73rd International Astronautical Congress Convenes >6,500 in Paris, France for Global / Inter-Global Influence

The 73rd IAC is being held September 18-22 with theme Space for @ll, receiving 4,800 abstracts from 97 countries. Supported by IAF, CNES, IISL, IIA and SGAC, the IAC will see >6,500 delegates, 250 exhibitors, 6 associated events, multiple workshops, and 1 public day, while committing to the ‘first environmentally sustainable IAC’. Technical, Special and GNF Sessions occur on Monday (Industry Day), Tuesday (Diversity Day), Wednesday (Science & Academic Day), and Thursday – which will also feature IAF General Assembly, late breaking news, and closing ceremony. Interactive Presentations are given 3 sessions and an award ceremony. Public Day on Sep 21 includes Astronauts Claudie Haigneré, Jean-Pierre Haigneré, Jean-François Clervoy, Thomas Pesquet, and Mattias Maurer. IAF World Space Award, recognizing achievements of Tianwen-1, is highlighted in a lecture by China Academy of Space Technology VP Jilian Wang, moderated by Pascale Ehrenfreund. IAC allows for significant impact on the global astronautic community – much of which is focusing on the Moon / cislunar space. NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy will talk on ‘Moon to Mars Objectives’. Steve Durst of ILOA Hawai’i will update its 5 Moon Missions and Malapert Mountain. Moon Village Association and Giuseppe Reibaldi will lead a number of discussions. There will also be a Plenary Sep 22 on ‘Protecting the Moon Farside for Scientific Research is Urgent’ organized by Claudio Maccone (IAA), Jack Burns (Univ. of CO) and Bernard Foing (ILEWG). (Image Credits: IAF, CNES, IISL, IIA, SGAC, ESA, NASA, ILOA, MVA, et al)

MONDAY

☆ Sep 19 — ISS, ~415-km LEO: ­­­Expedition 67 seven-member crew plan to welcome 3 additional members mid-week, working with grip experiments, liquid dynamics, smallsat deployments, 3rd roots harvest study.

☆ Sep 19 — Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: Shenzhou 14 three-member crew now >50% through 6-month mission preparing for 2nd EVA for 2-module integration and upgrades.

o = International terrestrial events in local time.

★ = Space events, and… ☆ = International space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time’).

Mixed Crew of Roscosmos Cosmonauts and NASA Astronaut Launch to International Space Station 

Soyuz MS-22 is set to launch September 21 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, ferrying 3 Expedition 67 / 68 members to the ISS: NASA Astronaut Francisco ‘Frank’ Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin. MS-22 will be the first spaceflight for Rubio and Petelin; Prokopyev has logged 1 stay on ISS during Expedition 56/57. The upcoming mission will be the first conducted under a seat exchange program for “integrated crews” formalized between NASA and Roscosmos on July 15, the same day Yuriy Borisov assumed leadership of the Russian space agency – team training has been conducted at the Star City training facility near Moscow. The MS-22 crew will join 7 current ISS occupants from USA, Russia and Italy, while 3 Taikonauts continue to work and live on Tiangong Space Station (with ~25-km altitude, ~10° orbital inclination differential relative to ISS), bringing total humans in space to 13. Expedition 67 ends / 68 commences with the undocking and departure of Soyuz MS-21 with Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov scheduled for Sep 29. The first Cosmonaut to fly under the seat exchange agreement will be Anna Kikina, riding on a SpaceX Crew Dragon with JAXA Astronaut Koichi Wakata and NASA Astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada as a member of Crew-5, launching October 3. (Image Credits: Donald Pettit, NASA, Roscosmos)

★ Sep 19 — SpaceX, Launch Falcon 9 / Starlink 4-35, LC-40, Cape Canaveral SFS FL: Falcon 9 rocket to launch next batch of Starlink internet satellites.

★ Sep 19 — Firefly Aerospace, Launch Alpha / Multi-payload, SLC-2W, Vandenberg SFB CA: Firefly Alpha rocket to attempt second test flight with a rideshare payload / multiple small satellites, 12:00-02:00 PDT.

o Sep 19 — International Astronautical Federation, Paris, France: IAF Global Networking Forum 2022: Meet, Share, Connect; 10:15-17:30 CEST, held in conjunction with IAC.

o Sep 19 — Moon Village Association, IAF, Paris, France: Session D4.2: Contribution of Moon Village to Solving Global Societal Issues; 10:15-12:45 CEST; Session E3.2: The Future of Space Exploration and Innovation; 15:00-16:00.

● Sep 19-23 — Institution of Navigation, Lockheed Martin, Inside GNSS, Denver CO: ION GNSS 2022.

☆ Sep 19 — Moon: At apogee (distance 404,566 km), 05:00; 5.4° S of Castor, 17:00; 1.90° S of Pollux, 22:00.

☆ Sep 19 — Aten Asteroid 2022 QJ50: Near-Earth Flyby (0.028 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.

o Aug 8 – Nov 11 — IAU, NAOJ, NARIT, Online / Global: NameExoWorlds 2022.

o Sep 18-20 — Center for Space Commerce and Finance, Paris, France: NewSpace Business Plan Competition (BPC); at IAC 2022.