Artemis 1 Mega Moon Ship Set to Launch on Monday, Artemis 2 NET 2024, Artemis 3 Human Landings NET 2025

NASA flagship Artemis 1 is opening a new era of Moon exploration, the most powerful launch since Saturn V in 1973. Slated to lift off NET August 29 at 08:33 EDT, launch teams are working on final preparations and checks of the 39,100-kN SLS rocket, stacked with Orion crew capsule, with countdown beginning Aug 27 09:53 EDT (L-46 hours, 40 minutes). Crewed Artemis 2 is scheduled NET May 2024, and will include an astronaut from first Gateway / Artemis Accords partner nation Canada CSA-ASC. Despite the 2-year gap between major missions, the Moon will be a flurry of commercial and space agency robotic lander / rover missions are planned in the interim including ispace Hakuto-R, CLPS missions from Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines and Firefly, JAXA SLIM, ISRO Chandrayaan-3 and Roscosmos Luna-25. The first planned human landing on the surface of the Moon since Apollo 17 (1972), Artemis 3, is to occur NET 2025. Europe ESA and Japan JAXA astronauts may be included in Artemis 3 or a future service mission (Artemis 4-11 are in planning stages), but formal inclusion has yet to be solidified. Artemis-3 crew are to land within 1 of 13 areas of interest identified near Moon South Pole, including Malapert Mountain, which fit mission priorities: proximity to PSRs, line of sight to Earth, illumination, and landing slope. (Image Credits: NASA)

MONDAY

☆ Aug 29 — ISS, ~415-km LEO: Expedition 67 seven-member crew to observe / participate in SLS launch activities, working with Infrared / optical AstroPi experiment, seed cartridge XROOTS study, testing medical equipment, air quality, nutrition measurement device.

☆ Aug 29 — Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: Shenzhou 14 three-member crew training for first EVA, using energy particle detector on Wentian module to monitor environment radiation levels; station now capable of producing 90% of its water through recycling.

o = International terrestrial events in local time.

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

NASA, ESA, CNSA Readying Jupiter, Deep Space Explorers to Launch 2020s

Science is ongoing with NASA Juno in Jupiter orbit, and observations from NuSTAR, James Webb, Hubble, Hisaki, Gemini Observatory, NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, European Space Observatory, and other telescopes. Juno is heading into its 45th Perijove September 29, and will perform a 320-km flyby of Europa. Lucy satellite in transit to Jupiter Trojans will encounter first Earth gravity assist October 16, and a second December 13. ESA US$1.1 billion / €870 million JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) is now scheduled to launch April 5-25, 2023 on Ariane 5, putting it on track for Jupiter arrival July 2031. The >3.5-year JUICE mission will study Jupiter atmosphere and magnetosphere, Galileo moons, flyby Europa in 2032, and insert itself into Ganymede orbit in 2034. NASA $2 billion Europa Clipper is set for a 21-day launch window starting October 10, 2024 via SpaceX Falcon Heavy for a >3.5-year mission. It would enter elliptical orbit around Jupiter performing 44 close flybys (25 to 2,700 km) of Europa beginning April 2030, collecting data on the subsurface ocean. China / CNSA is designing Gan De spacecraft with 4 payloads for October 2029 launch, Jupiter arrival 2035. The orbiter may fly by various satellites (of which Jupiter has 80) and orbit Callisto, or orbit moon Io. Gan De may also include an additional probe to fly by Uranus in 2040s. (Image Credits: NASA, JPL, ESA, CNSA)

★ Aug 29 — NASA, Launch SLS / Orion / Artemis 1, LC-39B, KSC FL: First launch window opens today 08:33-10:33 EDT (backup dates through Sep 6), first test flight of NASA Space Launch System with uncrewed Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and ESA Service Module; to feature configuration for 70-metric-ton lift capacity; Orion spacecraft to perform circumlunar trajectory during 26-42 day mission; will carry 10 CubeSats.

● Aug 29 — NASA, Online / Washington DC: Coverage begins for the fueling of the Space Launch System (00:00 EDT), launch window (08:33-10:33), post launch briefing (12:00), Orion first outbound trajectory correction burn (16:00), followed by Orion first imagery of Earth following (17:30); live coverage available.

☆ Aug 29 — Moon: 5.9° NNE of Mercury, 08:00.

☆ Aug 29 — Apollo Asteroid 2022 PG2: Near-Earth Flyby (0.062 AU)

☆ Aug 29 — Apollo Asteroid 2017 BU: Near-Earth Flyby (0.040 AU)

Continued From…

★ Jun 28 – Nov 13 — CAPSTONE, Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit Trajectory: Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment heading to operating position at NRHO / cislunar space.

☆ Aug 4 – Dec 16 — Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), Lunar Trajectory: South Korea ‘Danuri’ to search for lunar resources, test technologies using Ballistic Lunar Transfer, 3 highly elliptical Earth orbits to initiate a trans-lunar injection and arrive at 100-km lunar orbit.

TUESDAY

★ Aug 30 — Van Allen Probes, LEO: Spacecraft reach 10 full years / begin 11th year in space today, launched 2012; adding to the understanding of Earth radiation belt environment and its variability.

● Aug 30 — Space Foundation, Online / Colorado Springs CO: Symposium 365 Seminar: Start Here for Space / Indian Space Research Organization; 13:00-13:30.

● Aug 30 – Sep 1 — Science Partner Journal, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Online: Advanced Power Systems for Deep Space Exploration Conference; Keynotes by Eric Ianson (NASA), Rob Manning (JPL), Dan Hendrickson (Astrobotic).

☆ Aug 30 — Moon: 3.9° NNE of Spica, 22:00.

☆ Aug 30 — Apollo Asteroid 2021 VH2: Near-Earth Flyby (0.074 AU)