Episode 616: Here Comes the Judge

The Talking Space team plays "catch-up" this week opening the discussion with NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP) decision. NASA decided on 16 September, 2014,  to go with the conical shaped spacecraft offered by Boeing (CST-100) and  SpaceX (Dragon Version 2)  over the Sierra Nevada Corporation lifting body design, Dreamchaser. This week, a judge with the US Claims Court allowed NASA to continue work on CCP related  activities while the US General Accounting Office considers SNC's challenge to the overall decision.

The International Space Station is becoming a very busy place with robotic cargo vehicles coming and going. The team gives a traffic report for the orbiting laboratory with cargo ships from SpaceX, Roscosmos and Orbital Sciences.

Want to go to Mars? You can, well okay, virtually. The team describes how to pick up your boarding pass not only for NASA's upcoming Exploration Test Flight 1, but for a future mission to the Red Planet.

Our Mars focus continues with the once every million year encounter that occurred on 19 October, 2014 when Comet Siding Spring made its historic close encounter with the fourth rock from the Sun.

Additional Links:
Aviation Week: NASA Document Spells Out Reasons for SNC's Commercial Crew Loss

Host this week: Sawyer Rosenstein
Panel Members: Mark Ratterman, Gene Mikulka

Show Recorded 10/22/2014