another set of astronauts into orbit, as well as a robotic moon rover.

2012 review: The year in space

New Scientist

A Mars rover's daredevil landing, a private spaceflight boom, and a man leaping from the stratosphere were among the top space news events this year.

Curiosity lands on Mars

After an 8.5-month cruise from Earth, NASA's Curiosity rover touched down on the Red Planet on 6 August, generating cheers, tears and flurries of tweets – this image is an artist's impression of how it would have looked on the spot. The 900-kilogram craft was the first interplanetary visitor to use the ambitious Sky Crane manoeuvre, which involved lowering the car-size rover on nylon tethers from a hovering descent vehicle.

Since landing, Curiosity has discovered an ancient riverbed and tasted hints of carbon-based compounds. But the most tantalising target lies ahead: a 5-kilometre-high mountain called Aeolis Mons, with layered sediments that might contain clues to the possibility of life.

SpaceX docks with the ISS

"Looks like we caught a dragon by the tail," astronaut Don Pettit told NASA mission control on 25 May, after using a robotic arm to capture a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. It was the first time a private spaceship had docked with the International Space Station.

On 10 October, SpaceX followed up the feat by delivering its first contracted cargo to the ISS and returning on 28 October with precious science experiments and biological samples.

Exoplanet found next door

After years of searching, astronomers announced on 17 October that they had spotted an Earth-mass planet in Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to our own, at about 4.2 light years away.

Although the planet probably has a rocky composition like Earth's, it is no vacation destination. The planet orbits so close to its star that its year lasts just over three Earth days, and its searing hot surface may be covered with lava.

Transit of Venus

It was a celestial event that won't be seen again until December 2117. On 5 or 6 June, depending on your location, the planet Venus could be seen from Earth gliding in front of the sun's face. Only six such transits had previously been seen.

Planet hunters had a keen interest in the crossing: measurements of how much sunlight Venus blocks during a transit can help refine the search for exoplanets that transit their host stars. And light that passes through Venus' atmosphere can offer clues to its composition, in turn shoring up techniques for studying the atmospheres of alien worlds.

Skydiver breaks the sound barrier

Felix Baumgartner broke multiple records when he stepped out of a capsule 39 kilometres above New Mexico and plummeted back to Earth on 14 October. The mission, sponsored by the Red Bull Stratos team, allowed him to claim the highest crewed balloon flight and the highest freefall jump. Preliminary measurements also suggest that Baumgartner became the first human to break the sound barrier in free fall: his reported maximum velocity on the way down was 1342.8 kilometres per hour, or Mach 1.24.

Neil Armstrong dies

On 25 August, the world said goodbye to the first human to walk on the moon. Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong is best remembered for taking that "one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind" on 20 July 1969.

Uncomfortable with his newfound celebrity, Armstrong retired from NASA shortly after the moon landing and returned to his native Ohio to teach aeronautical engineering at the University of Cincinnati. He died, aged 82, following complications from heart surgery.

Asteroid miners open for business

Backed by Google billionaires, in April the private spaceflight company Planetary Resources announced its plans to begin mining asteroids. Co-founders Eric Anderson (on the left) and Chris Lewicki said they will use their combined expertise in NASA robotics and space tourism to launch 10 to 15 prospecting telescopes into Earth orbit over the next five years.

Exploratory spacecraft will fly out to any promising targets for further studies and eventually for mining. The initial goal is to collect water, which can be split into hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel. This should allow the company to set up interplanetary gas stations that will open up highways for spaceflight, Anderson says.

Private firm offers moon trips

While robots mine asteroids, a private company called Golden Spike plans to send humans back to the moon. Alan Stern, a former administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, announced on 6 December that he had co-founded the Colorado-based company to offer regular trips to the lunar surface starting in 2020. A proposed design for a lander is shown in this illustration.

Governments, corporations and individuals can buy tickets to the moon for scientific purposes, to mine for resources or for bragging rights. But with an expected price tag of $1.4 billion for a two-person flight, Stern says the company's main market will likely be foreign space agencies.

Dark matter detector suffers setback

The smoking gun for dark matter has been holstered. Most physicists think dark matter is made of weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs, which only interact with normal matter via gravity. When two WIMPs meet, they should annihilate and spew out new particles, including high-energy gamma rays.

In November scientists working with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope revealed their long-awaited analysis of gamma rays coming from the centre of the galaxy. An independent study released in April had reported a spike at 130 gigaelectronvolts – hailed by many as a strong sign of dark matter interactions. But the official word from Fermi, based on more data, is that the signal has faded to statistical insignificance.

Astronomical unit gets redefined

A fundamental unit of distance between objects in the solar system got a makeover at a meeting of the International Astronomical Union in Beijing, China, in August. According to the voters, the official definition of the astronomical unit is now exactly 149,597,870,700 metres.

For the past 36 years the formal definition for the astronomical unit had been based on the average distance between Earth and the sun, or 149,597,870,691 metres. That was calculated in a way that depends on the mass of the sun, which is changing as the sun radiates energy. Although the recent decision doesn't alter the value by much, it simplifies things and should improve the accuracy of measurements over time.

When Dragon made commercial spaceflight a reality

Charles Black - Space Exploration News (SEN.com)

2012 was the year of the Dragon - the first private spacecraft to deliver cargo supplies to the International Space Station. It took SpaceX, the privately owned space business founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk, just 10 years to design and build Dragon, and the rocket which launched it.

In the last two years SpaceX has achieved a number of firsts. In June 2010 the company's Falcon 9 had its inaugural flight and became the first private rocket to reach orbit. In December 2010 Falcon 9 had its second launch, and this time its Dragon spacecraft separated from the rocket and entered orbital flight for the first time.

After orbiting Earth twice it splashed down safely in the Pacific ocean and SpaceX became the first company to return a privately operated spaceship from orbit. Both 2010 flights were part of the testing phase of NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Program under which NASA agreed to outsource space station deliveries to SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation (Orbital) subject to demonstrating their ability to do so safely.

After establishing that it could put Dragon into orbit, and the spaceship's navigation worked, the next step was for Dragon to attempt to berth with the space station. That demonstration came in May this year, and in achieving the objectives set by NASA, SpaceX became the first private company to visit the ISS.

Having proven its rocket and cargo ship capabilities under COTS, SpaceX was given the green light to begin supplies for real. The company had in its safe since 2008 a $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA for up to 12 resupply missions to the station, and in October 2012 Dragon completed its first mission under the agreement.

Designated SpaceX CRS-1 the mission was successful at delivering several tonnes of fresh supplies to the orbiting outpost. Dragon returned to Earth in late October, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean and returning supplies from experiments and other hardware no longer needed aboard the ISS.

Its ability to return goods is currently unique because all the other regular supply ships - Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), Japan's HTV (or "Kounotori") and Russia's Progress - all burn up during controlled re-entry.

Commenting on the success of the first resupply misison, NASA boss Charles Bolden declared: "Just a little over one year after we retired the Space Shuttle, we have completed the first cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. Not with a government owned and operated system, but rather with one built by a private firm - an American company that is creating jobs and helping keep the U.S. the world leader in space as we transition to the next exciting chapter in exploration. Congratulations to SpaceX and the NASA team that supported them and made this historic mission possible."

Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX said: "This historic mission signifies the restoration of America's ability to deliver and return critical space station cargo."

Whilst SpaceX made history in 2012, another American company, Orbital Sciences Corporation (Orbital), has been working towards its demonstration flights under the COTS Program. NASA awarded Orbital an 8 mission CRS contract in 2008. Originally scheduled for late 2012, the first launch of Orbital's Antares rocket is now planned in early 2013, to be followed by a test flight of its Cygnus spacecraft.

The third and final test for Orbital will be a demonstration mission to the ISS, like the one undertaken by SpaceX in May 2012. If testing goes according to plan, Orbital will then be cleared to begin cargo resupply missions.

As for SpaceX, it will continue in 2013 with further supply missions, and continue building a crewed version of Dragon. Whilst human space flight aboard Dragon is a few years away, SpaceX has proved this year that a privately operated space company can deliver.

Commercial spaceflight showed its ambitions in 2012

Charles Black - Space Exploration News (SEN.com)

2012 saw commercial space make big strides and announce ambitious plans. Although astronauts continued to be ferried to and from the space station aboard Russian Soyuz vehicles, several companies made progress towards offering human spaceflight capability. The potential of commercial operators was highlighted by US company SpaceX which completed two successful trips to the space station with the cargo version of its Dragon spacecraft.

The year saw the third successful outing of Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV3) named Edoardo Amaldi. The unmanned cargo freighter launched in March and spent nearly six months docked with the station. 2012 was also the third successful outing of Japan's unmanned supply ship, the H-11 Transfer Vehicle (HTV). Nicknamed "Kounotori" the Japanese spacecraft delivered supplies for the Expedition 32 crew in July. Russia's Progress freighter also made deliveries to the orbiting outpost during the year. Amongst these state carriers appeared Dragon, becoming the first privately operated spacecraft to visit the International Space Station in May. This was the third and final demonstration mission by SpaceX working under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Program under which it is outsourcing the shipment of supplies to and from the space station to private companies.

The success of SpaceX's demonstration mission in May led to its first commerical resupply mission in October. As well as being the first commercial contractor to supply the space station, SpaceX's Dragon added the capability to return goods from the orbiting laboratory - something missing since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in July 2011.

Having retired from service in 2011, the three surviving production shuttles - Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis - made their way to their retirment homes during the year, along with the shuttle prototype Enterprise. In April Discovery took its place at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center. Endeavour made its way through the streets of Los Angeles to the California Science Center, whilst Enterprise went on display at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York. The final shuttle to take its place was Atlantis which made its way in November to a purpose built complex at the Kennedy Space Center.

Whilst the transport of the shuttles to their museums took place, NASA provided additional funding to three of the US companies developing spacecraft that will replace the Space Shuttle. Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corporation each received new contracts from NASA under the next phase of the commercial crew program called CCiCap - Commercial Crew integrated Capability.

NASA also made progress with its next big rocket, the Space Launch System, being designed to launch its Orion spacecraft to deep space destinations including the Moon, asteroids and Mars.

