Jupiter-Bound Juno Spacecraft Enters Next Cruise Phase, Heads Toward Earth Flyby Gravity Assist
The Juno spacecraft is entering ‘Inner Cruise 3′ phase on May 28. During this 161-day period the flight team, including PI Scott Bolton of Southwest Research Institute and Deputy PI John Connerney of Goddard Space Flight Center, will be focusing on the Earth flyby gravity assist scheduled for October 9. It will bring Juno within an altitude of about 500 km and boost its velocity by 7.3 km per second. Juno will pass behind the Earth as seen from the Sun and its three 9 m X 2.65 m solar arrays will not receive direct sunlight, for the first time, for 20 minutes. Three trajectory correction maneuvers are planned before the flyby and one after to place Juno in its final trajectory for Jupiter. At the time of the flyby, the 1,593-kg spacecraft with 29 sensors, 8 science instruments and 1 color camera will have traveled approximately 1.6B km, which is more than half of the mission route to Jupiter. 27 days after the flyby, on November 5, Juno will enter the final cruise phase, ‘Quiet Cruise,’ which will last 791 days. The US$1.1B NASA project, scheduled to arrive at Jupiter on July 4, 2016, will help answer some of the many questions about the giant gas planet and its role in the formation of our Solar System. (Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Japan International Space Tech and Science Symposium With Major Focus on Moon
The 29th International Symposium on Space Technology and Science with the theme ‘Wish It, Dream It, Do It!’ occurs June 2-9 in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. The primary objectives are to encourage specialists in the fields of space engineering, space science, space medicine and space law to exchange information and promote space activities. The program includes 3 entire sessions on ‘Missions to the Moon’ chaired by leaders from JAXA and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), including Tatsuaki Hashimoto (T) and Fuyuhiko Kikuchi who are both involved in the SELENE-2 project. The session chaired by Sho Sasaki (B) of NAOJ includes his talk on ‘Sciences of Human Exploration of Lunar Polar Regions,’ as well as ‘The Proposal for the Concept of Lunar Transfer Vehicle’ by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and ‘VOLTEX: A Flying Robot Concept for Exploration of Lava Tubes’ by the PES and RNS Institutes of Technology in India. There is also a forward looking talk by a diverse range of Japan experts on ‘Lunar and Planetary Exploration in the Coming Decade’ billed as an attempt by the community of planetary scientists in Japan to innovate new decision making processes for planetary mission concepts. (Image Credit: JAXA, NASA)
= All times for terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for international terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for space events, and…
= All times for international space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time;’ Greenwich, England).
Weekly Planet Watch – Evening Planets: Mercury (WNW), Venus (WNW), Jupiter (WNW), Saturn (SE).
MONDAY
May 27 — ISS, LEO: Expedition 36 Vinogradov, Misurkin, Cassidy working on new Treadmill with Vibration Isolation System; preparing for arrival of 3 member crew scheduled to dock May 29, 02:17 UT.
May 27 — Kepler, Heliocentric Orbit: In Point Rest State, fuel-efficient mode using thrusters to control pointing of spacecraft, tipping it toward Sun & letting Solar pressure tip it back, resembling pendulum motion.
May 27 — Opportunity, Cape York, Mars: Driving 2.2 km toward ‘Solander Point’ on rim of Endeavour Crater to continue science observations & reach favorable slope before Mars winter daily sunshine minimum occurs Feb 2014.
May 27 — Cassini OTM-350, Saturn Orbit: Spacecraft conducts Orbital Trim Maneuver #350 today.
May 27 — Sierra Nevada Corp., Edwards CA: NewSpace company preparing for ground & approach-and-landing flight tests of Dream Chaser over next few months at Dryden Flight Research Center.
May 27 — Virgin Galactic, Mojave CA: Working to complete test-flight program, gain FAA license for first flight of SpaceShipTwo on Dec 25; will follow with commercial flights, more than 580 people have signed up.
May 27 — Tethers Unlimited Inc., Bothell WA: Developing ‘SPIDER’ for robotic exploration anchor tethers, ‘Trusselator’ for on-orbit fabrication & integration of solar arrays, 2 other projects under NASA SBIR contracts.
May 27-28 — CNES, Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics of Grenoble, Grenoble, France: Nearby Earth Astrometric Telescope (NEAT) 2013 Simulation Workshop; to discuss proposed NEAT mission to detect and characterize planetary systems.
May 27-29 — Russian Academy of Sciences, German Institute of Navigation, IEEE, AIAA, et al, Saint Petersburg, Russia: 20th St. Petersburg International Conference on Integrated Navigation Systems.
May 27-30 — Intelsat, ABE International, ARABSAT, Russian Satellite Communication Co., Johannesburg, South Africa: SatCom Africa 2013; at Sandton Conference Centre.
May 27-31 — `Imiloa Astronomy Center, Hilo HI: Camp `Imi-possible; for kids in grades K-5 to learn about ‘WAI-ology’ – water’s role in inner and outer Solar System.
Continued from…
Feb 14 – Jun 2, 2014 — NASA NSPIRES, Online: Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) 2013; proposal and submission period for those interested in advancing research concepts and technologies for Space and Earth sciences.
Apr 2 – Jun 5 — NASA, Online: NASA Seeks Academic Partners for Smallsat Technology Collaboration; accepting proposals for small spacecraft (smallsat) projects.
May 20-29 — Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs, Brussels, Belgium: Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting 2013 (ATCM XXXVI) & Committee for Environmental Protection Meeting (CEP XXVI).
May 21 – Jul 9 — NASA, Online: Accepting Proposals: Phase II Visionary Advanced Concepts; for cutting-edge ideas to transform future aerospace missions, enable new capabilities, alter approaches to launching, building, operating aerospace systems.
May 23 – Jul 10 — NASA, Online: Accepting Proposals: Summer of Innovation ‘Mini-Awards’; organizations may receive up to US$2.5K to offer students STEM educational experiences.
May 24-27 — Novaspace, Tucson AZ: Spacefest V; to include astronauts, space scientists, space artists, space entrepreneurs; at JW Marriott Tucson Starr Pass Resort and Spa; US$50.
TUESDAY
May 28 — Juno, Jupiter Trajectory: Inner Cruise 2 phase ends today; Inner Cruise 3 phase begins, will last 161 days; team focusing on required maneuvers for upcoming Earth flyby gravity assist Oct 9.
May 28 — National Defense Industry Association – Georgia, Atlanta GA: Georgia Space Port Briefing; at Georgia resource Center.
May 28-29 — AGI, ULA, NRAO, Sinclair Interplanetary, et al, Ithaca NY: iCubeSat 2013 – The 2nd Interplanetary CubeSat Workshop.
May 28-30 — Canadian Astronomical Society, University of British Columbia – Physics and Astronomy Department, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: Annual Meeting of the Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA 2013).
May 28 – Jun 7— NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Lewes DE: Fermi Summer School 2013; at University of Delaware Conference Center.
May 28 – Aug 2 — Lunar and Planetary Institute, NASA Lunar Science Institute, Houston TX: Lunar Exploration Summer Intern Program; students earn 50 hours of credit, evaluate possible Moon landing sites for robotic & Human exploration missions.
WEDNESDAY
May 29 — RSA, Launch Soyuz / ISS 35S, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan: An RSA Soyuz rocket set to launch members of Expedition 36/37: Karen Nyberg of NASA, Fyodor Yurchikhin of RSA, Luca Parmitano of ESA; 02:31 local time; will dock with ISS after 4 orbits / 6 hours.
May 29 — The British Interplanetary Society, London, United Kingdom: The Philosophy of the Starship; symposium featuring Kelvin Long, Keith Cooper, Stephen Ashworth, Bob Parkinson.
May 29 — NASA, Mountain View CA: NASA Research Park Exploration Lecture Series: Designing for User Experience, Health and Sustainability for the Next-Generation Workforce; at Google’s Bay View campus, building 3, 19:00 – 21:00 PDT.
May 29 — Planetary Resources Inc., Seattle WA & Online: Planetary Resources project announcement; to include Peter Diamandis, Eric Anderson, Chris Lewicki; at the Great Gallery in the Museum of Flight, 10:00 PDT.
May 29 — Space Frontier Foundation, Online: Last Day to Apply: 2013 NewSpace Business Plan Competition; entrepreneurs focus on / plan commercial development of space, advance NewSpace movement.
May 29-31 — DLR German Space Operations Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Canadian Space Agency, Munich, Germany: 5th International Conference on Spacecraft Formation Flying Missions and Technologies.
May 29-31 — University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France: 2013 International Primitive body Exploration Working Group (IPEWG) Workshop.
May 29-31 — American Astronautical Society, AIAA, University of Virginia, NOAO, et al, Charlottesville VA: Requirements for UTC and Civil Timekeeping on Earth: A Colloquium Addressing a Continuous Time Standard.
May 29 – Jun 7 — University of Alabama – Huntsville, National Science Foundation, CSPAR, NSF, Huntsville AL: 2013 UAHuntsville Space Weather Summer School.
THURSDAY
May 30-31 — The National Academies, Washington DC: Meeting: Ethics Principles and Guidelines for Health and Safety Standards for Long Duration and Exploration Spaceflights.
May 30 — Asteroid 2013 JR17: Near-Earth flyby (0.096 AU).
FRIDAY
May 31 — Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston TX: LPI Seminar Series: Decoding the High-Temperature Origins of Refractory Oxides from Ancient Stars; presented by Tom Zega from University of Arizona; in Lecture Hall of USRA, 15:30 CDT.
May 31 — Space Center Houston, Houston TX: Lunch with an Astronaut, Mike McCulley; US$49.95 adult.
May 31 – Jun 2 — Silicon Valley Space Center, Space Frontier Foundation, I Dream of Space Co., Mountain View CA: SVSC Space Start-Up Weekend; for spaceflight entrepreneurs.
May 31 — Moon: 5.6° NNW of Neptune, 00:00; at last quarter, 08:59.
May 31 — Asteroid 285263 (1998 QE2): Near-Earth flyby (0.039 AU).
SATURDAY
Jun 1 — Deep Space, Ceres Trajectory: Dawn spacecraft, running ion propulsion system trajectory thrusters, is now about 11.9M km from Vesta and 54.8M km / 615 days from Ceres approach.
Jun 1 — NASA, Rockledge FL: Contract to Modify Mobile Launcher with potential of US$20.7M goes to J.P. Donovan Construction Inc. to modify the mobile launcher that will enable Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket to send Humans into space.
Jun 1 — NASA, Oak Ridge TN: Environmental Compliance and Operations Contract with potential of US$80M goes to Navarro Research and Engineering Inc. to provide environmental compliance and restoration services for White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces NM.
Jun 1 — NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland OH: Free 1-hour tour of 8-by-6-Foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel; first tour starts 10:00 EDT.
Jun 1 — Federation of Galaxy Explorers, Arlington VA: 2013 Galaxy Ball; Space Leadership Award goes to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.
Jun 1 — Onizuka Center for International Astronomy Visitor Information Station, Mauna Kea HI: The Universe Tonight: Smithsonian Submillimeter Array; at 2,800-meter altitude on Mauna Kea, 18:00 HST.
Jun 1 — Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC: Buzz Aldrin Book Signing – Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration; 11:00 EDT.
Jun 1 — DIYRockets Inc., Sunglass Co., Shapeways Inc., Online: Design Due: 3D Printed Rocket Challenge; final design due for competition to design 3D printed rocket engine that could carry nano-satellites into space.
Jun 1-2 — Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada: Exoplanet Exploration Program (EXOPAG) 8 Meeting; Canceled.
Jun 1 — Asteroid 2013 JU22: Near-Earth flyby (0.052 AU).
Jun 1 — Asteroid 2011 BM45: Near-Earth flyby (0.075 AU).
Jun 1 — Asteroid 2013 JT17: Near-Earth flyby (0.098 AU).
SUNDAY
Jun 2 — The Space Show, Online: Dr. Bill Rowe, specializing in astronaut cardiovascular health & medicine, talks with host Dr. David Livingston.
Jun 2 — NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD: Model Rocket Launches; up to 609-meter altitude; 13:00 – 14:00 EDT.
Jun 2-6 — American Astronomical Society, Indianapolis IN: 222nd Meeting of the AAS; at Indiana Convention Center; expecting more than 500 professional astronomers, educators, journalists, space enthusiasts.
Jun 2-9 — JAXA, Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan: 29th International Symposium on Space Technology and Science.
Jun 2 — Moon: 3.8° NNW of Uranus, 14:00.
NSS 32nd ISDC & Spacefest V Advancing Space Exploration and Interest
The National Space Society hosts the 32nd Annual International Space Development Conference (ISDC) on May 23-27 at the Hyatt Regency La Jolla in San Diego, California, USA. The theme is ‘Global Collaboration in 21st Century Space.’ With the focus on humans becoming a Multi-World species this century, ISDC aims to promote innovative ideas and networks for space transportation, policies, technologies, advocacy and education. Over 117 speakers include Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Former President of India Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (TL), GLXP Senior Director Alexandra Hall (TR), Deep Space Industries CEO David Gump (ML) and Professor at the University of Advancing Technology Natasha Vita-More. The opening keynote speaker will be Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp (MR). Spacefest V will be held in Tucson, Arizona, USA on May 24-27 at the Starr Pass Resort and Spa. Sponsored by Novaspace, this event brings together scientists, astronauts, astronomers, space enthusiasts and artists to discuss human / robotic exploration, commercial space industry, space history and astronomy. There will be more than 35 speakers and 15 astronauts including Gemini 9 and Apollo 10 & 17 Astronaut Gene Cernan (BR), Planetary Society’s Emily Lakdawalla, Journalist at Space.com Leonard David and Team Leader of Cassini-Saturn Imaging Dr. Carolyn Porco. (Image Credit: NSS, Novaspace, NASA, Discovery Enterprise)
Canada Hosts Events on Space Exploration, Industry and Enterprise
The 6th International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety Conference “Safety is Not an Option” takes place on May 21-23 at the McGill University Institute of Air and Space Law in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The event is organized in cooperation with the International Space Safety Foundation and includes sessions on 3 topics that deserve increased attention: Space Debris Remediation, International Space Traffic Control, and Commercial Human Spaceflight Safety. The Manfred Lachs Conference on the Regulation of Emerging Modes of Aerospace Transpiration is on May 24-25 at McGill with support of the International Civil Aviation Organization. Featuring seven sessions and a gala dinner, the meeting aims to: assess current status / future plans for aerospace transportation, examine regulatory challenges to aerospace vehicles, and suggest viable policy and regulatory mechanisms to facilitate aerospace transportation / ensure safety of global aviation. Particularly vexing to current frameworks are emerging systems for point-to-point transportation capable of seamless operation within both airspace and outer space. Galaxy Forum Canada 2013 – ‘Human Moon Missions: Giant Steps into the Galaxy’ on May 25 in Vancouver, BC brings together Leaders and Innovators working on projects to extend Human exploration and enterprise to the Moon. These steps toward Galaxy / Solar System competence should bring great opportunities and rewards not only for those who choose to push boundaries on the Space frontier, but for everyone on Earth. (Image Credit: IAASS, ILOA)
= All times for terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for international terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for space events, and…
= All times for international space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time;’ Greenwich, England).
