October 6-12, 2014 / Vol 33, No 40 / Hawai`i Island, USA

World Space Week 2014:
Space – Guiding Your Way

WSW 2014

World Space Week 2014 celebrated October 4-10 will focus on benefits of satellite navigation to society. Over 450 events are registered in 59 counties including a Carl Sagan Planetarium show in Brazil, ‘Importance of the afghan-sat 1’ event in Afghanistan, Space Festival in Iran, Space Science Competition in Ghana, ‘From Antarctica to Space’ event hosted online from Concordia Station in Antarctica, and an AIAA Space & Sci-Fi Trivia Night in Australia. WSW is coordinated by the United Nations since 1999 to observe the Oct 4, 1957 launch of Sputnik 1, and the Oct 10, 1967 signing of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies. The third spacecraft in the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System is set to launch this month, and 2 Galileo satellites may launch in December. A two-day event at Observatory Armand Pien of Ghent University in Belgium will feature Koen De Beule (ESA, ESTEC) talking about ESA, Hubble space telescope and the European Galileo satellite navigation program which is planned to operate with 30 satellites (27 operational, 3 active spares) by 2019. (Image Credit: WSWA, ESA, DLR, ISRO)

MONDAY

Oct 6 — ISS, LEO: Expedition 41 preparing for EVAs on Oct 7, 15 & 22, transferring cargo from Dragon CRS-4, working with Aseptik sterilization experiment, Kaskad cell cultivation experiment.

Oct 6 — Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Orbit: Science team planning for comet Siding Spring Oct 19 Mars flyby, will implement safety precautions and use opportunity to observe comet & its atmosphere.

Oct 6 — Rosetta, Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko Orbit: Continuing to map and analyze composition of comet; landing of Philae lander expected Nov 12 at 15:35 UT on “Site J” containing relatively few boulders and slopes of less than 30º.

Oct 6 — Canadensys Aerospace Corp., Toronto, Ontario, Canada: NewSpace company developing ILO-1 Moon South Pole Observatory, ARES Mars Wind & Dust Sensor, Pyxis Polar Broadband Satellite Constellation.

Oct 6 — Waypoint 2 Space, Houston TX: Will use Final Frontier Design spacesuits in its commercial orbital & suborbital spaceflight training programs; 32 days left for ‘Spacewalking on Earth‘ Kickstarter campaign.

Oct 6 — Firefly Space Systems, Cedar Park TX: SmallSat launch company receiving up to US$1,225,000 in incentives & employment grants from Cedar Park Economic Development Corp. to continue expansion plans; recently acquired 200+ acre test site facility nearby Briggs TX.

Oct 6-8 — The National Academies, Boulder CO: Meeting: Development of a Strategic Vision and Implementation Plan for the U.S. Antarctic Program at the National Science Foundation.

= All times for terrestrial events in local time unless noted.

= All times for international terrestrial events in local time unless noted.

= All times for space events, and…

= All times for international space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time;’ Greenwich, England).


Weekly Planet Watch – Evening Planets: Mars (SW), Saturn (SW); Morning Planets: Jupiter (ENE).

ILOA Galaxy Forum Brings 21st Century Education to New York

GFNY14SC

Now in its 7th year, the International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA)-sponsored Galaxy Forum program continues to bring pioneering 21st Century Galaxy Education to cities, countries, regions and continents around the world. Galaxy Forum New York – Scarsdale will be held at the Scarsdale High School on Friday, October 10. ILOA and Galaxy Forum Founder Steve Durst brought the program to his alma mater in 2011 and it has become a highly-anticipated annual event. This year Alan Stern will give the feature guest lecture on the New Horizons mission, for which he is principal investigator. The New Horizons probe is currently traveling at 14.67 km/s about 4.5B kilometers from Earth. It is scheduled to arrive at the Pluto system July 14, 2015. Galaxy Forum New York 2014 – Grand Central on Saturday, Oct 11 at the Grand Hyatt, will be the inaugural GF event in New York City. In addition to a lecture by Alan Stern, the event will include presentations on the 4 ILOA Moon Missions by Steve Durst, the Grand Central Terminal’s Celestial Ceiling by Ron Janoff, the Spaceflight 18 multimedia experience by Eric ‘Captain Wally’ Wallach, and a panel of local educators discussing integrating innovative 21st Century Galaxy Education resources into their classes. An optional behind-the-scenes tour of GCT will be led by Danny Brucker after the Forum. (Image Credit: galaxyforum.org, mas.org, NASA)

Oct 6-8 — Giant Magellan Telescope Organization, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC: 2nd Annual Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) Community Science Meeting: Transient Phenomena in Astronomy and Astrophysics; at National Museum of the American Indian.