Outside of the US, Europe considered the future of its Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) and British company Reaction Engines announced it had made a major breakthrough with its hybrid jet-rocket engine that it hopes can lift its Skylon spaceplane to orbit in a single stage. After decades of research and development the team of engineers at Reaction Engines announced successful test results of their SABRE engine. The test results were validated by the European Space Agency. The engine takes in air as it passes through the atmosphere, removing the need to launch with a heavy fuel load, meaning a spaceplane such as Skylon could be propelled into orbit in a single stage. The major challenge of the air breathing technology has been how to cool rapidly the vast amount of air taken in. The testing has proved that SABRE's pre-cooler heat exchangers can cool air from over 1,000°C to minus 150°C in less than 1/100th of a second without the engine frosting up. Reaction Engines must now secure the investment necessary to complete the development of SABRE and the Skylon vehicle which would be fitted with them.

Reducing the costs of space launches is something that would benefit Planetary Resources, a new venture announced in April. Planetary resources announced its intentions to mine Near Earth asteroids for raw materials, ranging from water to precious metals.

There were lots of developments reported by teams competing for the Google Lunar X PRIZE, the richest incentive prize in history. First prize of $20 million will be awarded to the first company to land a robotic rover on the Moon, travel 500 metres and transmit video, images and data back to Earth. There are 23 teams such as Moon Express left competing for the total $30m prize pot - but the mission must complete before the prize expires in 2015.

Lunar exploration has always been a matter for nation states, but 2012 emphasised the invention of private companies looking to land either robots or people on the Moon. Whilst the Google Lunar X PRIZE sets the challenge of landing a robotic rover, offers were also made for manned missions to the Moon. The Golden Spike Company was formed in 2012 by a mixture of NASA veterans, planetary scientists and engineers, and plans to develop missions from lunar tourism to the mining of the Moon's resources. The company's formation was announced in Washington on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the launch of the last manned mission to the Moon by Apollo 17 in 1972.

A trip around the Moon is on offer by Space Adventures, which has one unnamed client signed up for the $150m ticket. Two customers are required for the lunar orbit to happen. Although not bound for the Moon, singer Sarah Brightman announced she had signed up with Space Adventures for a trip to the space station.

It was not just private companies making plans for a return to the Moon. China's space plans, announced in December 2011, included human exploration of the Moon. In 2012 China made progress towards its goals when its Shenzhou-9 spacecraft successfully docked with the country's orbiting Tiangong-1 embryonic space station.

Looking beyond the Moon, NASA made progress with the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, and private companies again set out their ambitions. SpaceX founder Elon Musk outlined long term plans for sending humans to Mars, and Mars One set out its plans to establish a colony on the Red Planet by 2023.

Beyond our Solar System, scientists using the European Southern Observatory's HARPS instrument found a planet orbiting our nearest star system, Alpha Centauri. Spaceflight visionaries met in September to discuss how humans could reach such star systems as the 100 Year Starship Public Symposium was held in Houston, Texas. The 100 Year Starship organisation, which received some funding earlier in the year from the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is headed by former NASA astronaut Mae Jemison, who flew on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992. Jemison explained: "The 100 Year Starship will make the capability of human travel beyond our solar system to another star a reality over the next 100 years."

In Memoriam

In 2012 two icons of spaceflight passed away: America's first female astronaut Sally Ride, and Neil Armstrong, the first human to step foot on another planetary body.

The Year's Most Audacious Private Space Exploration Plans

Adam Mann - Wired.com

It has been a remarkable and exciting year for commercial spaceflight companies.

Private asteroid mining! Commercial trips to the moon! Mars settlements! We barely had time to catch our breath from the last secret organization announcement when suddenly some other team was cropping up and declaring a bold new adventure in space.

"You had the unveiling of these really audacious business plans that at first blush you would dismiss as impossible," said journalist and aerospace analyst Jeff Foust, editor and publisher of the space-industry-watching The Space Review. "But when you look at both the technical and financial pedigree of the people backing these systems, you step back and say, 'Well, maybe there's something here.'"

Many of these new companies have experts at their helms, founded or run by former NASA engineers and veterans of the spaceflight community. Others showed off their deep entrepreneurial pockets and touted the potential profits to be made in space.

So how did 2012 turn into the year of private space? Perhaps the most important factor was the trailblazing success of SpaceX, a commercial rocket business started by entrepreneur and PayPal founder Elon Musk. This year, the company conducted two launches to the International Space Station using their Falcon 9 vehicle, with the second mission bringing supplies and helping prove that SpaceX was on the path to ferrying astronauts.

The company is already planning their next rocket, the enormous Falcon Heavy, for launch in 2013 and recently won important contracts with the U.S. military to deliver hardware to space. With all these notches on his space belt, Musk is no doubt already eyeing the perfect ridge for his retirement home on Mars.

Contributing influences to 2012's commercial space focus include an aimless NASA. Though it saw spectacular successes such as the Mars Curiosity rover landing, the agency is still wrestling with frozen budgets and a deeply divided Congress that disagrees on its overarching mission. Alongside NASA's existential crisis was the aftermath of the second dot-com boom, which created a crop of young, sci-fi-crazy tycoons.

"When you give these Silicon Valley guys a billion dollars," said astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell of Harvard, who tracks rocket launches, "Their first thought is 'Cool, now I can have my own space program.'"

Just in case you are having trouble telling the Planetary Resources apart from the Golden Spikes, Wired presents a gallery of the year's most impressive, daring, and wild business plans from commercial companies. We also talked to a small handful of spaceflight experts to get their take on which of the big dreams will pan out and which will burn out.

"I don't expect them all to succeed, but I don't expect them all to fail," said space lawyer Michael Listner, founder of Space Law & Policy Solutions. Taken together, the companies' ambitions underscore just how much times have changed. "About 10 years ago, if you presented one of these plans, people would have looked at you like you're crazy. Now people can say, well it's a little crazy, but considering what's been done, it might be possible."

Golden Spike Company

The most recently unveiled audacious space venture is the Golden Spike Company, which wants to take people back to the moon by 2020. For the low, low price of $1.5 billion, Golden Spike will land a two-person crew on the lunar surface and safely return them. Given the expense, the company is targeting governments without large space programs that may be looking for a little international prestige.

Golden Spike has a team with technical chops, including planetary scientist and former NASA science administrator Alan Stern and former NASA flight director Gerry Griffin. The business hopes to make use of low-cost existing rockets as much as possible to cut down on their expenses and estimates the entire scheme could cost as little as $7 billion. All of the experts we asked praised the company's mission architecture as fairly plausible.

"The technology is there but they still need spacecraft, spacesuits, and to train people," said space lawyer Michael Listner. "I'd say by the end of the decade is pretty aggressive. During Apollo, we had the resources of a nation behind us and it took years to get our guys there."

Golden Spike's largest obstacle will be securing the funding they need to get off the ground.

"They need to really size how big this market is and figure out how to raise the several billion dollars to develop things like a lunar lander," said journalist Jeff Foust. Currently, much smaller private companies involved in the Google Lunar X-Prize are struggling to raise several million dollars for space missions.

Furthermore, Golden Spike needs at least five or six customers signed on in order to turn a profit. But a still-weak international economy puts this funding model on unsteady ground for the time being. Using national status as the underpinning for such a mission might also not be the best business practice.

"Maybe you can sell a government on being the second country to the moon, but being the sixth, I'm not so sure," said astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell. "If I were that country I might not feel my ego sufficiently boosted."

Bottom line: Golden Spike has certainly thought their mission architecture through but might want to work a bit more on their business plan.

Planetary Resources, Inc.

Asteroid mining is a staple of science-fiction, transplanting a familiar Earth-based activity to the new frontier of space. Many of the resources we dig up from underground on our planet were in fact laid down during an asteroid impact billions of years ago. So let's cut out the middleman and simply mine riches from the skies.

Such is the thinking behind Planetary Resources, Inc., which revealed their asteroid mining plans in April. The company hopes to extract water and precious metals, such as platinum, in order to get a return on their investment. Shortly after the unveiling, the internet reached a fever pitch about Planetary Resources, with Jon Stewart even calling in astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson just as a sanity check on the whole endeavor.

Planetary Resources' biggest strength comes from its financial backing, with founders Eric Anderson and Peter Diamandis veterans of both Silicon Valley and space technology. Other rich luminaries behind the company include Google CEO Larry Page, Microsoft chief architect Charles Simonyi, and even filmmaker James Cameron. The company's goals are very long term, with simple plans to launch telescopes to identify and catalog near-Earth asteroids in the next few years, and the actual mining and resource extraction as much as 20 years away.

"Currently, the biggest hurdle in actually mining these asteroids is that the law hasn't been settled yet," said space lawyer Michael Listner.

If Planetary Resources is to succeed, the international community will have to decide that the venture is legal. Currently, space lawyers are split into two camps on whether or not a company can extract and keep resources from celestial objects, and no one yet knows what sort of regulation governments may impose. All this adds some risk to the business plan. But Listner says that at least the company has put the idea out into the public consciousness, and some outcome will be settled in the next decades.

The only other barrier at this point is their telescope design, said astronomer Jonathan McDowell. The initial plan called for small telescopes in Earth orbit to search for the best nearby asteroids but such an instrument can't look inside Earth's orbit because it would be staring at the glaring sun. A much better architecture would place the telescope in the orbit of Venus to get a full census. "I think they also need a slightly bigger telescope in order to do spectroscopic surveys and find the mineralogically valuable asteroids," said McDowell.

As Planetary Resources gets up and running, they will no doubt run into more problems. Having a plan is one thing, but doing anything in space always turns out to be harder than initially thought.

Bottom line: Planetary Resources has deep pockets and given itself ample time but needs to work on its technical and legal plans.

B612 Foundation

Nearly overshadowed by that other private asteroid business, the B612 Foundation's announcement in June was nonetheless important. The nonprofit company hopes to raise money to launch an infrared telescope that will be ever vigilant for dangerous asteroids hurtling toward Earth. Though NASA is already watching for these potentially civilization destroying rocks, B612 said they would be able to more than double the near-Earth object catalog in their first month of observation.

The company has some good technical backers, including former Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart and former shuttle astronaut Ed Lu. As a nonprofit, B612's approach most closely resembles a philanthropic foundation looking to build a new wing for a hospital. While donors are used to the idea of such charity on Earth, can B612 convince people that the same model works for a space telescope?