Weekly Planet Watch – Evening Planets: Mercury (WNW), Venus (WNW), Jupiter (W), Saturn (SE).
MONDAY
May 20 — ISS, LEO: Expedition 36 with Vinogradov as Commander preparing for 3 member crew scheduled to arrive May 29, 02:17 UT, exercising for 2.5 hours per day, performing routine maintenance.
May 20 — Juno, Jupiter Trajectory: Spacecraft is now 141 days and 78M km from Earth flyby gravity assist which will boost velocity by 26,280 kph.
May 20 — Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Orbit: HiRISE camera images indicating more than 200 small asteroids / bits of comets less than 1-2 m in diameter hit Mars every year forming craters at least 3.9-m across.
May 20 — Aquaporin Space Alliance, Copenhagen, Denmark: NewSpace Co. commercializing Aquaporin Inside membranes for spacesuit drinking water, cooling of spacecraft systems, purification of water from other planetary bodies.
May 20 — Able Space Corp., Denver CO: Planning to develop small suborbital rockets, also liquid-propellant test-stand capable of withstanding 4,448 N for under US$2,000.
May 20 — Newton Launch Systems Ltd, London, United Kingdom: Undertaking a 6-month study for technical, economic feasibility of a UK-based small satellite / spacecraft launcher.
May 20 — Sally Ride Science Foundation, Kennedy Center, NASA, Washington DC: A National Tribute to Sally Ride; to promote STEM education; at John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.
May 20 — NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD: Engineering Colloquium Series: The Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD); presented by Don Boroson of MIT Lincoln Laboratory, 15:30 EDT; free.
May 20 — National Geographic Society, Online: Google+ Hangout with Buzz Aldrin and Conrad Anker; 19:00 UT.
May 20-21 — NASA Astrobiology Institute, Sydney, Australia: The Hadean Earth-Moon System.
May 20-21 — Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge MA: Exoplanets in the Post-Kepler Era; presented by Dave Latham.
May 20-22 — International Space University, Haifa, Israel: ISU@Technion-Israel; 3-day interdisciplinary space course; US$657 (€500).
May 20-22 — UC Davis, Swig Foundation, Davis CA: Davis Cosmic Frontiers Conference: Mining the Cosmic Frontier in the Planck Era.
May 20-24 — International Astronomical Union, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lijiang, Yunnan, China: IAU Symposium 298: Setting the Scene of Gaia and LAMOST – The Current and Next Generations of Surveys and Models.
May 20-24 — NASA, Kennedy Space Center, Titusville FL: NASA 4th Annual Lunabotics Mining Competition; for university-level students to design / build innovative excavators (Lunabots) able to mine and deposit at least 10 kg of lunar simulant within 10 minutes.
May 20-26 — Washington University – St. Louis, St Louis MO: WUSTL lunar exploration events; featuring Apollo 17 Astronaut Harrison Schmitt, Human Moon exploration forum, 3-day Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Cameras science meeting.
May 20-29 — Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs, Brussels, Belgium: Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting 2013 (ATCM XXXVI) & Committee for Environmental Protection Meeting (CEP XXVI).
Continued from…
Apr 4 – Oct 25 — NASA, Online: 2014 Night Rover Challenge; for researchers to create energy storage system allowing simulated lunar rover to operate at average 85 W throughout 14-day-long lunar night, exceed a minimum of 300 W-hrs/kg.
Apr 10 – Jul 16 — JAXA, Online: Send Names / Messages to Asteroid 1999 JU3 on Hayabusa2 Spacecraft; accepting public submissions of names / messages to ride aboard spacecraft launching to asteroid in 2014.
Apr 24 – Aug 5 — AIAA, NASA, Online: Accepting abstracts for SpaceOps 2014: Exploring Innovation; 13th International Conference on Space Operations to occur May 5-9, 2014.
Apr 29 – Aug 14 — Icarus Interstellar Co., Online: Registration Period for Icarus Interstellar Starship Congress on Aug 15-18.
May 1 – Jul 1 — University of Colorado – Boulder, Online: Send Your Name & Message to Mars; contest to send name / message to Mars aboard MAVEN spacecraft launching between Nov 18 – Dec 7; winners announced Aug 8.
TUESDAY
May 21 — NASA Stennis Space Center, Stennis Space Center MS: Quarterly Meeting of the Stennis Business Consortium.
May 21-22 — UC San Diego, Arthur C. Clarke Foundation, San Diego CA: Starship Century Symposium 2013; to discuss challenges / opportunities for humankind’s long‐term future in space; featuring Peter Schwartz, Geoffrey Landis, Adam Crowl, more.
May 21-23 — Chinese Society of Astronautics, International Academy of Astronautics, Shanghai, China: 5th CSA-IAA Conference on Advanced Space Systems & Applications: New Era for Space Science and Technology.
May 21-23 — Polytechnic University of Turin, Thales Alenia Space, ASI, ESA, JAXA, NASA, Turin, Italy: 4th International Workshop on Verification and Testing of Space Systems.
May 21-23 — International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety, International Space Safety Foundation, ESA, JAXA, CNES, Canadian Space Agency, NASA, Montreal, Quebec, Canada: 6th IAASS Conference: Safety is Not an Option.
May 21-23 — Commercial Spaceflight Federation, Smartershows, Long Beach CA: Space Technology Expo: Design – Build – Test; at Long Beach Convention Center.
May 21-23 — ESA, IEEE Electron Devices Society, Paris, France: 14th IEEE International Vacuum Electronics Conference; special session includes space technologies and applications of vacuum electron devices.
May 21-23 — NASA Lunar Science Institute, Online: NLSI Workshop Without Walls: Lunar Volatiles Part 1; virtual meeting to present / discuss latest research regarding volatiles on Moon.
May 21 — Asteroid 2012 FC71: Near-Earth flyby (0.057 AU).
WEDNESDAY
May 22 — ISS, Online: Expedition 36 In-Flight Event with Florida Today, USA Today and the Florida Institute of Technology; 14:50 UT.
May 22 — Scaled Composites LLC, Mojave CA: Current FAA Commercial Space Transportation Experimental Permit allowing unlimited number of launches of SpaceShipTwo reusable suborbital rocket utilizing White Knight Two carrier aircraft expires today; new permit to communicate future allowances, provide for additional testing.
May 22 — ESA, Frascati, Italy: Inauguration of ESA’s Near Earth Object Coordination Centre at ESRIN; media briefing begins 14:30 local time.
May 22 — W. M. Keck Observatory, Kamuela HI: MOSFIRE: A Powerful New Astronomy Tool at the W. M. Keck Observatory; free lecture by Ian McLean of UCLA; at Kahilu Theater, 19:00 HST.
May 22 — Library of Congress – Science, Technology and Business Division, Washington DC: Lecture: How to Manage a Satellite Going 17 Thousand Miles per Hour; with speaker Steve Covington of NASA.
May 22 — NASA, Houston TX: Space Station Social; for 30 social media followers to experience Johnson Space Center, learn about ISS research and ground facilities.
May 22 — San Diego Air and Space Museum, San Diego CA: Buzz Aldrin Book Signing – Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration; 17:00 – 20:00 PDT; US$29 for Museum entrance.
May 22-24 — ESA, Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Belgium Federal Science Policy Office, Brussels, Belgium: Space Environment Information System (SPENVIS) User Workshop 2013.
May 22 — Moon: 0.54° WNW of Spica, 00:00; 3.7° SSW of Saturn, 20:00.
May 22 — Asteroid 2013 JK14: Near-Earth flyby (0.059 AU).
THURSDAY
May 23 — ISS, Online: Expedition 36 In-Flight Educational Event with the Talbot Innovation Middle School in Fall River, MA; 14:05 UT.
May 23 — Cassini, Saturn Orbit: Titan fly-by scheduled at 970-km altitude.
May 23 — Sustainable Silicon Valley, NASA Ames Research Center, Microsoft, et al, Moffett Field CA: Solutions Fair and 2013 WEST Summit; showcasing competition winners’ proposals on ways space research / technology can create global-sustainability solutions.
May 23-25 — The National Academies, NASA, Washington DC: Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science Meeting.
May 23-27 — National Space Society, San Diego CA: 32nd Annual International Space Development Conference; at Hyatt Regency La Jolla; featuring Bas Lansdorp, Dr. Robert Kerr, Bob Richards, Dan Lester, Dr. Robert Piccioni.
May 23 — Asteroid 163364 (2002 OD20): Near-Earth flyby (0.039 AU).
FRIDAY
May 24 — Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, Hutchinson KS: Opening of SpaceWorks Observation Gallery; public invited to view Apollo Saturn V F-1 rocket engines recently recovered by Bezos Expeditions.
May 24 — Space Center Houston, Houston TX: Lunch with an Astronaut, John Blaha; US$49.95 adult.
May 24-25 — McGill Institute of Air and Space Law, International Civil Aviation Organization, International Association for Advancement of Space Safety, Montreal, Quebec, Canada: 2013 Manfred Lachs Conference on the Regulation of Emerging Modes of Aerospace Transportation.
May 24-26 — Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand, Southland Astronomical Society, Invercargill, New Zealand: 2013 RASNZ Conference; at Ascot Park Hotel.
May 24-27 — Novaspace, Tucson AZ: Spacefest V; to include astronauts, space scientists, space artists, space entrepreneurs; at JW Marriott Tucson Starr Pass Resort and Spa; US$50.
May 24 — Penumbral Lunar Eclipse: Penumbral eclipse starts 17:53, ends 18:26; will be visually imperceptible due to the small entry into the penumbral shadow.
May 24 — Moon: Full (Planting / Milk Moon), 14:26.
SATURDAY
May 25 — International Lunar Observatory Association, Space Age Publishing Co., Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: Galaxy Forum Canada – Vancouver: Human Moon Missions: Giant Steps into the Galaxy; featuring Alain Berinstain, Steve Durst, John Chapman, Bob Richards, Alan Stern, Jim Keravala.
May 25 — Astronuts Kids’ Space Club, Newmarket, Ontario, Canada: 2nd Annual What’s Up in Space Event; featuring CSA Astronaut David Williams and models of Canadarm & Dextre robot.
May 25-26 — Austrian Ministry for Science and Research, Technical University Vienna, Vienna, Austria: MARS2013 Science Workshop; to discuss data from Ibn Battuta Center integrated Mars analog field simulation.
May 25-26 — SpaceUp, French Aeronautics and Astronautics Society (3AF), Paris, France: SpaceUp Paris; Paris’ first SpaceUp, the “unconference” where participants decide space issues / topics to discuss, schedule and structure of event.
May 25 — Moon: 6.6° N of Antares, 03:00; at perigee (distance 358,377 km), 16:00.
SUNDAY
May 26 — The Space Show, Online: Multiple guests including Bill Gaubatz & Cathy Harper discuss the DC-X First Flight 20th Anniversary with host Dr. David Livingston.
May 26 – Jun 16 — Aspen Center for Physics, Aspen CO: Workshop: The Obscured Universe: Dust and Gas in Distant Starburst Galaxies.
May 26 — Asteroid 2012 KF25: Near-Earth flyby (0.079 AU).
Latin America Advancing Geophysics, Space Technology, Astrophysics and Education
The American Geophysical Union ‘Meeting of the Americas’ brings together Earth and space scientists, educators, students and other leaders on May 14-17 in Cancun, Mexico. Members of the Program Committee include Ricardo Trindade from the University of Sao Paulo (Planetary Sciences), Blanca Mendoza of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Space Physics and Aeronomy) and Teresa Nieves-Chinchilla representing NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (SPA-Heliospheric Physics). The 7th Argentine Congress on Space Technology takes place on May 15-17 in Mendoza, Argentina. Organized by the Argentina Association of Space Technology and the National University of Cuyo, co-sponsored by the AIAA, the event features almost 100 presentations over 9 technical sessions. The International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) is working with leading astrophysics institutions to advance Galaxy 21st Century education in Latin America. The Hawai`i based non-profit, with the mission to expand human understanding of the Cosmos through observation from our Moon, is conducting Galaxy Forum Brazil in Rio de Janeiro on May 14, following up a successful Galaxy Forum Chile in Santiago on May 10. (Image Credit: AGU, NOAA, AATE, ILOA)
A. C. Clarke Center Public Launch Events: Inaugural Symposium & Starship Century Symposium
The Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination (ACCCHI) is hosting an inaugural symposium titled ‘Visions of the Future’ on May 14 at the Atkinson Hall of the University of California, San Diego. Inspired by Clarke’s imagining of 2001 in 1968, this free symposium will serve as a platform to discuss science 33 years from now with the understanding that human imagination can advance all aspects of societies. The 14 speakers include Director of ACCCHI Sheldon Brown, Assistant Professor of UCSD’s Department of Cognitive Science Ayse Saygin and Director of the Center for Transformative Media at Parsons The New School for Design Edward Keller. On May 21-22, ACCCHI will host Starship Century Symposium 2013 in collaboration with authors Gregory and James Benford. It asks the questions: Is this the century we build Starships? Why go to the stars? Can we? Should we? Geoffrey Landis of NASA will speak on ‘The Nuclear Rocket: Workhorse of the Solar System,’ Artist / Journalist Jon Lomberg will present ‘Becoming Galactic’ and Jill Tartar of SETI Institute moderates the ‘Getting to the Stars’ panel. The annual International Space Development Conference, also in San Diego, will be on May 23-27. (Image Credit: ACCCHI, UCSD)
= All times for terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for international terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for space events, and…
= All times for international space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time;’ Greenwich, England).
Weekly Planet Watch – Evening Planets: Venus (WNW), Jupiter (W), Saturn (SE).