Oct 6-10 — Yerevan State University, Volkswagen Foundation, Yerevan, Armenia: 2nd Autumn School on High Energy Physics and Quantum Field Theory.

Oct 6 — Asteroid 2014 SB145: Near-Earth flyby (0.011 AU).

Oct 6 — Asteroid 2012 UV136: Near-Earth flyby (0.100 AU).

Continued from…

Sep 23 – Oct 23 — Benjamin Ahr Harrison, Kickstarter, et al, Online: Kickstarter Campaign: Shoot the Moon: A documentary feature film; raising funds to document LiftPort Group’s progress toward creating a Space elevator.

NET Sep 24 — ISRO, Launch GSLV Mk 3 / Atmospheric Test Flight, Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota, India: Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk 3 to launch on suborbital test flight, will carry mock-up human crew module.

Oct 4-10 — World Space Week Association, Global: World Space Week 2014.

Oct 4-11 — LPI-JSC Center for Lunar Science and Exploration, NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI), Winslow AZ: Meteor Crater Field Camp; students study at Barringer Meteorite Crater to learn about Earth, Moon, asteroids, Mars, other Solar System planetary surfaces.

Oct 5-9 — Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff AZ: The Formation and Evolution of Exponential Disks in Galaxies.

Oct 5-9 — ESO, ESA, NOAO, Space Telescope Science Institute, Australian Astronomical Observatory, Calgary, Alberta, Canada: 24th Annual Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems (ADASS XXIV); at Westin Hotel.

TUESDAY

Oct 7 — ISS, USA EVA 27, LEO: Wiseman and Gerst to perform 6.5-hour EVA starting 12:10 UT, live coverage available; will transfer pump module to External Stowage Platform-2, install Mobile Transporter Relay Assembly.

Oct 7 — British Interplanetary Society, London, United Kingdom: Space: Guiding your Way; presented by Stuart Eves.

Oct 7 — Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA, Greenbelt MD: Systems Engineering Seminar: Overview of MAVEN science, the mission, its development challenges, and current project status as we fly to Mars; presented by Martin Houghton.

Oct 7 — Thirty Meter Telescope Observatory Corp., Mauna Kea HI: Projected date for TMT site dedication ceremony on Mauna Kea.

Oct 7-10 — Flexure Engineering, The Select Investor, Sunnyvale CA: Lunar Cubes Workshop 4; at Sheraton Sunnyvale Hotel.

Oct 7-10 — ESA, CNES, DLR, The Optical Society, Canarias Institute of Astrophysics, Tenerife, Spain: International Conference on Space Optics (ICSO 2014).

Oct 7-11 — American Physical Society, The Physical Society of Japan, Waikoloa HI: 4th Joint Meeting of the Nuclear Physics Divisions of the American Physical Society and The Physical Society of Japan (Hawaii 2014).

Oct 7 — Asteroid 68267 (2001 EA16): Near-Earth flyby (0.091 AU).

WEDNESDAY

Oct 8 — Cassini OTM-393, Saturn Orbit: Spacecraft conducts Orbital Trim Maneuver #393 today.

Oct 8 — JAXA, Launch H-2A / Himawari 8, Tanegashima Space Center, Japan: H-2A rocket to launch Himawari 8 weather satellite for the Japan Meteorological Agency to collect weather imagery over East Asia & Western Pacific regions.

Oct 8 — Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration, London, Ontario, Canada: Lecture: Finding Earth’s Twin: The great ESCape; presented by Dr. Sara Seager from MIT; at Talbot College, 19:00 local time, free.

Oct 8 — Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Tucson AZ: Lecture: The Big Boundary; presented by Dr. Walter Harris.

Oct 8-10 — DLR, Stuttgart, Germany: 6th International Workshop on Systems & Concurrent Engineering for Space Applications (SECESA 2014).

Oct 8 — Total Lunar Eclipse: Second of two lunar eclipses in 2014, visible over parts of East Europe, Asia, Australia, North America, South America, Pacific, Arctic, Antarctica; begins 00:24, ends 01:25.

Oct 8 — Moon: Full / Super Moon (Hunter’s Moon), 00:50.

THURSDAY

Oct 9 — Cornell University, Ithaca NY: Lecture: Transitional Disks – Signatures of Gap Opening by Young Planets? presented by Dr. Zhaohuan Zhu from Princeton University.

Oct 9, 10 — Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech/NASA, Pasadena CA: Lecture Series: Rosetta – A Lesson on Comets, the Solar System and Mysteries of Earth.

Oct 9 — Asteroid 2011 TB4: Near-Earth flyby (0.015 AU).

FRIDAY

Oct 10 — ISRO, Launch PSLV / IRNSS 1C, Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota, India: Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle flying PSLV-C26 mission, to launch IRNSS 1C navigation satellite.