"It's going to be tricky, because they need to find an income or donation source to keep it funded," said space lawyer Michael Listner. "But I will say if they can get the funding and license to use the technology, they have a fairly good shot."

Listner added that, should B612 have trouble raising money for their multi-million-dollar telescope, a potential path could be to partner with the U.S. government, which would provide more funding.

Astronomer Jonathan McDowell suggested that B612 and Planetary Resources pool missions, considering that one has a good technical team but a dearth of money, and the other has funding coming out of its ears but a mission architecture that leaves something to be desired. "There's nice things in each of those approaches, and maybe some combination will emerge and end up being useful," he said.

Bottom line: B612 has got a plan to save the world, now all they need is someone to fund them.

Mars One

Getting people to Mars has long been a goal of the spaceflight community. While many thought it was the next logical step after the Apollo program, the United States has never been able to commit to the necessary funding for such a mission. But now a private company named Mars One has stepped in with their own audacious plan.

Announced in May, Mars One has an extremely aggressive goal: land a crew of four on the Red Planet by 2023. The company hopes to cut costs with a radical mission. They intend to send people on a one-way trip to set up a colony, with a new set of four settlers arriving every two years after the initial touchdown. Mars One said it intends to pay for the plan by creating "the biggest media spectacle in history" with a reality TV show that will follow the astronauts.

While mentioning that the goal of expanding human civilization is worthy, our experts were not entirely convinced that Mars One's business model is fully thought through. "It doesn't strike me as as plausible as the others," said astronomer Jonathan McDowell.

"I'm not sure there's enough money out there to fund something as complex and expensive as a human mission to Mars," said journalist Jeff Foust. "The best I can say is good luck."

"Going to Mars is 100 times difficult than going to the moon," said space lawyer Michael Listner. Besides the fact that we don't currently have the technology to put enough mass for a human mission on the Martian surface, there are many unknowns, including radiation and corrosive dust on Mars and the debilitating effects of long-term space travel, which could deteriorate the astronauts' bones and eyes. Regulation from Earth governments looking to introduce safety measures could also delay or alter the mission.

Though Mars One estimates their first mission would cost only $6 billion, Listner said the entire plan, including future resupplies and crew, could be on the order of $1 trillion. Funding such a mission through ad sales sounds about as plausible as a Pinky and the Brain plan to take over the world.

"I suspect it wouldn't be that good for TV," said Foust. "NASA televises their space activities, and I'm sure almost nobody watches it. It's mostly tinkering with experiments, replacing an air filter." Sustaining interest once the novelty wears off could be a major challenge, he added.

Mars One recently converted itself into a nonprofit company, so it will likely have many of the same challenges at something like B612. Though they may be the least likely of the recent private space companies to achieve their goals, "you've got to dream big," said Listner. "And they will certainly inspire a lot of people."

Bottom line: Mars One has sky-high plans that will most likely struggle to get off the ground.

Falcon Heavy

Though not announced this year, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy has been a hot topic as the company prepares to launch this new rocket in 2013. Once operational, the vehicle would be the most capable existing rocket, able to bring 120,000 pounds to low-Earth orbit for as little as $1,000 per pound. The closest current spacecraft is United Launch Alliance's Delta rocket, which can take 50,000 pounds up at a cost of $6,000 per pound.

Falcon Heavy has a number of other companies hoping to ride on its success. Both Golden Spike and Mars One plan to use the vehicle in their operation while NASA and the military are also looking forward to its capabilities. The question for SpaceX is just how soon they can get the new rocket ready.

"It's possible to do a test launch in the second half of 2013, though that date could slip depending on technical issues," said journalist Jeff Foust. Falcon Heavy will have three times the rocket engines of the current Falcon 9, which add many complications to the technology. But based on their recent successes, things are looking good for SpaceX.

"They're pretty confident that they'll go next year," said space lawyer Michael Listner, "And everything is pointing in that direction."

Bottom line: If SpaceX can build on their current achievements, they have a decent shot of launching Falcon Heavy in 2013.

The Google Lunar X-Prize

Intended to stimulate new ideas for exploring the moon, the Google Lunar X-Prize was announced in 2007. The goal is for a small private team to land an autonomous rover on the lunar surface, travel about 1,000 feet, and beam back high-definition images and video. The first team to do so will win $20 million, and constellation prizes are offered for other tasks.

The prize's deadline was originally meant to expire this year but after insufficient progress was made, the foundation extended their target date to the end of 2015. While more than 20 teams are still technically in the running, very few are where they need to be right now to claim the reward and accolades. Though 2015 seems a while away, this year and next are "really a make or break period for the teams left in the competition," said journalist Jeff Foust.

That's because rocket launches are planned at least two years in advance. So anyone without a launch manifest by the end of 2013 is out of luck. Only two teams, the Barcelona Moon Team and Astrobotic, have secured a launcher. Furthermore, the technical readiness of most teams doesn't seem quite up to snuff.

"They need to start building hardware now," said Foust. "A lunar rover isn't something you put together over a couple weekends. It needs years to make sure it works properly and get it there in the first place."

Most teams have struggled to get the millions of dollars in funding necessary for this expensive mission. Furthermore, in 2013 China plans to land a probe on the moon, which automatically drops down the prize money offered to $15 million. If by the end of next year, these problems remain, it's possible that no one will win the competition.

"I haven't really seen any entrants for that that fill me with a lot of confidence," said astronomer Jonathan McDowell. "Maybe it's a step too far, and the prize money relative to the investment needed is just not enough."

Bottom line: The Google Lunar X-Prize is struggling and may simply prove to be too ambitious.

Private Space Tourism

We live in the future! You may not have a personal jet pack but, if certain schemes pan out, you could one day afford a few minutes of spaceflight. That at least is the goal of companies like Virgin Galactic, which has allied with Scaled Composites to build SpaceShipTwo, a passenger spaceplane that will take tourists 70 miles above the Earth for short flights.

Initially affordable only for the very rich, such a jaunt will set you back about $200,000 — that is, once Virgin Galactic actually gets their machine flying and ready. Though the business hoped to get off the ground years ago, they have constantly pushed back the date of their first flights. Virgin Galactic now hopes to be ready to carry passengers by the end of 2013.

"I think even [Virgin Galactic's CEO] Richard Branson is frustrated that things haven't been flying by now," said space lawyer Michael Listner. "And I think they're probably going to get pushed back again. They want to keep that risk level as low as possible."

The main thing that private space companies fear is some sort of catastrophic accident that results in a death. Such an occurrence would dry up their customer base and swiftly bring increased government regulation. Further delays could put the company in bad relations with Spaceport America, which the state of New Mexico spent nearly $200 million on in hopes of attracting tourist revenue.

Most spaceflight experts are still counting on Virgin Galactic. "Hopefully in the next few months we'll see powered flight tests by SpaceShipTwo," said journalist Jeff Foust. "And then gradually they'll work on getting closer to space."

Though Virgin Galactic recently flew SpaceShipTwo in its first "powered flight configuration" test, reaching the end-of-2013 mark may not be in the cards. "I'd be mildly surprised if they got it off in 2013, but totally not shocked if it was 2014," said astronomer Jonathan McDowell.

Should Virgin Galactic somehow fail in its venture, there are plenty of other space tourism companies waiting in the wings. While somewhat behind Virgin, XCOR's Lynx spaceplane could begin testing in 2013. The company hopes to offer tourist flights to the edge of space for the bargain price of $95,000. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' secretive Blue Origin could also stun everyone by unveiling a new rocket plane in the near future, though this seems less likely. But all the private space companies are worth keeping an eye on.

"People for a long time accepted as a given that SpaceShipTwo would be the first to fly," said Foust. "That may or may not be a case."

Bottom line: Virgin Galactic may fly next year, or not. With other companies, we'll have to wait and see.

13 New Space Missions to Watch In 2013

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

This year has been a busy one for space missions, and it looks like next year will ramp things up even more.

Though NASA has retired its space shuttles, astronauts and cosmonauts are still launching regularly on Russian rockets to the International Space Station, and will continue to do so. Plus, China is planning another manned docking mission for 2013, and many more countries, such as South Korea, India, Canada and a coalition of European nations, will launch robotic science probes next year.

Here's a look at 13 notable launches to look out for in the coming year:

1) Suborbital Test Flights: With luck, 2013 will see a host of significant test flights for the private space companies developing manned suborbital vehicles to take paying passengers on brief joyrides to the edge of space. Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo has flown numerous glide tests, but it's due to make its first powered flight using its rocket engine sometime in 2013. Another company called XCOR Aerospace plans to test fly its Lynx suborbital vehicle next year. Both firms aim to carry their first passengers in 2014.

2) South Korea's Third Launch: South Korea will try for a third time to loft its Korea Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV) 1 booster successfully to orbit. Previous launch attempts in August 2009 and June 2010, which lifted off from a site in southern South Korea, both failed. But the third time might be a charm for South Korea, which will attempt to blast off a test satellite called the Science and Technology Satellite 2C (STSAT 2C). Launch is expected sometime in January 2013.

3) Indian/French SARAL/AltiKa: This satellite, a collaboration between India and France, is intended to study the surface height of Earth's seas from space. Called ocean altimetry, the research has many applications for environmental science and oceanography. The spacecraft is due to be launched Jan. 28 by an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which will also carry NEOSSat, an instrument designed to search for near-Earth asteroids that could pose a risk to our planet, and a Canadian space surveillance satellite called Sapphire. The mission will lift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in India.

4) First Cygnus Flights: The private space company Orbital Sciences Corp. is one of two firms with a NASA contract to deliver cargo to the International Space Station on unmanned spacecraft (the other is SpaceX). In February, Orbital Sciences plans to launch its Antares rocket on its first test flight, which will carry a model of its robotic Cygnus spacecraft. The launch will blast off from the company's complex on Wallops Island in Virginia.

If the Antares test flight goes well, the first functional Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to fly on its initial test flight to the International Space Station April 5.

5) SpaceX Dragon Flights: Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), the other commercial space company hired by NASA to carry supplies to the space station, launched its Dragon cargo ship maiden test flight to the orbital laboratory last May. That successful flight was followed by SpaceX's first cargo delivery mission to the station in October.

The company, founded by billionaire Elon Musk, will continue to fly cargo delivery missions to the space station next year, with launches scheduled for March 1 and Sept. 30 out of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. These flights are vital for keeping the space station fully stocked, and also help pave the way for the manned missions SpaceX hopes to launch aboard Dragon in coming years.

