Space Event / Encounter

NET Apr — European Space Agency / JAXA Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (BepiColombo) nominal mission ends this month, 5.82 Mercury years after orbit insertion; potential extended mission and plans TBD.

NASA's Lucy mission, to encounter 11 asteroids including a main belt and 7 Jupiter Trojans, planned to come within 1,000 km of 34-km diameter 11351 Leucus asteroid today.

☆ NET Jun — JAXA Hayabusa 2 mission to perform second flyby Earth today on way to rendezvous with asteroid 1998 KY26 in 2031, after returning samples from (162173) Ryugu to Earth in 2020 and flying by asteroid 98943 Torifune in 2026.

NASA Lucy mission, to encounter 11 asteroids including a main belt and 7 Jupiter Trojans, to come within 1,000 km of 51-km diameter 21900 Orus asteroid (which may be a possible binary) today.

☆ Nov 24 — 242nd Galactic Tick Day, Milky Way Galaxy: Highlighting Galaxy awareness by celebrating the Solar System traveling around Milky Way Galaxy Center every ~225 million Earth years, one Galactic Tick happens every 633.7 days; first Tick Day was one Tick after October 2nd, 1608 when the first telescope patent […]

NET 2029 — Scheduled end of European Space Agency Euclid mission which is measuring accelerated expansion of Universe, aiding in understanding of dark energy / dark matter; future plans / extensions to be determined.

NET 2029 — NASA and JPL Caltech Psyche Mission to investigate all-metal asteroid Psyche to insert itself into asteroid orbit around beginning on this year if launching 2026.

NET Jan — ESA Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) expected to perform 3rd and final flyby of Earth this month, arriving at Jupiter in 2031.

NET Feb — INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) space telescope will burn up upon Earth atmosphere reentry this month due to natural orbit decay after running out of fuel reserves / end of science mission in early 2020s; launched Oct 2002.

On this day, which happens to be a Friday, 370-meter diameter asteroid (previously known as 2004 MN4) will narrowly miss Earth by about 30,000 km, which is classified as Medium Earth Orbit (2,000 - 35,786 km).

OSIRIS-APophis EXplorer (OSIRIS-APEX) is planned rendezvous with and orbit asteroid Apophis starting today for 9 months following the asteroid’s close Earth approach which occurred April 13, 2029; craft previously known as Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) which returned samples from asteroid Bennu to Earth on Sep 24, 2023.

NET July — China Chang’E-2 spacecraft expected to come within 7M km of Earth around this date after reaching 300M km apogee; craft was launched 1 October 2010.

NET Oct — ESA Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) expected to perform flyby of Asteroid 223 Rosa this month, arriving at Jupiter in 2031.

NET 2030 — Europe hopes to have built a sustainable Moon Village by this date, while working toward Mars missions.

Europa Clipper mission to insert into Jupiter orbit on this day to study Galileo moon Europa through a series of 44 close flybys (25 to 2,700 km); launched 10 October 2024.

NET Aug — Japan Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission, now with Phobos sample, to begin its return to Earth this month, and planned to arrive at Earth by July 2029 to deliver Sample Return Capsule.

NASA mission to encounter 11 asteroids, including a main belt and 7 Jupiter Trojans, to perform Earth flyby / gravity assist today coming within 660 km after reaching Jupiter orbit and returning to the vicinity of the Earth.    

ISEE-3 (International Sun-Earth Explorer-3) craft, presumably in safe mode, is traveling around Sun & predicted to return to vicinity of Earth this year – may be able to reestablish contact; launched August 12, 1978.

☆ NET Jul — JAXA Hayabusa 2 mission to rendezvous with asteroid 1998 KY26, after returning samples from (162173) Ryugu to Earth in 2020 and flying by asteroid 98943 Torifune in 2026.

NET July — ESA Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) expected to reach Jupiter this month if launched April 2023; will perform a flyby of Ganymede 7.5-hours before Jupiter insertion; will spend at least 3.5 years studying Jupiter atmosphere and magnetosphere, moons Ganymede, Europa, Callisto and Io with 10 state-of-the-art instruments […]

NET July — Japan Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission with Mars moon Phobos' sample to arrive at Earth this month and deliver Sample Return Capsule.

Highlighting Galaxy awareness by celebrating the Solar System traveling around Milky Way Galaxy Center every ~225 million Earth years, one Galactic Tick happens every 633.7 days; first Tick Day was one Tick after October 2nd, 1608 when the first telescope patent was filed.

ESA Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) expected to perform flyby of moon Europa this month.

Mercury to pass directly between Earth and Sun; observers see distant planet as small dot gliding slowly across face of Sun; starts Nov 12 at 20:41 HST, ends 01:07 Nov 13.

NASA Lucy mission to come within 1,000 km of 113-km diameter 617 Patroclus and 104-km diameter Menoetius, p-type binary asteroids; Lucy will be in a stable, 6-year orbit between the L4 and L5 -- mission extension may be granted.

End of primary mission for NASA Lucy mission, future science and mission plan extension TBD; mission is a twelve-year journey to eight different asteroids, and craft will continue to orbit the Sun in a stable orbit between the L4 and L5 Trojan swarms around Jupiter. 

ESA Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) expected to achieve Ganymede elliptical orbit insertion this month.

China asteroid sample return mission, having returned at least 100 grams from Kamo’oalewa (2016 HO3), to rendezvous with and begin orbiting Comet 311/P PanSTARRS for 1 year.

ESA Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is planned to be deorbited and impact Ganymede at the end of 2035, having reached Jupiter in 2031.