Vol 44, No 39: Lunar Broadcast Precursor: Terrestrial Edition
The 76th IAC runs September 29 to October 3 at International Convention Centre Sydney, drawing ~7,000 delegates from 100+ nations. Organized by International Astronautical Federation (IAF) since 1950, this edition has theme Sustainable Space: Resilient Earth. With 4,100 research abstracts accepted from 6,400 submissions and over half of the attendees being under the age of 35, IAC2025 highlights Asia-Pacific innovation, youth engagement and cross-industry ties. Plenaries include One-to-One with Heads of Space Agencies – which includes ESA, CSA, NASA, ISRO, JAXA, CNSA, many others – and The International Community’s Return to the Moon with Blue Ghost Chief Engineer Will Coogan and Ben Greenhagen of JHU-APL. A ‘Special Session’ is on the Artemis Accords. Bernard Foing gives Symposium Keynote Space Renaissance for All. Speakers include Lunar Outpost Founder / CEO Justin Cyrus, Vast CEO Max Haot on Commercial Success in Space, Philip Diamond of the Square Kilometre Array Observatory, Eric Salwan of Firefly Aerospace, Angel Abbud-Madrid on space resource utilization and Quentin Parker on space computing. ‘Technical Programme’ includes Sophia Casanova (ispace) on Tenacious lunar rover. Oct 4 Public Space Day expects 5,000+ for Astronaut meet-and-greets. 250 exhibitors foster Indo-Pacific, Asia partnerships for space sustainability, exploration, technology. There are many official adjacent events. (Image Credits: IAC)
Day of Action to Save NASA Science is being called this year by founder The Planetary Society and 10 additional organizations, including from the American Space Movement: American Astronautical Society, American Geophysical Union, AIAA and National Space Society. With expectation for a Continuing Resolution, preparation on Oct 5 leads to meetings Oct 6 in Washington DC congressional offices to lobby for NASA appropriations. US$25B for NASA is a high-return investment, generating 300,000+ jobs, ~US$75B in economic impact and ~US$9B in taxes, while costing only ~0.4% of USA total budget. Incredible space telescopes and crafts like Perseverance, Juno, Cassini and Voyager advance understanding of our Solar System, interstellar space, galaxies and more. Satellites enable GPS and assist disaster response and farmers. 2,000+ NASA science spinoffs include memory foam, water purification technology and LEDs. NASA-backed Blue Origin project provides cleaner solar-cell manufacturing, with hopes to do it on Moon to cut landing costs ~60%. ISS 25-year multinational hub fosters microgravity research for medical advances and enables a path toward Moon exploration. Buzz Aldrin praises the inspiration of NASA spaceflight. If the DoD and NASA each received US$0.5T, the exponential gains could take humans half-way through Solar System if not the Galaxy. (Image Credits: NASA)
International Space Station, ~415-km LEO: Expedition 73 seven-member crew is set to continue through December 2025 under command of Sergey Ryzhikov (Roscosmos); crew is focusing on science research, maintenance, tech demos including eye exams, upgrading computer networking gear and unpacking ~5,000 kg of cargo from Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo mission (CRS-23).
Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: Shenzhou 20 three-member crew performing exercises related to bodily conditioning for return to Earth (planned at end of Oct), working with experiments involving artificial brain models, high-temperature superconducting materials, and live outreach sessions with students; checking results of recent space debris installations after 6-hour EVA last week.
Lunar News: Weekly lunar advisories [coming soon]
Near-Earth Objects Close Approaches – Tues Sep 30: Apollo Asteroid 2025 SA3 (0.017 AU); Wed Oct 1: Apollo Asteroid 2025 QL23 (0.018 AU); Sun Oct 5: Apollo Asteroid 2018 SP1 (0.033 AU).
First Women Land on the Moon in…
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During this prototype R&D period, the Forum aims to verify the scientific objectives of the payload and ground testing operations for the Chang'E-8 lunar mission and to facilitate the exchange between the payload researchers and scientists. Co-organized by Institute of Optoelectronics and the Chinese Academy of Sciences and its National […]
The Solar System in Context Toward an interconnected perspective on the formation and evolution of the Solar System, exoplanetary systems, and their stars. Main Topics Disks, Stellar Evolution, Planet-Star Connections, (Exo)Planets, Planetary Demographics, Habitability, Planet Formation, Migration, & Evolution, Rocky Small Bodies, (Exo)Moons, Active Asteroids & (Exo)Comets, Interstellar Objects, Instrumentation & […]
Over 100 law schools from five global regions participate, held concurrently with 76th IAC.
Expecting 4,500+ delegates; Jeff Bezos to be given World Space Award.
Sub-orbital launch under Rocket Lab Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE) program for USA government payload. Estimated launch cost: US$6,000,000.
ROSES-25 A.10 INNOVATE Preproposal Conference September 30, at 2 pm Eastern Time. ROSES-2025 A.10 INNOVATE solicits proposals to rapidly advance the use of satellite observations of Earth to efficiently support the U.S. economy, national security, and other applications relevant to NASA's Earth Science to Action Strategy. This opportunity is open to […]
Evening Town Hall meeting of the Los Angeles Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; with Jonathan Arenberg, Northrop Grumman Fellow and Chief Mission Architect for Science and Robotic Exploration, Fellow of the International Optics and Photonics Society, SPIE, and an Associate Fellow of AIAA; Moderator is Jeff […]
US$1,000,000 award; astrophysics categories include planetary science, 9 others.
The 3rd of 3 launches for Amazon Kuiper low Earth orbit satellite internet constellation.
All ages welcome! Come and join your colleagues and friends in the aerospace profession in a relaxed atmosphere. Network over a pitcher of beer and schnitzel. AIAA-SF will provide the first round of drinks and appetizers. Let's exchange ideas, and talk about what everybody is doing, and what's happening in Aerospace. […]
Dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the 1st planetarium.
Another batch of 28 satellites for SpaceX Starlink internet communications mega-constellation.
For observation, appreciation, understanding of the Moon / its connection to planetary science / exploration; 1st quarter Moon is best time due to shallow angle of sunlight that illuminates details.
IAC Adjacent Event; includes live demo of lunar habitat construction; at University of New South Wales Kensington
48-hour hackathon in French and English for space enthusiasts, programmers, designers, engineers, entrepreneurs and students; 2800+ local events and online
Celebrating international contributions of space science for betterment of the human condition; Oct 4 is 68th observation of 1st Space mission Sputnik One launched by Soviet Union 1957; Oct 10 is 58th observation of Outer Space Treaty going into effect 1967.
2nd annual ROBOPALOOZA.space festival will take place at the Australian Automation and Robotics Precinct (AARP), feature Student and Business Innovation Pitch Battles, IEEE Telepresence Competition with US$5,000 prize that was won last year by team from Perth. Theme: SPACE + ROBOTS + ROCK N' ROLL
To facilitate meetings between individuals and their elected officials to push back against proposed cuts to NASA science funding in FY 2026; at United States Capitol Building. Preparation on Oct 5; meetings on Oct 6.
2nd international conference on astronomy in culture, astrochemistry, astrobiology, astrogeology, archaeoastronomy.
Purpose and Scope This hybrid workshop will feature invited and contributed presentations aimed at studies of returned samples from Bennu (OSIRIS-REx mission) and Ryugu (Hayabusa2 mission), and perspectives on future asteroidal sample return. In the past five years, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx and JAXA’s Hayabusa2 missions have made history by returning the […]