USA Renewed Human Spaceflight Capability Is Next Step Toward Return to Moon, Multi World Species Status

May 27, 2020 may be an auspicious day for USA with its first launch of Astronauts from American soil since July 8, 2011. Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley (in custom-fit spacesuits and 3D printed helmets) will fly on Demo-2 Mission at 16:32 EDT from Kennedy Space Center, Florida LC 39A via Falcon 9 in Crew Dragon V2 “C206” to ISS, docking 11:29 the next day. The TBD duration of their mission could be ≤ 4 months, joining Expedition 63 crew Chris Cassidy, Ivan Vagner and Anatoli Ivanishin. Boeing Starliner may attempt its second uncrewed demo flight for the Commercial Crew Program in September, and if successful, it will launch Michael Fincke, Nicole Mann and Chris Ferguson to ISS early 2021. Partially-reusable SpaceX Crew Dragon is capable of carrying up to 7 passengers and 3,307 kg of cargo. It has 8 SuperDraco engines for launch aborts, 4 Draco thrusters for orbital maneuvering, solar arrays and four main parachutes. SpaceX super-heavy, fully reusable Starship is planned to carry spaceflight participants on a 2023 mission to circumnavigate the Moon, and its Starship Human Landing System (SHLS) variant has been selected by NASA to be used for Artemis. SHLS would launch to lunar orbit, await crew arrival via Orion docking, transport crew to lunar surface in SHLS and ascend to return the crew to Orion for Earth departure. (Image Credits: SpaceX, NASA)

MONDAY

NASA Puts Forth Artemis Accords, Statement of Principles Regarding Space Activity

USA National Space Program announces a framework of norms in space and on celestial bodies, proposed as a 10-point set of values to be observed by partners in the USA-led Artemis mission series and the international community at large, although the mechanism for such adoption is unclear. The International Space Station Intergovernmental Agreement, with 20+ years of collaboration between nations such as Russia, USA, Europe, Canada and Japan, may offer a model. With an emphasis on peaceful purposes and cooperation, the Artemis Accords is positioned by the space administration as an adjunct to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty – while providing specific interpretation allowing commercial resource utilization and extraction, consistent with domestic legislation Space Resource Exploration and Utilization Act of 2015 and executive order Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources in April. Other tenets of the Accords include Transparency, Interoperability, Emergency Aid, Space Object Registration, Data Sharing, Conservation, Conflict Reduction, and Debris Mitigation. Perhaps influenced by the Antarctic Treaty System, ‘safety zones’ would ensure territorial integrity with buffer space while preserving scientific access. Any claims of sovereignty would put China in a possibly advantageous position, being the only spacefaring power currently in operation on the Moon, and the first to explore the far side surface with Chinese Lunar Exploration Program / Chang’e. A formalized agreement in the future would necessarily involve all stakeholders to bring about orderly exploration in cis-lunar space and beyond. (Image Credits: NASA)

Continued from…

Jan 2019 – Sep 2020 — New Horizons, Kuiper Belt: Full data collected from 7 instruments during KBO Arrokoth flyby to be transmitted to Earth over this time period.

Nov 2019 – Nov 2020 — Hayabusa2, Earth Trajectory: JAXA Hayabusa2 with two samples collected from C-type asteroid 162173 Ryugu on trajectory for Earth return.

Mar 16 – Sep 16 — SpaceX, Boca Chica Beach TX: SpaceX to attempt Starship prototype flight potentially to 20-km altitude during this timeframe.

May 9 – Jul 11 — AIAA Los Angeles – Las Vegas Section, Online: Virtual Aerospace Art Gallery Exhibition.

TUESDAY

May 26 — Polish Space Industry Association, Warsaw, Poland: Space Sector Forum 2020; conference TBD.

May 26-27 — NASA, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Online: 2020 Planetary Mission Concept Studies Workshop (virtual).

May 26-28 — Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI), Toronto, Ontario, Canada: ASTRO 2020 – 20th Astronautics Conference of CASI: Space for Business; focusing on Canada capabilities especially with regard to the growing number of small- and medium-sized enterprises; postponed.

May 26 — Moon: 8.2° S of Castor, 05:00; 4.5° S of Pollux, 10:00.