MONDAY
May 13 — ISS, LEO: Expedition 34/35 members Chris Hadfield, Roman Romanenko, Tom Marshburn returning to Earth; May 13 undocking scheduled 23:08 UT, May 14 Kazakhstan landing 02:30, live coverage available.
May 13 — Herschel, Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange Point: Observing 1,000° C gas in center of Milky Way which black hole Sagittarius A* may be devouring.
May 13 — Curiosity, Yellowknife Bay, Mars: Mission team preparing to move rover to ‘Cumberland’ rock 2.75 meters west of ‘John Klein’ rock in order to drill / perform experiments.
May 13 — Golden Spike Co., Boulder CO: NewSpace company beginning to solidify Human lunar lander technology concepts with completed feasibility study by Northrop Grumman.
May 13 — SpaceX, Las Cruces NM: Preparing to move Grasshopper reusable rocket prototype to Spaceport America to begin high-altitude tests; signed 3-year agreement to lease land / facilities.
May 13 — Spaceport Sweden, Kiruna, Sweden: Finalizing commercial spaceflight program utilizing Dynamic Flight Simulator with unique G profiles which may be used in future commercial space vehicles.
May 13 — NASA, Washington DC: NASA to Mark 40th Anniversary of Skylab and Life Off Earth; televised roundtable discussion featuring Skylab and current astronauts, space missions agency managers; starts 14:30 EDT.
May 13 — The Space Show, Online: Buzz Aldrin talks about his book, Mission to Mars, with host Dr. David Livingston.
May 13 — United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, Vienna, Austria: Gagarin, First in Space; screening of video documentary; daughter of Yuri Gagarin, Yelena Y. Gagarina, will be present.
May 13-15 — Astrophysics Laboratory of Marseille, Marseille, France: Planet Validation Workshop; to discuss Kepler, future exoplanet missions, observations and data modeling, planetary systems, galactic structure.
May 13-17 — University of Granada Galactic Astrophysics Group, Granada, Spain: Workshop: The Role of Bars in Galaxy Evolution.
May 13 — Moon: At apogee (distance 405,386 km), 04:00.
Continued from…
Jan 19 – May 18 — University of California at Riverside ARTSblock Program, Riverside CA: Free Enterprise: The Art of Citizen Space Exploration; art exhibit with NewSpace movement theme.
Mar 26 – May 29 — Space Frontier Foundation, Online: 2013 NewSpace Business Plan Competition; to help entrepreneurs focus on / plan commercial development of space, advance NewSpace movement.
Apr 2 – Jun 5 — NASA, Online: NASA Seeks Academic Partners for Smallsat Technology Collaboration; accepting proposals for small spacecraft (smallsat) projects.
Apr 4 – Oct 25 — NASA, Online: 2014 Night Rover Challenge; for researchers to create energy storage system allowing simulated lunar rover to operate at average 85 W throughout 14-day-long lunar night, exceed a minimum of 300 W-hrs/kg.
Apr 10 – Jul 16 — JAXA, Online: Send Names / Messages to Asteroid 1999 JU3 on Hayabusa2 Spacecraft; accepting public submissions of names / messages to ride aboard spacecraft launching to asteroid in 2014.
TUESDAY
May 14 — International Launch Services, Launch Proton / Eutelsat 3D, Baikonur Cosmodrone, Kazakhstan: A Proton Rocket to deliver Eutelsat 3D communications satellite to provide services to Europe and Africa; 22:02 local time.
May 14 — Arthur C. Clarke Foundation, San Diego CA: Arthur C. Clarke Center Inaugural Symposium: Visions of the Future; to include The Literary Imagination; held in conjunction with Starship Century Symposium 2013 on May 21-22.
May 14 — International Lunar Observatory Association, Space Age Publishing Co., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Galaxy Forum South America – Brazil: Galaxy Education and Galaxy Enterprise in the 21st Century; free / open to public.
May 14 — National Space Club Florida Committee, Cape Canaveral FL: Luncheon at the Radisson Resort at the Port; to provide information on space activities; featuring Kennedy Space Center Director Robert Cabana; US$17-20.
May 14-15 — Federal Aviation Administration, Washington DC: COMSTAC Open Meeting.
May 14-17 — American Geophysical Union, Brazil National Scientific and Technical Society of Geophysicists, LatinMag, Geochemical Society, Cancun, Mexico: AGU: Meeting of the Americas.
May 14-17 — Applied Technologies Institute, Littleton CO: Space Mission Structures: From Concept to Launch Course; conducted by Tom Safarin and Poti Doukas; US$1,990.
May 14 — Moon: 11.5° SSW of Pollux, 22:00.
WEDNESDAY
May 15-16 — University of Geneva, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland: First Characterizing Exoplanet Satellite (CHEOPS) Science Workshop.
May 15-17 — Argentina Association of Space Technology, National University of Cuyo, Professional Council of Aeronautic and Space Engineering, AIAA, Mendoza, Argentina: 7th Argentine Congress on Space Technology.
May 15-17 — ESA, Noordwijk, The Netherlands: 12th Symposium on Advanced Space Technologies in Robotics and Automation (ASTRA 2013); at European Space Research and Technology Centre.
May 15-18 — ESA, NASA, JAXA, DLR, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Chiba, Japan: Heavy Ion in Therapy and Space Radiation Symposium 2013; to include 24th Annual NASA Space Radiation Health Investigators’ Workshop, 5th ESA Space Radiation Investigators’ Meeting, more.
May 15 — Asteroid 2010 LF14: Near-Earth flyby (0.096 AU).
THURSDAY
May 16-23 — RR Auction Inc., Amherst NH: Space and Aviation Autograph and Artifact Auction.
May 16 — Moon: 6.5° SSW of Beehive Cluster, 04:00.
May 16 — Asteroid 2013 HT15: Near-Earth flyby (0.045 AU).
FRIDAY
May 17 — NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston TX: Media Invited to Speak with Samuel Ting, Principal Investigator for the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.
May 17 — `Imiloa Astronomy Center, University of Hawai`i – Hilo, Hilo HI: Mauna Kea Skies Talk; astronomers from Mauna Kea observatories speak about recent discoveries; this session features Institute for Astronomy Hilo Telescope; 19:00 HST, US$8-10.
May 17 — Space Center Houston, Houston TX: Lunch with an Astronaut, Ken Cameron; US$49.95 adult.
May 17-18 — UK Astronomers Ltd., Sky at Night Magazine, Warwickshire, United Kingdom: International Astronomy Show.
May 17-19 — NASA, Covington KY: ‘Driven to Explore’ traveling exhibit.
May 17 — Moon: At first quarter, 18:35; 5.6° SSW of Regulus, 23:00.
SATURDAY
May 18 — International Academy of Astronautics, Beijing, China: IAA Academy Day.
SUNDAY
May 19 — Cassini OTM-349, Saturn Orbit: Spacecraft conducts Orbital Trim Maneuver #349 today.
May 19 — NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD: Sunday Experiment: James Webb Telescope; for families to learn about current / future science missions managed by NASA Goddard; in Auditorium and Science Center/Sphere, 13:00 – 15:00 EDT.
H2M Summit Advances 2030 Human Mars Mission with Collaboration and Discussion
The Human to Mars (H2M) Summit will be taking place at George Washington University in Washington D.C. on May 6-8. Sponsored by Explore Mars Inc., George Washington University Space Policy Institute, Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and others, this conference will address the feasibility of sending humans to Mars by 2030 on technical, scientific and policy-related levels. Some of the 85 expert speakers are GWU’s Pascale Ehrenfreund (L), Apollo Astronaut Buzz Aldrin (CL), NASA Administrator Charles Bolden (CR), Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate Kathy Nado (R) and Space Launch Systems Program Manager Todd May. Panel topics include Mars Precursor Missions, Mission Architecture and Transportation, Propulsion Options, and Living on Mars: Habitation and Life Support Challenges. Alain Ouellet from Canadian Space Agency, Bernhard Hufenbach from ESA and Manabu Kato from JAXA will speak during the May 8 International Cooperation Panel. NASA is developing the SLS heavy-lift rocket / Orion space capsule to support the goal of Human exploration of other planets. Commercial companies, such as Mars One, Inspiration Mars and SpaceX, and international space agencies including Russia, India, China, Europe and Japan are also developing technologies / Mars mission programs which will be vital toward making Human Mars missions, and Human Jupiter missions, a reality. (Image Credit: Explore Mars, NASA, Getty Images, NSS)
Sub-Orbital Spaceflight: Proving Tech for Future Missions to LEO, Deep Space
With SpaceShipTwo roaring to life supersonic over Mojave Air and Space Port things are looking up for the suborbital space tourism sector. This is a major step toward qualification and licensing ahead of Virgin Galactic operational flights expected early 2014. The Hybrid Rocket Motor, main oxidizer valve and other major subsystem components propelling Branson’s 2-pilot, 6-passenger craft are supplied by Sierra Nevada Corporation — boosting prospects for native application of similar systems in the SNC Dream Chaser orbital crew vehicle scheduled for test flights in 2014. Scaled Composites, founded by Burt Rutan, builds the spacecraft and the mother ship White Night Two — it is also working on the carrier aircraft for Stratolaunch System’s orbital launcher project. The Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference is set for June 3-5 in Broomfield, CO and themed ‘The Year Spaceflights Begin.’ The distinguished list of Keynote speakers includes two astronauts and top names from NASA, FAA, Commercial Spaceflight Federation, Challenger Center and other major organizations. The conference provides briefings from and networking with flight providers like VG and XCOR. The International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight will be October 16-17 in Las Cruces, NM. It features top thought leaders and cutting-edge technologies with commercial spaceflight applications. These parabolic enterprises will garner technical, financial and operational experience that can be transferred to orbital and interplanetary vehicles of the near future, while also keeping the public’s imagination directed upward with stellar aspirations. (Image Credit: VG, SNC, Scaled Composites)
= All times for terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for international terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for space events, and…
= All times for international space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time;’ Greenwich, England).
Weekly Planet Watch – Evening Planets: Venus (WNW), Jupiter (W), Saturn (SE).
MONDAY
May 6 — ISS, LEO: Commander Hadfield, Flight Engineers Marshburn & Romanenko packing items for May 14 return to Earth; RSA Cosmonauts working with Matryoshka experiment to measure radiation exposure.
May 6 — Kepler, Heliocentric Orbit: Reaction wheel #4 exhibiting signs of elevated friction & torque levels, indicates bearing deterioration; engineering team developing plan if wheel should fail.
May 6 — Juno, Jupiter Trajectory: Spacecraft, about 78M km from Earth, is traveling 24 km per second with 4.7 minute one-way radio signal, completed about 40% of total distance to Jupiter insertion.
May 6 — Bigelow Aerospace LLC, Las Vegas NV: NewSpace company with NASA Space Act Agreement conducting study of ways company can contribute to missions beyond LEO (to be complete in 100 days).
May 6 — Blue Origin LLC, Kent WA: Testing / analyzing 444,822 newtons BE-3 liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen rocket engine; manufacturing subscale booster propellant tank.
May 6 — Skybox Imaging Inc., Mountain View CA: Planning to launch first satellites SkySat-1 & 2 this year to provide Earth images within a few hours; want constellation of 24 within 5 years.
May 6-7 — Global Science and Technology Forum, Singapore: 1st Annual International Conference on Space Environment & Aviation Technology (SEAT 2013); topics include aerospace & aviation community, atmospheric / space / planetary environment, space weather.
May 6-8 — Explore Mars Inc., George Washington University Space Policy Institute, Washington DC: The Humans to Mars Summit (H2M); to include Buzz Aldrin, Charles Bolden, Dennis Tito; at GW Lisner Auditorium.
May 6-8 — Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, Campbell River, Vancouver Island, Canada: CFHT 10th Users’ Meeting 2013; to discuss recent accomplishments and future challenges.
May 6-8 — NRAO, Associated Universities Inc., NSF, Charlottesville VA: Radio Astronomy in the LSST Era; to discuss Large Synoptic Survey Telescope radio wavelength observations.
May 6 — Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower Peak: The 1st of 2 showers that occur each year as result of Earth passing through dust released by Halley’s Comet; meteors appear to radiate from Constellation Aquarius, 30 per hour likely, visible in N. & S. Hemisphere.
Continued from…
Apr 2 – May 21 — NASA, Online: Early Stage Innovation NASA Research Announcement; requesting technology proposals for science instruments, cryogenic propellant storage, optical coatings, oxygen recovery, NEA protection / understanding.
Apr 22 – Aug 31 — Mars One, Online: Accepting applications from those interested in one-way ticket to Mars to set up permanent Human settlement; US$38 to apply.
Apr 24 – Aug 5 — AIAA, NASA, Online: Accepting abstracts for SpaceOps 2014: Exploring Innovation; 13th International Conference on Space Operations to occur May 5-9, 2014.
Apr 29 – Aug 14 — Icarus Interstellar Co., Online: Registration Period for Icarus Interstellar Starship Congress on Aug 15-18.
May 1 – Jul 1 — University of Colorado – Boulder, Online: Send Your Name & Message to Mars; contest to send name / message to Mars aboard MAVEN spacecraft launching between Nov 18 – Dec 7; winners announced Aug 8.
May 5-8 — The Planetary and Terrestrial Mining Sciences Symposium, Space Resources Roundtable, Canadian Institute of Mining, Toronto, Ontario, Canada: 4th Annual PTMSS/SRR Symposium; in conjunction with CIM 2013 Convention.
May 5-9 — American Astronomical Society Division on Dynamical Astronomy, Paraty, Brazil: 2013 Meeting of the American Astronomical Society Division on Dynamical Astronomy.
TUESDAY
May 7 — ISS, LEO: In-Flight Event with Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation’s Subcommittee on Science and Space; 17:05 UT; live coverage available.
May 7 — International Space University, Strasbourg, France: MSc13 Team Project Final Presentations; students report on areas of importance to future of space exploration.
May 7 — SETI Institute, Mountain View CA: Colloquium: The Next Generation of Radio Telescopes; presented by Geoffrey Bower from UC Berkeley; 12:00 PDT.
May 7-8 — Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology, Space Systems Loral, Global VSAT Forum, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: Global Space and Satellite Forum; in conjunction with Milsatcom Middle East.
WEDNESDAY
May 8 — ESA, European Space Policy Institute, Vienna Business Agency, et al, Vienna, Austria: From Space to Business: The Integrated Applications Promotion (IAP) Programme.
May 8 — Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena CA: 2001 Mars Odyssey Project Science Group Meeting.
