Egypt Advancing Satellite Comms, Africa Space Collaboration, Founding ‘Space City’ by End of Year

4,100-kg Nilesat 301, built by Thales Alenia for telecommunication corporation Nilesat of Egypt, is set to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from KSC June 8. Nilesat 301 is equipped with 38 transponders and will broadcast in Ku-band frequencies across Egypt, Northern Africa, and the Middle East – ‘For the Arab and African Family’, per company slogan. The 4th Nilesat to be put placed into space since 1998, 301 will be bound to the same 7° west geostationary orbit as its predecessors. Egypt has emerged as a regional leader in Space activity – the Egyptian Space Agency (EgSA) signed an MoU with the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) on 25 May, committing to information exchange / cooperation on the peaceful exploration of space, and Egypt has been elected by the African Union to host the African Space Agency, a pan-continent effort to develop space capabilities. African Space Agency is to be headquartered in a 123-acre ‘space city’ first announced in September 2020, now slated to be inaugurated within 2022, according to EgSA CEO Mohamed al-Qousy. The industrial park will also house manufacturing and research facilities, an academy, and a space museum. EgSA is also working on its own, domestically constructed 6U craft Space Plasma Nanosatellite experiment (SPNEx), planned to launch NLT 2023 to monitor disturbances in Earth’s ionosphere and their possible impact on radio waves and climate change. (Pictured: EgSA CEO Mohamed Al-Qousi, SANSA Interim CEO Andiswa Mlisa; Image Credits: EgSA, Thales Alenia)

MONDAY

☆ Jun 6 — ISS, ~405-km LEO: Expedition 67 seven-member crew to receive CRS-25 Cargo Dragon this week while working with cargo / refuse transfers to Cygnus NG-17, Progress 79, 80, 81; working with muscle biochemical investigation, eye changes studies.

☆ Jun 6 — Tiangong Space Station, ~370-km LEO: Shenzhou 14 to dock to Tianhe nadir port, 3-member crew should be aboard station and transferring cargo from Tianzhou-4, will perform EVAs to integrate TSS systems.

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’).

22nd Space Resources Roundtable Convenes ~80 Speakers in 14 Sessions June 7-10

The 2022 PTMSS / SRR is being held at Colorado School of Mines on June 7-10 in Golden CO. Since 1999 it has brought experts together to identify, utilize, regulate frameworks and develop technology for space resources. With revitalized international commitments to land on the Moon, much focus of SRR will be on cislunar space, followed by Mars, Asteroids, manufacturing, infrastructure and policy issues. There will be 14 sessions, 4 one-hour roundtable discussions, 2 poster sessions, and visits to Mines facilities and geology museum. Kimberly Ennico Smith (L-R) from NASA Glenn will present on VIPER; Jim Keravala from OffWorld on Building a Solar System Civilization (with Robots); Tom Gardner from Advanced Space on CAPSTONE; Brad Blair from NewSpace Analytics on Lunar Surface Wireless Power; Michelle Hanlon from For All Moonkind on What is a Celestial Body?; Kyla Edison from Mines on Casting Lunar Regolith for Construction; and Michael Hecht from MIT on MOXIE – a Year of ISRU on Mars. International participation will come from Melchiorre Conti from ESA on Space Resources Initiative and Kathryn Halder from ESRIC on Luxembourg Space Resources Week. Space agencies of USA, Soviet Union, and PRC have successfully returned lunar samples while Japan returned 2 asteroid samples. Though more than a few commercial space mining companies were depleted, the latest, AstroForge, aims to specifically target platinum group netals with craft built for >US$10M. (Image Credits: SRR, Mines, NASA, MIT)

☆ Jun 6 — Apollo Asteroid 2022 KB3: Near-Earth Flyby (0.007 AU)

☆ Jun 6 — Aten Asteroid 2021 GT2: Near-Earth Flyby (0.024 AU)

Continued From…
o Nov 4 – Jun 29 — Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Biomedical Problems, NASA Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA), Moscow, Russia: Mixed gender, international crew of 6 participating in 8-month space / lunar simulation mission SIRIUS-21 (Scientific International Research In Unique Terrestrial Station).

o Jun 1-10 — United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, Vienna, Austria: 65th Session Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS).

TUESDAY

● Jun 7 — NASA, Online / Washington DC: NASA Astrophysics Advisory Committee Meeting; 15:00-17:00 EDT.

● Jun 7-10 — PTMSS, SRR, Colorado School of Mines, Golden CO: Space Resources Roundtable 2022.

o Jun 7-10 — LATMOS, ESA, APL, IAS, et al, Orléans, France: Mercury: Current and Future Science of the Innermost Planet.

☆ Jun 7 — Moon: At first quarter, 04:48.

☆ Jun 7 — Amor Asteroid 2022 KV3: Near-Earth Flyby (0.045 AU)

WEDNESDAY

★ Jun 8 — SpaceX, Launch Falcon 9 / Nilesat 301, SLC-40, Kennedy Space Center FL: Falcon 9 to launch Nilesat 301 geostationary communications satellite, built by Thales Alenia Space; first stage booster to land on a drone ship in Atlantic.

● Jun 8 — American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Online / Reston VA: ASCENDxSummit Webinar: Sustaining Space for the Next Generation; 12:00-14:15.

☆ Jun 8 — Apollo Asteroid 2022 KV1: Near-Earth Flyby (0.028 AU)

☆ Jun 8 — Apollo Asteroid 2018 MZ4: Near-Earth Flyby (0.074 AU)