ISS Exp 71 to Welcome 1st Crewed Starliner and Dream Chaser Demo Missions in Summer
Newly commenced ISS Expedition 71 is underway with Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko continuing command from Exp 70, and crewmates Nikolai Chub, Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, Alexander Grebenkin, and Tracy Caldwell-Dyson. The 6-month Exp 71 mission is planned to perform 6 extravehicular activities (EVAs) – the first of which will be a 7-hour Russia spacewalk #62 on April 25. Currently there are 6 craft docked at ISS: Soyuz MS-25 crew ship, SpaceX Dragon crew 8 Endeavour, SpaceX Dragon cargo SpX-30, Northrop Grumman Cygnus NG-20 space freighter S.S. Patricia “Patty” Hilliard Robertson, and the Progress 86 and 87 resupply ships. During Exp 71, more cargo will arrive via Progress 88 and 89, as well as Cygnus NG-21. The Boeing Starliner CST-100 Crew Flight Test is now set to launch May 7, carry Barry Eugene Wilmore and Sunita Williams, and remain docked for 6 days. It will be the first crewed flight of Starliner which is designed to carry 4 crew and 100 kg of cargo to ISS, with a 210-day docked design life and reusability up to 10 times. First launch of Dream Chaser Tenacity (Sierra Nevada Corp. Demo-1 mission), under the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation System program, is slated for June. The system features the Shooting Star expendable cargo module (capacity 4,536 kg, unpressurized) and the Dream Chaser reusable cargo craft (return capacity 1,750 kg, pressurized). (Image Credits: ISS Partners, Sierra Nevada Corporation, Boeing, SNC)
MONDAY
☆ Apr 15 — International Space Station,~415-km LEO: Expedition 71 seven-member crew participating in multiple education outreach events this week, including a conference with Laurel O’Hara; preparing Orlan spacesuits for EVA in <2 weeks.
☆ Apr 15 — Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: Shenzhou 17 three-member crew ready for arrival of Shenzhou-18 three additional crew in 10 days, missions will overlap for ~4 days.
Highlights…
o NewSpace: iSpace (China) nears launch of medium-lift Hyperbola-3 with second hot-fire testing of methane / LOX engine JD-2; Sierra Space launches Eclipse line of satellites for LEO to cis-lunar application; Former USSF general John Shaw joins Stoke Space board of directors.
☆ SolarSystem: Higher than expected dust counter readings on NASA New Horizons spacecraft indicate possibility of second, previously undiscovered Kuiper Belt; ISRO to launch ESA Proba-3 to study Sun with 2 satellite, 144-m solar coronagraph via PSLV NET September; PM Fumio Kishida announces 2 flight opportunities to lunar surface for JAXA astronauts via Artemis program.
☆ Galaxy: Warsaw Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile observes variable star with 78.14-day pulsation period, longest of any MWG classical Cepheid; CfA simulation of activity within 1/3 ly of Sgr A* suggests collisions are responsible for lack of expected red giants in proximity.
o Global: China and Thailand to cooperate on peaceful space and lunar exploration including Chang’E and ILRS per newly signed MoUs; Angara-A5 launch from Vostochny Cosmodrome advances Russia plan for ROSS space station NET 2027; India to conduct continuous Moon exploration including Chandrayaan-4 ahead of 2040 crewed landing goal.
●USA: NASA will appoint director to implement Space Sustainability Strategy to preserve future space access amid crowding; Vast commercial space station Haven-1 slated for NET 2025 launch to LEO will utilize Starlink for communications.
● Hawai’i: PISCES conducting 2-year STTR study with Astrobotic on basalt lunar pads, working to procure ground penetrating radar for educational and commercial use; Air Force Research Laboratory 28-cm Aloha Telescope marks decade of student observation at AMOS on Haleakalā, Maui; Decommissioning of Hoku Kea Observatory on Maunakea beginning this week expected to be completed in August.
● = Terrestrial and… o = International terrestrial events
☾ = Moon activity
★ = Space and… ☆ = International space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time’).
Vienna, Home of Moon Village Association, Hosting EGU 2024 and 63rd UN COPUOS Legal Subcommittee Session
European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2024 is set for April 14-19 at the Austria Center Vienna, where hundreds of geology and planetary science research papers will be presented. 95 organizations – technology companies, academic institutions, publishers and non-profits are scheduled to participate in the exhibit hall, including Aerodyne Research, Asia Oceania Geosciences Society, Cambridge University Press, ESA, Leibniz Supercomputing Centre, and The European Space Weather and Space Climate Association. United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space will hold its 63rd Legal Subcommittee (LSC) session April 16-26 at Vienna International Center, with Egyptian Space Agency CEO and 2024 COPUOS Chair Sherif Mohamed Sedky presiding. LSC Plenary Sessions will be held twice daily throughout the 10-day session. The International Conference on Space Resources will be held in conjunction with COPUOS LSC on April 15, featuring panelists from China, Italy, USA, Mexico, Ecuador, Greece, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Brazil, Luxembourg and Japan. Side events include Space Sustainability Open Forum: Active Debris Removal (UN Office for Outer Space Affairs) and Outer Space in the Zero Draft of the Pact of the Future: Perspectives and Next Steps (DLR). Also on April 16, Moon Village Association is holding talks reflecting on the treatise The Path of Man between Science and Technology, highlighting pro- and anti-technological social tensions in the age of AI and lunar exploration, in Turin, Italy at the Giorgio Amendola Foundation. (Image Credits: MVA, UN COPUOS, AGU, Research Gate)
● Apr 15-22 —The Space Consortium, Massachusetts Space Grant, Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, Massachusetts (statewide):Massachusetts Space Week 2024; events including space film festival, space career fair, and expanded hours of Draper Museum featuring Space Exploration and 50 Years of Innovation exhibit.
☾ Apr 15 — Moon: 1.49° S of Pollux, 05:00; at first quarter, 09:13.
☆ Apr 15 — Apollo Asteroid 439437 (2013 NK4): Near-Earth Flyby (0.021 AU)
★ Apr 18 — Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), Highly Elliptical HEO: Space telescope for NASA Explorers program, designed to search for exoplanets using the transit method in an area 400 times larger than that covered by Kepler / K2 mission, reaches 6th full year / enters 7th year in space today; launched April 18, 2018.
o Apr 21 — JAXA, Tanegashima Island, Japan: Tanegashima Space Center Special Open House 2024; event commemorating inaugural launch of H3 rocket, also to feature SLIM team presentation, 10:00-16:00 JST.
☆ Apr 21 — Lyrid Meteor Shower Peak: Lyrids derived from Comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher with period 415 years, are medium-swift (49 km/sec), often bright with persistent trains and can offer 15-20 per hour; 14:00.
☆ Apr 21 — Apollo Asteroid 2024 GM: Near-Earth Flyby (0.047 AU)
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