New Era of Space Exploration Dawns, Reflections on Challenger, Columbia, Apollo 1: In Memoriam
As the USA and international partners are set to begin Artemis mission series by November, reestablishing humanity as a multi-world species mid-decade on Artemis 3, it is appropriate to commemorate the pioneers who gave their lives in the pursuit of space exploration. 54 years have elapsed since the crew of Apollo 1, pilot Roger Chaffee, Commander Virgil “Gus” Grissom and Senior Pilot Edward White II perished in a test stand fire at Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 34 on January 27, 1967. 35 years ago, Challenger STS-51L was lost shortly after launch, ending the lives of Gregory Jarvis, ‘First Teacher in Space’ Christa McAuliffe, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnick, Francis “Dick” Scobee and Michael Smith on January 28, 1986. 18 years ago, Columbia STS-107 broke apart upon atmospheric reentry, killing Michael Anderson, David Brown, ‘1st Indian American astronaut’ Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Richard Husband, William McCool and ‘1st Israeli Astronaut’ Ilan Ramon. The enduring vision of these courageous souls lives on in the worldwide space community, endeavoring to make space travel possible for those all those who wish to explore its depths; Astronauts Memorial Foundation will hold Day of Remembrance observation at Center for Space Education (KSC), as will all national space centers. Former FAA Commercial Space Transportation Administrator George Nield has suggested reestablishment of the Teacher in Space program, buoying a national spaceport initiative – a fitting tribute. (Image Credits: NASA)
MONDAY
Highlights… Jan 25 — ISS, ~405-km LEO: Expedition 64 crew of 7 working with Veg-03 plants, fire safety tests; Hopkins and Glover to perform ~6.5-hour U.S. EVA #70 today (233rd ISS spacewalk overall) to configure ESA Columbus module Bartolomeo science payloads platform and Ka-band terminal, starts 07:05 EST, live coverage available.
Jan 25 — Global: Access to Chang’e-5 lunar samples (totaling 1,731 g with density of 1.6 g/mm3) being offered for international science; Melissa Thorpe becomes acting leader of Spaceport Cornwall; Vaonis of France aims to bring astronomy to public with Vespera observation station.
Interstellar Activities with IRG, Breakthrough Initiatives and possible IU in Ad Astra State
Interstellar studies and R&D remain a focus for various enterprises and organizations including Centauri Dreams, Tau Zero Foundation, Ad Astra Kansas Foundation, 100-Year Starship, Interstellar Research Group (formerly TVIW), Icarus Interstellar, Starship Congress, Initiative for Interstellar Studies and Breakthrough Initiatives. While ESA Gaia maps more than 1B stars in the Milky Way Galaxy and research groups work to identify habitable exoplanets – of which 36 may host intelligent life – Stanford Prof. Bruce Macintosh will talk about ‘Emerging Pictures of Distant Worlds’ on January 25. NASA is funding Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe launching 2025 to study solar wind and interactions with the local galactic neighborhood beyond, and has 5 probes on interstellar trajectories: Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2, and New Horizons. Ad Astra Kansas Day 2021 in Topeka is scheduled April 24, on the anniversary of the deployment of Hubble by native Kansan Astronaut Steve Hawley. With the bounty of interstellar information and efforts to achieve interstellar observations, communications, transportation in the 21st Century, the first Interstellar University (IU) could begin in the ‘Ad Astra Per Aspera’ state of Kansas, perhaps around 29 Jan 2022 on the anniversary of Kansas becoming the 34th star in the USA flag. IRG will be holding its 7th Interstellar Symposium September 24-27 in Tucson AZ and now has its interstellar database available online. (Image Credits: IRG, AAKF, 100YSS, i4is, ESO / M. Kornmesser, NASA, SPC, ILOA, et al)
Jan 25 — Stanford University,Online / Stanford CA: Lecture: Emerging Pictures of Distant Worlds; by Bruce Macintosh, Professor of physics at Stanford’s Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC); 11:00 PST.
Jan 24-29 — Israeli Space Agency in the Ministry of Science and Technology, Israel Space Agency, Online: 2021 Israel Space Week; featuring Astronauts Jessica Meyer, Charlie Bolden, Scott Kelly, representatives from SpaceIL, NASA, ESA.