6) Space Station Crew Launches: Three launches of crewmembers to the International Space Station are planned for 2013, with liftoffs from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan scheduled for March 28, May 28, and Sept. 25. Each launch will carry three spaceflyers from the space station partner agencies — the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan, and Europe — aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Crewmembers typically stay for five or six months each, and a rotating crew of three to six people is always onboard the orbiting laboratory.

7) Canada's Cassiope: The Canadian Space Agency's Cassiope (short for Cascade Smallsat and Ionospheric Polar Explorer) spacecraft is due to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base sometime in April. The satellite will carry a suite of science instruments to study how solar storms interact with charged particles inEarth's ionosphere. The vehicle will also test out new communications technology. The flight is significant not just for Canada, but for SpaceX, which has never before launched from Vandenberg. Additionally, the launch will mark the first time a Falcon 9 will use the company's new in-house made Merlin 1D engines.

8) Space Station Cargo Launches: The next year will likely see numerous launches of cargo to the International Space Station aboard a suite of vehicles from Japan, Europe and Russia, in addition to the private cargo launches from SpaceX and Orbital Sciences. Russian Progress launches are scheduled for Feb. 12, April 24, and July 24, while Japan's HTV freighter will lift off July 15, and the European Space Agency's ATV is scheduled for a liftoff April 18. Each of these tried-and-true robotic spacecraft will deliver food, hardware and science experiments for the crew of the orbital outpost.

9) ESA's Space Swarm: The Swarm spacecraft, built by the European Space Agency, is due to launch into a polar orbit in April on a Eurockot Rockot rocket from Russia. The satellite will carry three instruments to study how Earth's geomagnetic field changes over time. The mission aims to offer insight into Earth's climate and interior composition.

10) NASA's Iris: NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (Iris) satellite is a sun-studying mission to analyze the flow of energy through our star's atmosphere and heliosphere. Iris is due to launch aboardan Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket, which takes off in midair after being lofted by a carrier plane from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The flight is scheduled for April 28 or 29.

11) China's Shenzhou 10: Scheduled for June, China's Shenzhou 10 mission will be the fifth manned spaceflight for China. The mission will take launch three Chinese astronauts, including a female spaceflyer, to dock with the nation's Tiangong 1 module in orbit. The flight is a follow-up to the historic Shenzhou 9 mission of June 2012, which marked the country's first manned space docking. The next launch will bring China a step closer to establishing a manned space station and potentially landing people on the moon. Shenzhou 10, like Shenzhou 9 before it, will lift off from China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on a Long March 2F rocket.

12) NASA's Ladee: The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Experiment (Ladee) from NASA is a moon orbiter intended to study the moon's transient atmosphere and the ubiquitous particles of dust blanketing its surface that are often seen levitating due to electrostatic forces. Ladee is due to launch aboard a U.S. Air Force Minotaur 5 rocket from Wallops Island on Aug. 12.

13) NASA's Mars Maven: NASA's next Mars orbiter is due to launch sometime in a 20-day window between Nov. 18 and Dec. 7 to enable it to enter orbit around the Red Planet in September 2014. The Mars Atmosphere And Volatile EvolutioN spacecraft, or Maven for short, will study how Mars loses atmospheric gases to space. The mission will launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Looking Back-Looking Forward: 50 Years with NASA

Emma Sylvester Brown - AmericaSpace.org

For the past 50 years, NASA has been responsible for achievements in space—and on Earth. In the past year alone, NASA succeeded in landing the most sophisticated rover on the surface of Mars, carried out the first-ever commercial mission to the International Space Station, and advanced the systems needed to send humans deeper into space.

"We are able to keep the United States the world leader in space exploration—and continue to implement America's bipartisan space plan—because of our talented and dedicated work force," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

Fifty years ago, on a mid-December day, NASA's Mariner 2 passed close by the planet Venus—the first time any spacecraft had ever studied another planet. Designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, located in Pasadena, Calif., the Mariner 2 spacecraft opened a new era of solar system exploration.

"JPL has always attempted to do mighty things on behalf of NASA and our nation," said JPL director Charles Elachi. "Achieving America's first 'first in space' is among the lab's proudest achievements."

After several attempts and close calls, Mariner 2 produced the first close-up measurements of Venus. It was also the first to confirm the existence of the solar wind, the stream of charged particles flowing outward from the sun.

Many missions followed in the years to come. In August 2012, the Curiosity rover touched down beside Mount Sharp on Mars—one of the most complex landings ever attempted in planetary exploration. It reported evidence of an ancient stream flow, mineral composition of Martian soil similar to that found in Hawaii containing volcanic glass, and the first assessment of the natural radiation environment.

Curiosity's mission is to explore and assess a region on the surface of Mars to see if it was ever a suitable place for life to take hold. A new robotic science rover, based on the Curiosity design, is set to launch in 2020, with one of the goals being President Barack Obama's challenge of sending humans to Mars orbit in the 2030s.

The final flight of the Space Shuttle Program took place in 2011, and the shuttles were delivered in 2012 to their new homes: Discovery is now at her new home at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Dulles, Va.; Enterprise went to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York; Endeavour is in the California Science Center in Los Angeles; and Atlantis can be found at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.

NASA advanced commercial spaceflight this past year by contracting Space Exploration Technologies Corporation's (SpaceX) Dragon spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station and return cargo back to Earth in October, becoming the first commercial company ever to do so.

Under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract, SpaceX will fly at least 12 cargo missions to the space station by 2016.

SpaceX is one of two companies that built and tested new cargo spacecraft under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. Orbital Sciences is the other.

NASA announced in August new agreements with three American commercial companies to develop the next generation of U.S. human spaceflight, enabling a launch of astronauts for the next five years.

Advances are made by these companies under the Space Act Agreements through NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative. The CCiCap partners are the Sierra Nevada Corporation, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), and The Boeing Company.

NASA and its international partners celebrated 12 years of permanent human habitation on the International Space Station on Nov. 2. More than 1,500 research and technology development experiments have been conducted, many of which are producing advances in medicine and environmental systems.

NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida marked a major milestone in the construction of the spacecraft that will carry astronauts farther into space than ever before. The Orion capsule will sustain astronauts during space travel, as well as provide emergency abort capabilities and safe re-entry from deep space.

The Orion will launch on Exploration Flight Test-1, an uncrewed mission planned for 2014. It will travel 3,600 miles above the Earth's surface—15 times farther than the International Space Station's orbital position.

Seeing more of the universe hasn't just been limited to the development of spacecraft. Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers announced Dec. 12 they have seen further than ever before and have uncovered a previously unseen population of seven primitive galaxies that formed more than 13 billion years ago.

Russia to Spend $70 Billion on Space Program in 2013-2020

Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.org

Russia is expected to spend 2.1 trillion rubles—about $70 billion—on the development of its national space industry in the next eight years, according to a statement last week by Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, which was quoted by Space Daily and RIA Novosti.

He revealed that the plan is designed to satisfy three fundamental aims: ensuring that Russia maintains its position as a leading global space power, supporting its defense capability, and boosting its overall economic and social development. "The program will enable our country to effectively participate in forward-looking projects," said Medvedev, "such as the ISS, the study of the Moon, Mars, and other celestial bodies in the Solar System."

At present, the International Space Station is a crucial arm in that program, with approximately a third of the Earth-orbiting outpost constructed and operated by Russia. Their hardware includes the Zvezda service module, which provides primary attitude control and living quarters, together with the Zarya control module, the Pirs airlock, the Poisk and Rassvet Mini-Research Modules, and the Soyuz and Progress crew and cargo vehicles. Of these elements, Zarya was the first ISS element to be launched, way back in November 1998, and it offered electrical power, propulsion, and guidance for the fledgling station in its first two years of operational life. With the arrival of Zvezda in July 2000, the door was opened for the station's first permanent long-duration crews.

More than a decade later, the Russian Segment remains a critical component of the ISS, although its final scheduled element, the Nauka science module, has been the subject of significant delay and is not expected to arrive until 2013 at the earliest. In the meantime, Russia has enabled Assured Crew Return capability since the outset, with variants of its Soyuz spacecraft docked to the station at all times, to allow expedition crew members to return to Earth in the event of emergencies. Whilst much criticism has been leveled at NASA for having yielded its ability to launch Americans into space to Russia since 2011, the fact remains that even in the late Shuttle era, Soyuz was the only vehicle with a year-round capability to support Assured Crew Return.

At present, Russia operates four flights per annum of its Soyuz to the station, each delivering three members to maintain it at near-continuous six-person strength. This was most recently demonstrated with the launch of Soyuz TMA-07M on 19 December, which brought Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn, and Canada's Chris Hadfield to the ISS. Original planning sought the launch of a fifth Soyuz to allow Russia to resume launches of fare-paying astronauts, but this appears not to have occurred and efforts seem to have shifted toward sending members of expedition crews on year-long missions—rather than standard six-month flights—to open up seats for passengers, such as British soprano Sarah Brightman. Under its new budget, Russia will continue to provide this Soyuz support, and in March 2011 NASA signed a $753 million contract modification for the training, preparation, and transport of 12 astronauts to and from the station in the 2014-16 timeframe.

In addition to its contracted obligations for the ISS, Russia has plans for future lunar and Martian missions, despite the dismal fate of Phobos-Grunt, whose launch vehicle failed to boost it out of Earth orbit and which ended its days burning up in the atmosphere. A mission called 'Luna-Glob' envisages the launch of the first of four voyages to the Moon, possibly as early as 2015, to establish an orbiter around our closest celestial neighbor and deploy Japanese-built penetrating instruments into its surface.

Subsequent missions include Luna-Glob-2 (or 'Luna-Resurs'), which will involve significant contributions from India, in the form of the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, and a Russian-provided surface rover to land near one of the lunar poles. Although India finalized its payload for Chandrayaan-2 in August 2010, the development of the six-wheeled, solar-powered rover effected significant delay, and the loss of Phobos-Grunt pushed the launch back even further. Still, the Luna-Glob-2 mission offers a promise of significant collaboration between the two nations, with launch anticipated atop India's giant Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) from Sriharikota Island. Later, from 2020 and beyond, missions may involve in-situ soil analysis, the return of a couple of pounds of lunar material to Earth, and possibly some form of 'robotic base'. The latter remains largely undefined at present, but will include a solar power and telecommunications station to support an extensive array of scientific instruments and a long-distance surface rover.

