March 9-15, 2026 / Hawai`i Island, USA
Vol 45, Week 10: Lunar Broadcast Precursor — Terrestrial Edition
Artemis 2 Still NET April, Artemis 3 Now 2027 Orbital Test, Artemis 4 First Crewed Lunar Landing 2028
NASA has restructured the Artemis program, including the shift of Artemis III from a lunar landing to an Earth orbit test in 2027. Artemis III would rendezvous with one or both of NASA’s contracted Moon landers (SpaceX’s Starship and/or Blue Origin’s Blue Moon), in Earth orbit acting as a test/precursor mission for Artemis IV, which is slated for a 2028 crewed landing. Artemis V will also be a crewed lunar landing mission. The urgency to land humans on the Moon cannot be overstated. It promises groundbreaking scientific insights into lunar geology and resources, accelerates technologies for Mars missions and inspires global innovation. As the international agencies and the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program has proved, there are great technical and safety risks associates with lunar landing attempts. Artemis II, the first crewed flight, remains on track for launch no earlier than April 2026. This 10-day mission will send four astronauts—NASA’s Reid Wiseman (Commander), Victor Glover (Pilot), Christina Koch (Mission Specialist), and Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Jeremy Hansen—aboard the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft on a free-return trajectory around the Moon. (Image Credits: NASA)
63rd Goddard Symposium Marks the 100-Year Anniversary of 1926 Test Launch
On March 16, 1926, a 3-meter rocket designed by physicist Robert Goddard launched from a farm field, the first use of liquid propellant (gasoline / LOX). The flight lasted just 2.5 seconds but started the path of humans to the Moon; 43 years later, Buzz Aldrin took a tiny book of Goddard’s writings on a round-trip to the Moon. Goddard holds 1st patents for both liquid-fuel and multi-stage rockets (1914) and a rocket-fuel pump (1914); confirmed that rockets work in a vacuum (1915); built a liquid-propellant rocket motor (1925); steering vanes in the exhaust (1932) and gyroscopic guidance devices (1937). Variations of these systems remain fundamental in vehicles such as SLS and Falcon 9. During Women’s History Month it is appropriate to recognize Esther Goddard. For the 1926 launch, approaching 2 years into their marriage, she photographed and filmed it. During the next 2 decades of Goddard’s work, she managed accounts, handled logistics, sewed parachutes and stomped out brush fires. Posthumously (1945+), she organized his records and writing, securing 131 additional patents for him (214 in all), preserving the technical record of modern rocketry’s origins. Numerous programs are being held in recognition of this centennial of space flight; see listings below. (Image Credits: Clark University)
Humans in Space
International Space Station, ~415-km LEO: Expedition 74 crew are observing robotic operations of the Canadarm2 and its uninstallation of the HTV-X1 cargo craft, as HTV-X1 begins 3 months in nearby but independent orbit while JAXA conducts testing and deploys CubeSats. Cosmonauts are measuring blood pressure, working with video recording gear for Earth observation, conducting a digestion study, streaming atoms and molecules at semiconductor materials in physics experiments, and photographing Patagonia near Antarctica. NASA Astronauts are preparing for 2 of them to conduct a spacewalk to reconfigure a solar array.
Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: Shenzhou-21 crew are wondering which Taikonaut will be the 1st to have a year-long stay in the station, among potential candidates: Liu Yang (刘洋) of Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-14, Wang Yaping (王亚平) of Shenzhou-10 and Shenzhou-13, Tang Hongbo (汤洪波) of Shenzhou-12 and Shenzhou-17, Ye Guangfu (叶光富) of Shenzhou-13 and Shenzhou-18, and Cai Xuzhe (蔡旭哲) of Shenzhou-14 and Shenzhou-19. Another anticipated development will be an uncrewed demonstration mission to Tiangong of the Mengzhou capsule designed to carry 6 crew to orbit or 3 crew to the Moon.
Lunar Enterprise News: Chinese Academy of Sciences members are modeling precise, likely locations of water ice at Shackleton Crater near Moon South Pole, the landing area selected for a Nov-Dec touchdown for Chang’E-7 craft, which is planned to operate for 8 years with a hopping rover using an instrument to drill, collect ~1 gram of regolith and heat samples to 200°C and observe with spectrometers. The Planetary Science Journal has published their paper on this process and describes their use of data from NASA LRO and ISRO Chandrayaan-1 orbiters.
Near-Earth Objects Close Approaches – Mon Mar 9: Apollo Asteroid 2026 DH11 (0.008 AU); Wed Mar 11: Aten Asteroid 2026 CC3 (0.010 AU); Wed Mar 11: Apollo Asteroid 2023 ET2 (0.020 AU); Sun Mar 15: Aten Asteroid 2007 EG (0.011 AU)
First Woman FLIES to the Moon …
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First Woman LANDS on the Moon …
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