May 8 — AIAA, Washington DC: 2013 Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala; honoring influential, inspiring individuals in aerospace industry.
May 8-10 — Pagnanelli Risk Solutions Ltd., Arianespace, ESA, NASA, ASI, DLR, Rome, Italy: 17th International Space Conference: The Impact of Space Weather and Space Exploitation on Modern Society – Hazards’ Forecasting, Prevention, Mitigation and Insurance at an International Level.
THURSDAY
May 9 — NASA, Online: Live Interview with Expedition 36/37 NASA Flight Engineer Karen Nyberg in Star City, Russia; 14:00 local time.
May 9, 10 — Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena CA: The von Kármán Lecture Series: Radar Imaging of Near Earth Asteroids; featuring Dr. Lance Benner of JPL.
May 9-10 — NASTAR Center, Southampton PA: Basic Suborbital Space Training; to include classroom academics, simulated flight exposures.
May 9 — Annular Solar Eclipse: Moon’s apparent disk is just smaller than Sun’s, making Sun appears as a brilliant ring; highly visible in Australia & S. Pacific Ocean; greatest eclipse to occur at 15:52.
May 9 — Moon: 0.75° NE of Mars, 05:00; 0.81° ENE of Mercury, 11:00; New Moon, 14:31.
FRIDAY
May 10 — International Lunar Observatory Association, Space Age Publishing Co., University of Chile, Santiago, Chile: Galaxy Forum South America – Chile: Galaxy Education and Galaxy Enterprise in the 21st Century.
May 10 — Royal Astronomical Society, London, United Kingdom: RAS Specialist Discussion Meeting: Observation, Evolution and Origin of Planetary Satellites; at Piccadilly Burlington House.
May 10 — College of Marin, NASA, Kentfield CA: Free Lecture: Adam Steltzner, Chief Engineer of the Mars Rover Project.
May 10 — NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD: Scientific Colloquium: Hubble at 23; by Jennifer Wiseman.
May 10 — Space Center Houston, Houston TX: Lunch with an Astronaut, John-David Bartoe; US$49.95 adult.
May 10 — Moon: 5.3° SSE of Pleiades, 12:00; 1.4° S of Venus, 14:00.
May 10 — Asteroid 1988 TA: Near-Earth flyby (0.034 AU).
SATURDAY
May 11 — Aerospace Industries Association, National Association of Rocketry, The Plains VA: Team America Rocketry Contest.
May 11 — Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena CA: Educator Workshop: How to Think Like a NASA Scientist; at JPL Theodore von Kármán Auditorium, 08:30 – 16:30 PDT.
May 11 — AIAA – San Francisco, Exploratorium Museum, San Francisco CA: Day at the Museum; for K-12 students to investigate the Exploratorium.
May 11 — Moon: 3.5° N of Aldebaran, 10:00.
SUNDAY
May 12 — ISS, LEO: Live Coverage of ISS Expedition 35/36 Change of Command Ceremony; Chris Hadfield hands over ISS command to Pavel Vinogradov, 19:40 UT.
May 12 — The Space Show, Online: Tom Olson and Jeff Krukin discuss Exodus Consulting Group (created for NewSpace industry) with host Dr. David Livingston.
May 12 — Moon: 2.6° S of Jupiter, 04:00.
Second Vega Rocket Launch Marks Several Firsts
The second Vega Rocket, designated flight VV02, is scheduled to launch via Arianespace launch providers on May 3 at 23:06 from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. It will use the Vespa dual-payload adapter for the first time to hold ESA’s 160-kg Proba-V Earth observation satellite and Vietnam’s first Earth observation satellite VNREDSat-1A, a 120-kg spacecraft built by EADS Astrium for the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology. The 30-meter tall, single-body launcher with three solid rocket stages and a liquid rocket upper module will also carry Estonia’s first CubeSat, ESTCube-1 built by University of Tartu students to test electric solar wind sail technology. This launch is the first of five €400M (US$520M) ESA-sponsored Vega Research and Technology Accompaniment (VERTA) program flights. VERTA are planned to launch at least twice per year and deploy 3 additional ESA missions: ADM-Aeolus, LISA Pathfinder and Intermediate Experimental Vehicle (IXV). These five flights also serve to test the launcher’s capabilities and dependability before offering €320M (US$416M) commercial launches. Vega’s first commercial contracts are for ESA’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security satellites Sentinel-2 and 3, scheduled for launches 2014–16. (Image Credit: ESA, EADS Astrium, University of Tartu)
Canada Events Advance Astronautics, Space Commerce, Mining Sciences
The Canadian Aeronautics & Space Institute holds the 60th Aeronautics Conference and Annual General Meeting, themed ‘Aerospace Clusters: Where Are We Headed,’ on April 30 – May 2 at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The technical program features six Symposia, including Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies, Aerospace Structures and Materials, Human Factors and Propulsion. There will also be a special Women in Aerospace Reception with guest speaker Karen Deme, Test Pilot at Bombardier Aerospace. The next Canadian Space Commerce Association bimonthly meeting in Toronto on Thursday May 2 features keynote speaker Dr. Yaroslav Pustovyi, a former Ukraine astronaut candidate, speaking about his experiences in astronaut training and perspectives on the changing role of research astronauts in the new commercial spaceflight era. The 4th annual joint Planetary and Terrestrial Mining Sciences Symposium / Space Resources Roundtable will be held in conjunction with the Canadian Institute of Mining 2013 Convention at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on May 5-8. The purpose is to promote closer collaboration between space and mining sectors. Three major themes will drive the conference: Solid Planetology, Resource Extraction & Utilization, and Commercialization. (Image Credit: CASI, PTMSS, NASA)
= All times for terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for international terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for space events, and…
= All times for international space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time;’ Greenwich, England).
Weekly Planet Watch – Evening Planets: Venus (WNW), Jupiter (W), Saturn (SE).
MONDAY
Apr 29 — ISS, LEO: Expedition 35 crew transferring 22 kg of oxygen, 26 kg of air, 420 kg of water, 800 kg of propellant, 1,580 kg of spare parts from Progress 51P resupply vehicle; continuing work with Robonaut 2.
Apr 29 — WISE, LEO: Viewing 6B-light-year distant Galaxy SDSSJ1506+54 rapidly converting fuel into stars with almost 100% efficiency, emitting infrared light equivalent to more than 100B times energy of Sun.
Apr 29 — Herschel, Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange Point: Spectral images providing evidence that Jupiter has 2-3 times more water in S. Hemisphere due to 1994 impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9.
Apr 29 — Garvey Spacecraft Corp., Long Beach CA: NewSpace company continuing to launch / test P-18D rocket; next goals include implementing thrust vector control and conducting flights above 100 km.
Apr 29 — LiftPort Group, Port Orchard WA: Working to develop Lunar Elevator, testing vectran string attached to atmospheric balloons and designing climbing robots.
Apr 29 — Kentucky Space LLC, Lexington KY: Assisting space entrepreneurs / innovations through newly-created Space Tango business accelerator; will begin by investing in up to 6 USA companies.
Apr 29 — Virgin Galactic, Mojave CA: SpaceShipTwo powered flight scheduled today, hoping to break sound barrier.
Apr 29 — The Space Show, Online: Ed Wright, Project Manager for Citizens in Space, talks with host Dr. David Livingston.
Apr 29-30 — NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Washington DC: Advisory Council Science Committee, Planetary Protection Subcommittee Meeting.
Apr 29 — Asteroid 242643 (2005 NZ6): Near-Earth flyby (0.064 AU).
Continued from…
Apr 1 – May 1 — NASA, Online: The eXploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge 2014; for university-level students to plan / design deep-space habitat.
Apr 2 – May 21 — NASA, Online: Early Stage Innovation NASA Research Announcement; requesting technology proposals for science instruments, cryogenic propellant storage, optical coatings, oxygen recovery, NEA protection / understanding.
Apr 2 – Jun 5 — NASA, Online: NASA Seeks Academic Partners for Smallsat Technology Collaboration; accepting proposals for small spacecraft (smallsat) projects.
Apr 10 – Jul 16 — JAXA, Online: Send Names / Messages to Asteroid 1999 JU3 on Hayabusa2 Spacecraft; accepting public submissions of names / messages to ride aboard spacecraft launching to asteroid in 2014.
Apr 22 – Aug 31 — Mars One, Online: Accepting applications from those interested in one-way ticket to Mars to set up permanent Human settlement; US$38 to apply.
Apr 24 – Aug 5 — AIAA, NASA, Online: Accepting abstracts for SpaceOps 2014: Exploring Innovation; 13th International Conference on Space Operations to occur May 5-9, 2014.
TUESDAY
Apr 30 — Cassini OTM-348, Saturn Orbit: Spacecraft conducts Orbital Trim Maneuver #348 today.
Apr 30 — The National Academies, Online: Human Spaceflight Meeting: Technical Panel Teleconference.
Apr 30 — NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field CA: Workshop: Heat Shield Capability Needs for Extreme Entry Environment Missions in Support of Woven Thermal Protection System Technologies.
Apr 30 – May 2 — Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada: CASI 60th Aeronautics Conference & Annual General Meeting – Aerospace Clusters: Where Are We Headed?
Apr 30 – May 3 — Keck Institute for Space Studies, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena CA: Workshop: Airships – A New Horizon for Science.
WEDNESDAY
NET May — Herschel, Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange Point: Space observatory, now without liquid Helium to cool instruments, scheduled to propel itself into long-term stable orbit around Sun this month.
NET May — Boeing Company, Chicago IL: Developing CST-100 7-person spacecraft for NASA CCiCAP, Dual Engine Centaur Liquid Oxygen Duct Development Test to occur this month.
NET May — SpaceX, Cape Canaveral AFS FL: Upgrading Dragon spacecraft to carry humans to space for NASA CCiCAP, Human Certification Test Review to occur this month.
May 1 — Deep Space, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Trajectory: Rosetta spacecraft in deep-space hibernation is near Jupiter orbital path heading toward inner solar system; scheduled to wake up Jan 2014 and approach comet May 2014.
May 1 — Curiosity, Yellowknife Bay, Mars: Transmissions from Earth to rover resuming today, after being suspended due to solar conjunction.
May 1 — Stratolaunch Systems, Dulles VA: Booster Contract Awarded to Orbital Sciences Corp. to develop rocket for Stratolaunch’s carrier aircraft.
May 1 — NASA, New Orleans LA: Program Integration Contract Modification for Support at Michoud Assembly Facility with potential of US$477M goes to Jacobs Technology Inc. to advance Human spaceflight endeavors including Orion spacecraft and core stage of Space Launch System rocket.
May 1 — NASA, Houston TX: Human Health and Performance Contract with potential of US$1.76B goes to Wyle Laboratories Inc. to provide biomedical, medical, health services in support of Human spaceflight programs at Johnson Space Center.
May 1 – Jul 1 — University of Colorado – Boulder, Online: Send Your Name & Message to Mars; contest to send name / message to Mars aboard MAVEN spacecraft launching between Nov 18 – Dec 7; winners announced Aug 8.
May 1 — Asteroid 2013 EU9: Near-Earth flyby (0.095 AU).
THURSDAY
May 2 — ISS, LEO: Expedition 35 In-Flight Education Event with Fredericksburg High School of Texas; 16:35 UT, live coverage available.
May 2 — Canadian Space Commerce Association, Toronto, Ontario, Canada: CSCA Meeting; at Blake’s Law Firm, 19:30 local time.
May 2 — Space Transportation Association, Washington DC: STA Luncheon with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden; at 2325 Rayburn House Office Building, 11:30 EDT; free.
May 2 — NASA, Lawton OK: Great Plains Science Day; featuring NASA traveling exhibit Driven to Explore and 4B-year-old Moon rock.
May 2 — Moon: At last quarter, 01:16.
FRIDAY
May 3 — Arianespace, Launch Vega / Proba-V, VNREDSat-1A & ESTCube-1, Kourou, French Guiana: Designated flight VV02, European Vega rocket to launch Proba-V Earth observation satellite, VNREDSat-1A – Vietnam’s 1st Earth observation satellite, ESTCube-1 – Estonia’s 1st CubeSat.
May 3 — National Museum of the USAF, Wright-Patterson AFB OH: Space Day 2013; free STEM event for students in grades 5-8, teachers, parents.
May 3 — Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston TX: LPI Seminar Series: CRISM Analysis of Crater Uplifts; presented by Veronica Bray from University of Arizona; in Lecture Hall of USRA, 15:30 CDT.
May 3 — NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD: Scientific Colloquium: Satisfying our Curiosity about the Habitability of Ancient Mars with 9 Months of Exploration of Gale Crater; by Paul Mahaffy.
May 3 — Space Center Houston, Houston TX: Lunch with an Astronaut, Leroy Chiao; US$49.95 adult.
SATURDAY
May 4 — NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland OH: Free 1-hour tour of Altitude Combustion Stand Facility; first tour starts 10:00 EDT.
May 4 — Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, Rosman NC: Space Day; open house featuring Galaxy Walk, meteorites, Space Shuttle artifacts; 10:00 – 16:00 EDT, free.
May 4 — Mauna Kea Visitor Information Station, Hawai`i Island HI: The Universe Tonight: `Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii; 18:00 HST.
May 4, 5 — Silicon Valley Space Center, Mountain View CA: SVSC Citizen Science Workshop – XCOR Cubelab Payloads; hosted by Sean Casey at Hacker Dojo; US$150.
SUNDAY
May 5 — NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD: Model Rocket Launches; up to 609-meter altitude; 13:00 – 14:00 EDT.
May 5-8 — The Planetary and Terrestrial Mining Sciences Symposium, Space Resources Roundtable, Canadian Institute of Mining, Toronto, Ontario, Canada: 4th Annual PTMSS/SRR Symposium; in conjunction with CIM 2013 Convention.
May 5-9 — American Astronomical Society Division on Dynamical Astronomy, Paraty, Brazil: 2013 Meeting of the American Astronomical Society Division on Dynamical Astronomy.
May 5 — Asteroid 2013 GR38: Near-Earth flyby (0.048 AU).
May 5 — Asteroid 2013 GQ38: Near-Earth flyby (0.053 AU).
