Expedition 59 Crew Launch On Soyuz MS-12 Increases ISS Complement to 6
Soyuz MS-12 flight scheduled for Mar 14 will carry ISS Expedition 59 crew of Aleksey Ovchinin, Christina Koch, and Nick Hague. Ovchinin and Hague are the former crew of MS-10 from Oct 2018. Rookie astronaut Koch will be the 63rd woman in space. The Expedition 58 crew of Anne McClain, Oleg Kononenko and David Saint-Jacques are aboard ISS after arrival on Soyuz MS-11 on Dec 3, 2018 and will become part of Expedition 59. Saint-Jacques is the first Canada astronaut following Chris Hadfield, commander of Expedition 35, in 2013. SpaceX Crew Dragon DM-1 departs ISS on Mar 8. SpaceX DM-2 is on track to return astronauts to ISS aboard an American vehicle in July, followed closely by the Boeing Starliner. An American flag left on ISS by the crew of the final Space Shuttle mission STS-135 in 2011 waits for the first commercial crew. McClain is resizing spacesuit components for 3 EVAs planned in Mar and Apr. On Mar 29 McClain and Koch will make the first all-female EVA. Kononenko replaces fuel bottles used during experiments in the Combustion Integrated Rack. Flight of the first United Arab Emirates astronaut, formerly scheduled for MS-12, is delayed to MS-15. Two UAE candidates are currently training in Russia to join ISS. (Image Credits: NASA, Boeing)
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MONDAY
Highlights…
 Mar 11 — ISS, 405-km LEO: ISS Expedition 58 to welcome 3 crew members this week including 63rd woman in space; running 1-year long Closed Loop Air Revitalization experiment, collecting water samples for microbial analysis, preparing for 3 planned USA EVAs by resizing EMUs, checking tools, inspecting crew tethers.
 Mar 11 — NewSpace: Sierra Nevada studying human habitat for lunar orbit & building Dream Chaser for LEO payload delivery; Bigelow Aerospace plans launches of B330-1 and B330-2 habitats in 2021 as building blocks for large commercial space station; Zero-G corporation announces special flight on July 20.
Mar 11 — Solar System: Juno spacecraft uncovers puzzling data about Jupiter magnetic field; Mars InSight ‘Mole’ pauses digging due to unexpected obstruction; JAXA Hayabusa2 operation updates at Ryugu being reported weekly.
Mar 11 — Galaxy: Chandra X-ray observations find superbubbles emanating from core of NGC 3079; Spitzer Space Telescope studies mergers of nearby galaxies; Spitzer also discovers a brown dwarf binary star by using microlensing.
Mar 11 — Global: Zhongguo announces ‘imminent launch’ of new space station module, subject to successful flight of Long March 5 booster; China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology to launch Smart Dragon-1, first carrier rocket for commercial use, in 2019; 1st United Arab Emirates astronaut flight tentatively scheduled for Sep 25.
 Mar 11 — USA: Administration delivery of FY2020 budget proposal to USA congress set for today, NASA Space Policy Directives / Moon program financial commitment to be determined; SSERVI Microsymposium 60 features 7 of the 9 Commercial Lunar Payload Services partners; SLS 2020 launch date being reassessed.
Mar 11 — Hawai’i: Kepler Space Telescope first exoplanet discovery (10 years ago) is finally confirmed by UH astronomers; Subaru Telescope Hyper Suprime-Cam contributes to search for hypothetical Planet Nine; HI-SEAS Moon / Mars mission gains publicity; Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, Gov. Ige and others celebrate Ellison Onizuka.
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= All times
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: Mars (W), Uranus (W); Morning Planets: Venus (ESE), Jupiter (SE), Saturn (SE).
