Articles by SpaceAge

September 29 – October 5, 2025 / Vol 44, No 39 / Hawai`i Island, USA
Lunar Broadcast Precursor: Terrestrial Edition

September 29 – October 5, 2025 / Hawai`i Island, USA

Vol 44, No 39: Lunar Broadcast Precursor: Terrestrial Edition

76th International Astronautical Congress Convenes in Sydney, Australia for Sustainable Space Imperatives

The 76th IAC runs September 29 to October 3 at International Convention Centre Sydney, drawing ~7,000 delegates from 100+ nations. Organized by International Astronautical Federation (IAF) since 1950, this edition has theme Sustainable Space: Resilient Earth. With 4,100 research abstracts accepted from 6,400 submissions and over half of the attendees being under the age of 35, IAC2025 highlights Asia-Pacific innovation, youth engagement and cross-industry ties. Plenaries include One-to-One with Heads of Space Agencies – which includes ESA, CSA, NASA, ISRO, JAXA, CNSA, many others – and The International Community’s Return to the Moon with Blue Ghost Chief Engineer Will Coogan and Ben Greenhagen of JHU-APL. A ‘Special Session’ is on the Artemis Accords. Bernard Foing gives Symposium Keynote Space Renaissance for All. Speakers include Lunar Outpost Founder / CEO Justin Cyrus, Vast CEO Max Haot on Commercial Success in Space, Philip Diamond of the Square Kilometre Array Observatory, Eric Salwan of Firefly Aerospace, Angel Abbud-Madrid on space resource utilization and Quentin Parker on space computing. ‘Technical Programme’ includes Sophia Casanova (ispace) on Tenacious lunar rover. Oct 4 Public Space Day expects 5,000+ for Astronaut meet-and-greets. 250 exhibitors foster Indo-Pacific, Asia partnerships for space sustainability, exploration, technology. There are many official adjacent events. (Image Credits: IAC)

Advance NASA Science for Brilliant Human Manifestation, Give Equal Funding with DoD

Day of Action to Save NASA Science is being called this year by founder The Planetary Society and 10 additional organizations, including from the American Space Movement: American Astronautical Society, American Geophysical Union, AIAA and National Space Society. With expectation for a Continuing Resolution, preparation on Oct 5 leads to meetings Oct 6 in Washington DC congressional offices to lobby for NASA appropriations. US$25B for NASA is a high-return investment, generating 300,000+ jobs, ~US$75B in economic impact and ~US$9B in taxes, while costing only ~0.4% of USA total budget. Incredible space telescopes and crafts like Perseverance, Juno, Cassini and Voyager advance understanding of our Solar System, interstellar space, galaxies and more. Satellites enable GPS and assist disaster response and farmers. 2,000+ NASA science spinoffs include memory foam, water purification technology and LEDs. NASA-backed Blue Origin project provides cleaner solar-cell manufacturing, with hopes to do it on Moon to cut landing costs ~60%. ISS 25-year multinational hub fosters microgravity research for medical advances and enables a path toward Moon exploration. Buzz Aldrin praises the inspiration of NASA spaceflight. If the DoD and NASA each received US$0.5T, the exponential gains could take humans half-way through Solar System if not the Galaxy. (Image Credits: NASA)

HUMANS IN SPACE

⭐ International Space Station, ~415-km LEO: Expedition 73 seven-member crew is set to continue through December 2025 under command of Sergey Ryzhikov (Roscosmos); crew is focusing on science research, maintenance, tech demos including eye exams, upgrading computer networking gear and unpacking ~5,000 kg of cargo from Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo mission (CRS-23).

⭐ Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: Shenzhou 20 three-member crew performing exercises related to bodily conditioning for return to Earth (planned at end of Oct), working with experiments involving artificial brain models, high-temperature superconducting materials, and live outreach sessions with students; checking results of recent space debris installations after 6-hour EVA last week.

🌔 Lunar News: Weekly lunar advisories [coming soon]

☄ Near-Earth Objects Close Approaches – Tues Sep 30: Apollo Asteroid 2025 SA3 (0.017 AU); Wed Oct 1: Apollo Asteroid 2025 QL23 (0.018 AU); Sun Oct 5: Apollo Asteroid 2018 SP1 (0.033 AU).

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