Orion Capsule Progressing Toward 2014 Test Flight
The Orion Crew Capsule, being built by Lockheed Martin Corporation, will begin 6-8 weeks of intensive load testing on April 22 at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA. Each series of tests will last 3-5 days and thousands of gauges on the capsule will measure stresses during lift-off, separation from the launch vehicle and 3 other events. The capsule will also undergo high-speed water tests to evaluate the splashdown recovery method. Soon Orion will receive a 5-m diameter Avcoat ablative heat-shield (the same material used for the Apollo capsule), avionics and other hardware and will be powered up for the first time this summer. Orion’s first flight, Exploration Flight Test (EFT)-1, is scheduled for September 2014. It will be launched on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy Rocket into a 5,793-km altitude, highly-elliptical orbit and is estimated to reenter Earth’s atmosphere at 84% of the speed of a return from the Moon. At a recent Orion briefing, Space Launch System Program Planning and Control Manager Keith Hefner (L), Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development Dan Dumbacher (C) and Orion Program Manager Mark Geyer (R) discussed the significant progress of the Space Launch System which is on track for its first test flight in 2017. Together Orion and SLS will take Humans farther into space than ever before. (Image Credit: NASA, K. Kremer, J. Rhian / AmericaSpace)
Europe Seeks to Clear Space for the Future
The 6th European Conference on Space Debris is being held at the European Space Operations Centre ESA/ESOC in Darmstadt, Germany on April 22-25. Today there are about 29,000 trackable objects with sizes larger than 10 cm and hundreds of millions of smaller pieces in orbit – accumulated during 4,900+ space launches since 1957. With 6,000 tons of debris and relative orbital velocities up to 56,000 km/h, these objects are a grave threat to human spaceflight, robotic space science, orbiting communications infrastructure and the viability of future launch operations. In two parallel sessions the conference provides a forum to discuss radar / optical / in-situ measurement techniques, environmental modeling theories, on-orbit / reentry risk analysis, hypervelocity impacts & shielding, mitigation & removal concepts and policy / legal issues. ESA Astronaut Reinhold Ewald (R) gives a keynote presentation on Monday, the rest of the program is available online. ESA Director of Human Spaceflight and Operations Thomas Reiter (L) says “this is a global task… [that] should be undertaken by joint efforts in cooperation with the world’s space agencies and industry.” As well as government programs by ESA, CNES / Astrium, Switzerland, JAXA, and NASA / DARPA, there are proposals for commercial mitigation services at an average cost of under US$400 per kilogram. (Image Credit: ESA, Clean Space)
= All times for terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for international terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for space events, and…
= All times for international space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time;’ Greenwich, England).
Weekly Planet Watch – Evening Planets: Jupiter (W), Saturn (SE).
MONDAY
Apr 22 — ISS, LEO: Expedition 35 preparing for Progress 51P resupply vehicle scheduled to arrive Apr 26; Astronaut Cassidy working with Burning And Suppression of Solids (BASS) experiment to study how solids burn & extinguish in microgravity.
Apr 22 — Juno, Jupiter Trajectory: Available power to solar arrays increasing as spacecraft gets closer to Sun; project team reduced power flow to Juno from 2,200 W to 500 W, at Jupiter will operate on about 450 W.
Apr 22 — Cassini, Saturn Orbit: Tracking supply of hydrocarbon methane and lakes on Titan; data suggests methane is being lost and not replaced, Titan could run out in tens of millions of years.
Apr 22 — SpaceX, Brownsville TX: NewSpace company proposed commercial launch site receives FAA draft Environmental Impact Statement claiming no significant impacts on health, safety, environment allowing project to continue.
Apr 22 — Virgin Galactic, Mojave CA: Analyzing data from recent glide cold-flow test of SpaceShip Two in preparation for powered test flights; more than 500 people have signed up for US$200K suborbital flights.
Apr 22 — Planetary Resources Inc., Bellevue WA: Partnering with Bechtel Corp. to develop effective, low-cost robotic exploration technologies to mine near-Earth asteroids for raw materials.
Apr 22 — Lockheed Martin Corp., Cape Canaveral FL: Orion to begin intensive load tests to measure capsule stresses during lift-off, separation from second stage, 3 other events in preparation for 2014 flight.
Apr 22 — Earth Day, Global: Earth Day 2013 conjunction with Moon Day (Monday).
Apr 22 — Silicon Valley Space Center, AIAA, Mountain View CA: Small Payload Seminar – Polar Sub-Orbital Science; at Hacker Dojo, 18:30 – 21:00 PDT.
Apr 22-24 — The National Academies, Washington DC: Human Spaceflight Meeting.
Apr 22-24 — JAXA, ESA, Chicago IL: MESSENGER-BepiColombo Workshop: The Evolution and Constitution of Mercury’s Interior; at Congress Plaza Hotel.
Apr 22-24 — Chandra X-Ray Center, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, NASA, Cambridge MA: 9th Chandra/CIAO Workshop; to help users of Chandra Interactive Analysis of Observations (CIAO) software; hosted at Chandra X-Ray Center.
Apr 22-25 — ESA, ASI, International Academy of Astronautics, UK Space Agency, Committee on Space Research, Darmstadt, Germany: 6th European Conference on Space Debris; at European Space Operations Centre.
Apr 22-26 — Max-Planck-Institute for Radio Astronomy, Square Kilometre Array Organisation, Bonn, Germany: The Modern Radio Universe 2013.
Apr 22-26 — International Space University, Strasbourg, France: Executive Space Course.
Apr 22 — Asteroid 2009 SQ104: Near-Earth flyby (0.071 AU).
Apr 22 — Asteroid 2010 CE55: Near-Earth flyby (0.081 AU).
Apr 22 — Asteroid 2012 XF55: Near-Earth flyby (0.084 AU).
Continued from…
Mar 26 – May 29 — Space Frontier Foundation, Online: 2013 NewSpace Business Plan Competition; to help entrepreneurs focus on / plan commercial development of space, advance NewSpace movement.
Apr 1 – May 1 — NASA, Online: The eXploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge 2014; for university-level students to plan / design deep-space habitat.
Apr 1 – Aug 1 — Cornell University, University of Hawai`i – Manoa, Hawaii Island: Mars Analog Mission and Food Study; 6-member crew to live under “Mars exploration conditions” and evaluate preparation strategies / new forms of food for long-term space exploration missions.
Apr 2 – May 6 — NASA, Online: 17th Screening of Space Program Artifacts; schools and museums may apply to receive Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Space Shuttle, Hubble Space Telescope artifacts.
Apr 2 – May 21 — NASA, Online: Early Stage Innovation NASA Research Announcement; requesting technology proposals for science instruments, cryogenic propellant storage, optical coatings, oxygen recovery, NEA protection / understanding.
Apr 4 – Oct 25 — NASA, Online: 2014 Night Rover Challenge; for researchers to create energy storage system allowing simulated lunar rover to operate at average 85 W throughout 14-day-long lunar night, exceed a minimum of 300 W-hrs/kg.
Apr 10 – Jul 16 — JAXA, Online: Send Names / Messages to Asteroid 1999 JU3 on Hayabusa2 Spacecraft; accepting public submissions of names / messages to ride aboard spacecraft launching to asteroid in 2014.
TUESDAY
Apr 23 — ISS, Undocking of Progress 50P Resupply Vehicle, LEO: Progress 50P, filled with ISS waste, set to burn up upon reentry to Earth atmosphere.
Apr 23-25 — NASA/JPL Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility, Monrovia CA: NASA SPICE Domestic Training Class; to provide spacecraft orbit information and other data used for analyzing space science observations, mission engineering functions and planning.
Apr 23-25 — AIAA, Herndon VA: Integrated Communications Navigation and Surveillance 2013 Conference.
Apr 23-25 — Applied Technologies Institute, Columbia MD: Solid Rocket Motor Design and Applications Course; conducted by Richard Lee; US$1,740.
WEDNESDAY
Apr 24 — RSA, Launch Soyuz / Progress 51P, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan: An RSA Soyuz rocket set to launch more than 3 tons of cargo to ISS aboard 51st Progress cargo delivery ship, 16:12 local time; scheduled to dock Apr 26 at 12:27 UT.
Apr 24 — Golden Spike Company, Online: Last Day of Indiegogo Campaign: Help Send Nations and People to the Moon.
Apr 24 — Planetary Resources Inc., Online: Google+ Hangout; to celebrate company’s 1-year anniversary, give status update, look to the future; 18:00 UT.
Apr 24-25 — NASA, Washington DC: NASA Advisory Council Meeting.
Apr 24 — Moon: 0.19° WNW of Spica, 14:00.
THURSDAY
Apr 25 — CNSA, Launch Long March 2D / Gaofen 1 , Jiuquan, China: Long March 2D to launch Gaofen 1 high-resolution remote sensing satellite for Earth imaging.
Apr 25 — The British Interplanetary Society, London, United Kingdom: Lecture: Project Orion Nuclear Propulsion; presented by Douglas Liddle.
Apr 25-27 — Boeing Co., Northrop Grumman Corp., Jacobs ESTS Group, Lockheed Martin, NASA, Huntsville AL: 20th Annual NASA Great Moonbuggy Race; competitive racing of student built “Moonbuggies” at U.S. Space and Rocket Center.
Apr 25 — Lunar Eclipse: Highly visible over Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia; penumbral eclipse 08:03 – 12:11, partial eclipse 09:54 – 10:21.
Apr 25 — Moon: Full (Egg / Grass Moon), 09:59; 3.5° SSE of Saturn, 10:00.
Apr 25 — Asteroid 2013 GK69: Near-Earth flyby (0.035 AU).
FRIDAY
Apr 26 — RSA, Launch Soyuz / Glonass K, Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia: RSA Soyuz rocket to launch Glonass K navigation satellite.
Apr 26 — Rotary National Award for Space Achievement Foundation, Houston TX: Annual Gala; National Space Trophy presented to Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Apr 26 — Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston TX: LPI Seminar Series: Icy Moon – The Great (and Perplexing) Equatorial Ridge on Saturn’s Moon Iapetus; by Andrew Dombard from University of Illinois – Chicago; in Lecture Hall of USRA, 12:00 CDT.
Apr 26 — The Space Show, Online: Chuck Killian, Director of Mars Desert Research Station Mission Support, talks with host Dr. David Livingston.
Apr 26 — Space Center Houston, Houston TX: Lunch with an Astronaut, John-David Bartoe; US$49.95 adult.
Apr 26 — Asteroid 2013 GE55: Near-Earth flyby (0.070 AU).
SATURDAY
Apr 27 — Ad Astra Kansas Foundation, Topeka KS: Ad Astra Kansas Day – Space Celebration 2013; at Washburn University Stoffer Science Hall.
Apr 27 — Moon: At perigee (distance 361,872 km), 10:00; 6.6° N of Antares, 16:00.
SUNDAY
Apr 28-30 — Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Annapolis MD: The End of the Ignorosphere: An Aeronomy Researchers Conference on Commercial Suborbital Access to Space.
Apr 28 – May 3 — Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel: Workshop: Space Weather And Plasma in Space (IsraSWAPS-2013).
OSC Antares / Cygnus Demo Launch Advances USA Space Sectors
The first flight of Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares rocket is scheduled for April 17 between 17:00 – 20:00 EDT from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, USA. This A-One Test Launch Mission with a Cygnus mass simulator aims to validate the medium-class launch system and gather flight data. After liftoff the first stage will fire for about 4 minutes carrying the craft to a 113-km altitude where the upper stack will separate and continue on its upward trajectory for 93 seconds. Then the 2nd stage will fire for over 2 minutes bringing the payload to a 256-km altitude. OSC is working toward 8 commercial ISS resupply flights under a US$1.9B NASA contract. Its COTS demonstration mission, tentatively scheduled for June, will have the spacecraft berth with the ISS and deliver about 731 kg of cargo. A Castor 30B upper stage will help deliver 2,000 kg of cargo for the first 2 Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) missions. OSC will upgrade to a Castor 30XL capable of delivering 2,700 kg for the final 6 flights. CRS contracts are successfully creating efficient and affordable means for America to resupply the ISS, boosting economic growth and allowing NASA funding to go toward projects beyond LEO. (Image Credit: OSC)
Meeting in Brazil Combines Astronomy and Astronautics
The 6th International Meeting of Astronomy and Astronautics takes place in Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on April 18-20. The meeting includes special presentations, workshops, exhibitions, Digital Mobile Planetarium Sessions, astronomy club exhibitions, an international competition, a star party and many other activities. It is being organized by the Louis Cruls Astronomy Club with support of United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO, the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), Program UNAWE, Astronomers Without Borders and Star Peace. Confirmed speakers include the Brazilian Astronaut Marcos Pontes, AEB representative Carlos Gurgel and Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) expert Carlos Alexandre Wuensche. There is also strong international participation with Gennady Saenko of ROSCOSMOS, James Thieman Manager of Radio Jove, Scott Roberts of Explorer Scientific, Laurent Laveder of Project TWAN, Sebastián Musso President of the Center for Astronomical Studies of Mar del Plata in Argentina and Nazar Sallam AWB National Coordinator for the United Arab Emirates. Brazil is set to become the only non-European member of the pioneering European Sothern Observatory and is also working to rekindle its space launch enterprise at Alcantara. In the coming years Brazil could emerge as a major contributor to space science and exploration. (Image Credit: Louis Cruls Astronomy Club, AEB, NASA)
= All times for terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for international terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for space events, and…
= All times for international space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time;’ Greenwich, England).
Weekly Planet Watch – Evening Planets: Jupiter (W), Saturn (SE).
MONDAY
Apr 15 — ISS, LEO: Expedition 35 crew facilitating Progress 49 undocking at 12:01 UT Apr 15; Romanenko & Vinogradov preparing for 6-hour EVA scheduled 14:06 Apr 19 to install / retrieve experiment packages on Zvezda module, replace reflector device.
Apr 15 — Integral Space Observatory, Elliptical Earth Orbit: Detecting X-ray flare 47M LY away; data suggests central black hole with mass of 300,000 Suns feeding on object with mass 14-30 times that of Jupiter.
Apr 15 — Herschel Space Observatory, Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange Point: Providing images of dust belt produced by colliding comets / asteroids orbiting subgiant star with planetary system about 100 LY away.
Apr 15 — Armadillo Aerospace LLC, Mesquite TX: NewSpace company developing suborbital commercial aircraft for space tourism; building 3 or more STIG VTVL rockets; ultimate goal is to provide orbital flights.
Apr 15 — Spaceport Sweden, Kiruna, Sweden: Establishing space tourism in Sweden, developing spaceport; offering spaceflight preparation program, Northern Light Flights, parabolic flights – next is June 24 for US$8,280.