Moon, ISRU, NewSpace Conferences Draw Prominent Speakers, Enterprises to Italy, Massachusetts, Texas
Another lunar-focused week begins March 11 with “Mining the Moon for Profit: A Case Study in Space Resource Utilization” hosted by Secure World Foundation, SEE Lab and GWU Space Policy Institute in Milan, Italy. The invitation-only event participants include (L-R) Simonetta di Pippo (UNOOSA), Ian Crawford (Univ. of London), Eleonora Ammannito (ASI), Andrew Aldrin (Aldrin Space Institute), Bernard Foing (ESA), Dan Hendrickson (Astrobotic), Giuseppe Reibaldi (MVA), Lynn Zoenen (iSpace Japan), and Vittorio Bombelli (PT Scientists). In Cambridge MA, MIT Space Week on March 13-15 will see three major events: Apollo 50 + 50, Beyond the Cradle 2019 “Envisioning a New Space Age“, and New Space Age Conference. It will commemorate 50th year of Apollo 11, look to the next 50 years and highlight technologies, tools, astropreneurship, spacecraft, and human experiences while humanity is on the cusp of becoming an interplanetary civilization. Some of the many panel discussions and presentations will feature Apollo, Shuttle, and ISS Astronauts, engineers, and scientists: Maria Zuber, Loretta Whitesides, Sara Seager, Thomas Zurbuchen, Charles Bolden, Jeffrey Hoffman, Cady Coleman, Walter Cunningham, and Charlie Duke. On the eve of 50th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Brown University, Vernadsky and IKI are hosting Microsymposium 60 with theme Forward to the Moon to Stay: Undertaking Transformative Lunar Science with Commercial Partners on March 16-17 at Woodlands TX. (Image Credits: MIT, SWF, NASA, ME, ILOA, SSERVI, Golden Spike Co., Astrobotic, UNOOSA, Bigelow Aerospace)
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Mar 11 — Secure World Foundation, SDA Bocconi School of Management-Space Economy Evolution (SEE) Lab, George Washington University Space Policy Institute, Milan, Italy: Mining the Moon for Profit: A Case Study in Space Resource Utilization.
Mar 11 — International Planetarium Society Inc., Multiple Locations: International Day of Planetaria; promote knowledge of planetaria to the public.
Mar 11-13 — American Astronomical Society, Washington DC: AAS Congressional Visits Day 2019.
Mar 11 — Moon: 5.5° SSE of Mars, 07:00.
Mar 11 — Apollo Asteroid 2019 DH: Near-Earth Flyby (0.020 AU)
Mar 11 — Apollo Asteroid 2019 CM4: Near-Earth Flyby (0.035 AU)
Continued from…
Jan 2019 – Sep 2020 — New Horizons, Kuiper Belt: Full data from spacecraft 7 instruments during KBO Ultima Thule flyby to be transmitted to Earth over this time period.
Mar 8-17 — South by Southwest, Austin TX: SXSW Conference and Festival; celebrating the convergence of tech, interactive, film, and music industries.
Mar 9-15 — International Union of Radio Science (URSI), New Delhi, India: 2019 URSI Asia-Pacific Radio Science Conference.
Mar 9-20 — Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) ESA, ISRO, NASA, IAU, Punjab, India: COSPAR Capacity Building Workshop: Broadband Spectral and Timing Studies with Astrosat, Chandra and XMM-Newton.
Mar 9-23 — Atlanta Science Festival, Delta Air Lines, et al, Atlanta GA: Atlanta Science Festival 2019; features Astronaut Job Fair.
TUESDAY
Mar 12 — JAXA, Tokyo, Japan: International Space Exploration Symposium 2019; Towards Sustainable Space Exploration:Science, Industry and Society-A New Era of Joint Growth. |
Mar 12-14 — ESA, ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands: European Space Components Conference (ESCCON).
Mar 12 — Moon: 8.2° SSE of Pleiades, 07:00.
Mar 12 — Apollo Asteroid 2019 DJ1: Near-Earth Flyby (0.010 AU)
WEDNESDAY
Mar 13 — United Launch Alliance, Delta 4 / WGS 10, Cape Canaveral AFS FL: ULA Delta 4 rocket to launch USAF tenth Wideband Global SATCOM spacecraft; 18:58-21:04.
