Observing the 50th Year of Apollo 8, Envisioning the Next Human Moon Missions 
USA looks to New Year 2019 with its renewed National Program support of Humans returning to the Moon, while celebrating the 50th Year of Apollo missions. On December 21, the first crewed mission to the Moon, Apollo 8, will be remembered with pioneering Astronauts Frank Borman II, James Lovell Jr and William Anders, along with the iconic Earthrise photograph. Commercial crews are training to become the first Americans to launch from USA soil since 2011, possibly next year on SpaceX Dragon V2 and Boeing CST-100 Starliner around the time of Apollo 11 commemorations. As a catalyst toward development of human-rated lunar landers, 9 companies chosen for Commercial Lunar Payload Services are working to provide Moon deliveries at 10+ kg starting as early as 2019 for the next 10 years. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine stresses the importance of getting to the Moon “fast” and “sustainably”. Global lunar interest and competition continue to spark new first attempts on the Moon: China aims to land on the Far Side with Chang’e-4 around January 2-3; India is launching Chandrayaan-2 to the Moon South Pole region ~Jan 30; and SpaceIL from Israel will attempt its first Moon landing potentially in March. The next generations of explorers await the inspiration of seeing the next impactful photograph from the Moon, the next Astronauts and the first women landing on the Moon. (Image Credits: NASA, GSFC, DLR, ASU, LRO, ILOA) |
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MONDAY
Highlights…
 Dec 17 — ISS, 405-km LEO: Expedition 57 to become Expedition 58 with 3 crew members returning to Earth; beginning Advanced Plant Experiment-05 to grow Arabidopsis thaliana and Veg-04 Mizuna mustard crops; transferring cargo from Dragon CRS-16, NG-10, and Progress 71P; completing tasks from last week’s EVA [213th for ISS] and external payload retrievals.
 Dec 17 — NewSpace: ispace of Japan working with Team Draper on CLPS contract, will be highlighted at 2019 Consumer Electronics Show in USA; Virgin Galactic studying data from 4th powered test flight of WhiteKnightTwo; Astroscale building Elsa-D space debris removal demo mission for launch early 2020.
Dec 17 — Solar System: China Chang’e-4 in Lunar orbit being monitored closely for its upcoming Moon Far Side landing; InSight science team investigating area of operation for placement of science instruments; Voyager 2 officially leaves Solar System and enters Interstellar Space, its Plasma Science Experiment continues to operate.
Dec 17 — Galaxy: Carnegie Supernova Project aims to create more precise means to calculate Universe expansion rate; Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite in cycle 2 observations, first data set from 2 months of exoplanet surveys now available.
Dec 17 — Global: ISRO working on plan to use PSLV 3rd stage as experiment platform for 6 months in space before orbit decay / craft disintegration; ESA researching bioprinting skin, bone, and organs for Astronauts off planet; Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope to lift off from Antarctica McMurdo Station this month to survey molecular clouds.
 Dec 17 — USA: Proposals being sought through Feb 14 for NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program for new concepts on operating, building and landing structures in Space; Apollo 8 to be celebrated this week and Apollo@50 planning continues; Nick Hague & Christina Hammock [to be 63rd woman in space] train for Feb 28 launch.
Dec 17 — Hawai’i: Maunakea Observatories launches new website to promote community, cultural and scientific involvement; HI-SEAS grant of US$1M from NASA to go toward compiling data from missions 1-5; team led by UH discovers supernova ASASSN-18bt, reveals that Type Ia supernovae are not all identical.
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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 (S), Uranus (S), Neptune (S); Morning Planets: Mercury (SE), Venus (ESE), Jupiter (SE).
