NASA to Attempt Artemis 1 Launch, Develop Integrated Program Office While VP Harris Chairs Next NSC Meeting
Two-hour launch window opens September 3 @14:17 EDT for NASA re-attempt of Artemis 1 flight to the Moon, remaining open through Sep 5. At least 400,000 are expected to join in-person at KSC, along roadways and nearby. Goonhilly Earth Station in Cornwall UK will track the mission with deep space antenna Merlin, and help track, command & download data with ESA Estrack station for 6 of the 10 piggybacking CubeSats: ArgoMoon, BioSentinel, CuSP, Lunar HMAP, Lunar IceCube & NEA Scout. NASA is looking to appoint a Director of the Artemis program office who would report to Jim Free and work to more fully integrate and advance the overarching plan and schedule. USA VP Kamala Harris is set to chair next meeting of National Space Council (NSC) on Sep 9, hopefully standing up urgent and strong support for Artemis lunar return. Rising from the resurgence of NSC and Space Policy Directive 1, Artemis could adopt the goal to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon via Artemis 3 no later than July 4, 2026 — Quarter Millennial / 250th observation of USA Declaration of Independence. Under US$2.89B contract for a Human Landing System, SpaceX Super Heavy equipped with 33 Raptor engines continues ground tests at Boca Chia TX for the orbital flight test, and expects uncrewed lunar demo flight in 2023. (Image Credits: NASA, USA Gov)
MONDAY
☆ Sep 5 — ISS,~415-km LEO: Expedition 67 seven-member crew working with protein crystal growth in quartz chamber, scrubbing EMU water loops for testing; ham radio experiment likely to be repeated on Lunar Gateway, Moon and Mars.
☆ Sep 5 — Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: Shenzhou 14 three-member crew growing rice and vegetables to be harvested for Earth return in December; continuing TSS integration and cargo transfers.
Highlights…
o NewSpace: Axiom Space secures 2nd private mission Ax-2 to ISS Q2 2023; Sierra Space and Blue Origin enter design phase of Orbital Reef commercial station after passing NASA review; Testing on 100-km flight, Astrobotic Terrain Relative Navigation sensor advancing under US$10M NASA tipping point award.
☆ Solar System: JPL to construct 3×1.5m main body of Europa Clipper launching NET Oct 2024; KARI requesting US$459M for 1,800-kg lunar lander, 15-kg rover for 2031; MOXIE on Mars producing 6 grams of oxygen per hour, proving future applications towards life support or fuel.
☆ Galaxy: Gaia working toward Data Release 4, while team seeks mission extension through 2025; At 157 AU, Voyager 1 telemetry being precisely monitored after engineers solve corrupted data issue; 64,000-square LY area of MWG Center observed by VLT producing data on young star mass, formation, evolution.
o Global: China & USA plan possible missions (Chang’e-7 / Artemis 3) to land in same MSP areas – Shackleton, Haworth & Nobile craters; Antrix now free from US$562M International Chamber of Commerce arbitration award to Devas Multimedia; Working with ArianeGroup, Senegal confirms it is on track for 1st nanosatellite launch 2023.
●USA: NASA CCtCap contracts SpaceX for crew 10-14 missions to ISS; Boeing crewed flight slips to NET February 2023 with Fincke, Williams, Wilmore; Artemis 1 success is critically dependent on Orion return / heat shield performance.
India – Bengaluru Space Expo 2022 Presents 3 Day Conference with 15 Countries, 100+ International Space, Tech Companies and Organizations
At 75 years of independence, India is interested in Space, the Moon in particular. Nurturing the New Space in India is theme for upcoming 7th edition of BSX: Bengaluru Space Expo 2022 International Conference and Exhibition scheduled on September 5-7 represented by 4 India space entities at opening session – Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), The India Space Research Organization (ISRO), Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) and NewSpace India Limited (NSIL). Chair of ISRO, S. Somanath will join the Conference which acknowledges Australia as a Country Partner, UK as Focus Country, the Netherlands as Guest Country. BSX will bring over 100 companies / organizations from 15 countries presenting innovation and technology exhibits for the space sector, and have delegations from 7 nations: USA, France, Italy, Sweden, Russia, Malaysia, Lithuania. Conference also includes Investor Start-up Meet, Country Sessions and a session titled ‘Earth Observation Applications – Emerging trend, opportunities and enabling technologies’. India, only 22 years as an independent country, formed ISRO August 15, 1969, a mere 26 days after humans landed on the Moon. India missions launching in 2023: Gaganyaan human-rated capsule, 2 uncrewed test flights, launching mid-2023 and Q4 2023; Aditya-L1, first mission to study the Sun, 1st Quarter 2023; and Chandrayaan-3, third lunar Mission, 1st Quarter 2023. (Image Credits: ISRO, BSX, Australia Gov, ASA, UK Gov, NL Gov, NASA)
★ Sep 5 — Voyager 1, Interstellar Space: NASA spacecraft begins 46th year in space today, launched Sep 5, 1977; farthest spacecraft from Earth, first to reach interstellar space.
o Sep 5 — Airways, Asteria Engineering Consultancy, Dawn Aerospace, et al,Canterbury, New Zealand:New Zealand Aerospace Summit; 08:30-17:00.
☆ Sep 5 — Apollo Asteroid 2022 QU5: Near-Earth Flyby (0.049 AU)
Continued From…
★ Jun 28 – Nov 13 — CAPSTONE, Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit Trajectory: Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment heading to operating position at NRHO / cislunar space.
☆ Aug 4 – Dec 16 — Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), Lunar Trajectory: South Korea ‘Danuri’ to search for lunar resources, test technologies using Ballistic Lunar Transfer, 3 highly elliptical Earth orbits to initiate a trans-lunar injection and arrive at 100-km lunar orbit.
★ NET Sep 1 — Blue Origin, Launch New Shepard 23 / Multi-payloads, Launch Site One, West TX: Next suborbital flight of New Shepard carrying 36 payloads from academia, research institutions, and students, including thousands of postcards for Club for the Future participants.
★ NET Sep 3-5 — NASA, Launch SLS / Orion / Artemis 1, LC-39B, KSC FL: First test flight of NASA Space Launch System with uncrewed Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and ESA Service Module; to feature configuration for 70-metric-ton lift capacity; Orion spacecraft to perform circumlunar trajectory during 26-42 day mission; will carry 10 CubeSats.
★ Sep 8 — OSIRIS-REx, Asteroid 101955 Bennu (1999 RQ36): Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft collecting 60 grams of asteroid reaches 6 full years / enters 7th year in Space, planned to return to Earth 24 Sep 2023.
★ Sep 10 — SpaceX, Launch Falcon 9 / Starlink 4-2 & BlueWalker 3, LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center FL: Falcon 9 rocket to launch another batch of Starlink internet satellites with AST SpaceMobile BlueWalker 3 test satellite; 19:50 EDT.
● Sep 10 — Sally Ride Science, UC San Diego, San Diego CA: NExT Workshop: Space Out! at SD Public Library, for grades 3-5.
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