Apr 15 — Odyssey Moon Ltd., Isle of Man, United Kingdom: Developing commercial lunar robotic transportation service for low cost, frequent access to Moon; competing for GLXP US$30M prize.
Apr 15 — Kennedy Space Center, KSC FL: Media Invited to View Orion.
Apr 15 — NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD: Engineering Colloquium Series: Advanced Manufacturing; presented by LaNetra Tate of NASA, 15:30 EDT; free.
Apr 15 — NASA Lunar Science Institute, Moffett Field CA: NLSI HQ Seminar Series: Characterizing Luna Incognita; presented by Ben Bussey from JHU/APL, 09:00 – 10:00 PDT.
Apr 15 — AIAA – Sydney, Canberra, Australia: Yuri’s Night Celebrations – Canberra Public Lecture: Deep Space Industries – Mining and Manufacturing in Space; with Daniel Faber of DSI; at University of New South Wales.
Apr 15-19 — International Academy of Astronautics, ESA, NASA, Flagstaff AZ: 3rd IAA Planetary Defense Conference: Gathering for Impact! at High County Conference Center.
Apr 15 — Moon: At apogee (distance 404,431 km), 12:00.
Continued from…
Mar 26 – May 29 — Space Frontier Foundation, Online: 2013 NewSpace Business Plan Competition; to help entrepreneurs focus on / plan commercial development of space, advance NewSpace movement.
Apr 1 – May 1 — NASA, Online: The eXploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge 2014; for university-level students to plan / design deep-space habitat.
Apr 2 – May 6 — NASA, Online: 17th Screening of Space Program Artifacts; schools and museums may apply to receive Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Space Shuttle, Hubble Space Telescope artifacts.
Apr 4 – Oct 25 — NASA, Online: 2014 Night Rover Challenge; for researchers to create energy storage system allowing simulated lunar rover to operate at average 85W throughout 14-day-long lunar night, exceed a minimum of 300 W-hrs/kg.
Apr 10 – Jul 16 — JAXA, Online: Send Names / Messages to Asteroid 1999 JU3 on Hayabusa2 Spacecraft; accepting public submissions of names / messages to ride aboard spacecraft launching to asteroid in 2014.
Apr 13-19 — King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Science and Technology Week 2013.
Apr 14-18 — Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research, University of Alabama – Huntsville, NASA, Nashville TN: Huntsville in Nashville: The Seventh Huntsville Gamma-Ray Burst Symposium.
TUESDAY
Apr 16 — International Launch Services, Launch Proton / Anik G1, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan: Proton Rocket set to deliver Anik G1 satellite to provide broadcasting / communications services for Canada, N. America, S. America; 00:36 local time.
Apr 16 — Federal Aviation Administration, Online: COMSTAC Systems Working Group Public Teleconference; to assist FAA in developing guidelines for occupant safety in commercial suborbital and orbital spacecraft.
Apr 16 — Library of Congress – Science, Technology and Business Division, Washington DC: Lecture: Measuring Habitability on Mars with the Curiosity Rover; with speaker Pamela Conrad of NASA.
Apr 16 — University Honors College – Alaska, NASA, Anchorage AK: Free Lecture: Why Curiosity? What Are We Discovering? presented by NASA scientist John Grotzinger.
Apr 16 — Space Transportation Association, Washington DC: STA Lunch with Bill Gerstenmaier; NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations gives update on future HEO activities at State Visitor’s Center, 11:00 – 03:30 EDT.
Apr 16-18 — AIAA, University of New Mexico, Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies, Albuquerque NM: The Space Technology and Applications International Forum (STAIF II).
Apr 16-19 — USA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder CO: Space Weather Workshop; to discuss space weather impacts on communication, navigation, spacecraft operation, aviation, electric power.
Apr 16 — Asteroid 2013 EO126: Near-Earth flyby (0.088 AU).
WEDNESDAY
Apr 17 — Orbital Sciences Corp., Launch Antares / Demo, Wallops Island VA: OSC Antares rocket to launch simulated Cygnus cargo freighter on demo flight; launch window 17:00 – 20:00 EDT; live coverage available; alternate launch dates Apr 18-21.
Apr 17 — NASA, Washington DC: NASA Advisory Council Human Exploration and Operations Committee Research Subcommittee Meeting.
Apr 17 — Exploratorium Museum, San Francisco CA: Museum reopening at new location, Embarcadero Pier 15/17.
Apr 17-19 — International Academy of Astronautics, National Space Agency of Ukraine, Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine: 4th IAA International Conference on Space Technologies: The Present and Future.
Apr 17 — Moon: 11.5° SSW of Pollux, 15:00.
THURSDAY
Apr 18 — NASA, Washington DC: Advisory Council Human Exploration and Operations Committee Meeting; Advisory Council Technology and Innovation Committee Meeting; 2-Day Advisory Council Science Committee Meeting.
Apr 18 — University of Houston – Clear Lake, Houston TX: 2013 Physics and Space Science Spring Seminar Series: Characteristics and Physics of Plasma Detachment in the VASIMR Engine; presented by Chris Olsen from Rice University; free; in UH-Clear Bayou Building room 1218, 19:00 CDT.
Apr 18-19 — Johnson Space Center, Houston TX & Online: WebEx Meeting: One-on-One Communications with Industry Guidance for Software, Robotics, and Space Systems Services (SRS3) Procurement.
Apr 18-20 — Louis Cruls Astronomy Club, Brazilian Space Agency, Astronomers Without Borders, Star Peace, Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 6th International Meeting of Astronomy and Astronautics: Toward Space.
Apr 18 — Moon: At first quarter, 02:31; 6.5° SSW of Beehive Cluster, 19:00.
Apr 18 — Asteroid 2013 EV108: Near-Earth flyby (0.044 AU).
FRIDAY
Apr 19 — ISS, LEO: RSA EVA by Roman Romanenko and Pavel Vinogradov; live coverage available starting 13:30 UT.
Apr 19 — RSA, Launch Soyuz / Bion-M1, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan: Bion-M1 medical research project with 79 biological experiments and test subjects of mice, geckos, fish, fruit, seeds and Mongolian gerbils to launch to LEO for 1 month and safely return to Earth for analysis; 16:00 local time.
Apr 19 — `Imiloa Astronomy Center, University of Hawai`i – Hilo, Hilo HI: Mauna Kea Skies Talk; Dr. Pierre Martin from UHH Hoku Kea Telescope will speak about recent discoveries; 19:00 HST, US$8-10.
Apr 19 — The Space Show, Online: Dr. John Brandenburg senior propulsion scientist at Orbital Technologies Corp. talks with host Dr. David Livingston.
Apr 19 — Space Center Houston, Houston TX: Lunch with an Astronaut, Leroy Chiao; US$49.95 adult.
Apr 19 — Asteroid 2013 GH23: Near-Earth flyby (0.014 AU).
SATURDAY
Apr 20 — The Astronomical League, Global: International Astronomy Day 2013; local astronomical societies, planetariums, museums and observatories host public activities to increase awareness about astronomy and our universe.
Apr 20 — Virgin Galactic, The Spaceship Company, Mojave CA: Plane Crazy Saturday; VG & TSC accepting resumes; free open house 10:00 – 14:00 PDT.
Apr 20 — Sally Ride Science Foundation, Las Vegas NV: MoonKAM: The Next Phase; for educators to learn about MoonKAM (Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students), part of GRAIL education outreach program.
Apr 20 — Kennedy Space Center, Titusville FL: 2013 U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame Induction; welcoming Curt Brown, Eileen Collins, Bonnie Dunbar as the 12th group of space shuttle astronauts honored in U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.
Apr 20-21 — NASA, Global: 2nd International Space Apps Challenge; events across all 7 continents and in space; participants develop mobile applications, software, hardware that could contribute to space exploration missions, help improve life on Earth.
Apr 20 — Moon: 5.6° SSW of Regulus, 15:00.
SUNDAY
Apr 21— NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD: Sunday Experiment: Mars Science Laboratory; for families to learn about current / future science missions managed by NASA Goddard; in Auditorium and Science Center/Sphere, 13:00 – 15:00 EDT.
Apr 21— Mojave Marathon, Mojave CA: 2013 Mojave Marathon; begins 08:00 PDT at Mojave baseball park.
Space Access for All
The annual conference of the Space Access Society (SAS) will be at the InnPlace Hotel (North) in Phoenix, Arizona, USA on April 11-13. The event is focused on the technology, business, politics and opportunities of Radically Cheaper Access to Space – whats going on now and what we should be doing next. The program features a Panel Discussion on ‘Planetary Defense’ with George Herbert, John Schilling, Henry Spencer and Henry Vanderbilt. Bruce Pittman of NASA Ames presents commercial space scenarios and their affects on the national economy through 2025, Doug Plata advocates for Lunar COTS, and Misuzu Onuki elaborates on NewSpace Dynamics in Japan. Prominent space reporters Clark Lindsey – NewSpace Watch, Jeff Foust – Space Today & The Space Review, and Doug Messier – Parabolic Arc will also be participating. In a new collaboration of long time colleagues the conference will host a special half-day Space Studies Institute Session called ‘Rebooting Space Settlement in the 21st Century.’ SSI Chairman Lee Valentine will make a presentation on ‘Systems Considerations For A Robust Closed Environment Life Support System’ and President Gary Hudson will update on the status of SSI programs. Over the last 20 years of Space Access conferences companies have been started, investments made, policies evolved, ideas spread and people hired. (Image Credit: SAS, SpaceX, NASA, Masten, XCOR)
Yuri’s Night 2013: Celebrating the Past & Future of Human Spaceflight
Yuri Gagarin, the First Human in Space (1961), and the first flight of STS-1 Columbia (1981) with Commander John Young and Pilot Robert Crippen will be honored on April 12 during Yuri’s Night 2013 celebrations. This year over 340 space-themed parties / events are registered in 57 countries, 7 continents, aboard the ISS and online. Thousands will commemorate Yuri’s revolution and USA’s Space Shuttle Program while contemplating where human spaceflight will take us in the future. Created by Loretta Hidalgo, George Whitesides and Trish Garner, Yuri’s Night is working with Science Cheerleader and SciStarter on Project MERCCURI beginning Apr 11. Students / citizens will collect microbes from public venues and communication devices to be analyzed at UC Davis and compared to samples from the ISS. Up to 40 samples will then be selected to fly to the ISS in September. Cosmonautics Day, celebrated in Russia since 1962, involves a 34-km procession which starts near Gagarin’s statue and continues to his burial site and Cosmonauts Alley near the Monument to the Conquerors of Space. So far Yuri’s Night has been limited to 1 world, but inspired generations advancing human space exploration on public and private ventures may soon honor Yuri and human spaceflight feats from other planetary bodies. (Image Credit: Yuri’s Night, NASA, P. Prudence, N. Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images)
= All times for terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for international terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for space events, and…
= All times for international space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time;’ Greenwich, England).
Weekly Planet Watch – Evening Planets: Jupiter (W); Morning Planets: Mercury (E), Saturn (SE).
MONDAY
Apr 8 — ISS, LEO: Expedition 35 crew Hadfield, Romanenko, Marshburn, Vinogradov, Misurkin, Cassidy performing body mass measurements; Marshburn setting up Seedling Growth Experiment containers for run #2 to begin Apr 19.
Apr 8 — Mars Odyssey, Mars Orbit: Relaying information about Curiosity’s status while transmissions from Earth to Mars spacecraft are suspended Apr 4 – May 1 due to Solar conjunction.
Apr 8 — Juno, Jupiter Trajectory: In Inner Cruise 2 Phase performing alignments to direct 2.5-m wide high-gain communications antenna toward Earth; current one-way radio signal is about 6 minutes.
Apr 8 — Cassini OTM-347, Saturn Orbit: Spacecraft conducts Orbital Trim Maneuver #347 today.
Apr 8 — Orbital Sciences Corp., Wallops VA: NewSpace company connecting electrical harnesses, performing final tests of Cygnus spacecraft; will be transported to fuel facility then launched to ISS between Apr 17-19.
Apr 8 — Spaceport America, Las Cruces NM: With new legislation, expanded liability protection for spaceflight operators, manufacturers, suppliers ensures continued commercial spaceflight developments.
Apr 8 — Thin Red Line Aerospace, Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada: Developing inflatable decelerator for planetary entry of payloads over 10,000 kg; may build inflatable Kevlar habitat for 2018 Inspiration Mars mission.
Apr 8 — NASA, Colorado Springs CO: Industry Touch Point: Commercial Crew Transportation System Certification PH 2; to provide details, further develop Phase 2 acquisition strategy for Commercial Crew Program Certification.
Apr 8 — Hosted Payload Alliance, Colorado Springs CO: Hosted Payload Key Issues Workshop.
Apr 8 — Space Foundation, Astronauts Memorial Foundation, NASA, Colorado Springs CO: 2013 Alan Shepard Technology in Education Award; presented at opening of 29th National Space Symposium.
Apr 8 — University of Colorado – Boulder, Online: Contest Due Date: Send Your Artwork to Mars; winner announced May 20 will have artwork sent to Mars aboard MAVEN spacecraft (launching between Nov 18 – Dec 7).
Apr 8-10 — ESA, Noordwijk, The Netherlands: 7th European Workshop on Thermal Protection Systems and Hot Structures; to exchange information on recent advances, future activities of space vehicles / technology.
Apr 8-11 — Space Foundation, Colorado Springs CO: 29th National Space Symposium; to include NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.
Apr 8-11 — AIAA, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Boston MA: 54th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Conference; 21st AIAA/ASME/AHS Adaptive Structures Conference; 15th AIAA Non-Deterministic Approaches Conference; 14th AIAA Gossamer Systems Forum; 9th AIAA Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Specialist Conference.
Apr 8-12 — Australian National University, International Alliance of Research Universities, Canberra, Australia: Heavy Ion Accelerator Symposium on Fundamental and Applied Science.
Apr 8-12 — NRAO, NSF, Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Waikoloa HI: Transformational Science with ALMA: From Dust to Rocks to Planets – Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems; workshop on Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array.
Apr 8 — Asteroid 2013 EJ89: Near-Earth flyby (0.071 AU).
Continued from…
Mar 26 – May 29 — Space Frontier Foundation, Online: 2013 NewSpace Business Plan Competition; to help entrepreneurs focus on / plan commercial development of space, advance NewSpace movement.
Apr 1 – May 1 — NASA, Online: The eXploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge 2014; for university-level students to plan / design deep-space habitat.