Further afield are plans for voyages to Venus and Mars, both of which Russia has enjoyed a long and often tortured love affair. Venera-D, which may be launched atop a Proton or the new Angara rocket, is currently pencilled-in for 2016 and will mark the first Russian mission to Venus since the Soviet era. It is expected to perform remote-sensing observations of the planet, using radar instruments to peer beneath its thick atmospheric veil. Intriguingly, one of Venera-D's objectives is listed as mapping future landing sites, not for humans, but for a possible robotic lander. The latter is being designed to survive for longer than the 90 minutes or so endured by earlier probes. Venera-D will build upon a proud heritage: no fewer than eight landers succeeded in touching down on Venus' hellish surface in 1970-82, revealing the presence of leucite and tholeiitic basalts and, possibly, lightning.

The failure of Phobos-Grunt has not deterred Russia from its effort to participate with ESA in the 2018 ExoMars mission. This originally featured co-operation from NASA, but the Obama Administration forced the agency to terminate its involvement in February of last year, citing budgetary constraints and the need to fund the flagship James Webb Space Telescope. Within a month or so, ESA had secured a new partnership with Russia, and the current schedule calls for the launch of an orbiter and stationary lander (the Trace Gas Orbiter) in 2016, followed by a Russian lander and rover in 2018.

This is expected to be confirmed early next year, with the formal signing of contracts, in which Russia has stipulated that it will offer a Proton launch vehicle as payment for the partnership, together with Russian instruments aboard the Trace Gas Orbiter and the requirement that all intellectual property from the voyage will belong equally to ESA and the Russian Academy of Sciences. In recent months, new ESA members Poland and Romania agreed to contribute up to 70 million euros—around $92.5 million—to ExoMars. Fundamental aims of the mission are the ongoing search for possible biosignatures of past or present microbial life on the Red Planet, together with the characterization of the surface and subsurface environment and to identify constraints for future human expeditions.

In addition to its aspirations in near-Earth space and lunar and planetary exploration, Russia's new Angara rocket—toted to replace several other vehicles and become a future mainstay of its unmanned launcher fleet—is scheduled to make its first flight in 2013. Major science missions include the Spektr-RG (Roentgen Gamma) high-energy astrophysics mission, which is scheduled for launch early in 2014 to observe interplanetary magnetic fields, galaxies, and black holes across the range from the far ultraviolet to hard X-ray. It will carry instruments built in the United Kingdom and Israel.

Despite the dismal fate of Phobos-Grunt, the future appears to be brightening for Russia's space ambitions, assuming that targets can be met and funding is maintained and properly appropriated. According to Dmitri Paison, director of development at the Skolkovo space cluster, speaking to RIA Novosti, the 2013-2020 plan provides a necessary framework for space-related programs. "It comprises the Federal Space Program, the Federal Special Program for the Development of the GLONASS System, the program for the development of space launch centers, and the non-classified part of the program for the technical modernization of the industry," he said.

13 people to watch in politics in 2013

Mackenzie Weinger - Politico.com

Who's set to grab headlines in 2013?

From a newly appointed senator to a retired astronaut, political observers will have plenty of personalities to watch out for in the next year. And with familiar faces reinventing themselves and new potential powerhouses arriving on the scene, expect noteworthy efforts from the following group of politicians, policymakers and media leaders.

Here's POLITICO's list of 13 to watch in 2013. You won't want to miss them:

Mark Kelly

Mark Kelly may not be a politician — yet — but he has a message.

The 48-year-old has long been in the public eye, as the husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and as a NASA astronaut, and 2013 will be no different as he takes a high-profile turn speaking out against gun violence. Kelly may not be an elected official, but he has a major platform nonetheless as someone the public, and the media, turns to on the issue of gun control.

"In the wake of Sandy Hook and the other tragedies that our nation has endured over the last couple of years, Gabby and I remain committed to finding responsible solutions to the challenges that face our country," he told POLITICO in a statement. "We believe that our elected leaders must engage in a thoughtful, deliberate conversation about how to keep our communities safe, and we will do our part to support leaders who stand up and do what is right."

And the couple is certainly not out of the wider political game, launching Gabby PAC in September to support candidates for office who "favor reaching compromise and bipartisan solutions to the challenges we face."

Kelly, meanwhile, hasn't ruled out the possibility of a run for elective office.

But whether he ends up pursuing a traditional, elected political career or never runs for office, Kelly promises to be an outspoken, highly visible advocate on a subject that hits very close to home.

Tim Scott

Rep. Tim Scott is getting a brand new title in 2013: senator. With South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's appointment of him to succeed Sen. Jim DeMint, the tea party congressman will make history in 2013 as the first African-American senator from the South since Reconstruction and the first black Republican to serve in the Senate in more than three decades. He's not just aiming to make historians rewrite a line in textbooks, however.

"My goal for 2013 is simple: to represent the people of South Carolina to the absolute best of my abilities," he told POLITICO. "My plan to do so revolves around working with my colleagues to ensure we take the right steps forward and restore the American dream. Through smart, sensible decisions like getting our spending under control and reforming our Tax Code, we can ensure that every American has the opportunity to reach their goals."

The 47-year-old senator-to-be will soon find himself representing small-government, tea party conservatism on a much bigger stage than he's ever been on before — and expect Scott to fully embrace his new role on Capitol Hill.

Marty Baron

Washington, take note: Marty Baron takes the reins as the executive editor of The Washington Post on Jan. 2.

"The Post is one of the nation's greatest journalistic institutions, with a vital role in politics, national policy, world affairs and its own community," Baron said. "Ambitious, pioneering journalism is its history, and that is its destiny."

There are big changes, and difficulties, ahead for Baron — the editor of The Boston Globe since 2001 and a veteran at The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Miami Herald — as the financially struggling but legendary paper looks to reinvent itself.

There's talk of a likely paywall in 2013 and expectations of budget and newsroom staff cuts alongside Baron's stated goal of a bigger emphasis on local and investigative reporting. With six Pulitzer Prizes under his leadership at the Globe, the Metro desk's journalistic success and newsroom buyouts and layoffs as he steered the paper to financial stability, Baron's Boston past offers a likely blueprint for his Washington future.

"Dramatic technological transformation now requires that we constantly and thoughtfully assess how we do our important work, apportion our resources and reach the greatest number of people while staying true to our mission and the principles that have long guided us," he said.

From Capitol Hill and the White House to the lobbyists of K Street, D.C. should expect a new era under Baron.

Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris regularly fends off talk about her political future, but people just keep talking.

Harris, 48, is the attorney general of California, but many Democrats sense her catapulting up the ranks in the party — and soon.

"As the state's top law enforcement officer, my No. 1 priority is protecting and defending the lives and livelihoods of all Californians," Harris told POLITICO in a statement. "When I took the oath of office, I vowed to find solutions by moving beyond the status quo and doing more preventing and less reacting. I also vowed to do everything in my power to keep the people of California safe from gangs and gun violence, combat mortgage fraud and high tech crime and enforce our environmental laws."

But what's next for the state's first female, African-American and Indian-American attorney general?

Taking over for Eric Holder as U.S. attorney general if he leaves? A possible appointment as the next Supreme Court justice? Maybe a future gubernatorial run?

No matter what, expectations for Harris are high. 2013 could see her biggest political move yet.

Joe Donnelly

Joe Donnelly said it over and over on the campaign trail this year: He will bring "Hoosier common sense" to the Senate.

While his opponent, Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock, made news in 2012 with his controversial comment that "even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that is something that God intended to happen," Donnelly grabbed the headlines when they counted, winning Sen. Dick Lugar's seat. Donnelly, a 57-year-old three-term congressman, delivered a seat long held by Republicans to the Democrats, and he's the first Democrat to win statewide office in Indiana since Evan Bayh was elected to his second term in the Senate in 2004.

During Donnelly's congressional career, he has been a member of the moderate and conservative Blue Dog Coalition — a once powerful group that saw its total membership cut in half in November — and has notably broken with party leadership on budgetary issues.

In 2013, look for the new senator, who campaigned on his moderate voting record as well as his opposition to abortion and support for gun rights, to be a force in helping the centrist wing of the Democratic Party fight for relevance in the 113th Congress. It's time to see what "Hoosier common sense" really means.

Jeff Zucker

Incoming CNN President Jeff Zucker told reporters just after his appointment that he wants to "broaden the definition of what news is."

In 2013, media watchers and the public will get to see what he means when he takes the reins of the company in January.

With dwindling ratings and stiff competition from the ideologically inclined networks MSNBC and Fox News, Zucker has his work cut out for him as he seeks to repair CNN's brand, attract major new talent and rework the struggling prime-time lineup. The former chief executive of NBCUniversal may not yet be on the job, but CNN has already made waves under his regime by hiring ABC News's Jake Tapper as chief Washington correspondent and anchor of a new weekday program. The new year will also see the debuts of new shows by celebrity chef and travel show host Anthony Bourdain and documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock. And Zucker, who as executive producer of the "Today" show made the program the nation's most-watched morning news show, is eyeing more shake-ups in CNN's future.

As he wrote to staffers in a memo the day after his hiring was announced, "the opportunities are limitless" for CNN. In 2013, tune in to see what he does with his opportunity at the helm.

Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren has landed a plum seat on the Senate banking committee — and that means financial fireworks in 2013.

Wall Street bet big on Republican Sen. Scott Brown in his 2012 race against Warren and lost. Now, given Warren's high public profile, the banking industry is likely steeling itself as the Massachusetts Democrat looks to fulfill her campaign promise of fighting for greater financial regulation and oversight of Wall Street. And no one expects Warren, 63, to leave her harsh criticism of Wall Street at home when she takes her spot on the committee that oversees the implementation of Dodd-Frank and other banking matters.

While it's not yet clear exactly what issues Warren, a consumer protection advocate and bankruptcy law expert, will push for on the committee, one thing is certain: She's back on the front lines of this battle. Wall Street — and everyone else — should take notice.

Cory Booker

From tweeting prolifically with constituents to rescuing a woman from a burning building to living for a week on food stamps, Newark Mayor Cory Booker has had a busy year making headlines.

