April 15-21, 2024 / Vol 43, No 16 / Hawai`i Island, USA

ISS Exp 71 to Welcome 1st Crewed Starliner and Dream Chaser Demo Missions in Summer

Newly commenced ISS Expedition 71 is underway with Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko continuing command from Exp 70, and crewmates Nikolai Chub, Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, Alexander Grebenkin, and Tracy Caldwell-Dyson. The 6-month Exp 71 mission is planned to perform 6 extravehicular activities (EVAs) – the first of which will be a 7-hour Russia spacewalk #62 on April 25. Currently there are 6 craft docked at ISS: Soyuz MS-25 crew ship, SpaceX Dragon crew 8 Endeavour, SpaceX Dragon cargo SpX-30, Northrop Grumman Cygnus NG-20 space freighter S.S. Patricia “Patty” Hilliard Robertson, and the Progress 86 and 87 resupply ships. During Exp 71, more cargo will arrive via Progress 88 and 89, as well as Cygnus NG-21. The Boeing Starliner CST-100 Crew Flight Test is now set to launch May 7, carry Barry Eugene Wilmore and Sunita Williams, and remain docked for 6 days. It will be the first crewed flight of Starliner which is designed to carry 4 crew and 100 kg of cargo to ISS, with a 210-day docked design life and reusability up to 10 times. First launch of Dream Chaser Tenacity (Sierra Nevada Corp. Demo-1 mission), under the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation System program, is slated for June. The system features the Shooting Star expendable cargo module (capacity 4,536 kg, unpressurized) and the Dream Chaser reusable cargo craft (return capacity 1,750 kg, pressurized). (Image Credits: ISS Partners, Sierra Nevada Corporation, Boeing, SNC)

MONDAY 

☆ Apr 15 — International Space Station, ~415-km LEO: Expedition 71 seven-member crew participating in multiple education outreach events this week, including a conference with Laurel O’Hara; preparing Orlan spacesuits for EVA in <2 weeks.

☆ Apr 15 — Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: Shenzhou 17 three-member crew ready for arrival of Shenzhou-18 three additional crew in 10 days, missions will overlap for ~4 days.

☾ = Moon activity

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

Vienna, Home of Moon Village Association, Hosting EGU 2024 and 63rd UN COPUOS Legal Subcommittee Session

European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2024 is set for April 14-19 at the Austria Center Vienna, where hundreds of geology and planetary science research papers will be presented. 95 organizations – technology companies, academic institutions, publishers and non-profits are scheduled to participate in the exhibit hall, including Aerodyne Research, Asia Oceania Geosciences Society, Cambridge University Press, ESA, Leibniz Supercomputing Centre, and The European Space Weather and Space Climate Association. United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space will hold its 63rd Legal Subcommittee (LSC) session April 16-26 at Vienna International Center, with Egyptian Space Agency CEO and 2024 COPUOS Chair Sherif Mohamed Sedky presiding. LSC Plenary Sessions will be held twice daily throughout the 10-day session. The International Conference on Space Resources will be held in conjunction with COPUOS LSC on April 15, featuring panelists from China, Italy, USA, Mexico, Ecuador, Greece, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Brazil, Luxembourg and Japan. Side events include Space Sustainability Open Forum: Active Debris Removal (UN Office for Outer Space Affairs) and Outer Space in the Zero Draft of the Pact of the Future: Perspectives and Next Steps (DLR). Also on April 16, Moon Village Association is holding talks reflecting on the treatise The Path of Man between Science and Technology, highlighting pro- and anti-technological social tensions in the age of AI and lunar exploration, in Turin, Italy at the Giorgio Amendola Foundation. (Image Credits: MVA, UN COPUOS, AGU, Research Gate)

● Apr 15-18 — American Society of Civil Engineers, Miami FL: 19th ASCE ASD Biennial International Conference on Engineering, Science, Construction and Operations in Challenging Environment (Earth & Space 2024).

● Apr 15-19 — NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, University of Maryland College Park Department of Astronomy, Greenbelt MD: Pathways to Characterizing Non-Transiting Planets.

o Apr 15-19 — IAU, The Kavli Foundation, Durham University, 4wardFutures, Breakthrough Initiatives, Durham, UK: IAUS 387 Kavli-IAU Symposium: (Toward) Discovery of life beyond Earth and its impact.

● Apr 15-22 —The Space Consortium, Massachusetts Space Grant, Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, Massachusetts (statewide): Massachusetts Space Week 2024; events including space film festival, space career fair, and expanded hours of Draper Museum featuring Space Exploration and 50 Years of Innovation exhibit.

☾ Apr 15 — Moon: 1.49° S of Pollux, 05:00; at first quarter, 09:13.

☆ Apr 15 — Apollo Asteroid 439437 (2013 NK4): Near-Earth Flyby (0.021 AU)

TUESDAY

● Apr 16-18 — American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, Laurel MD: 2024 AIAA Defense Forum.

o Apr 16-26 — U.N. Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, Vienna, Austria: 63rd session of the Legal Subcommittee of the U.N. COPUOS.

☾ Apr 16 — Moon: 3.6° NNE of Beehive Cluster, 08:00.

☆ Apr 16 — Aten Asteroid 2018 CH: Near-Earth Flyby (0.053 AU)