Gaia Space Telescope Entering Sixth Year of Mapping Planets, Stars, and Galaxy
The ESA Gaia space observatory, launched to measure the position and distance of billions of stars, observes 5 years in orbit December 19. Gaia orbits the Sun-Earth L2 point between 263,000 km and 707,000 km from Earth. The 2018 data release maps 1.7 billion stars in 3D. Data from Gaia and the Kepler Space Telescope discovers over 100 new exoplanets. Gaia attempts to precisely measure distance to the Pleiades star cluster, observes a satellite dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way named Antlia 2, and finds that the Milky Way collided with another galaxy 10 billion years ago. Astronomers using Gaia find over 20 hypervelocity stars entering or leaving the Milky Way. A study using Gaia and the Hubble Space Telescope estimates the Hubble-Lemaitre constant for expansion of the universe at 73.5 km/sec per megaparsec, conflicting with ESA Planck satellite measurement of 67 km/sec per megaparsec. A study from the Chinese Academy of Sciences agrees with Planck and disagrees with the Gaia-HST estimate. At a conference in Pohang, Korea, physicists conclude that old models of the universe are ruled out by new data. This tension between astronomers and physicists could point to new theories of cosmology. In the future Gaia is expected to detect thousands more Jupiter-sized planets, 500,000 quasars, plus thousands of asteroids and comets within the solar system. (Image Credits: ESA, NASA) |
Dec 17 — The Space Show, Online / Tiburon CA: Dr. David Livingston talks with Dr. Madhu Thangalevu and student winners of his design concepts class.
Dec 17-18 — Space Generation Advisory Council, Rajiv Gandhi Science Centre (RGSC), Port-Louis, Mauritius: 2nd African Space Generation Workshop (AF-SGW).
Dec 17-18 — Higher Technical Institute of Lisbon (Instituto Superior Técnico – IST), Lisbon, Portugal: 11th Black Holes Workshop.
Dec 17-21 — Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, South Korea: Light Dark World International Forum 2018.
Dec 17 — Comet 46P/Wirtanen: Near-Earth Flyby (0.078 AU)
Continued from…
Dec 8 – Jan 3, 2019 — Chang’e-4 Lander & Rover, Moon Trajectory: China CE-4 lander and rover on journey to Moon far side, will attempt touchdown at northwestern South Pole – Aitken basin 180-km diameter Von Kármán crater (45-46° S, 176.4-178.8° E).
NET Dec 13 — Rocket Lab, Launch Electron / NASA VCLS ELaNa XIX, Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand: Nine-day launch window opens for NASA Venture Class Launch Service flight of the CubeSat Launch Initiative Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) XIX mission; live coverage available.
Dec 15-17 — SpaceLand, IAF, Mauritius: 4th SpaceLand Forum: Humanizing Space, Microgravity, Technology & Science for the Space 3-G: Generation, Gender, Geography.
TUESDAY
Dec 18 — SpaceX, Launch Falcon 9 / GPS 3-01, SLC 40, Cape Canaveral AFS FL: SpaceX Falcon 9 to launch first USAF third-generation navigation satellite for Global Positioning System; 09:24-09:50 EST.
Dec 18 — Arianespace, Launch Ariane 5 / CSO 1, Kourou, French Guiana: Arianespace Soyuz rocket, designated VS20, to launch Composante Spatiale Optique military reconnaissance satellite for CNES and DGA into polar orbit. |
Dec 18 — ULA, Launch Delta 4-Heavy / NROL-71, Vandenberg AFB CA: ULA Delta 4-Heavy rocket to launch classified U.S. NRO payload; 17:57 local time.
Dec 18 — British Interplanetary Society, London, United Kingdom: Lecture: Apollo 8 – The First Men to the Moon; by Jerry Stone.
Dec 18 — SETI Institute, Menlo Park CA: SETI Talks Finding and Messaging ET: So What? by SETI researchers Julia DeMarines, Doug Vakoch, Eliot Gillum and Seth Shostak, 19:00-20:00.
Dec 18 — Apollo Asteroid 2018 XG1: At opposition (0.089 AU)
WEDNESDAY
Dec 19 — ISS Expedition 57 Return to Earth, 405-km LEO: Three international crew from Expedition 57 Alexander Gerst (ESA), Serena Auñón-Chancellor (NASA), and Sergey Prokopyev (Roscosmos) set to return to Earth today in Soyuz MS-09; live coverage of departure available.