With Booker's announcement that he is exploring a 2014 race for the U.S. Senate, the Democrat opted out of a major 2013 battle against New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and, at the same time, put rampant speculation about his political future to rest. Now that that question about the 43-year-old politician is settled, it's clear there's still much more to see from the high-profile mayor.

"2013 will bring big career decisions for me, to be sure," Booker said. "But it will be a bigger year for Newark, where we're approaching the culmination of years of hard work by members of my administration and the broader community. Next year should see the first structurally balanced budget since the 1990's, the continuation of an unprecedented and transformative development boom, further innovations in education and investments in programs that will help Newark grow and prosper long beyond my time as mayor."

Be sure to keep an eye on him — and his Twitter feed — in the coming year.

Ashley Judd

Actress Ashley Judd has two films set to come out next year — and possibly a starring role with a run for a Senate seat.

Judd, an eighth-generation Kentuckian, hasn't shut the door on a race that would pit her against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. That's enough to get D.C. watching her in 2013.

She'd be the biggest celebrity to run for Senate since Al Franken in 2008, and in a race that's already set to attract major attention thanks to McConnell's position. Judd, married to three-time Indianapolis 500 champion Dario Franchitti, has built-in name recognition and the ability to raise a lot of cash and energize Democrats in the state and across the country. And even if Judd doesn't jump into the race, she's already established herself in liberal circles as one to watch, making an impact by speaking out on abortion rights, AIDS prevention and environmental protection. But — if they're being honest — what political observers really want to see from Judd is some Oscar-worthy drama in a hard-hitting battle versus McConnell.

Rob Nabors

President Barack Obama's chief congressional liaison is quiet. But when he speaks, those on both sides of the aisle know to listen closely.

As Congress in 2013 looks to be filled with about as much bipartisanship as 2012 (that is, not much), Rob Nabors will keep playing one of the most important roles in the Obama administration. The 41-year-old handles the worlds of policy, Capitol Hill and politics — all with a relatively low profile — as he seeks to work with Congress on behalf of the White House. Nabors, whose résumé includes stints as majority staff director of the House Appropriations Committee, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget and senior adviser to then-chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, is a familiar face in congressional negotiating rooms and well-known around the Hill for his discretion. Democrats and Republicans alike say they trust him — a rare thing to be said in politics.

In the next year, look for Nabors to keep making the president's case to Capitol Hill on everything from fiscal issues to immigration to gun control. Quietly.

Julián Castro

After making a splash on the national stage in 2012 at the Democratic National Convention, San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro's star is on the rise.

While Castro told POLITICO that his focus next year is on his city — "San Antonio will capitalize on its tremendous momentum as a city on the rise by accelerating job creation and focusing on becoming the most livable city in the United States," he said — his political future is generating plenty of chatter outside city limits. Some speculate his best bet is a career in Washington, with a possible spot in Obama's Cabinet, while other Texas political insiders say Castro could run for statewide office and find success thanks to the growing Democratic-leaning Latino population.

At 38, he's the youngest mayor of a top 50 city. He made history this year and introduced his face to millions of Americans as the first Latino to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic convention. And while the Harvard-educated mayor has insisted he's happy staying exactly where he is for years to come, it's worth noting he's penning an autobiography set to hit bookshelves in 2014.

It's a story that sounds pretty familiar, doesn't it?

Rick Snyder

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder likes to call himself "one tough nerd." He'll need to live up to that nickname if he hopes to secure his political future.

Facing reelection in 2014 and with Democrats champing at the bit to get back the governor's mansion, the Republican has a tough year ahead. By signing right-to-work legislation in Michigan, a cradle of the labor movement, Snyder's made himself the main target of unions — and they are out for revenge. His approval ratings are down in the wake of the controversial decision, and union leaders hope there's an opportunity at hand if they can tap into and maintain that dissatisfaction over the next year. But making Michigan a right-to-work state hasn't been the only thing Snyder's accomplished: The state has the sixth-fastest growing economy in the nation and unemployment keeps dropping, his office notes.

And while he's working toward his reelection, Snyder must also tackle the day-to-day issues that come with governing Michigan. On his plate in 2013 is everything from a controversial abortion bill that would put more regulation on clinics to dealing with Detroit's financial crisis.

There's no doubt this "one tough nerd" will be impossible to ignore in 2013.

Paul Ryan

Well, this may not be exactly how Rep. Paul Ryan imagined spending 2013.

Instead of vice president, he's still going by congressman. Ryan has been on the low-key side since returning to the grind from the campaign trail, but in this economic climate, the House Budget Committee chairman cannot — and won't — lurk in the shadows for long. With countless debates on entitlements, spending and taxes to look forward to in the coming year, the Wisconsin congressman and policy wonk is set to keep leading the way as an intellectual leader for conservatives and fellow Republicans in the House.

And at only 42, he's a well-known brand now. Everyone in America knows his name. In his powerful position in Congress — and with that clout and national recognition — 2012 won't mark the last time Ryan's name graces newspaper headlines.

Here are four space stories to watch develop in 2013

John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)

You can find summaries of this year's top stories in space anywhere, but what matters more is the top stories in space next year. Here is a quick look at four stories to watch in space in 2013:

1. The progress, or lack thereof, of the new rocket NASA is developing for missions beyond Earth orbit. The Orion spacecraft appears to be relatively on track based on regular updates from NASA. Try to get similar details about the Space Launch System and you run into, well, a runaround. NASA has issued several vague, detail-free updates this year on the multi-billion dollar rocket project, noting how project managers are passing key review points. The agency so far won't release the public records outlining the details behind those reviews. The reason: that kind of information is private because it's part of the agency's 2013 budget proposal.

Not to be overly skeptical, but based on the agency's near-perfect track record of delivering this kind of project over budget and behind schedule, my guess is the details would show the rocket passed reviews with caveats. Similar projects in the past got green lights in these preliminary reviews only to find out later that major technological issue got a different kind of pass. This year, watch for the budget to indicate the rocket will cost taxpayers more and not be ready to fly on time or as frequently as once promised.

2. SpaceX and Orbital private flights to the space station. SpaceX has encountered no big problems yet in getting Dragon to and from the space station, though more missions are needed to declare the remarkably lower-cost private system reliable. Each flight is an indicator that the privatized cargo program is one of NASA's biggest wins in decades. If Orbital can match that this year with progress on its Cygnus spacecraft, all the better.

3. NASA and parochial members of Congress will miss an opportunity to shutter two NASA centers and consolidate work in underutilized facilities at the remaining sites. A committee studying the agency's future has recommended a harder look at facilities. Its members are correct, but political allies of likely candidates for closure will rise up to cite the importance of those centers, the economic impact of them in local communities, and may even direct pork projects to the sites to help keep people already there employed.

4. Virgin Galactic will pressure New Mexico to change its laws to protect it from lawsuits from potential mishaps during its space tourist flight from there, or else. The "or else" is the part that's interesting and the cautionary tale for economic development incentives, especially those involving the speculative building of multi-million dollar facilities such as the "terminal" that Virgin and the state built together in the desert. The investment's been huge but now Virgin is talking to other suitors about possibly flying its tourist-carrying spaceships from elsewhere. Could be an opportunity for Florida or some other community, but also could be a devastating sign that states like New Mexico that made big, expensive bets on space tourism are going to find that the companies involved are going to do what's best for business.

Key space issues for 2013

Jeff Foust - The Space Review (Analysis)

The end of the year is a natural time to reflect on the past year's accomplishments and failures. And, in 2012, there's a lot to reflect upon, from the successful landing of the Mars rover Curiosity to the beginning of commercial cargo flights to the International Space Station.

There was also plenty of drama about the future of NASA's Mars exploration program and its planetary science program in general (as yet unresolved, along with the rest of the NASA budget); steady, if slow, progress on both large government space projects and smaller commercial suborbital efforts; and the unveiling of some audacious, long-term private space efforts that generated both excitement and skepticism.

It is, though, more useful to look ahead: what can we expect for the coming year in space? Several key issues are immediately apparent, from ongoing debates about federal spending, including the looming specter of across-the-board budget cuts, to upcoming milestones for suborbital and orbital commercial vehicles.

The success—or failure—of these efforts could have significant implications for both public and private sector space efforts in the years to come.

Stumbling over the fiscal cliff

The biggest, and most immediate, issue for 2013 is the status of the federal budget, including funding for NASA and military space programs. It's not uncommon for the final disposition of a budget to stretch out from the beginning of the fiscal year (in October of the preceding calendar year) to the beginning of the calendar year and beyond. This time, though, the completion of the budget is complicated by what's become known as the "fiscal cliff," the combination of tax increases and spending cuts triggered this week unless Congress and the White House can develop an alternative approach to reduce budget deficits.

As this article was prepared for publication, on the morning of December 31, there was no sign of a breakthrough in the tense discussions among the President and the leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives on a deal that would avert the fiscal cliff. That increases the likelihood that the automatic budget cuts, known as sequestration, go into effect on January 2. For NASA, that means a cut of over eight percent from its fiscal year 2012 budget.

While hyped as the fiscal cliff, the onset of those budget cuts would, initially, be something more like a fiscal bunny slope. "Under sequestration, we would still have funds available after January 2, but our overall funding for the remainder of the year would be reduced," NASA administrator Charles Bolden said in a memo to agency employees on December 20. That, he said, is different from past government shutdowns when stopgap appropriations bills expired. "For these reasons, I do not expect our day-to-day operations to change dramatically on or immediately after January 2, should sequestration occur."

However, if the sequestration cuts are not immediately rolled back, or do become permanent, there would be significant implications for agency programs. The cuts are made at the account level (i.e., science, exploration, space operations), so NASA could not, for example, transfer money from science programs to support development of the Space Launch System and Orion, or vice versa. The agency would, though, have more latitude to reapportion funding within those accounts—say, from SLS and Orion to commercial crew, or vice versa—although it's likely supporters of various programs in Congress and in the broader space community will closely watch any efforts along those lines.

Those cuts would also result in layoffs among the contractors supporting NASA. (The agency's civil servant workforce is protected from layoffs by the 2010 NASA authorization act, although some could be furloughed temporarily.) In a report released earlier this month, the Aerospace industries Association estimated that about 20,700 jobs would be lost nationwide if NASA's budget was sequestered, a figure that includes both those directly working on NASA contracts as well as those involved indirectly. "This report demonstrates that the biggest single threat to our space programs' continued success are arbitrary and capricious budget cuts," said AIA president Marion Blakey.