Mar 13 — SETI Institute, Menlo Park CA: Lecture: Exploring Ultima Thule – Humanity’s Next Frontier; featuring Alan Stern (virtually) and Mark Showalter, Ross Beyer; 19:00 at SRI International: Headquarters.
Mar 13-15 — MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative, Praxis, Cambridge MA: MIT Space Week featuring events Apollo 50 + 50, Beyond the Cradle 2019: Envisioning a New Space Age, and the New Space Age Conference.
Mar 13 — Moon: 1.86° N of Aldebaran, 00:00.
Mar 13 — Apollo Asteroid 88254 (2001 FM129): Near-Earth Flyby (0.087 AU)
THURSDAY
Mar 14 — ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter 2016 Orbiter, Mars Orbit: ESA and Roscosmos spacecraft reaches 3 full years in space today, launched Mar 2016, entered Mars orbit Oct 2016; craft collecting data on atmosphere, deployed Schiaparelli demonstration lander 19 Oct 2016 (unsuccessful).
Mar 14 — Roscosmos State Corporation, Launch Soyuz MS-12 / ISS 58S, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan: An RSA Soyuz rocket set to launch Exp 59/60 crew Nick Hague of NASA, Cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, and Christina Hammock Koch of NASA (to become 63rd Women in Space).
Mar 14 — Arianespace, Launch Vega / PRISMA, Kourou, French Guiana: Arianespace Vega rocket, designated VV14, to launch PRISMA Earth observation satellite for ASI – Italian Space Agency.
Mar 14 — Pi Day: Worldwide science events celebrate Pi (Greek letter “π”), the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant – the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter (~3.14159).
Mar 14, 15 — Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech/NASA, Pasadena CA: von Kármán Lecture Series 2019: The Golden Age of Exoplanet Exploration; with speakers Jessie Christiansen (NASA Exoplanet Science Institute) and Karl Stapelfeldt (NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program).
Mar 14-17 — Physical Society of Japan, Kyushu, Japan: 74th Annual Meeting of the Physical Society of Japan.
Mar 14 — Gamma Normids Meteor Shower Peak: Meteors offer up to 6 per hour in deep-southern Milky Way appearing to radiate from star Gamma2 Normae in the constellation Norma.
Mar 14 — Moon: At first quarter, 00:26.
Mar 14 — Apollo Asteroid 2016 CK31: Near-Earth Flyby (0.093 AU)
FRIDAY
Mar 15 — Caltech Astronomy, Pasadena CA: Lecture: Planet Nine from Outer Space; by Mike Brown, Professor of Astronomy at Caltech.
Mar 15-17 — Santa Clara University, Huntsville AL: Scientific Conference on Anomalous Aerospace Phenomena (AAP); at Rocket City Conference Center.
Mar 15 — Apollo Asteroid 2015 EF7: Near-Earth Flyby (0.052 AU)
Mar 15 — Aten Asteroid 483656 (2005 ES70): Near-Earth Flyby (0.056 AU)
SATURDAY
Mar 16 — British Interplanetary Society, London, United Kingdom: Lecture: BIS West Midlands Spring Talks – India & China, Chevaline; by Gurbir Singh, John Harlow & Paul Jackman, 14:45.
Mar 16-17 — Brown University, Vernadsky Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, The Woodlands TX: Microsymposium 60: Forward to the Moon to Stay: Undertaking Transformative Lunar Science with Commercial Partners; at the Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel and Convention Center.
Mar 16 — Moon: 6.8° S of Pollux, 05:00.
SUNDAY
Mar 17-19 — Vienna University of Technology, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, BKG Germany, Institute of Applied Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, et al, Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain: 24th Meeting of the European VLBI Group for Geodesy and Astrometry (EVGA).
Mar 17-21 — American Astronomical Society, Monterey CA: 17th Meeting High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD).