September 23-29, 2024 / Vol 43, No 39 / Hawai`i Island, USA

ISS Lively with Soyuz-MS 25 Undocking, Dragon Crew 9 Launch, Cargo Transfers, Science, Public Engagement  

The ISS is a full house with NASA Astronauts Michael Barratt, Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, Matthew Dominick, Jeanette Epps, Don Pettit, Barry Wilmore & Suni Williams, and Roscosmos Cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin, Oleg Kononenko, Alexey Ovchinin & Ivan Vagner. Three members of Expedition 71 will return to Earth in Soyuz MS-25 on September 23. Three days later on September 26, the launch of SpaceX Dragon Crew-9 with two members will then bring total number of people in orbit to 12 (9 aboard ISS and 3 on Tiangong). The record for people above the Kármán line was set last week with 19 spacefarers. Joining the team will be Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov from the originally selected Dragon Crew-9. The other two members left on Earth for future reassignment are Stephanie Wilson and Zena Cardman (who has yet to fly), to facilitate the return to Earth of Boeing Starliner CST-100 crew Wilmore and Williams in Dragon 9 next February. Data from the uncrewed Starliner capsule return is being reviewed for future improvements, while the undocking, deorbiting and landing at White Sands Space Harbor, New Mexico was deemed successful (and seemingly safe despite thruster, helium leak and other issues). With the new Dragon 9 arrival there will be 7 visiting vehicles attached to ISS: two Crew Dragon, two Soyuz, and three cargo ships: two Progress and one Cygnus-21. (Image credits: ISS Partners, NASA, SpaceX, Roscosmos)

MONDAY 

☆ Sep 23 — International Space Station, ~415-km LEO: Expedition 71 ten Astronauts and Boeing Starliner CST-100 two members to bid farewell to Soyuz MS-25 cosmonauts Chub and Kononenko and NASA Astronaut Dyson, set to depart today by undocking at 04:37 EDT and land with parachute assist near Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan at 08:00 EDT; Kononenko hands ISS command to NASA Astronaut Williams for Expedition 72, which begins at undocking; Kononenko holds the world record for most number of days in orbit, 1,111.

☆ Sep 23 — Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: CMSA continues public interest / engagement by sharing videos of Shenzhou 18 three-member crew performing experiments, maintaining station and exercising; crew will return to Earth in about 1 month.

o Sep 23-25 — Space Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: SPACEBOUND 2024; 3rd annual conference, features special guest speaker Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen and industry / government leaders for presentations / networking.

TUESDAY

★ Sep 24 — SpaceX, Launch Falcon 9 Block 5 / Starlink Group 9-8, LC-39A, Vandenberg SFB CA: Sending more mega-constellation satellites to LEO for space-based Internet communication system, launch cost ~US$52M; local viewing locations, 08:48 PDT.

● Sep 24 — American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Online: Webinar: Active Manifold and Model Order Reduction to Accelerate Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization; 17:00 GMT, Free.

☾ = Moon activity

★ = Space and… ☆ = International space / astro events; in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time’).

Premier Canada Conference Frames Accomplishments of our North American Neighbor

Convening September 23-25, Spacebound Conference 2024 has partners and sponsors that are peak companies towards Canada contribution for space and lunar missions. Spacebound will hold 11 topics in multiple sessions, including Empowering the Private Sector, Global Partnerships and The Potential of the New Space Economy. Keynote speeches will be given by Canada Pacific Economic Development Agency Minister Harjit Sajjan and Lisa Campbell, President of the Canadian Space Agency. One of the four current, active Canadian Space Agency astronauts, Jeremy Hansen, will be the Special Guest Speaker. Hansen was selected to be part of the Artemis 2 Moon fly-by mission occurring NET September 2025. Spacebound partner MDA Space just joined Starlab Space to help develop a commercial space station, continues construction of the Canadarm3 for the Lunar Gateway under a Can$1B contract, and is working with National Research Council of Canada on radio telescope technology for the Square Kilometre Array Observatory. Another partner of the conference, TELESAT, is working with Can$2.54B for Telesat Lightspeed Low Earth Orbit broadband satellite constellation. Conference sponsor Maritime Launch broke ground in 2022 for Canada’s first commercial spaceport near Canso in Nova Scotia. The company will be licensed to launch vehicles with payloads up to 5,000 kg. Canada is active in its Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program (LEAP), which has a total budget of Can$150M over 5 years for technology development, specifically for the Moon, which is the first step into the Solar System. (Image credits: Space-Canada.ca, Harjit Sajjan, CSA, MDA Space, Maritime Launch)

● Sep 24-25 — Space Information Sharing & Analysis Center (Space ISAC), The Aerospace Corporation, Colorado Springs CO: 5th annual Value of Space Summit, 2024 Space ISAC VOSS-V.

● Sep 24-26 — NASA’s Planetary ReaCH project, Boys & Girls Club of Burbank (CA) and Greater East Valley, Burbank CA: Culturally Inclusive Planetary Engagement.

● Sep 24 – Oct 10 — American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Online: Isotope Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry Workshop.

☾ Sep 24 — Moon: At last quarter, 08:51; 4.4° N of M35 cluster, 10:00.

☆ Sep 24 — Aten Asteroid 2020 GE: Near-Earth Flyby (0.004 AU)

WEDNESDAY

● Sep 25 — International Astronautical Federation, Online: Seminar to familiarize IAC 2024 attendees with Space Security / Sustainability sessions to occur October 14-18 in Milan, 03:00-03:45 HDT.

o Sep 25-28 — Adriatic Aerospace Association, Ruđer Bošković Institute, FabLab Sarajevo, Brijuni Island, Croatia: The Brijuni Conference on Space Safety.

☾ Sep 25 — Moon: 4.9° N of Mars, 04:00, 5.0° S of Castor, 19:00.

☆ Sep 25 — Apollo Asteroid 2024 RK7: Near-Earth Flyby (0.045 AU)

THURSDAY 

★ Sep 26 — SpaceX, Launch Falcon 9 Block 5 / Dragon Crew-9, LC-40, Cape Canaveral SFS FL: Half of original Crew Dragon (Hague and Gorbunov) to ISS; will return February 2025 with Wilmore and Williams, who arrived on Starliner CST-100; launch cost ~US$52M, local viewing sites, launch 02:05 EDT.

● Sep 26 — American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Online: Legal and Policy Aspects of Lunar Mining; presentation by Dr Antonino Salmeri of Lunar Policy Platform plus live Q&A, 21:00 Hawaii Time; those registered prior to the event will receive link to a recording.