Even if sequestration is somehow avoided in the final hours of 2012, there will likely be budget tensions within NASA in 2013 and late years. "The one certainty is that the budget situation is going to be pretty grim going forward," said Marcia Smith of SpacePolicyOnline.com at a Secure World Foundation (SWF) forum in Washington in early December. She foresaw in particular a clash between the SLS and Orion programs and commercial crew. "I don't know if we're looking at a train wreck that's going to happen in the next year or two, or if we're just going to end up stretching out programs," she said.

Those cuts may still be avoided, but at this late date, and with the little progress seen so far, it appears increasingly likely that sequestration will take effect—perhaps only temporarily—this week. The debate in Congress on this topic has made it difficult for it to consider other, far less controversial legislation, including one for the space industry. In November, the House passed HR 6586, a bill that extends the commercial launch indemnification regime by two years. That system, set to expire today (December 31), protects commercial launch operators from third-party damages above a "Maximum Probable Loss" level determined during the launch licensing process that companies are financially responsible for.

The bill passed in the House on a voice vote with very little debate, yet the short piece of legislation—it merely amends existing law by changing the expiration date of indemnification to December 31, 2014—has yet to be taken up by the Senate, and other efforts there to extend the provision, such as putting an amendment into the defense authorization bill the Senate passed earlier in the month, also failed. At a space law forum this fall, a SpaceX official said that they would continue to carry out their launches without indemnification, but anticipated paying higher insurance rates.

Implementing export control reform

Despite the lack of action on sequestration or launch indemnification, the commercial space industry got a long-awaited victory this month in the defense authorization bill. The conference report that reconciled the House and Senate versions of bill—and subsequently passed by both houses—included satellite export control reform language that the industry had been seeking for more than a decade and which appeared to be a "do or die" situation this year (see "A space policy to-do list for after the election", The Space Review, October 15, 2012).

The bill strikes a provision from a fiscal year 1999 defense bill that moved satellites and related components to the US Munitions List (USML), thus putting them under the more restrictive purview of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). That made it more difficult for US companies to export satellites and satellite components, even to NATO allies and other friendly nations, a major obstacle for smaller companies without dedicated staff with experience in this area.

"By repealing an outmoded law from more than a dozen years ago, Congress has significantly aided the competitiveness of the US satellite industry, a crucial driver for the success of the US space and technology sectors," said Patricia Cooper, president of the Satellite Industry Association (SIA), an industry organization that had been advocating for export control reform for years.

"By treating satellites and even the nuts and bolts that hold them together as lethal weapons, we are turning our backs on American innovation," said Rep. C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger (D-MD), ranking member of the House intelligence committee and a supporter within Congress of export control reform. "For too long, the makers of American satellites and their parts have gotten weaker as their foreign competitors get stronger. Today we say, 'not anymore.'"

Such celebrations are a little premature, though. First, the bill has not, as of Monday morning, been signed into law, although President Obama is expected to sign it before the new Congress convenes on Thursday. Moreover, the legislation itself does not move satellites and related components off the USML. Instead, it simply restores to the president the authority to make that determination, something he already has for every other item on the list.

A key issue to watch in 2013, then, will be how quickly the administration seeks to implement reform, and what items it plans to take off the USML. A report released earlier this year by the Defense Department, known as the "section 1248 report" for the section of the 2010 defense authorization bill that requested it, concluded that many items on the USML, including communications satellites, remote sensing satellites with resolutions below certain thresholds, and components associated those satellites, could be safely moved off the USML and onto the less restrictive Commerce Control List (CCL) without harming national security.

To do so, though, the administration will still have to jump through some hoops. The defense authorization act included provisions that require any review by the administration of Category XV of the USML, which includes satellites and related components, be an interagency effort with the participation of the Departments of Commerce, Defense, and State, along with the Director of National Intelligence. The bill also requires that the administration file a report describing any differences in the administration's approach with what it outlined in the section 1248 report. That report is due when the administration files with Congress its first "38(f)" notification to move a space-related item from the USML to the CCL. The bill also prohibits, as expected, exports of satellites or related components to China, North Korea, and any state sponsors of terrorism.

Commercial space efforts

Some commercial space advocates hope that the export control reform breakthrough in the defense authorization bill will allow the administration to revisit whether crewed commercial suborbital vehicles should be on the USML or not. "These vehicles have innumerable civilian uses, and should be on the Commerce Control List, where many dual-use technologies with predominantly civilian uses are already regulated," said Stu Witt, CEO of Mojave Air and Space Port and president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, in a statement about passage of export control reform language.

And 2013 may finally be the year when these piloted commercial suborbital vehicles start flying in space. On December 19, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo (SS2) performed its first glide flight in a "powered flight configuration," with its hybrid rocket motor installed. That brings SS2 ever closer to its first powered flight, as the motor completes a series of static fire tests on the ground. Virgin Galactic said in a statement that it planned to perform at least two more glide flights in this configuration before the first powered flight.

Virgin's neighbor in Mojave, XCOR Aerospace, is also making progress towards the first flights of its Lynx suborbital spaceplane. While the company had, earlier in the year, talked about having the first, very low level ("air under the gears," in the words of company officials) powered flights of the Lynx by the end of 2012, those flights have not started yet. "We are progressing quickly on building and fielding the Lynx and flying it in the new year," XCOR COO Andrew Nelson said in October at the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight in New Mexico.

Early 2013 should also see the first flight of a new orbital launch vehicle, the Antares, developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation as part of NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. After extended delays because of work on its new launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia (and, later, because of cleanup after the passage of Hurricane Sandy), an Antares test article is now on the pad undergoing tests. A "hot fire" test of the first stage engines of the Antares is planned for January, with the first launch now planned for February. If successful, a second Antares launch, carrying the first Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the ISS, would take place as soon as April.

The other vehicles developed under COTS, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft, already made their first trips to the ISS in 2012. The next Falcon 9 launch is now planned for late February or early March, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said earlier in December, as the company wraps up the investigation into the shutdown of an engine in the first stage of the Falcon 9 in October's Dragon launch to the ISS. "I think we've got a good most probable cause identified" for the shutdown, but declined to give specifics about that cause during a Washington Space Business Roundtable luncheon speech.

SpaceX has an ambitious manifest for 2013, including Dragon missions to the ISS as well as commercial satellite launches, as it introduces an upgraded version of the Falcon 9, designated v1.1, with more powerful Merlin 1D engines and stretched fuel tanks. The company also has plans for the inaugural launch of the larger Falcon Heavy later in the year from a new launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. SpaceX has also been working on technology for a reusable version of the Falcon 9, performing three test flights in late 2012 of a vehicle called Grasshopper: a Falcon 9 first stage with a single engine and four landing legs, to test powered vertical landings. In the most recent flight, on December 17, the rocket spent nearly 30 seconds aloft, flying to an altitude of 40 meters. SpaceX said in a statement that "successively more sophisticated flights [are] expected over the next several months."

Implementing a revised Mars program

One of the biggest highlights of 2012 was the successful landing of the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars. NASA had hyped the landing as "seven minutes or terror," but the landing went about as smoothly as anyone has expected (see "From terror to triumph", The Space Review, August 6, 2012.) The rover is now moving across the floor of Gale Crater on a mission that, barring technical issues, should last several years, offering scientists with new insights about Mars, including how habitable the planet may have once been.

This year will see the launch of another NASA Mars mission, an orbiter called Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) that will study the planet's atmosphere. For much of 2012, though, MAVEN appeared to be the end of NASA's Mars program, after NASA announced in the release of its fiscal year 2013 budget proposal that it was terminating its participation in ESA's ExoMars missions, including a 2016 orbiter and 2018 lander and rover. NASA convened a committee called the Mars Program Planning Group to evaluate options for future Mars missions in 2018, 2020, and beyond, while many in the planetary science community pushed back against those plans as well as a proposed 20-percent cut in funding for NASA's overall planetary science program.

By the end of 2012, though, the situation wasn't as bleak as it appeared earlier in the year, at least for Mars advocates. Two weeks after Curiosity's landing, NASA announced it selected a Mars lander called InSight as the latest mission in its Discovery program of lower cost Mars missions, beating out proposals for missions to a comet and Saturn's moon Titan. And, in December, NASA surprised many by announcing that it would fly a copy of the Curiosity rover to Mars in 2020.

A science definition team will work in 2013 to determine the instruments that this new, as-yet-unnamed rover will carry. However, many expect that the rover will be able to cache samples for return to Earth on later missions, a mission identified as a top priority by planetary scientists in their most recent decadal survey (see "The resurrection of Mars Sample Return", The Space Review, December 10, 2012.) How NASA does that, and what friction it might generate within the scientific community particularly if budgets are further cut under sequestration, will be an issue to watch closely in 2013 and beyond.

Culture, code, and China

Besides these big issues, there are a number of smaller ones to watch in 2013. One of them deals with the future, if any, of a proposed code of conduct for outer space activities. The European Union has proposed such a code, and in 2012 the State Department expressed its support for the concept of a code, although not explicitly endorsing the EU proposal. That raised concerns among some in Congress that the code was a step towards space arms control treaties that they opposed.

In the defense authorization bill passed this month, a provision addresses that issue, requiring the administration, should it sign any such code of conduct, to certify "that such agreement has no legally-binding effect or basis for limiting the activities of the United States in outer space." In addition, the administration is required to provide briefings to Congress about the status any code negotiations and notification upon signing of any such document.

However, those provisions may be moot since there seems to be little, if any, progress on the development of a code of conduct. "It's a good idea in principle. However, I believe it's largely dead," said Scott Pace of George Washington University's Space Policy Institute at the SWF event. "The diplomatic aspect of that has been so badly fumbled that I don't really think there's a prospect right now for how to move forward with it."

SWF's Brian Weeden wasn't quite as ready to write off the code, but acknowledged the prospects for it weren't good. Nonetheless, he said, it made sense to continue international dialogue on issues raised by the code. Such discussions are likely to include China, as some people play up a rivalry between the two nations. But others still hold out hope for increased cooperation between China and the US, noting that China's competition is more with other Asian space powers, like India and Japan, than with America.

