HOUSTON — Some of the brightest in global aerospace are poised to pitch their recommendations for NASA’s proposed Asteroid Retrieval Mission and Grand Challenge. They will offer suggestions for an unbudgeted, multi-year demonstration of human and robotic strategies to thrust explorers out of low Earth orbit for the first time in 40 years, while assembling defenses against the collision threat posed by Near Earth Objects.

LOS ANGELES — SpaceX launched its upgraded Falcon 9 v1.1 at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., on Sept 29, marking the first demonstration of the vehicle the company plans to also use for human spaceflight missions.

PAYING BILLS: Congress passed a bill Sept. 30 that would keep salary payments going to active military personnel and civilian Defense and Homeland Security department employees and contractors “providing support to members of the armed forces.” The bill comes as everyone else in the U.S. government faced the consequences of a federal shutdown, which loomed Oct. 1 unless lawmakers and President Barack Obama reached an agreement on fresh appropriations overnight.

Orbital Sciences’ unpiloted Cygnus resupply craft will make a second attempt to rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station early Sept. 29, management teams from NASA and the Dulles, Va.,-based company decided Sept. 27. The latest operations plan would position Cygnus, with its 1,543-lb. cargo of crew provisions, about 35 ft. below the orbiting science lab at 7:15 a.m. EDT, for an astronaut-commanded robot arm grapple.

Chinese Confusion: Ma Xingrui, administrator of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), tells the 64th International Astronautical Congress that his country is ready to join the International Space Exploration Group, a multinational organization of space agencies developing road maps for human exploration of the Solar System. But according to the ISEGC Terms of Reference, CNSA is “automatically” a member because it helped draft the 2007 framework document on which the organization was based.

China’s new medium-heavy space launcher, Long March 7, is very likely to fly in 2014, says an industry official, confirming a delayed target announced six months ago.

Resumption of rendezvous activities begun

Chinese engineers are working on a hydrogen-fueled rocket engine almost three times the size of their current largest powerplant in that category. But the work is only at an early stage. The engine, which would develop thrust of 200 metric (440,000 lb.) thrust, exists as a concept or preliminary design. So far, developers are tackling critical technologies and have not built parts of a serviceable engine, says Zhang Nan, president of the Beijing Aerospace Propulsion Institute.