UK Striving for Domestic Space Access, Adoption of Space-Age Technology
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MONDAY Highlights…
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Space-related industry is currently a US$20.5B economic driver employing some 42k individuals in United Kingdom and the decade-old UK Space Agency has the ambitious goal of capturing 10% of global space market by 2030. 7 coastal locations are being considered or actively constructed as spaceports with polar / SSO trajectories: in Sutherland, Western Isles and Shetland (vertical rocket launch); Prestwick, Campbeltown, Snowdonia and Cornwall (plane-based launch). Sutherland, Scotland on the island of Unst is slated to be site of the first orbital launch from the United Kingdom, UK Pathfinder Launch, with ABL Space Systems RS1 rocket configured by Lockheed Martin under $31M contract. The mission to set six 6U cubesats into various orbits from a MOOG deployal craft. Scott Hammond, Operations Director for the Shetland Space Centre, is to elaborate on this historic mission and other national and commercial space ventures in a talk hosted by the West Midlands Branch of the British Interplanetary Society on May 8, available globally 
May 3 — ISS, ~405-km LEO: Expedition 65 with 6 spaceflight engineers and Akihiko Hoshide as Commander have more freedom of movement after extended stay of Crew-1; working with metallic alloy material science, worm muscle experiments.
May 3 — NewSpace: SpaceX to utilize 
May 3 — USA: Ad Astra Apollo 11 Astronaut 
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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’).
Weekly Planet Watch – Evening Planets: Mercury (WNW), Venus (WNW), Mars (W); Morning Planets: Jupiter (SE), Saturn (SE).
AAS Hosts 58th Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium 2021 “Planetary Stewardship”
The American Astronautical Society 58th Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium with theme Planetary Stewardship is being held online May 4-6 with support from JHUAPL, Ball Aerospace, Lockheed, NASA GSFC. There will be ~60 speakers, 10 sessions, 2 awards, 3 Goddard+ presentations and 3 Keynotes given by (TL-BR) NASA SMD Associate Administrator Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA Senior Climate Advisor Gavin Schmidt and Ellen Stofan of Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. AAS President Alan DeLuna will give Opening and Closing Remarks. Conference Co-Chairs include AAS Executive Director Jim Way, Kathy Laurini from Dynetics and Brendan Curry from The Planetary Society. Participating in ‘Commercial Human Spaceflight – Enabling Research & Science’ Session are Erika Wagner (Blue Origin), Sirisha Bandla (Virgin Galactic), Christian Maender (AxiomSpace), Tommy Sanford (CSF) and Phil McAlister (NASA Commercial Spaceflight). ‘Research in the Void: Infrastructure for Human-tended Space Science’ session includes Planetary Scientist Barbara Cohen, Planetary Geologist Rachel Klima and Professor of Planetary Geology Clive Neal. Astronomy Science on ‘Collaboration and Coordination of Ground and Space Telescopes’ will be moderated by Keck Observatory Chief Scientist John O’Meara, and participants are Jonathan Arenberg (Northrop Grumman), Heidi Hammel (JWST / AURA) and Ashlee Wilkins (House SST Committee). Founded 1954, AAS with adopted motto “Advancing All Space” currently has 51 Organizational members, 17 award programs, and continues its Space Times newsletter. (Image Credits: AAS, NASA, JHUAPL, et al) |
May 3-4 — ISSC Organizing Committee, Caltech, MIT, Cornell, University of Michigan, JPL, NASA’s Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute, Online: Interplanetary Small Satellite Conference 2021.
Continued From…
TUESDAY
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WEDNESDAY
May 5 — InSight, Elysium Planitia, Mars Surface: Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander reaches 3 full years / enters 4th year in Space today, launched in May 2018, landed on Mars Nov 26, 2018.
May 5 — Uniphi Space Agency, Federation of Galaxy Explorers, Space Foundation, Challenger Center, et al, Nationwide USA: National Astronaut Day 2021; inspiring people to reach for the Stars and celebrate Astronauts; on this date in 1961 Astronaut Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. became the 1st American in Space (15 minute suborbital flight to 186-km altitude).
May 5 — Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower Peak: The 1st of 2 annual showers that occur as a result of Earth passing through dust released by Halley’s Comet; Eta Aquarid meteors appear to radiate from Constellation Aquarius, Northern Hemisphere observers may see 10+ meteors per hour, Southern Hemisphere ~50 per hour; peak 09:00.
May 5 — Apollo Asteroid 2018 JP: Near-Earth Flyby (0.027 AU)
THURSDAY
May 6 — National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, Online / Washington DC: Committee on Planetary Protection – Meeting #4 on Mars Mission Bioburden Requirements.
May 6 — Moon: 4.0° SE of Neptune, 12:00.
May 6 — Apollo Asteroid 2021 AE4: Near-Earth Flyby (0.048 AU)
FRIDAY
May 7 — International Space Day 2021, Worldwide: First Friday in May, events and presentations to promote STEM education and inspire people to continue the work of Space explorers; originally began as ‘National Space Day’ in 1997 by Lockheed Martin Corp.
May 7 — Eta Lyrid Meteor Shower Peak: Favorable due to New Moon, shower offers only about 3 per hour; peak 23:00.
May 7 — Mars: At heliocentric opposition with Saturn, 21:00.
May 7 — Amor Asteroid 2021 HF1: Near-Earth Flyby (0.032 AU)
SATURDAY
May 8 — British Interplanetary Society West Midlands Branch, Online / London, United Kingdom: Lecture: Building the UK’s first Commercial Vertical Spaceport; by Scott Hammond; 14:00 UTC.
May 8 — NASA, JPL, Online / Pasadena CA: Virtual Educator Workshop: Exploring Exoplanets with NASA; 10:00 PDT.
SUNDAY
May 9-14 — NASA, American Geophysical Union, Atlanta GA: Origins and Exploration: From Stars to Cells (AbSciCon); reset to 2022.
May 9 — Mercury: 7.9° N of Aldebaran, 18:00.
May 9 — Venus: 4.1° SE of Pleiades, 01:00.