October 19-25, 2020 / Vol 39, No 42 / Hawai`i Island, USA

First Women on the Moon: TransPartisan Support to Fulfill Artemis + Beyond Vision Future USA Administration will shape 2020s decade, direction, path forward – with hope for significant, Ad Astra commitment to landing the first Women, and possibly the first Black American, on the Moon 2024-26. Current Artemis Program encompassing national, international, commercial, scientific and academic endeavors is employing and inspiring thousands, advancing green technologies for use on Earth and in Space, catalyzing international cooperation and competition, and necessitating dialogue for our future as a Multi World Civilization. Space Policy Directive-1 and its vow to return sustainably to the Moon should remain a fully-funded priority for NASA under the next Administration and Beyond. The first step toward realizing a future where peoples of varied genders, geographies and generations live off-planet may begin with the first Women on the Moon – which would expand the sphere of influence, activity and domain of women by nearly 1 Billion times. Strong advocacy to maintain USA major spacefaring capabilities from Democratic leaders would help fulfill Apollo 11 legacy started by JFK, and the pledge ‘in peace for all’. Reclaiming the greatest interglobal advance of the 20th Century with a ‘sense of urgency’ needs to be adopted now by all parties to set the tone and desired standard throughout the 21st Century. (Image Credits: NASA, Joel Kowsky, JAXA)

MONDAY Highlights… Oct 19 — ISS, ~405-km LEO: Expedition 63 crew with newly arrived Kate Rubins, Sergey Ryzhikov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov preparing for change of Command Ceremony and start of Exp 64 with departure of Chris Cassidy, Anatoly Ivanishin, Ivan Vagner this week. Oct 19 — NewSpace: Blue Origin 13th flight of New Shepard providing data for NASA SPLICE sensors to safely land future craft on Moon; Axiom Space, co-founded by Mike Suffredini and Kam Ghaffarian, preparing private Astronaut mission Oct 2021; SSTL of Singapore holding S$10,000 (US$7.3K) student competition to design lunar ISRU rover. Oct 19 — Solar System: Juno proposed mission extension to Sep 2025 would study Jupiter moons more closely; Cassini data helps confirm Titan drift rate at 10.16 cm and details global infrared map of Enceladus; Zhongguo Chang’e-4 and Yutu-2 awaken for 23rd lunar day. Oct 19 — Galaxy: Sagittarius dwarf galaxy mapping could aid in revealing dark matter halo around MWG; scientists use gravitational-wave signals to measure mass of densest star systems; exoplanet Wasp-121b being studied since discovery in 2015 may have 7 gaseous metals in atmosphere. Oct 19 — Global: During IAC 2020, seven Nations sign Artemis Accords with USA, missing strategic partners China, India, Russia; C6 Launch Systems of Canada to begin construction at Spaceport America Jan 2021; ESA rover for off-planet exploration to be tested on Moon-like volcanic slopes of Mount Etna next year. Oct 19 — USA: Northrop Grumman producing motors for Orion capsule for Artemis 3-8; NASA selects 14 companies for Tipping Point Awards (US$$370 total); Alan Stern to fly aboard VG SpaceShipTwo via NASA suborbital experiment program. Oct 19 — Hawai’i: Largest 3D catalog (~3 Billion objects, 300 GB) created by IfA astronomers now available; HI Island Mayor candidates express opposing views on Proposed Big Telescope project’; PISCES planning to modify its administration and board.

= All times

for terrestrial events in local time unless noted.

= All times for international terrestrial events in local time unless noted.

= All times for space events, and…

= All times for international space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time’).

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Weekly Planet Watch – Evening Planets: Mars (SE), Jupiter (SSW), Saturn (SSW), Uranus (E), Neptune (S); Morning Planets: Venus (E).

NewSpace Leaders Make Significant Strides Towards Commercialization of Space Rocket Lab continues to bring reliability and frequency to the small-sat launch market with electric fuel pump enabled Rutherford engines powering the Electron workhorse. Cannon and Planet are sending Earth observation craft aboard mission aptly named ‘In Focus’ launching October 21. Blue Origin New Shepard launch vehicle nears flight readiness as well, having reached ~106 km on its most recent flight, NS-13, taking 12 payloads to space including Deorbit, Descent, and Landing Sensor Demonstration, part of NASA Tipping Point Safe and Precise Landing – Integrated Capabilities Evolution (SPLICE). Blue Origin Bob Smith says recent test “simulate landing on the Moon is an exciting precursor to what the Artemis program will bring to America”, a sentiment shared by lunar and space enthusiasts across the nation. Commonplace civilian space tourism will be reality in 2021, says Virgin Group founder Richard Branson: based on SpaceShipOne, the Ansari X Prize winner developed by Scaled Composites which saw the first 2 private human spaceflights within a 2-week period. Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo is planning midair release of SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity at 13,716-m altitude NET Oct 22. The first of two suborbital (~94 km) test flights will hold two test pilots, with 4 planned for the second – SpaceShipTwo has an 8-person capacity for two crew + 6 passengers. (Image Credits: Virgin Galactic, Rocket Lab, Blue Origin)