Apr 2 – May 21 — NASA, Online: Early Stage Innovation NASA Research Announcement; requesting technology proposals for science instruments, cryogenic propellant storage, optical coatings, oxygen recovery, NEA protection / understanding.
Apr 4 – Oct 25 — NASA, Online: 2014 Night Rover Challenge; for researchers to create energy storage system allowing simulated lunar rover to operate at average 85W throughout 14-day-long lunar night, exceed a minimum of 300 W-hrs/kg.
Apr 7-8 — Space Foundation, Space Generation Advisory Council, Colorado Springs CO: Space Generation Fusion Forum 2013; for university students / young professionals to discuss their perspectives on the future of current space issues.
Apr 7-12 — European Geosciences Union, Vienna, Austria: EGU General Assembly 2013; to discuss space, planetary, Earth sciences.
TUESDAY
Apr 9 — ISS, LEO: Commander Chris Hadfield live video conference with 400 people at Telus World of Science in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada for CSA Tweetup.
Apr 9 — Royal Astronomical Society, London, United Kingdom: Public Lecture: Planetary Magnetic Fields; presented by Professor Richard Holme; to include discussion of MESSENGER, Cassini, JUICE missions; 13:00 UT.
Apr 9-11 — Flexure Engineering, Cocoa Beach FL: 3rd International Workshop: Lunar Superconductor Applications; to bring together researchers to unlock mysteries of lunar poles and deep space chemistry.
Apr 9 — Moon: New Moon, 23:38.
WEDNESDAY
Apr 10 — The British Interplanetary Society, London, United Kingdom: Lecture: Mars One; with co-founder Bas Lansdorp.
Apr 10 — NASA NSPIRES, Online: Proposals Due: Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute Cooperative Agreement Notice; for USA teams to become participating research members of SSERVI, enable human exploration of Moon, NEAs, Mars moons – Phobos and Deimos.
Apr 10-11 — French Aeronautics and Space Society, French Aerospace Lab, AIAA, Saint-Louis, France: 48th International Symposium of Applied Aerodynamics.
Apr 10-12 — AIAA, Delft, The Netherlands: EuroGNC 2013: 2nd Council of European Aerospace Societies (CEAS) Specialist Conference on Guidance, Navigation and Control.
Apr 10 – Jul 16 — JAXA, Online: Send Names / Messages to Asteroid 1999 JU3 on Hayabusa2 Spacecraft; accepting public submissions of names / messages to ride aboard spacecraft launching to asteroid in 2014.
Apr 10 — Moon: 2.7° N of Mars, 05:00; 3.2° N of Venus, 09:00.
THURSDAY
Apr 11 — Flexure Engineering, LunarCubes, Cocoa Beach FL: LunarCubes Briefing.
Apr 11 — AIAA – Sydney, Sydney, Australia: Yuri’s Night Celebrations – Sydney Public Lecture: Deep Space Industries – Mining and Manufacturing in Space; with Daniel Faber of DSI; at University of New South Wales.
Apr 11 — University of Houston – Clear Lake, Houston TX: 2013 Physics and Space Science Spring Seminar Series: Numerical Cosmology; presented by David Garrison from UH-Clear; free; in UH-Clear Bayou Building room 1218, 19:00 CDT.
Apr 11, 12 — Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena CA: The von Kármán Lecture Series: Regenerative Fuel Cells, Energy Storage Systems for Space Applications; featuring Thomas Valdez of JPL.
Apr 11-12 — Aerospace States Association, Space Foundation, Colorado Springs CO: Aerospace States Association Annual Meeting; at Broadmoor Hotel.
Apr 11-12 — Rice Space Institute, Houston TX: Conference: Space Exploration and Human Imagination – Space Futures; at International Conference Center, Baker Institute of Public Policy, Rice University.
Apr 11-13 — Space Access Society, Phoenix AZ: 2013 Space Access Society Conference; at InnPlace Hotel Phoenix North; to include Yuri’s Night Phoenix Apr 12, 19:00 MST.
Apr 11-14 — National Science Teachers Association, San Antonio TX: NSTA Annual Meeting: Next Generation Science – Learning, Literacy, and Living; to include Project MERCCURI kickoff.
Apr 11 — Asteroid 2013 FY13: Near-Earth flyby (0.092 AU).
FRIDAY
Apr 12 — Yuri’s Night Celebrations, Global: Yuri’s Night 2013; annual worldwide party to celebrate Yuri Gagarin’s 1st flight into space and promote space exploration.
Apr 12 — Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston TX: LPI Seminar Series: Lunar Crustal Magnetism – Origins and Influence on Space Weathering; presented by Doug Hemingway from UC Santa Cruz; in Lecture Hall of USRA, 15:30 CDT.
Apr 12 — The Space Show, Online: Marcia Smith founder / editor of SpacePolicyOnline speaks with host Dr. David Livingston.
Apr 12 — Space Center Houston, Houston TX: Lunch with an Astronaut, Brian Duffy; US$49.95 adult.
Apr 12 — Asteroid 2013 FZ7: Near-Earth flyby (0.062 AU).
SATURDAY
Apr 13 — SEDS – University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill NC: 2013 Carolina Space Symposium; in Hanes Art Center at UNC.
Apr 13 — Caltech/JPL, Pasadena CA: Educator’s Conference: How to Think Like a NASA Scientist; at Theodore von Kármán Auditorium in JPL.
Apr 13-14 — NASA Glenn Visitor Center, Cleveland OH: Yuri’s Night Space Party; starts 20:00 EDT Apr 13, ends 01:00 Apr 14.
Apr 13-19 — King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Science and Technology Week 2013.
Apr 13 — Moon: 5.3° S of Pleiades, 04:00.
Apr 13 — Asteroid 2010 GM23: Near-Earth flyby (0.010 AU).
SUNDAY
Apr 14-18 — Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research, University of Alabama – Huntsville, NASA, Nashville TN: Huntsville in Nashville: The Seventh Huntsville Gamma-Ray Burst Symposium.
Apr 14 — Moon: 3.4° N of Aldebaran, 24:00; 2.2° SSE of Jupiter, 10:00.
Apr 14 — Asteroid 2013 EN126: Near-Earth flyby (0.076 AU).
Mojave Air and Space Port: Home of Imagination, Innovation and Experimentation
More than 60 companies, including leaders in the emerging commercial space launch industry, are currently operating at the Mojave Air and Space Port. The facility has three runways up to 38,100 meter long with six takeoff and landing directions, huge airspace clear of populated urban areas, a National Test Pilot School and designated supersonic corridors. CEO Stuart Witt expects the US$4M upgrade of Runway 4/22 to be complete by April 1, about a month ahead of schedule. Other recent improvements include a US$1.3M extension of power, water and high-speed data to test sites in the north sector of the spaceport used by Interorbital Systems, Masten Space Systems, Scaled Composites, XCOR Aerospace and Virgin Galactic. On March 27 Stratolaunch Systems opened a new 9,593-square-meter hangar that will house their Space Launch Carrier – designed to carry rockets with mid-size payloads to high altitude for efficient orbital launches it will be the World’s largest aircraft (6 x 747 engines, 589,670 kg, 116-meter wingspan). XCOR is continuing development and testing at Mojave of its piston pump-powered rocket engine and Lynx Mark 1 suborbital vehicle in preparation for a test flight as early as 2014. (Image Credit: Mojave Air and Space Port, Stratolaunch, Masten, XCOR)
Houston Events Highlight Vacuum Chamber and the Moon
The media is invited to view NASA Johnson Space Center’s Thermal Vacuum Chamber in Houston, Texas, USA on April 4. Chamber A, famous for testing Apollo Spacecraft, has a 16.8-meter diameter and stands 27.4 meters tall. Second only in size to the “World’s Largest Vacuum Chamber” – a 30-meter diameter and 37-meter high chamber at NASA Glenn Research Center – JSC Chamber A is undergoing renovations to test the James Webb Space Telescope launching in 2018. It will be able to simulate extremely low temperatures of deep space and measure / evaluate the shape and focus of JWST mirrors. Also on Apr 4, the University of Houston at Clear Lake is hosting a seminar by Dr. Georgiana Kramer (TR) from Lunar and Planetary Institute titled ‘Interaction between Lunar Surface and the Solar Wind.’ She currently analyzes and interprets spectroscopic data of the Moon and integrates these analyses with results from other Center for Lunar Science and Exploration researchers. LPI is hosting ‘GRAIL Explores the Moon’s Interior’ presented Dr. Walter Kiefer (TL) of LPI at USRA Lecture Hall on Apr 5. Dr. Kiefer has 9 research grants for projects involving GRAIL, Dawn, the Moon, Mars and Venus. (Image Credit: NASA/MSFC/David Higginbotham/Emmett Given, LPI, UH-Clear)
= All times for terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for international terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for space events, and…
= All times for international space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time;’ Greenwich, England).
Weekly Planet Watch – Evening Planets: Jupiter (NW); Morning Planets: Mercury (ESE), Saturn (S).
MONDAY
Apr 1 — ISS, LEO: Expedition 35 crew members continue loading Progress 49 with trash for atmospheric disintegration scheduled Apr 15; undergoing ENERGY experiment to measure changes in astronaut energy balance during space flight.
Apr 1 — Swift, LEO: Performing X-ray survey of Milky Way Galaxy central regions; studying G306.3–0.9 supernova remnant less than 2.5K years old, making it 1 of 20 youngest remnants identified.
Apr 1 — Cassini, Saturn Orbit: Providing visual and infrared mapping spectrometer data of Saturn system which reveals water ice / organics distribution, suggests Moons and rings are about 4B years old.
Apr 1 — Deep Space, Kuiper Belt Trajectory: New Horizons spacecraft, 2,629 days into mission, en route to Pluto / moons, icy worlds in Kuiper Belt; closest approach Jul 2015; 7 instruments will study atmospheres, surfaces, interiors, environments.
Apr 1 — XCOR Aerospace Inc., Mojave CA: NewSpace company test firing full piston pump-powered Lynx XR-5K18 engine, starting at 67 seconds; will install flight-sized liquid oxygen tank, extend test fire duration.
Apr 1 — Space Frontier Foundation, Online: Accepting applications for 2013 NewSpace Business Plan Competition through May 29 to help entrepreneurs focus on / advance commercial space development.
Apr 1 — Golden Spike Co., Boulder CO: Hosting Workshop Oct 3-4 to seek input on science priorities, landing sites, surface experiment packages, sample return requirements; running Indiegogo Campaign until Apr 24.
NET Apr — Boeing Company, Various Locations: Developing CST-100 7-person spacecraft for NASA CCiCAP, Integrated Stack Force and Moment Wind Tunnel Test to occur this month.
Apr 1 — Mojave Air and Space Port, Mojave CA: Expects to re-open rebuilt Runway 4/22 by this day, about 1 month ahead of schedule.
Apr 1 — NASA, Burlingame CA: Program Integration Contract for Orion with potential of US$49M goes to ARES Technical Services Corp. to provide products, systems engineering / integration services for Orion program.
Apr 1 — National Space Biomedical Research Institute, NASA, Palo Alto CA: Space Medicine and Related Technologies Commercialization Assistance Program (SMARTCAP); Cerebrotech Medical Systems receives US$250K to advance portable monitor to detect changes in astronaut brain fluid levels.
Apr 1 — Space Center Houston, Houston TX: Lunch with an Astronaut, John-David Bartoe; US$49.95 adult.
Apr 1 – Aug 1 — Cornell University, University of Hawai`i – Manoa, Hawaii Island: Mars Analog Mission and Food Study; 6-member crew to live in habitat under “Mars exploration conditions” to explore preparation strategies and new forms of food for long-term space exploration missions.
Apr 1 — Asteroid 2013 EN89: Near-Earth flyby (0.033 AU).
Apr 1 — Asteroid 2013 EQ4: Near-Earth flyby (0.071 AU).
Continued from…
Jan 19 – May 18 — University of California at Riverside ARTSblock Program, Riverside CA: Free Enterprise: The Art of Citizen Space Exploration; art exhibit with NewSpace movement theme.
Jan 22 – May 30, 2014 — NASA, USA: Phase 1 Certification Products Contracts; Boeing Co. receives about US$10M, Sierra Nevada Corp. $10M, SpaceX $9.6M to work with NASA CCP to develop systems for launching astronauts from American soil.
Feb 14 – Dec 31 — NASA, Online: Accepting Responses for High-Impact National Strategic STEM Educational Partnerships; NASA requests information from organizations interested in helping the Agency achieve its strategic goals for education.
Feb 14 – Jun 2, 2014 — NASA NSPIRES, Online: Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) 2013; proposal and submission period for those interested in advancing research concepts and technologies for Space and Earth sciences.
Feb 25 – Apr 29 – USA National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, Global: SSEP Mission 4 to ISS; microgravity experiment design and proposal writing period for students; selected experiments will fly to ISS mid-Oct.
Mar 15 – Apr 8 — University of Colorado – Boulder, Online: Send Your Artwork to Mars; contest for artists ages 5-17 to send artwork to Mars aboard MAVEN spacecraft (launching between Nov 18 – Dec 7); winner announced May 20.
TUESDAY
Apr 2 — SETI Institute, Mountain View CA: Colloquium: Characterizing the Atmospheres of Low-Mass Low-Density Transiting Exoplanets; presented by Jonathan Fortney from UC Santa Cruz; 12:00 PDT.
Apr 2-5 — Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams, Santiago, Chile: 2013 GLXP Summit; 23 competing teams meet to discuss their progress toward landing rover on Moon.
Apr 2-5 — ESA, ASI, CNES, Thales Alenia Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands: 47th ESLAB Symposium: The Universe as Seen by Planck; at European Space Research and Technology Centre.
Apr 2 — Moon: At last quarter, 18:38.
WEDNESDAY
Apr 3 — NASA, Greenbelt MD: Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel Meeting; at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 11:00 – 12:00 EDT.
Apr 3 — ESA, Brussels, Belgium: Media Invited to Inauguration of ESA’s Space Weather Coordination Centre (SSCC).
Apr 3 — The British Interplanetary Society, London, United Kingdom: Lecture: Teaching Old Spacecraft New Tricks; with speaker Robert Farquhar.
Apr 3 — The British Interplanetary Society, Bath, United Kingdom: Lecture: Apollo Science – A Personal Retrospective; presented by Keith Wright; at Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institute, 19:30 UT.
Apr 3 — Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, MassChallenge, Online: Application Due: MassChallenge Startup Accelerator; proposals due for flight-ready ISS research projects; winners may receive up to US$100K in funding.
