December 6-12, 2021 / Vol 40, No 49 / Hawai`i Island, USA

Frequency of Private Astronauts Touring LEO / ISS at All Time High

Non-professional, private astronauts are pushing the rate of human space travel to an unprecedented level. Just 2 months after Russia actor Yuliya Peresild and cinema director Klim Shipenko shot film for a motion picture for the first time on the ISS, another pair of space tourists are taking the same journey – launching Dec 9 from Baikonur, Japan fashion merchant Yusaku Maezawa and video producer Yozo Hirano, accompanied by professional Cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, are booked through space tourism outfit Space Adventures. Preparing for spaceflight at Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center since June 14, Maezawa has shared “unusual training in Russia” regime utilizing a trampoline, spinning chair, inclined bed, and playing the racquet sport badminton on his twitter feed. Maezawa is gaining experience ahead of DearMoon, a proposed mission to take himself and up to 8 artists of various mediums around Earth’s Moon NET 2023, while in addition to documenting, Hirano is to conduct biomedical research in coordination with Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) at Baylor College of Medicine. The following day, 6 more non-professionals will break the 100-km Karman line (space as defined by FAI) on the 19th Blue Origin New Shepard launch, including Alan Shepard’s daughter Laura Shepard Churchley and media personality Michael Strahan as guests and 4 paying customers. If successful, these missions will mark 22 private space tourists in 2021, surpassing the number of professionals in space for first time. (Image Credits: NASA, Roscosmos, Twitter, Blue Origin)

MONDAY

Dec 6 — ISS, ~405-km LEO: Seven-member Expedition 66 to welcome 3 additional people; will remain crew of 10 for ~11 days; working with cargo from Soyuz MS-19, MS-20, Progress MS-18; planning in-flight event for ESA with German President.

Dec 6 — Tiangong Space Station, ~370-km LEO: Three-member crew of Shenzhou 13 performing various tests including microbial content of water; Wang Yaping preparing to give second class from space with input from students.

Highlights…
NewSpace: Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck reveals 2024 Neutron to be reusable / have booster touchdown on land; China commercial iSpace, Galactic Energy, Deep Blue Aerospace focus on space tourism, methalox propulsion, reusable launch systems, spaceplanes
Solar System: NAOC to release more data from Tianwen-1 mission after 200 gigabytes from 8 instruments being processed by scientists; Alice UV imaging spectrograph aboard New Horizons at ~52 AU in Kuiper Belt measuring brightness of faint regions in Milky Way Galaxy.
Galaxy: NASA machine learning algorithm ‘ExoMiner’ reveals 301 new exoplanets for study; University of Sydney, Breakthrough Initiatives, MIT and JPL collaborating on TOLIMAN space telescope to characterize Alpha Centauri system NET 2023.
Global: France and Mexico ‘indicate intention’ to join Artemis Accords; Egypt and South Korea discuss MoU for space cooperation, possibly tripartite with African nations; Pangea Aerospace of Spain partnering with DLR on aerospike engine development.
USA: VP Harris advances Space Policy Priorities Framework at National Space Council – now includes Secretaries of Interior, Education, Agriculture, and National Climate Advisor under Biden Executive Order; US$400M NASA award advances 3 commercial space station concepts.
Hawai’i: Solar winds interacting with oxygen-rich dust particles may explain Earth H₂O abundance, per analysis of Itokawa samples coauthored by UH Mānoa SOEST faculty; ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center starts ‘We Are Astronomers’ program.

Space-Based Astronomy to Reach New Peak with JWST Preparing for Launch

NASA, ESA, Canadian Space Agency co-developed US$10B James Webb Space Telescope may be on track for December 22 launch aboard Ariane 5 rocket, designated VA25 6, from Kourou, French Guiana. It will separate 26 minutes after launch, take ~1 month to arrive at Earth–Sun L2 Lagrange point 1.5M km from Earth, undergo a 6-month commission period and operate for >5.5 years. The 350-kg spacecraft bus supports 6,200-kg, 6.5-meter diameter Korsch telescope, and Integrated Science Instrument Module housing 4 science instruments and a guide camera. JSWT, which first started development in 1996, will observe in a lower frequency range than Hubble allowing for improved infrared resolution and sensitivity for astronomy and cosmology. It will collect data on the most distant events & objects nearly 13.5B years old, and potentially help characterize atmospheres of extrasolar planets. This 21st Century telescope will be joined by Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, set to launch Dec 9 on SpaceX Falcon 9. IXPE is a project between NASA and Italian Space Agency consisting of 3 space telescopes measuring polarization of cosmic X-rays from 540-km LEO, for at least 2 years. Other space telescope observances this week are ESA XMM-Newton reaching 22 full years in space on Dec 10; NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) beginning its 13th year in space Dec 14; and ESA Gaia at Sun-Earth L2 entering its 9th year Dec 19. (Image Credits: ESA, NASA, CSA-ASC, MSFC, JPL, Caltech)

Dec 6 — Rocket Lab,

Dec 6 — NASA, Online / Washington DC: 2021 astronaut candidates to be announced today 12:30 EST after selection from 12,000+ applications; with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, Pam Melroy, Vanessa Wyche, Norm Knight.

Dec 6-8 — Moon Village Association, Nicosia, Cyprus and Online: 5th Global Moon Village Workshop & Symposium.

Dec 6 — Moon: 1.88° SE of Venus, 16:00.

Dec 6 — Mars and Uranus: At heliocentric opposition, 01:00.

Dec 6 — Apollo Asteroid 2021 XE: Near-Earth Flyby (0.010 AU)

Dec 6 — Apollo Asteroid 2021 WE1: Near-Earth Flyby (0.014 AU)

Dec 6 — Apollo Asteroid 2021 WL2: Near-Earth Flyby (0.018 AU)

Dec 6 — Apollo Asteroid 2021 WM2: Near-Earth Flyby (0.021 AU)

Dec 6 — Apollo Asteroid 2021 VX7: Near-Earth Flyby (0.038 AU)

Continued From…

Nov 4 – Jun 29 — Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Biomedical Problems, NASA Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA), Moscow, Russia: Mixed gender crew of 6 participating in 8-month space / lunar simulation mission SIRIUS-21 (Scientific International Research In Unique Terrestrial Station).

Nov 29 – Dec 17 — NASA, U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Online / Huntsville AL: Design Review Presentations: NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge 2022.

TUESDAY

Dec 7 — Akatsuki, Venus Orbit: JAXA first successful planetary orbiter imaging Venus atmosphere, monitoring weather changes reaches 6 full years / enters 7th year at Venus today, reached Venus 2015.