"I would see forthcoming, maybe in the next four years of the Obama Administration, an opening on a government-to-government cooperative basis for space cooperation between the US and China," said Eligar Sadeh of Astroconsulting International. "China really is looking for the United States to take the initiative and lead" on space cooperation between the two nations.

The challenges with dealing with China, not to mention other obstacles like reduced budgets, point to a need for changes in culture in various government agencies and other organizations, including a willingness to adopt other approaches of doing business that can be faster and less expensive that current methods.

The SIA's Cooper said at the SWF event that she sees this need for cultural changes with respect to hosted payloads, where government payloads are flown on commercial satellites for far less cost than a dedicated spacecraft (see "An opening door for hosted payloads", The Space Review, October 29, 2012). "Almost everyone agrees that hosted payloads… is a good idea," she said. "The administrative and programmatic bureaucracy and structure" of government agencies remain a barrier to more widespread use of hosted payloads, though.

Weeden said the military needed to be more open to more effective, less expensive ways of processing space situational awareness (SSA) data, such as those already in use in the private sector for much bigger data sets. "The institution and the culture are not able to deal with this kind of challenge," he said of the military's approach to SSA data analysis. "If you gave that problem to Google or Facebook, their interns could do it over the summer for a couple million dollars."

Many of these issues won't be resolved in 2013, but these and others not addressed here will help shape what the public and private sectors can do, or won't be able to do, in space in the next twelve months and beyond.

First 'Alien Earth' Will Be Found in 2013, Experts Say

Mike Wall - Space.com

The first truly Earth-like alien planet is likely to be spotted next year, an epic discovery that would cause humanity to reassess its place in the universe.

While astronomers have found a number of exoplanets over the last few years that share one or two key traits with our own world — such as size or inferred surface temperature — they have yet to bag a bona fide "alien Earth." But that should change in 2013, scientists say.

"I'm very positive that the first Earth twin will be discovered next year," said Abel Mendez, who runs the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo.

Planets piling up

Astronomers discovered the first exoplanet orbiting a sunlike star in 1995. Since they, they've spotted more than 800 worlds beyond our own solar system, and many more candidates await confirmation by follow-up observations.

NASA's prolific Kepler Space Telescope, for example, has flagged more than 2,300 potential planets since its March 2009 launch. Only 100 or so have been confirmed to date, but mission scientists estimate that at least 80 percent will end up being the real deal.

The first exoplanet finds were scorching-hot Jupiter-like worlds that orbit close to their parent stars, because they were the easiest to detect. But over time, new instruments came online and planet hunters honed their techniques, enabling the discovery of smaller and more distantly orbiting planets — places more like Earth.

Last December, for instance, Kepler found a planet 2.4 times larger than Earth orbiting in its star's habitable zone — that just-right range of distances where liquid water, and perhaps life as we know it, can exist.

The Kepler team and other research groups have detected several other worlds like that one (which is known as Kepler-22b), bringing the current tally of potentially habitable exoplanets to nine by Mendez' reckoning.

Zeroing in on Earth's twin

None of the worlds in Mendez' Habitable Exoplanets Catalog are small enough to be true Earth twins. The handful of Earth-size planets spotted to date all orbit too close to their stars to be suitable for life.

But it's only a matter of time before a small, rocky planet is spotted in the habitable zone — and Mendez isn't the only researcher who thinks that time is coming soon.

"The first planet with a measured size, orbit and incident stellar flux that is suitable for life is likely to be announced in 2013," said Geoff Marcy, a veteran planet hunter at the University of California, Berkeley, and a member of the Kepler team.

Mendez and Marcy both think this watershed find will be made by Kepler, which spots planets by flagging the telltale brightness dips caused when they pass in front of their parent stars from the instrument's perspective.

Kepler needs to witness three of these"transits" to detect a planet, so its early discoveries were tilted toward close-orbiting worlds (which transit more frequently). But over time, the telescope has been spotting more and more distantly orbiting planets — including some in the habitable zone.

An instrument called HARPS (short for High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher) is also a top contender, having already spotted a number of potentially habitable worlds. HARPS, which sits on the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-meter telescope in Chile, allows researchers to detect the tiny gravitational wobbles that orbiting planets induce in their parent stars.

"HARPS should be able to find the most interesting and closer Earth twins," Mendez told SPACE.com via email, noting that many Kepler planets are too far away to characterize in detail. "A combination of its sensitivity and long-term observations is now paying off."

And there are probably many alien Earths out there to be found in our Milky Way galaxy, researchers say.

"Estimating carefully, there are 200 billion stars that host at least 50 billion planets, if not more," Mikko Tuomi, of the University of Hertfordshire in England, told SPACE.com via email.

"Assuming that 1:10,000 are similar to the Earth would give us 5,000,000 such planets," added Tuomi, who led teams reporting the discovery of several potentially habitable planet candidates this year, including an exoplanet orbiting the star Tau Ceti just 11.9 light-years from Earth. "So I would say we are talking about at least thousands of such planets."

What it would mean

Whenever the first Earth twin is confirmed, the discovery will likely have a profound effect on humanity.

"We humans will look up into the night sky, much as we gaze across a large ocean," Marcy told SPACE.com via email. "We will know that the cosmic ocean contains islands and continents by the billions, able to support both primitive life and entire civilizations."

Marcy hopes such a find will prod our species to take its first real steps beyond its native solar system.

"Humanity will close its collective eyes, and set sail for Alpha Centauri," Marcy said, referring to the closest star system to our own, where an Earth-size planet was discovered earlier this year.

"The small steps for humanity will be a giant leap for our species. Sending robotic probes to the nearest stars will constitute the greatest adventure we Homo sapiens have ever attempted," Marcy added. "This massive undertaking will require the cooperation and contribution from all major nations around world. In so doing, we will take our first tentative steps into the cosmic ocean and enhance our shared sense of purpose on this terrestrial shore."

MEANWHILE ON MARS…

Road trip on tap for NASA's Mars rover in new year

Alicia Chang - Associated Press

Since captivating the world with its acrobatic landing, the Mars rover Curiosity has fallen into a rhythm: Drive, snap pictures, zap at boulders, scoop up dirt. Repeat.

Topping its to-do list in the new year: Set off toward a Martian mountain - a trek that will take up a good chunk of the year.

The original itinerary called for starting the drive before the Times Square ball drop, but Curiosity lingered longer than planned at a pit stop, delaying the trip.

Curiosity will now head for Mount Sharp in mid-February after it drills into its first rock.

"We'll probably be ready to hit the pedal to the metal and give the keys back to the rover drivers," mission chief scientist John Grotzinger said in a recent interview at his office on the sprawling NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory campus 15 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

The road trip comes amid great expectations. After all, it's the reason the $2.5 billion mission targeted Gale Crater near the Martian equator. Soaring from the center of the ancient crater is a 3-mile-high peak with intriguing layers of rocks.

Curiosity's job is to figure out whether the landing site ever had the right environmental conditions to support microbes. Scientists already know water flowed in the past thanks to the rover's discovery of an old streambed. Besides water, life as we know it also needs energy, the sun.

What's missing are the chemical building blocks of life: complex carbon-based molecules. If they're preserved on Mars, scientists figure the best place to hunt for them is at the base of Mount Sharp where images from space reveal hints of interesting geology.

It's a six-month journey if Curiosity drives nonstop. But since scientists will want to command the six-wheel rover to rest and examine rocky outcrops along the way, it'll turn into a nine-month odyssey.

Before Curiosity can tackle a mountain, there's unfinished business to tend to. After spending the holiday taking measurements of the Martian atmosphere, Curiosity gears up for the first task of the new year: Finding the perfect rock to bore into.

The exercise - from picking a rock to drilling to deciphering its chemical makeup - is expected to last more than a month.

"We have promised everybody that we're going to go slowly," said Grotzinger, a geologist at the California Institute of Technology.

Curiosity's low-key adventures thus far are in contrast to the drama-filled touchdown that entranced the world in August. Since the car-size rover was too heavy to land using a parachute and airbags, engineers invented a daring new way that involved lowering it to the surface by cables. The risky arrival proved so successful and popular that NASA is planning an encore in 2020.

Curiosity joined another NASA rover, Opportunity, which has been exploring the Martian southern hemisphere since 2004. Opportunity's twin, Spirit, stopped communicating in 2010.

After nailing the landing, Curiosity fell into a routine. The first month was dominated by health checkups - a tedious but essential prerequisite before driving. A chemistry laboratory on wheels, it's the most high-tech spacecraft to land on another planet so extra care was taken to ensure its tools, including its rock-zapping laser and robotic arm, worked.

Once it got the green light, it trundled to a waypoint that's home to three unique types of terrain to perform science experiments. Every time Curiosity roves, it leaves Morse code tracks in the soil, providing a visual signal between drives. The message spells out JPL, short for Jet Propulsion Lab, which built the rover.

So far, its odometer has logged less than a mile. Despite the slow going, scientists have been smitten with the postcards it beamed home, including a stylish self-portrait and tantalizing glimpses of Mount Sharp.

Huge expectations weigh on the mission with NASA balancing the need to feed the public's appetite while pursuing discoveries at its own pace. Last month, the space agency quashed Internet speculation that Curiosity had detected complex carbon compounds in a pinch of Martian soil by issuing a statement ahead of a science meeting where the team was due to present the latest findings.

American University space policy professor Howard McCurdy said Curiosity is currently in a transition, caught between the viral landing and the scientific payoff expected at Mount Sharp.

"It is interesting, but slow," he said in an email. "I expect public interest will rise as the rover gets closer to its destination."

Curiosity's prime mission lasts two years, but NASA expects the plutonium-powered rover to live far longer. A priority for its human handlers is to learn to operate it more efficiently so that it becomes second nature. Before heading to Mount Sharp, engineers plan a software update to Curiosity's computers to fix remaining bugs.

"We'll need to be pretty careful," project manager Richard Cook said of the upcoming drive. "We may find terrain that we're not comfortable driving in and we'll have to spend time driving around stuff."

END

Environmental Fruitcakes

Monday, December 31, 2012

Fwd: SPECIAL EDITION: A Look Back at Human Spaceflight (and more) News in 2012 & Look Ahead to 2013

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