Oct 19 — Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), HEO: NASA spacecraft mapping boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space reaches 12 full years / enters 13th year in Space today, launched on this day 2008. Oct 19 — Keck Institute for Space Studies, Online / Pasadena CA: Farside Array for Radio Science Investigations of the Dark ages and Exoplanets: A Probe-Class Mission to Place a Radio Telescope on the Lunar Farside; by Professor Gregg Hallinan from Caltech, 17:00 PDT. Oct 19 — SETI Institute, Online / Mountain View CA: SETI Talks – Radio Astronomy: The End of Big Dishes? with Cherry Ng from Dunlap Institute of Astronomy & Astrophysics in Canada, and Astrophysicist Evan Keane, 10:00 PDT. Oct 19-21 — NASA Astrophysics Advisory Committee, Online / Washington DC: Astrophysics Advisory Committee Meeting; 11:00-17:00 EDT daily. Oct 19-23 — Lunar and Planetary Institute, USRA, Online: International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space 2020. Oct 19-29 — SpaceCom, NASA, Department of Commerce Office of Space Commerce, Department of Energy Office of Technology Transitions, et al, Online: Global Commercial Space Conference and Exposition (SpaceCom 2020). Oct 19 — Moon: 5.6° NNE of Antares, 13:00. Oct 19 — Apollo Asteroid 2020 TJ2: Near Earth Flyby (0.013 AU) Continued From… Nov 2019 – Nov 2020 — Hayabusa2, Earth Trajectory: JAXA Hayabusa2 with two samples collected from C-type asteroid 162173 Ryugu on trajectory for Earth return. Jul 29 – Oct 31 — CNSA, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Online / Beijing, China: Students to submit ideas for payloads for Chang’e-7 lunar south pole craft, and ZhengHe mission that will return samples from Asteroid 2016HO3 and visit Comet 133P.

Oct 17-19 — China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), Zhejiang Provincial People’s Government, Wenzhou, China and Online: World Young Scientist Summit.

TUESDAY

Oct 20 — OSIRIS-REx, Asteroid 101955 Bennu (1999 RQ36): Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft scheduled to touchdown on asteroid to collect sample potentially up to 60 grams.

Oct 20 — BepiColombo, Mercury Trajectory: European Space Agency / JAXA Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (dubbed Mio ‘waterway or fairway’) reach 2 full years / enter 3rd year in space today, launched 2018; expected to reach Mercury polar orbit 2025 to map planet, investigate magnetosphere.

Oct 20 — Rocket Lab, Launch Electron / “In Focus”, LC1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand: Electron to launch its 15th flight with CE-SAT-2B Earth-imaging microsatellite for Canon Electronics and 9 SuperDove Earth-imaging nanosatellites for Planet.

Oct 20 — Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG), Online / Washington DC: MEPAG Meeting; 13:00-16:00 EDT.

Oct 20-23 — South African Astronomical Observatory, National Research Foundation, Online / Cape Town, South Africa: Virtual Symposium: Beyond 200 Years of Astronomy – On the Bicentenary of the Establishment of the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope.

Oct 20 — Orionids Meteor Shower Peak: The 2nd of 2 showers from Halley’s Comet dust, Orionids appear to radiate from Constellation Orion, are swift (68 km/sec), can be bright & leave persistent trains; between 20-70 meteors per hour.

Oct 20 — Apollo Asteroid 2017 UH5: Near Earth Flyby (0.023 AU)

Oct 20 — Apollo Asteroid 2020 SG3: Near Earth Flyby (0.050 AU)

WEDNESDAY

Oct 21 — ISS, Soyuz MS-16 Return to Earth, ~405-km Altitude: Marks start of Expedition 64, ISS Expedition 63 crew members Chris Cassidy, Ivan Vagner and Anatoli Ivanishin set to return to Earth in Soyuz MS-16, departing 19:32 EDT, live coverage available; landing near Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan at 22:57.

