1st USA Woman VP Harris Should Lead NSC to Prioritize 1st Woman on the Moon, Earth Climate Observation, Peace

Dedicated to the incredible, innovative Artemis program to land the First Woman and First Person of Color on the Moon asap ~2025, and developing cislunar architecture to sustain a human lunar base in peace for all — USA Vice President Kamala Harris has the responsibility to undertake and expand this 21st Century vision for millions of Americans, billions of humans and generations to come. The 2020s landing of first women on the Moon might be as influential as the landing of first men on the Moon, and will expand the sphere of women’s influence and activity by many millions of times. VP Harris and the National Space Council Users’ Advisory Group should strongly advocate for human landings to garner the vital support and funding to utilize and explore the Moon for scientific, commercial, private, public, inclusive and inspirational common wealth and egalitarian considerations. Much as EarthRise was instrumental for Earth environmental consciousness, Astronauts on the new frontier will naturally look out and observe Earth from a unique vantage point at the Moon South Pole. Living on the grounds of Naval Observatory, VP Harris may appreciate its authority on Earth orientation, astrometry and celestial observation – which if performed from the Moon could produce more precise values. Being the 1st Woman, 1st Black and 1st South Asian-American Vice President – hopes are high she will lead the Artemis generation on the farthest journey yet. (Image Credits: White House, NASA, UNSO, ILOA Hawai’i)

MONDAY

Nov 15 — ISS, ~405-km LEO: Seven-member Expedition 66 with newly arrived SpaceX Crew 3 (Kayla Barron, Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Matthias Maurer) planning for Cygnus NG-16 “S.S. Ellison Onizuka” release this week, preparing for U.S. EVA #78 in Nov, working with Plant Habitat-04 and HAM radio experiments.

Nov 15 — Tiangong Space Station, ~370-km LEO: Now 1 month into 6-month mission, three crew members of Shenzhou-13 continuing to install equipment and carry out tests on Tianhe core module; 1 or 2 additional EVAs being planned.

2 Moonships, SLS / Orion and Starship, Near Completion as Artemis 3 Human Landing Now Set for 2025

Boeing Space Launch System is 111.25 m tall / 9.4 m diameter in Block 1 configuration fully stacked with Orion, a joint project between Lockheed Martin and Airbus; it is capable of carrying 95 t to LEO / 27 t to Trans Lunar Injection. SLS / Orion are stacked at NASA Kennedy Space Center FL and are expected to fly in February 2022 for inaugural flight (Artemis 1) around Moon – to be followed by a crewed Artemis 2, taking astronauts ~65,000 km past the Moon, the furthest humans have been from Earth. Human landings, planned NET 2025 at Shackleton Rim, will utilize a SpaceX Starship Moon variant, funded with US$2.9B HLS contract. Starship serial number 15 (SN15) stands 120 m height / 9 m diameter when stacked on Super Heavy rocket claims an astounding 150 t LEO payload capacity – and a similar capacity to TLI with multiple launches, employing a cargo/tanker variant for in-space refueling. Starship has powered up its 3 raptor engines for testing at SpaceX facility ‘Starbase’ near Boca Chica TX and pending FAA approval for first semi-orbital test launch. Super Heavy Rocket will descent into Gulf of Mexico for recovery, whereas SN15 will “soft land” in the Pacific Ocean ~ 100 km north of the Hawaiian Island Kauai, coming to rest within Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands – largest testing range on Earth covering 2,850 km² water / controlling 108,880 km² airspace. (Image Credits: Lockheed Martin, NASA, SpaceX)

Nov 15 — Rocket Lab,

Nov 15 — Arianespace, Launch Vega / CERES, Kourou, French Guiana: Arianespace Vega rocket, designated VV20, to launch 3 CERES signals intelligence satellites for France military.

Nov 15-17 — American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Las Vegas NV: Accelerating Space Commerce Exploration and New Discovery (ASCEND 2021).

Nov 15-18 — JAXA, ISAS, Online / Tokyo, Japan: Symposium: Hayabusa 2021.

Nov 15 — Jupiter: At east quadrature, 90° from Sun, 10:00.

Nov 15 — Aten Asteroid 2010 VK139: Near-Earth Flyby (0.016 AU)

Nov 15 — Apollo Asteroid 2016 VR: Near-Earth Flyby (0.020 AU)

Nov 15 — Apollo Asteroid 2019 VL5: Near-Earth Flyby (0.022 AU)

Nov 15 — Apollo Asteroid 2021 VM1: Near-Earth Flyby (0.024 AU)

Nov 15 — Apollo Asteroid 2021 VG3: Near-Earth Flyby (0.026 AU)

Continued From…

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

NET Nov 9 — Astra, Launch Rocket 3 LV0007 / STP-27AD2, Pacific Spaceport Complex, Kodiak AK: Launch window opens for today until Oct 31, and back up dates November 5-12; commercial launch vehicle carrying second of 3 USSF test payloads.