Dec 19 — ISRO, Launch GSLV Mk 2 / GSAT 7A, Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota, India: Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk. 2, flying on GSLV-F11 mission, to launch GSAT 7A communications satellite for India Air Force.
Dec 19 — Gaia, Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange Point: ESA spacecraft reaches 5 years in orbit today; planned 5-year science collection period to map billions of stars ends May 2019, further mission goals and extension to be decided; launched in 2013.
Dec 19 — Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Mānoa, Honolulu HI: IfA Colloquium featuring Allison Youngblood from Goddard Space Flight Center.
Dec 19 — Comet 46P/Wirtanen: At opposition (0.079 AU)
Dec 19 — Amor Asteroid 2014 JU54: Near-Earth Flyby (0.086 AU)
THURSDAY
Dec 20 — NASA, Online: ISS Expedition 57 Crew post-landing activities in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, with possible interviews with Alexander Gerst of ESA and Serena Aunon-Chancellor of NASA; live coverage.
Dec 20 — Moon: 8.4° SSE of Pleiades. 06:00; 1.6° NNW of Aldebaran, 21:00.
Dec 20 — Apollo Asteroid 2012 MS4: Near-Earth Flyby (0.082 AU)
FRIDAY
Dec 21 — Roscosmos State Corporation, Launch Proton / Blagovest No. 13L, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan: Proton Rocket set to launch Blagovest No. 13L communications satellite.
Dec 21 — Apollo 8 50th Observation, Nationwide USA: First spacecraft to leave Earth orbit and carry humans to Moon; Pioneer Astronauts Frank F. Borman II, James A. Lovell Jr., William A. Anders, legendary Earthrise photograph and historic mission are honored today in events and celebrations nationwide.
Dec 21 — ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center, University of Hawai’i at Hilo, Hilo HI: Maunakea Skies Talk; astronomers from W. M. Keck Observatory discuss research, recent discoveries and science; 19:00-20:00.
Dec 21 — December Solstice: The Sun reaches the point where it is farthest South of the celestial equator, marking the shortest day and longest night of the year (opposite in Southern Hemisphere); 12:25.
Dec 21 — Mercury: 0.83° NNE of Jupiter, 10:00.
SATURDAY
Dec 22 — Juno, Perijove 17 / 16th Science Flyby, Jupiter Orbit: NASA craft in 53-day orbit to come within ~3,500 km of Jupiter cloud tops during Perijove 17, its 17th close flyby of Jupiter and 16th science flyby with instruments turned on.
Dec 22 — Ursid Meteor Shower Peak: Appearing to radiate from β star of Ursa Minor, Ursids are associated with comet 8P/Tuttle, they offer medium speed (33 km/sec), mostly faint with a few fireballs, 9-10 per hour, visible in northern Hemisphere – unfavorable viewing this year.
Dec 22 — Moon: Full (Cold Moon), 07:49; 3.1° S of M35 cluster, 11:00.
Dec 22 — Mercury: 6.0° NNE of Antares, 03:00.
Dec 22 — Aten Asteroid 163899 (2003 SD220): Near-Earth Flyby (0.019 AU)
Dec 22 — Apollo Asteroid 2016 AO131: Near-Earth Flyby (0.052 AU)
Dec 22 — Apollo Asteroid 2018 WA2: Near-Earth Flyby (0.059 AU)
SUNDAY
Dec 23 — ISS Visible Pass, LEO: International Space Station visible pass to occur over North side of Hawai`i Island at 05:52:09 HST from WNW crossing to NNE, magnitude of -3.7.
Dec 23 — Moon: 10.6° S of Castor, 17:00; 7.0° S of Pollux, 21:00; at perigee (360,662 km), 23:57.
Dec 23 — Jupiter: 5.2° N of Antares, 09:00.
Dec 23 — Apollo Asteroid 418849 (2008 WM64): Near-Earth Flyby (0.043 AU)
Dec 23 — Apollo Asteroid 2010 GT7: Near-Earth Flyby (0.057 AU)
Dec 23 — Apollo Asteroid 2015 YQ1: Near-Earth Flyby (0.077 AU)