A Shining Beacon of International Collaboration for Science and Peace

Dragon Crew-11 headed to ISS July 31 with Commander Zena Cardman, Pilot Edward “Mike” Fincke, Cosmonaut Oleg Vladimirovich Platonov and JAXA Astronaut Kimiya Yui. Current astronauts are Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers and Jonny Kim from NASA, Takuya Onishi from JAXA, and Kirill Peskov, Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky from Roscosmos. ISS is in its 24th year of continuous Human occupation, with 4,000+ science projects completed after proposals from 108+ countries. They are using a 3D bioprinter to mimic human tissue, conducting stem cell studies, researching artificial retinas to help people with retinitis pigmentosa, and manufacturing ZBLAN optical fiber in microgravity as that eliminates imperfections arising in Earth fabrication. ZBLAN fiber improves transmission. Tiangong Space Station (TSS), in its 5th year of continuous Human occupation, is expected to reach at least 10 years. Plans are in the works for international and commercial crew and for expansion of the station. Current taikonauts on the station are Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie, and they are studying adaptability of ancient microbes to radiation and weightlessness, as well as testing high-strength steel and tungsten alloys with TSS equipment able to cool atoms to ultra-low temperatures. American Astronautical Society announced they hoped to hold an online-only version of the cancelled ISSRD conference. (Credits: TSS above Earth-CNSA; Kayla Barron with chili peppers-NASA; Mark Vande in ISS cupola-NASA)

MONDAY

☆ Jul 28 — International Space Station, ~415-km LEO: Expedition 73 seven members expect to greet 4 Crew-11 astronauts arriving on July 31 who are to study plant cell division, bacteria-killing viruses and human stem cells, and meanwhile are continuing the Bone on ISS study and CIPHER suite of 14 human research experiments; McClain, Ayers, Onishi and Peskov of Crew-10 preparing their return to terra firma.

☆ Jul 28 — Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: Shenzhou 20 three-member crew are using a 130kg core exercise device that arrived on Tianzhou 9 spacecraft along with human-cell biology experiments for heart-cell revitalization and anti-aging, and 2 with stem cells: from bone marrow mesenchyme and pluripotents to build miniature brain-like organoid models.

☾ Jul 28 — Moon Enterprise News: Weekly lunar advisories coming soon…

☆ Jul 28 — i-Space, Launch Hyperbola-1 / Unknown Payload, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China: Orbital rocket.

● Jul 28 — JHU APL, Laurel MD: Mini-conference for Europa ICONS program; pairing Europa Clipper science team members with undergraduate students for 10-week internship (intern stipend US$12,000).

● Jul 28-29 — National Academies of Science and Engineering, Irvine CA: Key Non-Polar Destinations Across the Moon to Address Decadal-level Science Objectives with Human Explorers: Meeting No. 2.

● Jul 28-31 — NASA, Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, American Astronautical Society, Seattle WA: 2025 International Space Station Research and Development Conference (ISSRDC 2025); Canceled.

● Jul 28-31 — Space Telescope Science Institute, Johns Hopkins University, NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, Washington DC: Towards the Habitable Worlds Observatory: Visionary Science and Transformational Technology; at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center.

● Jul 28-31 — Aerospace States Association (ASA), Virginia VA: 33rd ASA Annual Meeting and 6th State Aerospace Policy Summit.

☾ Jul 28 — Moon: 1.16° SSW of Mars, 09:00.

Habitable World Observatory Meeting Plans Next Steps for 2040s Search for Interstellar Planets

Space Telescope Science Institute, Johns Hopkins University and NASA Exoplanet Science Institute are holding “Towards the Habitable Worlds Observatory: Visionary Science and Transformational Technology” meeting on July 28-31 in Washington DC. Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) is the next NASA astrophysics flagship mission, drawing upon the legacy of Hubble, Webb and Roman Space Telescopes – potentially launching in early to mid-2040s. HWO will utilize ultraviolet, optical, and infrared technologies, and is planned to have a mirror large enough to find and study atmospheres of at least 25 potentially habitable worlds around other stars. There are over 5,000 confirmed exoplanets to date. Results from multiple HWO working groups will be showcased at this meeting with contributions from global astronomy and engineering communities. A livestream of plenary sessions will be available on the STScI Research YouTube Channel. Giada Arney from Goddard Space Flight Center will open the meeting with a talk on “Are we alone? The search for life with HWO”. Other speakers include Astronaut John Grunsfeld who repaired Hubble, Bruce Macintosh from UC Santa Cruz, Jean-Baptiste Ruffio UC San Diego, Xinfeng Xu from Northwestern University, and Tracy Becker of SwRI. The program also includes in-person and digital posters. HWO has made significant progress in the past year: NASA established a dedicated Technology Maturation Project Office at Goddard, which is collaborating with JPL, Ames and Marshall Centers. (Image credits: NASA, STSci, JHU, UC Santa Cruz)

TUESDAY

★ Jul 29 — SpaceX, Launch Falcon 9 / Starlink Group 10-29, SLC-40, Cape Canaveral SFS FL: Satellites for mega-constellation.

● Jul 29-31 — American Astronautical Society, Online / Springfield VA: Online-only version of cancelled ISS R&D Conference for presentation of 250+ submitted abstracts.

☆ Jul 29 — Southern Delta-Aquariids Meteor Shower Peak: Shower mostly visible in Southern Hemisphere, meteors appear to radiate from Aquarius constellation; may produce up to 25 meteors per hour with speed of ~41 km/sec.

WEDNESDAY

☆ Jul 30 — ISRO, Launch PSLV Mk 2 / NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR), 2nd Launch Pad, Satish Dhawan Space Center, India: Joint-developed dual-frequency NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) to SSO.

★ Jul 30 — SpaceX, Launch Falcon 9 / Starlink Group 13-4, SLC-4E, Vandenberg SFB CA: Satellites for mega-constellation.