Oct 10 — International Lunar Observatory Association, Space Age Publishing Co., Scarsdale NY: Galaxy Forum New York, Scarsdale: Galaxy Education, Exploration and Enterprise in the 21st Century; featuring Alan Stern, New Horizons PI; at Scarsdale High School, 09:00 EDT.

Oct 10 — Royal Astronomical Society, London, United Kingdom: RAS Ordinary Meeting; Specialist Meeting: Celebrating Ten Years of Cassini-Huygens in the Saturnian System; Specialist Meeting: Understanding Galaxies from their Spectral Energy Distribution: Models to Observations.

Oct 10 — Space Center Houston, Houston TX: Lunch with an Astronaut, John-David Bartoe; US$49.95 adult.

Oct 10 — Southern Taurids Meteor Shower Peak: Appearing to radiate from constellation Taurus, Taurids offer about 7 meteors per hour.

Oct 10 — Asteroid 2012 KY3: Near-Earth flyby (0.050 AU).

SATURDAY

Oct 11 — International Lunar Observatory Association, Space Age Publishing Co., New York NY: Galaxy Forum New York City: Galaxy Education, Exploration and Enterprise in the 21st Century; featuring Alan Stern, New Horizons PI; at Grand Hyatt Hotel at Grand Central Terminal, 09:30 EDT.

Oct 10 — NSS – Puerto Rico, ISU, Spaceinnova LLC, Puerto Rico Convention Bureau, et al, San Juan, Puerto Rico: Caribbean Space Summit; to discuss space exploration, commercial space travel, benefits to society; at Puerto Rico Convention Center.

Oct 11-12 — Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech/NASA, Pasadena CA: Jet Propulsion Laboratory Open House.

Oct 11 — Moon: 7.5° S of Pleiades, 05:00.

Oct 11 — Asteroid 2010 FV9: Near-Earth flyby (0.022 AU).

SUNDAY

Oct 12 — The Space Show, Tiburon CA / Online: Dr. David Livingston talks with Jim Logan, Dan Adamo & John Jurist about National Research Council Pathways to Exploration Study.

Oct 12-18 — American Geosciences Institute, Global: Earth Science Week; annual educational event to encourage public to engage in Earth sciences.

Oct 12 — Moon: 1.4° N of Aldebaran, 00:00.

Oct 12 — Asteroid 2010 FV9: Near-Earth flyby (0.032 AU).

Oct 12 — Asteroid 2014 SD304: Near-Earth flyby (0.074 AU).