THURSDAY
Apr 4 — NASA, Houston TX: Media Invited to View Johnson Space Center’s Thermal-Vacuum Chamber.
Apr 4 — University of Houston – Clear Lake, Houston TX: 2013 Physics and Space Science Spring Seminar Series: Interaction between Lunar Surface and the Solar Wind; presented by Georgiana Kramer from Lunar and Planetary Institute; free; in UH-Clear Bayou Building room 1218, 19:00 CDT.
Apr 4-5 — NASA, Washington DC: NASA Advisory Council Science Committee Meeting, Planetary Science Subcommittee Meeting; providing updates on Planetary Science Division, Mars Exploration Program, more; free / open to public.
FRIDAY
Apr 5 — Cassini, Saturn Orbit: Titan Flyby scheduled at 1,400-km altitude.
Apr 5 — The National Academies, Washington DC: Human Spaceflight: Public and Stakeholder Opinions Panel Meeting 1.
Apr 5 — International Lunar Observatory Association, Space Age Publishing Company, Strasbourg, France: Galaxy Forum Europe 2013 – Strasbourg: Galaxy Education and Galaxy Enterprise in the 21st Century; at International Space University Central Campus, 09:30 – 17:30 local time; free.
Apr 5 — Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston TX: LPI Seminar Series: GRAIL Explores the Moon’s Interior; presented by Walter Kiefer of LPI; in Lecture Hall of USRA, 15:30 CDT.
Apr 5 — Observatory of Turin, Paris Observatory, et al, Turin, Italy: Colloquium: Latest News from the Universe – Cosmology, Dark Matter, Galaxies, Astrophysics and Particle Physics.
Apr 5 — NASA NSPIRES, Online: Proposals Due: Undergraduate Student Instrument Project (USIP) Educational Flight Opportunity (EFO) 2013; for USA University students to develop Earth or space science payload to fly on NASA suborbital vehicle.
Apr 5 — The Space Show, Online: Dr. Joan Vernikos, former Head of NASA Life Sciences, speaks about Mars Inspiration Foundation’s mission; hosted by Dr. David Livingston.
SATURDAY
Apr 6 — Sally Ride Science Foundation, Dallas TX: Sally Ride Science Festival; event to inspire 5th-8th grade girls with science; at University of Texas – Dallas; 11:00 CDT.
Apr 6 — Federation of Galaxy Explorers, AIAA, Praxis Inc., et al, Culpeper VA: Battle of the Rockets; for public to design and launch rocket and lander; at Battle Park, 10:00 – 16:00 EDT.
Apr 6 — NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland OH: Free 1-hour tour of Simulated Lunar Operations facility; first tour starts 10:00 EDT.
Apr 6 — NASA Glenn Visitor Center, Cleveland OH: Space Saturday Celebration; free admission for kids up to 12 years old, 10:00 – 17:00 EDT.
Apr 6 — Mauna Kea Visitor Information Station, Hawai`i Island HI: The Universe Tonight: Submillimeter Astronomy at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory; presented by Dr. Simon Radford, 18:00 HST.
Apr 6 — DIYRockets Inc., Sunglass Co., Shapeways Inc., Online: Last Day to Register for 3D Printed Rocket Challenge; competition to design 3D printed rocket engine that could carry nano-satellites into space.
SUNDAY
Apr 7-8 — Space Foundation, Space Generation Advisory Council, Colorado Springs CO: Space Generation Fusion Forum 2013; for university students / young professionals to discuss their perspectives on the future of current space issues.
Apr 7-12 — European Geosciences Union, Vienna, Austria: EGU General Assembly 2013; to discuss space, planetary, Earth sciences.
Apr 7 — Moon: 6.6° NNW of Mercury, 18:00.
Apr 7 — Asteroid 2005 TS15: Near-Earth flyby (0.039 AU).
Expedition 35/36: First Six-Hour Human ISS Rendezvous, Busy Schedule
Expedition 35/36 members, Chris Cassidy (TL) of NASA, Aleksandr Misurkin (TC) of RSA and Pavel Vinogradov (TR) of RSA, are set to launch to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz rocket on March 29 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan at 02:43. If successful, this crew will be the first to rendezvous with the ISS on an accelerated 6-hour, 4-orbit trajectory. The typical trajectory is 2 days, 34 orbits. They will join the first Canada Commander Chris Hadfield, RSA Cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and NASA Astronaut Tom Marshburn. Expedition 35/36 is scheduled to include 4 Russian spacewalks and the arrival of 2 RSA Progress resupply vehicles, an ESA Automated Transfer Vehicle named Albert Einstein and Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Cygnus freighter for its demo flight. Among other science experiments, Expedition 35/36 will test intraocular pressures and take ultrasound scans of their eyes for an Ocular Health Study. They will also work with NASA InSPACE-3 (BL) to improve engineers’ ability to design structures to better withstand earthquakes and JAXA Stem Cell experiment to learn about space radiation’s impact on DNA. (Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls, CSA, OSC)
Spaceport America Building the Future Today
The World’s first purpose-built base for commercial spaceflight, Spaceport America, is nearing completion at 1188-meter elevation in Sierra County, New Mexico, USA about 80 km north of Las Cruces. The pioneering 70 square km facility is being developed by the New Mexico Spaceport Authority – current cost: US$240M. Anchor tenant Virgin Galactic (VG) began paying rent in January but has delayed activation of the 20-year lease term and substantial deposit requirements until construction reaches the Base Building Completion milestone, expected by March 31. Another critical factor for the VG’s long-term commitment to Spaceport America is the State legislature extending liability limits to include space parts suppliers. The move, already taken by a number of other states, would protect these companies from lawsuits by consenting Touronauts. The law would still allow full recourse in the event of damage / injury to unrelated property / persons. VG hopes to begin powered test flights of SpaceShipTwo in 2013 and has scheduled commercial flights to begin in early 2014. Within the first 5 years VG is expected to reach an annual minimum of 720 commercial flights carrying 4,104 passengers. At US$200,000 per ticket that would mean annual revenue of US$820M with rent and fees of at least US$1.63M paid to the State. (Image Credit: NMSA, VG)
= All times for terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for international terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for space events, and…
= All times for international space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time;’ Greenwich, England).
Weekly Planet Watch – Evening Planets: Jupiter (NW); Morning Planets: Mercury (ESE), Saturn (S).
MONDAY
Mar 25 — ISS, LEO: ISS crew reviewing procedures, performing Service Module TV System checkout preparations for scheduled Soyuz TMA-08M / Expedition 35/36 docking at 08:31 UT Mar 30.
Mar 25 — Curiosity, Yellowknife Bay, Mars: Science team preparing to suspend command transmissions during April when Mars will pass almost directly behind Sun – could cause interference / corruption of commands.
Mar 25 — Juno, Jupiter Trajectory: Spacecraft is about 129M km from Earth, averaging 21 km per second relative to Sun, has one-way radio signal of about 7 minutes.
Mar 25 — SpaceX, Multiple Locations: NewSpace company testing flight-ready upgraded Merlin 1D engines; will fly on Falcon 9’s Flight 6; nine Merlin 1Ds on first stage will produce nearly 1.5M pounds of thrust in vacuum.
Mar 25 — Sea Launch AG, Bern, Switzerland: Providing ocean-based launch services with Zenit-3SL rocket, upper stage Block DM; next launch scheduled for EchoStar Satellite Services in 2015.
Mar 25 — Altius Space Machines Inc., Louisville CO: Developing electro-adhesive capture head to mount on Phoenix spacecraft FREND robotic arm to repurpose components from nonworking satellites as part of NASA Phoenix Program.
Mar 25 — AIAA, Silicon Valley Space Center, Mountain View CA: Small Payload Seminar: Deep Space Industries; presented by Jim Luebke of DSI; at Hacker Dojo, 18:30 – 21:00 PDT.
Mar 25-27 — French Aeronautics and Space Society, French Aerospace Lab, AIAA, Saint-Louis, France: 48th International Symposium of Applied Aerodynamics.
Mar 25-27 — ESA, Madrid, Spain: Herschel Calibration Workshop: Only the Best Data Products for the Legacy Archive.
Mar 25-28 — AIAA, Daytona Beach FL: 22nd AIAA Aerodynamic Decelerator Systems Technology Conference and Seminar; AIAA Balloon Systems Conference; 20th AIAA Lighter-Than-Air Systems Technology Conference.
Mar 25-28 — Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska – Fairbanks, NASA, Fairbanks AK: THEMIS/ARTEMIS Science Working Group Meeting 2013.
Mar 25-29 — California Institute of Technology, Orbital Sciences Corp., SpaceX, JPL, et al, Pasadena CA: Caltech Space Challenge; student space mission design competition.
Mar 25-29 — Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Titusville FL: Camp KSC; for youth to learn about space travel and design space exploration vehicles and habitats; US$295.
Continued from…
Jan 19 – May 18 — University of California at Riverside ARTSblock Program, Riverside CA: Free Enterprise: The Art of Citizen Space Exploration; art exhibit with NewSpace movement theme.
Feb 13 – Apr 24 — The Golden Spike Company, Online: GSC Indiegogo Crowdsourcing Campaign: Help Send Nations and People to the Moon.
Feb 14 – Jun 2, 2014 — NASA NSPIRES, Online: Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) 2013; proposal and submission period for those interested in advancing research concepts and technologies for Space and Earth sciences.
Feb 25 – Apr 29 – USA National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, Global: SSEP Mission 4 to ISS; microgravity experiment design and proposal writing period for students; selected experiments will fly to ISS mid-Oct.
Mar 9 – Apr 6 — DIYRockets Inc., Sunglass Co., Shapeways Inc., Online: Registration Period for 3D Printed Rocket Challenge; competition to design 3D printed rocket engine that could carry nano-satellites into space.
Mar 15 – Apr 8 — University of Colorado – Boulder, Online: Send Your Artwork to Mars; contest for artists ages 5-17 to send artwork to Mars aboard MAVEN spacecraft (launching between Nov 18 – Dec 7); winner announced May 20.
TUESDAY
Mar 26 — SpaceX, Dragon CRS-2 splashdown, LEO: SpaceX Dragon capsule, containing 1,361 kg of equipment and science samples, scheduled for return to Earth via Pacific Ocean splashdown; alternate date Apr 1.
Mar 26 – ISS, Cardinals School, LEO: Commander Chris Hadfield speaks with 570 elementary students from Cardinals School in Laval, Quebec, Canada.
Mar 26 — The Brilliant Lecture Series, Houston TX: Brilliant Lecture Series: Stephen Hawking; at Jones Hall, 19:00 CDT; US$35-250 per ticket depending on seating.
Mar 26 — SETI Institute, Mountain View CA: Colloquium: Updating Policies for Space Exploration and Use – Balancing Science, Technology and Activities in the Coming Decade; presented by Margaret Race of SETI Institute; 12:00 PDT.
Mar 26-29 — California Institute of Technology, NASA, Pasadena CA: 1st Solar Probe Plus Workshop.
Mar 26 — Moon: Full (Crow / Lenten Moon), 23:29.
Mar 26 — Asteroid 2013 FX7: Near-Earth flyby (0.049 AU).
WEDNESDAY
Mar 27 — International Launch Services, Launch Proton / Satmex 8, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan: International Launch Services Proton rocket with Breeze M upper stage to launch Satmex 8 communications satellite, 01:06 local time; postponed from Dec 27, 2012.
Mar 27-28 — The National Academies, Washington DC: Human Spaceflight Meeting: Technical Feasibility Panel; to discuss policy for science and technology, space and aeronautics; at Keck Center.
Mar 27-29 — Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, Hilo HI: ngCFHT Workshop; next generation CFHT proposal and discussion to replace current 3.6-m telescope with a wide-field 10-m facility.
Mar 27 — Asteroid 2013 FD8: Near-Earth flyby (0.021 AU).
THURSDAY
Mar 28 — NASA, Online: NASA Hosts First Google+ Hangout in Spanish; Erika Podest and Michela Munoz Fernandez of NASA JPL answer questions, talk about becoming part of Space Program; 18:30 – 19:30 EDT.
Mar 28 — University of Houston – Clear Lake, Houston TX: 2013 Physics and Space Science Spring Seminar Series: Fluorescence of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes – From Fundamental Studies to Applications; presented by Bruce Weisman from Rice University; free; in UH-Clear Bayou Building room 1218, 19:00 CDT.
Mar 28 — Open Space Society, Online: Accepting letters of intent / applications for Small Commercial Payload Launch Opportunity Jan 2015; to receive ‘Earlybird Discount,’ applications must be submitted no later than today.
Mar 28 — Moon: 0.9° ESE of Spica, 06:00.
FRIDAY
Mar 29 — RSA, Launch Soyuz TMA-08M / ISS 34S, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan: Scheduled launch of Soyuz spacecraft to ISS at 02:43 local time with Expedition 35/36 members Aleksandr Misurkin & Pavel Vinogradov of RSA, Chris Cassidy of NASA; live launch coverage begins 01:30.
Mar 29 — Space Center Houston, Houston TX: Lunch with an Astronaut, Ken Cameron; US$49.95 adult.
Mar 29 — Moon: 3.4° S of Saturn, 10:00.
Mar 29 — Asteroid 2013 EL89: Near-Earth flyby (0.012 AU).
Mar 29 — Asteroid 2013 EM89: Near-Earth flyby (0.044 AU).
SATURDAY
Mar 30 — NASA Glenn Visitor Center, Cleveland OH: Grand opening of redesigned Glenn Visitor Center in new location at Great Lakes Science Center.
Mar 30 — Moon: At perigee (distance 367,097 km), 18:00.
Mar 30 — Asteroid 2013 FB8: Near-Earth flyby (0.011 AU).
SUNDAY
Mar 31 — Virgin Galactic, Las Cruces NM: Expects all necessary work to be completed at Spaceport America today in order to perform test flights and continue commercial plans.
Mar 31 — NASA, Online: Winners Announced: NASA’s ReelScience Communication Contest; USA high school students become ‘NASA producers’ and create videos engaging other students in Earth Science; winners work with NASA scientists in Jul.
Mar 31 — Daylight Saving Time (Europe): Change clocks forward 1 hour, from Standard Time to Summer Time.
Mar 31 — Moon: 6.6° N of Antares, 10:00.
Mar 31 — Asteroid 2001 TA2: Near-Earth flyby (0.037 AU).
Mar 31 — Asteroid 2013 FC8: Near-Earth flyby (0.041 AU).