TUESDAY
Jan 26 — NG Cygnus CRS-14 Earth Atmosphere Reentry, LEO: Northrop Grumman Cygnus freighter dubbed S.S. Kalpana Chawla undergoes reentry disintegration in Earth atmosphere today after being released from ISS 20 days prior and performing NASA Glenn SAFFIRE V experiment.
Jan 26 — Apollo Asteroid 2021 AL: Near Earth Flyby (0.028 AU)
WEDNESDAY
Jan 27 — SpaceX, Launch Falcon 9 / Starlink V1.0-L17,LC-39A, KSC FL: Falcon 9 to launch next batch of ~60 satellites for SpaceX Starlink broadband network.
Jan 27 — Apollo 1 54th Observation, Nationwide USA: Increasing space awareness and education, remembrances and events honor three Apollo 1 crew members lost today in 1967 during a launch pad test: Command Pilot Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Senior Pilot Edward H. White and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee.
Jan 27 — Moon: 7.4° S of Castor, 01:00; 3.8° S of Pollux, 06:00.
THURSDAY
Jan 28 — ChallengerSTS-51L 35th Observation, Nationwide USA: Educational and ceremonial events held worldwide to advance space technology / education and honor 7 crew members killed in Shuttle accident 28 January 1986: Commander Francis R. “Dick” Scobee, Pilot Michael J. Smith, Astronaut Christa McAuliffe (the 1st ‘Teacher in Space’), Mission Specialists Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnick and Ronald E. McNair, along with Payload Specialist Gregory B. Jarvis.
Jan 28 — International Academy of Astronautics, Sydney, Australia and Online: IAA Academy Day Sydney.
Jan 29 — Apollo Asteroid 2021 AG7: Near Earth Flyby (0.028 AU)
Jan 29 — Apollo Asteroid 2021 AF7: Near Earth Flyby (0.046 AU)
SATURDAY
Jan 30 — American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Los Angeles-Las Vegas Section,Online: Space Settlement: An Easier Way; by Software Engineer Al Globus, 10:00 PST.
SUNDAY
Jan 31 — Apollo 14 50th Observation, Nationwide USA: Eighth crewed Apollo mission and third to land on Moon, Astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr., Stuart A. Roosa, Edgar D. Mitchell are honored today as Human Return to Moon is well underway.
Jan 31 — The Space Show,Online / Tiburon CA: Dr. David Livingston talks with James Bennett, co-founder of Space Enterprise Consultants, about space policy going forward.
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As the USA and international partners are set to begin Artemis mission series by November, reestablishing humanity as a multi-world species mid-decade on Artemis 3, it is appropriate to commemorate the pioneers who gave their lives in the pursuit of space exploration. 54 years have elapsed since the crew of Apollo 1, pilot Roger Chaffee, Commander Virgil “Gus” Grissom and Senior Pilot Edward White II perished in a test stand fire at Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 34 on January 27, 1967. 35 years ago, Challenger STS-51L was lost shortly after launch, ending the lives of Gregory Jarvis, ‘First Teacher in Space’ Christa McAuliffe, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnick, Francis “Dick” Scobee and Michael Smith on January 28, 1986. 18 years ago, Columbia STS-107 broke apart upon atmospheric reentry, killing Michael Anderson, David Brown, ‘1st Indian American astronaut’ Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Richard Husband, William McCool and ‘1st Israeli Astronaut’ Ilan Ramon. The enduring vision of these courageous souls lives on in the worldwide space community, endeavoring to make space travel possible for those all those who wish to explore its depths; Astronauts Memorial Foundation will hold Day of Remembrance observation at Center for Space Education (KSC), as will all national space centers. Former FAA Commercial Space Transportation Administrator George Nield has suggested reestablishment of the Teacher in Space program, buoying a national spaceport initiative – a fitting tribute. (Image Credits: NASA)
Jan 25 — 
Jan 25 — NewSpace: Eris rocket set for 2022 launch after 
Jan 25 — USA: 
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= All times for international terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
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