01 - 09 Aug 2026
  • Meeting / Conference / Symposium
Florence, Italy
Includes ~150 meetings covering the fields of COSPAR Scientific Commissions / Panels / Task Groups, such as SC B: The Earth-Moon System, Planets, and...
02 - 07 Aug 2026
  • Meeting / Conference / Symposium
Fukuoka, Japan
From 02 to 07 August 2026, a few thousand geoscientists across diverse disciplines will gather at the 23rd annual meeting of the Asia Oceania Geosciences...
05 Aug 2026
  • Observation / Anniversary
Mars Surface
NASA Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory) rover surpasses another full year of operations on Mars surface today; launched Nov 26, 2011 – landed Aug 5,...
05 Aug 2026
  • Space / Astro Events
Near Einstein + Bell Craters, ~19.45°N 93.59° W, Moon Surface
At 06:34:33 UTC on August 5, the upper stage (catalogued as 2025-010D) from the launch of Firefly's Blue Ghost-1 lander on January 15, 2025...
06 Aug 2026
  • Launch
Andøya Spaceport, ~63°N, Norway
2nd test flight of Isar Spectrum launch vehicle, to carry 5 cubesats to SSO, and ESA "Boost!" experiment: * CyBEEsat (TU Berlin) * TriSat-S...
06 Aug 2026
  • Meeting / Conference / Symposium
Online
Virtual Series 2026 will offer deeper conversations on why PQC matters and the practical steps businesses should be taking; starts 1:00 pm AEST. Featuring:...
06 Aug 2026
  • Mission Milestone
Low Earth Orbit (LEO)
NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon will exit the Quest airlock to install hardware that will modify the station’s 3B power channel and...
07 Aug 2026
  • Launch
Tanegashima Space Center, ~30°N, Japan
Japan to launch 04:30 local time the MICHIBIKI No. 7 | Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZS-7) navigation satellite.
09 Aug 2026
  • Launch
Wenchang Space Launch Center, ~19°N, Hainan Island, China
Undisclosed payload on China's Long March 7A rocket from Hainan Island.
09 - 25 Aug 2026
  • Meeting / Conference / Symposium
Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan
This international lunar science meeting has two objectives: to provide a platform for leading experts to review recent advances across lunar research, from the...
10 Aug 2026
  • Meeting / Conference / Symposium
Online
2:00pm PDT - Rocket Lab Corporation (Nasdaq: RKLB) will release its financial results for the 2nd quarter 2026. A live webcast and replay of...
10 - 12 Aug 2026
  • Meeting / Conference / Symposium
Pretoria, South Africa
At CSIR International Convention Centre. Key topics are Earth Observation, Developing Space Tourism, Space Supply Manufacturing. Cultural tours are offered.
11 - 13 Aug 2026
  • Education Program
Houston TX, USA
Participants will receive theoretical and hands-on training in electron imaging and X-ray spectroscopy for application to planetary samples. This training opportunity is targeted at...
11 - 12 Aug 2026
  • Meeting / Conference / Symposium
Canberra, Australia
"Leading Australia’s Space Future for Our Strategic Advantage". Southern Space 2026 brings together decision-makers who set the direction for Australia’s space sector. It is...
12 Aug 2026
  • Observation / Anniversary
Heliocentric Orbit
NASA craft surpasses another full year in space today, having launched Aug 12, 2018; probe came within ~6.16M km of the Sun on Dec...
12 Aug 2026
  • Meeting / Conference / Symposium
Online
Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) will hold a conference call 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time (5:00 p.m. Eastern Time). A live webcast and replay of the...
12 Aug 2026
  • Meeting / Conference / Symposium
Online
NASA will stream the eclipse live with views across the path and interviews with subject matter experts through a variety of platforms. During the...
12 Aug 2026
  • Space / Astro Events
Global / Inter-Global
A total solar eclipse with a magnitude of 1.0386 (greatest eclipse 17:47:06 UTC) will be visible in parts of Greenland, Iceland, northern Russia, the Atlantic...
13 - 15 Aug 2026
  • Meeting / Conference / Symposium
Houston TX, USA
Includes presentation of the Neil Armstrong Award of Excellence, activities for the new class of Astronaut Scholars, 2-day Technical Conference where Scholars present their...
13 Aug 2026
  • Mission Milestone
Low Earth Orbit (LEO)
During U.S. spacewalk 97, two astronauts will replace a Space-to-Ground antenna on the orbital complex. The antenna is a critical communication system NASA uses...
15 Aug 2026
  • Launch
Launch Complex 1, ~39°S, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand
NASA astrophysics 9-month mission to gather ultraviolet light information for understanding origins of stars / planets / life.
16 Aug 2026
  • Launch
Wenchang Space Launch Center, ~19°N, Hainan Island, China
Unknown payload expected to launch on Long March 12, a is medium-lift vehicle that uses propellant of kerosene and liquid oxygen, able to place...
01 - 09 Aug 2026
Florence, Italy
Includes ~150 meetings covering the fields of COSPAR Scientific Commissions / Panels / Task Groups,...
02 - 07 Aug 2026
Fukuoka, Japan
From 02 to 07 August 2026, a few thousand geoscientists across diverse disciplines will gather...
05 Aug 2026
Mars Surface
NASA Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory) rover surpasses another full year of operations on Mars surface...
05 Aug 2026
Near Einstein + Bell Craters, ~19.45°N 93.59° W, Moon Surface
At 06:34:33 UTC on August 5, the upper stage (catalogued as 2025-010D) from the launch...
06 Aug 2026
Andøya Spaceport, ~63°N, Norway
2nd test flight of Isar Spectrum launch vehicle, to carry 5 cubesats to SSO, and...
06 Aug 2026
Online
Virtual Series 2026 will offer deeper conversations on why PQC matters and the practical steps...
06 Aug 2026
Low Earth Orbit (LEO)
NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon will exit the Quest airlock to install hardware...
07 Aug 2026
Tanegashima Space Center, ~30°N, Japan
Japan to launch 04:30 local time the MICHIBIKI No. 7 | Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZS-7)...
09 Aug 2026
Wenchang Space Launch Center, ~19°N, Hainan Island, China
Undisclosed payload on China's Long March 7A rocket from Hainan Island.
09 - 25 Aug 2026
Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan
This international lunar science meeting has two objectives: to provide a platform for leading experts...
10 Aug 2026
Online
2:00pm PDT - Rocket Lab Corporation (Nasdaq: RKLB) will release its financial results for the...
10 - 12 Aug 2026
Pretoria, South Africa
At CSIR International Convention Centre. Key topics are Earth Observation, Developing Space Tourism, Space Supply...
11 - 13 Aug 2026
Houston TX, USA
Participants will receive theoretical and hands-on training in electron imaging and X-ray spectroscopy for application...
11 - 12 Aug 2026
Canberra, Australia
"Leading Australia’s Space Future for Our Strategic Advantage". Southern Space 2026 brings together decision-makers who...
12 Aug 2026
Heliocentric Orbit
NASA craft surpasses another full year in space today, having launched Aug 12, 2018; probe...