ISS Expedition 60 to Conduct U.S. EVA-55, Prepare for Commercial Crew Vehicles and Soyuz MS-14 Test Flight

On August 21 Nick Hague and Andrew Morgan conduct an EVA to install International Docking Adapter-3 for Commercial Crew. NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley suit up for a rehearsal of their flight aboard Crew Dragon. SpaceX is hoping for a December 2019 launch, but faces unknown delays after the April 2019 explosion of Crew Dragon and issues with parachute tests. Boeing Starliner is preparing for uncrewed test September 2019. The date has been waiting for a successful satellite launch aboard the Atlas V booster Aug 8. First-time astronaut Nicole Mann, veteran astronaut Michael Fincke and former NASA pilot Chris Ferguson are preparing for Starliner flight in Dec 2019. The first crew on an American spacecraft since 2011 will win an American flag left on ISS that year by STS-135. The 8.5-year gap in flights is a record, surpassing the time between Apollo-Soyuz of 1975 and the first Space Shuttle flight in 1981. NASA has purchased flights aboard Soyuz until Sep 2020. On Aug 22 Russia is set to launch uncrewed Soyuz MS-14 to ISS atop the new Soyuz-2.1a launcher. The venerable Soyuz-FG launcher will be retired after the Sep 25 launch of three crew aboard MS-15, though Roscosmos is preparing for future missions along with SpaceX and Boeing. (Image Credits: NASA, SpaceX)

MONDAY

Voyager Interstellar Explorers Begin 43rd Year of Operations in Space

Twin Voyager spacecraft are expected to collect data through at least 2025 while communicating with Deep Space Network and receiving routine commands since 1977. Voyager 1 at 146.2 AU is traveling ~17 kps relative to Sun, and Voyager 2 at 120.7 AU averages 15.3 kps with 9 working instruments between them. Project Scientist Ed Stone and the Voyager team work to manage power / aging instruments, and perform trajectory maneuver thrusts to keep antennas pointed at Earth. Cosmic ray and other data complement the active NASA Interstellar Boundary Explorer mission, and will add to 2024 Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe observations. Voyager 2 is the only craft to have visited Uranus and Neptune, and is the first to provide direct measurements of interstellar plasma density and temperature. The changing boundary of the heliosphere and lack of communication make it impossible to know when Pioneer 10 or 11 will cross into interstellar space; they are estimated at 2057 and 2027. New Horizons, now in the Kuiper Belt at 44.26 AU, could cross in >20 years, and should have enough power to communicate until late 2030s according to PI Alan Stern. Voyagers, Pioneers, and New Horizons are still considered within the Solar System, as Oort Cloud is theorized to extend from ~2,000 AU from the Sun to nearly a quarter of the distance to the nearest star, Proxima Centauri. (Image Credits: NASA, Caltech, JPL, Aubrey Gemignani)

Aug 19 — Sonoma Speaker Series, Hanna Boys Center, Sonoma CA: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing with Astronaut Sunita Williams; 19:00-20:30.

Aug 19-22 — AIAA, Indianapolis IN: 2019 AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum.

Aug 19-22 — Gemini Observatory, Hilo HI: 10th Vista Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) Science Meeting.

Aug 19-23 — University of California – Santa Cruz, Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) at Northwestern University, American Astronomical Society, Reykjavik, Iceland: Extreme Solar Systems IV Conference.

Aug 19-23 — University of Vienna (Universität Wien), Vienna, Austria: Conference: Stars and their Variability, Observed from Space – Celebrating the 5th Anniversary of BRITE-Constellation.

Continued from…

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

Apr 13 – Sep 2 — Smithsonian Institution, Museum of Flight, Multiple Locations: Destination Moon, traveling exhibition of historic Apollo 11 artifacts.

Jun 24 – Aug 23 — International Space University, ESA, Strasbourg, France: ISU 32nd Space Studies Program (SSP 2019).

NET Aug – Nov — Hayabusa2, Asteroid 162173 Ryugu: JAXA Hayabusa2 with 2 sample returns planned to remain at Asteroid for observations during this time period, then return to Earth.

Aug 18-25 — CosmoCruise, Venice, Italy: CosmoCruise 2019; program aboard Costa Delizioza in Adriatic Sea “From the Early to Late Universe” with speakers including Joseph Silk of Oxford and Stacy McGaugh of Case Western Reserve University to talk about cosmology and origins of the universe.