India, China Increasingly Prioritize NewSpace / Commerce to Reach National Space Goals

While state-run space agencies ISRO and CNSA continue to lead their respective national space programs, signals from India and China abound suggesting a greater role for private space enterprise. As part of a broad stimulus program aimed at increasing economic resiliency in India, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, Nirmala Sitharaman, announced that ISRO facilities and technologies are to be opened to commercial interests, characterizing the private sector as a “co-traveler” on a national space journey. Relatedly, Indian Patent Office grants 20-year patent on lunar regolith simulant developed by researchers at ISRO Rao Satellite Centre, Periyar University and India National Institute of Technology, also indicative of a wider shift in space strategy – perhaps influenced by NASA’s increasing reliance on commercial outsourcing of spacecraft construction and support services, often at lower cost. In China, Newspace rocket company Galactic Energy (aka Beijing Xinghe Dongli Space Technology Co. Ltd.) hopes to capitalize on the need for inexpensive, customized launch solutions – named for the first asteroids discovered, Ceres-1 first mission is expected to launch from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in June, with reusable Pallas-1 to follow in late 2022. (Image Credits: Galactic Energy, XINHUA, NASA, Ministry of State for Commerce & Industry)

MONDAY

NLT Jun — KARI, Naro Space Center, South Jeolla, South Korea: Korea Aerospace Research Institute scheduled timeline to test launch indigenous third-stage rocket.

AAS 236 Hosts First Fully Virtual Meeting Including Exhibit, Plenary, Prize, Special and iPoster Sessions

American Astronomical Society is set to hold its 236th Meeting June 1-3, originally to be held in person at Madison WI, and now fully online to advance science while maintaining physical distance. Each day will run for ~10 hours and allow for online interactions during live oral and iPoster sessions, Q&A chats, exhibitor webinars and social lounges. There are about 700 participants listed. Major topics for consideration this year are black holes, exoplanets, galaxies, observatories / telescopes, dark matter, stars and interstellar medium. AAS President Megan Donahue will give welcome comments on Day 1, followed by Lisa Kaltenegger of Cornell University talking on ‘Searching for Habitable Worlds: Challenges, Opportunities & Adventures’. The Astronomy from the Moon Special Session, which could be a continuing series of events, will feature Jack Burns (Univ. of Colorado, Boulder), Linjie Chen (NAOC, CAS), Steve Durst (ILOA, Hawai’i) and possibly others. Day 2 will feature James Webb Telescope, Sofia, Hubble, a talk on mega-satellite constellations, and ‘Atacama Cosmology Telescope and the Simons Observatory: The Millimeter-Wave Sky from Chile’ by Jo Dunkley from Princeton Univ. On Day 3 Keck Observatory will host a Webinar title ‘A Public Goldmine of 26 Years of Observations’. There will also be Laboratory Astrophysics Division Meetings and a Solar Physics Division Prize Lecture. Two ‘Meetings-in-a-Meeting’ Sessions spanning all 3 days are Supermassive Black Hole Studies with the LSST, and The Interstellar Medium of Galaxies in the Era of Big Data. (Pictured: Plenary Speakers; Image Credits: AAS, Event Horizon Telescope, NASA)

Jun 1 — AIAA, Online: Free Webinar with NASA Associate Administrator Steve Jurczyk; discussing SpaceX launch of Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission, 13:00 EDT.

Jun 1 — Cornell University, Online / Ithaca NY: Online Lecture: Characteristics of Localized Lunar Pyroclastic Deposits; by Olaf Gustafson of Cornell, 12:15 EDT.

Jun 1 — Singapore Space and Technology Association, Online / Singapore: Registration Opens: Global Space & Technology Convention (GSTC 2021); to be held Feb 22-24, 2021.

Jun 1-2 — Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG), NASA, Online / Laurel MD:  SBAG Virtual Meeting.

Jun 1-3 — American Astronomical Society, Online / Madison WI: 236th Meeting of the AAS; virtual meeting.

Jun 1 — Moon: 6.8° NNE of Spica, 22:00.

Jun 1 — Mars and Saturn: at heliocentric conjunction, 08:00.

Continued From…

Jan 2019 – Sep 2020 — New Horizons, Kuiper Belt: Full data collected from 7 instruments during KBO Arrokoth flyby to be transmitted to Earth over this time period.

Nov 2019 – Nov 2020 — Hayabusa2, Earth Trajectory: JAXA Hayabusa2 with two samples collected from C-type asteroid 162173 Ryugu on trajectory for Earth return.

Mar 16 – Sep 16 — SpaceX, Boca Chica Beach TX: SpaceX to attempt Starship prototype flight potentially to 20-km altitude during this timeframe.

May 9 – Jul 11 — AIAA Los Angeles – Las Vegas Section, Online: Virtual Aerospace Art Gallery Exhibition.