UK Resumes In-Person Events, National / Commercial Space Efforts Intensify

British Interplanetary Society (BIS) to host Reinventing Space, the organization’s annual marquee event, June 28-30. The venerable society is one of the first in the world to advocate for astronautical progress and space exploration, and has been instrumental as creative conduit for visionary engineering approaches towards those ends. The 3-day conference is to feature a welcoming address by BIS CEO Elizabeth Anderson (T) and keynote addresses by Dave Edmondson (UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) Jake Geer (UK Space Agency) Katherine Courtney (Global Network on Sustainability in Space), Sara Mugnaini (OneWeb) and Jan Wörner (former ESA Director). Gala Dinner and Sir Arthur Clarke Awards will be held on evening of June 29. Panel Discussions are to be held on Space Law, BIS & Women in Aerospace: Europe Panel Women in the Space Sector, NextGen Network for young space professionals & students, Laser Communications / Synthetic-aperture radar, and the UK Spaceports Alliance – a consortium of 5 UK spaceport projects, 3 vertical / 2 horizontal. Their fate is expected to be decided by the end of 2021, a major task for incoming UK Space Agency CEO Paul Bate. The UK intends to grow its share of the world space market from 5% to 10% by 2030. Significant space businesses based in UK include Reaction Engines, Skyrora, Oneweb and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (Image Credits: BIS, Geograph Britain and Ireland, WIA:E, Sir Arthur Clarke Foundation)

MONDAY

Asteroid Day 2021 to Be Celebrated June 30 on Eve of July SpaceMonth

The UN-sanctioned global awareness campaign ‘Asteroid Day’ will be observed June 30. Events will be held worldwide including a 24-hour broadcast live from Luxembourg, highlighting public education, engagement and inspiration for the 4.6B year old objects classified as inner Solar System minor planets. Marking the 1908 Siberian Tunguska event, Asteroid Day was co-founded by Stephen Hawking, Grigorij Richters, Danica Remy, Rusty Schweickart, Brian May and its declaration is now signed by >50,000 people. Among numerous entities working to locate and track NEOs for potential hazards are IAU Minor Planet Center, NASA Planetary Defense Coordination Office, ESA Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre, International Asteroid Warning Network and Space Mission Planning Advisory Group. The known Potentially Hazardous Object count is up to 2,173, while a major collision with Earth is predicated to be relatively low in the foreseeable future. Exploration and science at asteroids include JAXA Hayabusa, NASA OSIRIS-Rex, ESA Rosetta, China Chang’e-2 lunar orbiter, and future Lucy, Psyche, NEA Scout and DART missions. Legal frameworks for resource extraction have been developed most notably by USA, Luxembourg, Japan, Portugal and UAE; and commercial venture TransAstra Corporation is currently working toward mining asteroids for propellant. To date there are >1M known asteroids and 26,114 NEOs. The largest is 940-km diameter Ceres, and the total mass of all asteroids combined is still less than that of the Moon. (Image Credits: Asteroid Day 2021 Partners, NASA, Arizona State University)

Jun 28 — National Science Foundation

Jun 28-29 — Discoverer Programme, European Union Horizon 2020 Programme, Online: Virtual: 1st International Symposium on Very Low Earth Orbit Missions and Technologies; featuring 30 experts from 11 different countries.

Jun 28-30 — British Interplanetary Society, London, United Kingdom: Reinventing Space Conference 2021; at Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster.

Jun 28 – Jul 2 — European Astronomical Society (EAS), Online / Lyon, France: Virtual: European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting.

Jun 28 – Aug 27 — International Space University (ISU), Granada, Spain: ISU Space Studies Program 2021.

Jun 28 — Moon: 4.2° SE of Jupiter, 12:00.

Jun 28 — Aten Asteroid 2021 LD6: Near-Earth Flyby (0.027 AU)

Continued From…

May 24 – Aug 6 — Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, NASA, Pasadena CA and Online: JPL Planetary Science Mission Design School Session 1.

Jun 14 – Jul 1 — Keck Institute for Space Science, Caltech, Online / Pasadena CA: Workshop: Venus In-Situ Sample Capture Mission.

Jun 26-30 — Space Renaissance International, Online / Fino Mornasco, Italy: 2021 Space Renaissance Congress: Civilian Space Development.

Jun 15-30 — AIAA, National Association of Rocketry, The Plains VA: The American Rocketry Challenge; high school students compete in the nation’s largest student rocket competition.

TUESDAY

Jun 29 — ISS, Release of Cygnus NG-15, ~405-km LEO: Commercial resupply cargo freighter Cygnus NG-15 dubbed “SS Katherine Johnson” to be released today with waste for disintegration in Earth atmosphere; undocking live coverage available 12:25 PDT..