India Space Program Forges Ahead with Commercial Launch Service, Lunar Science and Earth Observation

A second batch (36, with ~5,400 kg total mass) of OneWeb communications satellites are to be lifted to LEO on Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3) March 26 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, under a deal brokered by ISRO commercial arm New Space India Limited. ISRO was tapped following deterioration of UK-Russia relations, adeptly stepping in to continue OneWeb deployment alongside SpaceX, a direct competitor to OneWeb with its Starlink constellation. If successful, the upcoming second launch for OneWeb by ISRO (LVM3-M3) will further secure the agency’s reputation for commercial competence and reliability. LVM3 is also slated to launch Chandrayaan-3 Moon mission (LVM3-M4) to TLI in late June / early July. Chandrayaan-3 consists of a lander, rover and propulsion module – which along with Chandrayaan-2 will serve as a communication relay. ISRO is striving to achieve soft landing at ~69.37°S, 32.35°E with 2 m/s vertical and 0.5 m/s horizontal touchdown velocity. Meanwhile, $1.5B NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) earth observation satellite is being readied at U R Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru for NET Jan 2024 launch, also on LVM3. NISAR is a collaborative effort, with NASA JPL providing L-band polarimetric SAR (1.25 GHz / 24 cm wavelength), comms, GPS antenna and deployable boom while ISRO is supplying S-band polarimetric SAR (3.20 GHz / 9.3 cm wavelength), spacecraft bus and launch vehicle. (Image Credits: ISRO, NASA)

MONDAY

☆ Mar 20 — ISS, ~415-km LEO: Expedition 68 seven-member crew of 3 Russia, 3 USA, 1 UAE Astronauts begin CRS-27 Dragon Cargo transfers, working with Cellular Immunity experiment, 40+ day Particle Vibration project, Veg-05 Red Robin tomato plants.

☆ Mar 20 — Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: Shenzhou-16 craft on standby at Jiuquan as Shenzhou-15 emergency back-up while being prepared for May 25 launch with 3-member crew; Tianzhou-6 en route to Wenchang for May 10 launch.

☾ = Moon activity

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

New Space Frontiers for Astronomy

21st Century science and astronomy is rapidly advancing beyond Earth, particularly at 2 promising locations, with pioneering observatories James Webb Space Telescope, Gaia and Spektr-RG orbiting at Sun-Earth L2, and plans for astrophysical instruments to join Chang’E payloads on the surface on the Moon. Gaia operates at L2 in a Lissajous orbit, while JWST and Spektr-RG are in a halo orbit. Sun-Earth L2 offers continuous illumination for solar panels and temperate constants making shielding and calibration for spacecraft more manageable. The stable platform of the Moon recently saw the recurrence of astrophysics with the landing of Lunar Ultraviolet Telescope aboard Chang’E-3 and Low Frequency Spectrometer aboard Chang’E-4 which works with NCLE aboard CE-4 orbiter at Earth-Moon L2. Astrobotic Peregrine 1, hoping to launch to the Moon May 4, is carrying LRA containing 8 retroreflectors​ for astrometry. Intuitive Machines IM-1 lander, currently set to launch late June, is contracted to fly ROLSES (to help determine the density of the electron sheath of the Moon and detect solar radio bursts, Jupiter radio emissions and radio signals from Earth) and ILOA Hawai’i ILO-X payload (dual astronomy optical imagers to observe the Milky Way Galaxy and the celestial sky). Future global placement of lunar-based telescopes monitoring all wavelengths and expanding VLBI to space & Moon observatories will transform research capabilities. (Image Credits: ESA, Gaia, DPAC, NPO Lavochkin, NASA, GSFC, ILOA Hawai’i, Canadensys Aerospace)

o Mar 20-31 — United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), Vienna, Austria: Meeting of the Legal Subcommittee of COPUOS.

☆ Mar 20 — March Equinox: The Sun rises exactly in east traveling through sky for 12 hours, sets exactly in west; every place on Earth experiences a ~12-hour day; 11:23.

☆ Mar 20 — Moon: 2.11° SE of Neptune, 23:00.

☆ Mar 20 — Dwarf Planet 1 Ceres: At opposition, magnitude 7.0; 11:00.

☆ Mar 20 — Amor Asteroid 2019 ER1: Near-Earth Flyby (0.085 AU)

Continued From…

● Oct 15 – Jun 15, 2023 — International Space Elevator Consortium, Online: Space Elevator Academic Challenge: Improving Humanity’s Future; for students 17-25.

☾ Dec 11 – Apr 25, 2023 — Hakuto-R / ispace Mission 1, Lunar Landing Trajectory: Carrying UAE Rashid 10-kg rover, 0.25-kg JAXA SORA-Q rover, Hakuto-R performing orbital control maneuvers to reach Lunar Orbital Insertion, followed by Moon touchdown nominally ~4.5 months after launch.

● Jan 18 – May 11 — Wichita State University, Wichita KS and Online: 2023 Interstellar Seminar ‘LASI 150G’; 1-credit hour seminar begins today; every Wednesday 14:30-15:20, led by Prof. Mark Schneegurt.

● Feb 27 – Mar 24 — UC Santa Barbara Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Santa Barbara CA: Course: Building a Physical Understanding of Galaxy Evolution with Data-driven Astronomy.

o Feb 24 – May 24 — National Museum of China, Beijing, China: Exhibit Featuring China’s Human, Lunar and Space Program.

● Mar 1-31 — NASA, Online / Washington DC: Celebrate Women’s History Month with NASA.

TUESDAY

☆ Mar 21 — ISS Expedition 68 In-Flight Event , ~415-km LEO: Event with UAE media and UAE Flight Engineer Sultan Alneyadi, 07:20 EDT, live coverage available.

● Mar 21 — Terran Orbital, Online / Boca Raton FL: Terran Orbital Conference Call to Discuss Q4 and Full-Year 2022 Financial Results; 11:00.