Total Solar Eclipse Festivities Across North America Precede Global Yuri’s Night Celebrations
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MONDAY☆ Apr 8 — International Space Station, ~415-km LEO: Newly commenced Expedition 71 seven-member crew planning first EVAs in next two months, working with new experiments for fluid studies, sea and ice measurements, photosynthesis. ☆ Apr 8 — Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: Shenzhou 17 three-member crew transferring cargo from Tianzhou-7 while exercising and preparing for return to Earth near end of month. Highlights… o NewSpace: Teams led by Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, Venturi Astrolab to advance development of Lunar Terrain Vehicles under US$4.6B NASA program; Relativity Space partnering with Impulso.Space to provide Florida launch services including payload integration, mission management. ☆ Solar System: ESA-contributed Lunar Gateway elements receive names Lunar I-Hab (habitat), Lunar View (refueling) and Lunar Link (communications); Curiosity Rover in 12th year on Mars making way through Gedis Vallis channel – presumed ancient dry river bed; Bepicolombo adjusting trajectory while heading toward 4th gravity assist at Mercury later this year. ☆ Galaxy: Event Horizon Telescope captures image of Sagittarius A* in polarized light revealing organized magnetic fields; new research confirms first tidally-locked exoplanet (super-Earth exoplanet LHS 3844b); high-detail survey from JWST of M82 being studied for star production which is 10 times faster than Milky Way. o Global: Reusable CNSA LM-10 stages planned for 2025/6 launch to utilize wire grid to assist sea platform landings per China Central Television (CCTV); Qosmosys of Singapore working with SpeQtral for MEDS ultra long-distance quantum communications; Canadian Space Agency Astronaut David Saint-Jacques helps host solar eclipse viewing in Quebec. ● USA: KSC engineers to analyze 0.9 kg piece of space debris recovered from Naples, FL home to determine if it was ejected from ISS; 2024 DoD Commercial Space Integration Strategy outlines effort to integrate private capabilities into national defense operations; NASA to establish lunar time standard per White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) memo. ● Hawai’i: Keck and CFHT confirm existence of Ursa Major III/UNIONS 1 – the most faint and lowest-mass Milky Way satellite ever discovered; Hyperspectral Thermal Imager (HyTI) designed by UH Mānoa to be deployed from ISS NET May; ILOA Hawai’i ILO-X WFOV instrument on the Moon now dubbed ‘Lunar Codex’, NFOV has Ka ‘imi (to search) as moniker. |
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● = Terrestrial and… o = International terrestrial events
☾ = Moon activity ★ = Space and… ☆ = International space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time’). |
Weekly Planet Watch – Evening Planets: Jupiter (W), Uranus (W); Morning Planets: Mars (ESE), Saturn (ESE).
Space Foundation 39th Space Symposium Expects >10,000 Participants
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☆ Apr 8 — Total Solar Eclipse: A total eclipse of the Sun will cross North America; first location in continental North America is Mexico Pacific coast ~11:07 PDT, eclipse will exit continental North America on the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada ~17:16 NDT; next total solar eclipse seen from contiguous USA will be Aug 23, 2044. ● Apr 8-11 — Space Foundation, Colorado Springs CO: 39th Space Symposium. ● Apr 8-12 — University of Rochester, Rochester NY: Planetary Impact Workshop; limited to 45-60 attendees. ☾ Apr 8 — Moon: New Moon, 08:22; 1.97° SE of Mercury, 18:00. Ongoing… ☆ NET Apr — X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), ~550-km LEO: XRISM to start science operations to study galactic plasma after ending 6 month check out testing phase. o NET Feb – NET Apr — CNSA, Online / Beijing, China: Primary selection of international payloads for Chang’E-8 mission. ● Apr 6-9 — Yuri’s Night, Cosmic Perspective, Kerrville TX: Total Eclipse Festival; music, science, art and a total solar eclipse. ● Apr 7-12 — American Geophysical Union, American Astronomical Society, Dallas TX: Triennial Earth-Sun Summit (TESS) 2024. TUESDAY★ Apr 9 — Juno, Perijove 60 / 59th Science Flyby, Jupiter Orbit: NASA craft to perform Jupiter flyby during Perijove 60, its 60th close flyby of Jupiter and 59th science flyby with instruments turned on. ☆ Apr 9 — Roscosmos, Launch Angara-A5 / Block DM-03, Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia: Test flight of Angara-A5 carrying mass simulator payload. ● Apr 9 — ispace, Colorado Springs CO: Lunar Soirée; during 39th Space Symposium. ● Apr 9 — NASA, SSERVI, Washington University, Online / St. Louis MO: Abstracts Due: NASA Exploration Science Forum (NESF2024); being held Jul 23-25. WEDNESDAY● Apr 10 — Pōwehi Day, Statewide Hawai’i: Recognized proclamation to celebrate the first-ever imaged black hole M87* by Event Horizon Telescope collaboration involving Mauna Kea Observatories, given the ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi name Pōwehi; imaged in April 2017 and released Apr 10, 2019. |
● Apr 10 — CASA Moon, SSERVI, Institute of Meteoritics, University of New Mexico, LPI, Albuquerque NM and Online: CASA Moon Planetary Sample Science Seminar Series: Origin of sulfur isotopes reservoirs on the Moon; by James Dottin, Brown University, 11:00 MDT.
☾ Apr 10 — Moon: 3.8° NNW of Jupiter, 10:00; with Jupiter and Uranus within circle of diameter 3.84°, 10:00; 0.44° NNW of Saturn, 11:00; 3.4° NNW of Uranus, 13:00.
THURSDAY
☾ Apr 11 — Moon: 0.41° SE of Pleiades, 04:00.
☆ Apr 11 — Mercury: At inferior conjunction with the Sun; 0.584 AU from Earth, 13:00.
☆ Apr 11 — Apollo Asteroid 363599 (2004 FG11): Near-Earth Flyby (0.052 AU)
FRIDAY
o Apr 12 — 63rd Commemoration of Human Spaceflight / Cosmonautics Day, Worldwide: Celebrating Yuri Gagarin of Russia, the 1st human to orbit Earth on Vostok 1 spacecraft in 1961; the flight lasted 108 minutes at 27,400 kph and 327 km above Earth.
● Apr 12 — 43rd Observation of STS-1 Columbia Flight, Nationwide USA: Commemorations occur today in honor of 1st ever NASA Space Shuttle Columbia carrying John Young and pilot Robert Crippen around Earth on 54.5-hour mission in 1981.
o Apr 12 — 23rd Yuri’s Night Celebrations, Global: Yuri’s Night 2024; annual worldwide party to celebrate Yuri Gagarin’s 1st flight into space and promote space exploration.
SATURDAY
☾ Apr 13 — Moon: 4.3° N of M35 cluster, 13:00.
☆ Apr 13 — Apollo Asteroid 2024 FP3: Near-Earth Flyby (0.006 AU)
SUNDAY
o Apr 14-19 — European Geosciences Union (EGU), Vienna, Austria and Online: EGU General Assembly 2024.
☾ Apr 14 — Moon: 4.8° S of Castor, 23:00.
☆ Apr 14 — Aten Asteroid 2023 FN13: Near-Earth Flyby (0.008 AU)