February 12-18, 2024 / Vol 43, No 7 / Hawai`i Island, USA

USA, World Awaits Intuitive Machines Moon Launch Set for Feb 14, Historic Moon Landing Feb 22

Intuitive Machines IM-1 Nova-C lander is planned to launch aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 in a multi-day launch window that opens 00:57 EST on February 14. The lander and its 12 payloads are intended to land on Moon surface on February 22 – regardless of which day the craft launches within this February window. If soft landing is successful, this mission will mark many firsts – the most significant of which may be the first USA lunar landing in the 21st Century. The in-transit period (Feb 14-21) should see multiple trajectory correction maneuvers, instrument checkouts and data / image received before reaching the lunar surface. Landing is planned to come within 100 meters (as per NASA CLPS requirement) of Malapert A crater 80.3°S, 1.2°E in the Moon South Pole region. There are 6 NASA payloads: Radio Observations of the Lunar Surface Photoelectron Sheath (ROLSES), Navigation Doppler Lidar for Precise Velocity and Range Sensing (NDL), Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS), Lunar Node 1 Navigation Demonstrator (LN-1), Radio Frequency Mass Gauge (RFMG), and Laser Retro-Reflector Array (LRA). And 6 commercial payloads: EagleCam from Embry-Riddle University, Omni-Heat Infinity material from Columbia Sportswear, ILO-X precursor instruments from International Lunar Observatory Association (aboard which Space Calendar is being carried),  a digital data center from Lonestar Data Holdings, Lunaprise by Galactic Legacy Lab, and ‘Moon Phases’ sculptures by Jeff Koons. The secondary Doge-1 orbiter is reported rescheduled from piggybacking on this mission and may be a part of IM-2 launch. If IM-1 mission is (mostly) successful, the IM-2 mission may launch as early August if a 6-month turn around is possible. (Image Credits: IM, NASA, GSFC Scientific Visualization Studio, ESO, et al)

MONDAY 

☆ Feb 12 — International Space Station, ~415-km LEO: Expedition 70 seven-member crew working with Flawless Space Fibers-1 (creating ZBLAN optical fibers), Rhodium Crystal Preservation 02, and 10-12 day Space Tissue Equivalent Dosimeter experiment.

☆ Feb 12 — Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: Shenzhou 17 three-member crew continue experiments and station maintenance; crews for Shenzhou 18 preparing for May launch, Shenzhou 19 expected in November.

● Feb 12 — NASA, Online / Washington DC: Heliophysics Advisory Committee Meeting.

☆ Feb 12 — Aten Asteroid 2020 DK: Near-Earth Flyby (0.022 AU)

☆ Feb 12 — Apollo Asteroid 2024 BH5: Near-Earth Flyby (0.093 AU)

☾ = Moon activity

★ = Space and… ☆ = International space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time’).

JAXA Readies Third Launch Attempt of Flagship H3 Launch Vehicle

H3 Test Flight No. 2 (H3TF2) is set for Feb 15 from pad 2 of Yoshinobu Launch Complex at Tanegashima Space Center. The US$1.5B, 63 m high, 5.27 m diameter medium-lift launch vehicle is designed to carry up to 7900 kg to LEO at a cost of around $50M per launch, comparable to a SpaceX Falcon 9. H3 is built by JAXA prime contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), IHI Corporation and Kawasaki Heavy Industries. It features liquid hydrogen / liquid oxygen first and second stages powered by LE-9 engines, augmented by 2 or 4 solid rocket boosters depending on configuration – 3 variants are currently planned. The present attempt comes after an aborted effort on 17 February 2023, following main engine ignition and another launch attempted on 7 March 2023 in which a second stage anomaly caused orbital insertion failure 5 minutes and 27 seconds into flight. While JAXA has conducted an internal investigation which cleared the similar H-2A for launch of SLIM and XRISM, details regarding the anomaly and its mitigation have not been publicly disclosed. H3TF2 will carry VEP-4 (Vehicle Evaluation Payload-4) and Earth observation cubesats CE-SAT-1E (Cannon) and TIRSAT (Japan Space Systems) – relatively inexpensive cargo versus the $200M ALOS-3 satellite lost on March 7. At least 26 missions are currently scheduled to be launched by H3 between 2024 – 2033. JAXA will stream H3TF2 live on YouTube starting ~T-1 hour (launch window open 9:22:55 – 13:6:34 JST. (Image Credits: JAXA, Mitsubishi)

TUESDAY

★ NET Feb 13 — SpaceX, Launch Falcon 9 / Intuitive Machines IM-1 Nova-C Lander, LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center FL: Six-day launch window opens for Intuitive Machines 1st Moon lander under US$77M CLPS launching to Moon surface with 5 NASA payloads & multiple private customer surface payloads: ILO-X, Tiger Eye 1, Lunaprise, Moon Mark Mission 1, EagleCam, and orbiter Doge-1; may land ~6.5 days later near Malapert A, Moon South Pole Region; reported as 19:57 HST / 00:57 EST on Feb 14.

☆ Feb 13 — Apollo Asteroid 2024 AZ10: Near-Earth Flyby (0.032 AU)

WEDNESDAY 

● Feb 14 — National Space Society, Kennedy Space Center FL: NSS Exclusive Members Launch Viewing Event for SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 Nova-C Moon lander.

● Feb 14 — CASA Moon, SSERVI, Institute of Meteoritics, University of New Mexico, LPI, Albuquerque NM and Online: CASA Moon Planetary Sample Science Seminar Series: Discovery of lunar halite nanocrystals on the Surface of volcanic beads from Apollo 17; by Yang Liu, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 11:00 MST.