Oct 21 — SpaceX, Launch Falcon 9 / Starlink V1.0-L14, SLC-40, Cape Canaveral AFS FL: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to launch 15th batch of ~60 satellites for Starlink broadband network, a mission designated Starlink V1.0-L14.

Oct 21 — AIAA, ASCEND, Online: ASCENDxSummit: Space Policy and Education; ULA CEO Tory Bruno to moderate, 10:00-14:00 EDT.

Oct 21 — Secure World Foundation, Online / Washington DC: Webinar: Exploring Insights from Emerging Space Agencies; with Victoria Samson, and Renata Knittel Kommel, Ashley Peter, Luc Riesbeck from GWU Space Policy Institute; 15:00 EDT.

Oct 21 — Aten Asteroid 2018 VG: Near Earth Flyby (0.039 AU)

THURSDAY

NET Oct 22 — Virgin Galactic, Launch SpaceShipTwo, Spaceport America, Las Cruces NM: Launch window opens for SpaceShip Two ‘VSS Unity’ with 2 test pilots to perform 1st of 2 suborbital test flights.

Oct 22 — LPI Artemis III Science Definition Team, NASA, Online: Community Town Hall Meeting; 12:00-14:00 EDT.

Oct 22 — The Space Court Foundation, Online / Sharon PA: Artemis Accords – Volume 2: The Future of Space Governance; with Mike Gold, Cassandra Steer, Andre Rypl, Guoyu Wang, Daniel Porras; 13:00 EDT.

Oct 22 — ISS National Lab, Center for the Advancement for Science in Space, NASA, Online: 2020 International Space Station (ISS) R&D Conference – Plenary Day 3; panel discussions on Communications Hardware of the Future, Using Space to Address Disease and 20 Years of ISS; 09:45-15:00 EDT.

Oct 22 — Cornell University, Online / Ithaca NY: Online Lecture: Gaia – Adding Dimensionality to the Universe; by Gerry Gilmore from University of Cambridge.

Oct 22 — Space Store Live, Online: Webinar: How Space Technologies Contribute to Improving Life on Earth; with Krystal Azelton from Secure World Foundation; 17:30 BST.

Oct 22-23 — AIAA, Online: NEXT GEN Technical Symposium 2020; bringing together innovators, researchers and engineers.

Oct 22 — Moon: 2.03° SE of Jupiter, 08:00; with Jupiter and Saturn within circle of diameter 5.92°, 16:00; 2.61° SE of Saturn, 19:00.

Oct 22 — Apollo Asteroid 2020 TX1: Near Earth Flyby (0.041 AU)

Oct 22 — Apollo Asteroid 2020 TG1: Near Earth Flyby (0.047 AU)

FRIDAY

Oct 23 — ULA, Launch Delta 4-Heavy / NROL-44, SLC-37B, Cape Canaveral SFS FL: ULA to launch classified satellite cargo for U.S. National Reconnaissance Office.

Oct 23 — Leo Minorid Shower Peak: Appearing to radiate from constellation Leo Minor, shower is associated with comet C/1739 K1, producing 2 meteors per hour.

Oct 23 — Moon: At last quarter, 03:23.

Oct 23 — Aten Asteroid 2020 TK4: Near Earth Flyby (0.022 AU)

SATURDAY

Oct 24 — Mars Odyssey, Mars Orbit: NASA spacecraft reaches 19 full years / begins 20th year in orbit around Mars today, holds record for longest-surviving continually active spacecraft in orbit around a planet other than Earth; launched 2001.

Oct 24 — Ad Astra Kansas Foundation, Space Age Publishing Company, ILOA, Hutchinson KS and Online: Galaxy Forum Kansas 2020 Hutchinson; at the Cosmosphere.

Oct 24 — SETI Institute, Online / Mountain View CA: Lecture: N~1: Alone in the Milky Way; by SETI scientist Pascal Lee, 19:30 PDT.

Oct 24 — Aten Asteroid 2017 TK6: Near Earth Flyby (0.044 AU)

SUNDAY

Oct 25 — Roscosmos State Corporation, Launch Soyuz / Glonass K, Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia: Soyuz rocket to launch Glonass K navigation satellite.

Oct 25 — Standard Time (Europe): Change clocks back 1 hour, from Summer Time to Standard Time.

Oct 25 — Apollo Asteroid 2008 GM2: Near Earth Flyby (0.045 AU)