February 6-12, 2017 / Vol 36, No 6 / Hawai`i Island, USA

20th Commercial Space Transportation Conference Expecting 300 Attendees

The Federal Aviation Administration and Commercial Spaceflight Federation are holding the 20th Annual Commercial Space Transportation Conference February 7-8 in Washington DC. Alan Stern (L), Chairman of the Board for CSF, will give a welcome and keynote introduction, followed by George Nield (C) and Eric Stallmer (R). Featured speakers include George Whitesides (Virgin Galactic), Michael Huerta (FAA), Bill Gerstenmaier (NASA), Ariane Cornell (Blue Origin), Phil Larson (SpaceX) and Mike Gold (SSL). The “Spaceports – A Roadmap Upwards” Panel will highlight major issues facing the spaceport community with Craig Campbell of Alaska Aerospace, Steve Howard of Camden County, Jim Kuzma of Space Florida, Dan Hicks of Spaceport America and Dale Nash of Virginia Space. There are currently 10 active launch site operators in USA, 12 launch licenses for 6 companies, and to date 253 total licensed commercial launches have occurred since 1989. This year SpaceX is planning to debut the Falcon Heavy rocket, launch multiple Dragon CRS missions / other payloads on Falcon 9. Blue Origin testing New Shepard VTVL system, under FAA active experimental permit, will continue this year in Texas, hopefully leading to human test flights by the end of 2017. Virgin Galactic VSS Unity completed its first free flight late last year. Orbital ATK Antares rocket is scheduled to launch Cygnus ISS resupply missions starting in July. World View Enterprises is working toward near-space (30-km altitiude) balloon flights for tourists. It won the classification as a launch vehicle and will need launch licenses for its commercial missions. (Imaged Credit: FAA, CSF, Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, SpaceX, World View Enterprises, Orbital ATK, NASA)

MONDAY

Feb 6 — Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ: Lecture: The Journey to the Extreme; Dr. Feryal Ozel, Professor of Astronomy and Physics, University of Arizona, 19:00.

Feb 6-7 — Caltech, JPL, Pasadena CA: Meeting: Critical Measurements in Martian Geobiology with Mars-2020 – Finding Signs of Past Rock-Hosted Life.

3rd Space Environment and Kibo Utilization Workshop Organized by APRSAF in Bangkok, Thailand

The Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF) is collaborating with local Thai organizations Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) and National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) as well as the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to hold the Space Environment and Kibo Utilization Workshop Feb 9-10 at the Vayupak Convention Center in northern Bangkok, Thailand. This Workshop, co-chaired by Kritsachai Somsaman of NSTDA and Fumiaki Tanigaki of JAXA, provides leading edge information on microgravity experimentation and various other fields of space research with the intention of encouraging utilization of experimental capacity provided by Kibo. The Japan Experimental Module aka “Kibo” is the largest single International Space Station module with total mass over 24,000kg. It was provided by Japan to advance science research on orbit and consists of 6 major elements: Pressurized Module, Exposed Facility, Experiment Logistics Module-Pressurized Section, Experiment Logistics Module-Exposed Section, Japanese Experiment Module Remote Manipulator System, and Inter-orbit Communication System. APRSAF in its 25th year of operations to enhance space activities in the Asia-Pacific region includes participation of Space agencies, governmental bodies, private companies, universities, and research institutes from 45 countries and regions as well as 28 international organizations. (Image Credit: APRSAF, JAXA, GISTDA)

Feb 6-10 — Federal University of Rio Grande, Sao Paulo, Brazil: International Workshop on Spectral Stellar Libraries; at Orotour Hotel.

Feb 6 — Apollo Asteroid 2017 BG30: Near-Earth Flyby (0.006 AU).

Feb 6 — Apollo Asteroid 459872 (2014 EK24): Near-Earth Flyby (0.060 AU).

Feb 6 — Moon: At perigee (distance 368,817 km) 03:59.

Continued from…

Jan 9 – Feb 10 — International Space University, Adelaide, Australia: 2017 Southern Hemisphere Space Studies Program; at Mawson Lakes Campus, University of South Australia.

Jan 30 – Feb 10 — United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, Vienna, Austria: 54th session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee.

Feb 3-8 — American Astronautical Society Rocky Mountain Section, Ball Aerospace & Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Breckenridge CO: 40th Annual AAS Guidance & Control Conference; at Beaver Run Resort.

TUESDAY

Feb 7 — Cornell University, Ithaca NY: Lecture: The Past, Present, and Future of 21cm Cosmology; Adrian Liu from UC Berkeley Department of Astronomy, 16:00.

Feb 7 — SETI Institute, Mountain View CA: Lecture: Stellar occultations of planetary rings: from Palomar to Cassini; Phil Nicholson from Cornell, 12:00.

Feb 7-8 — Federal Aviation Administration, Commercial Spaceflight Federation, Washington DC: 20th Annual Commercial Space Transportation Conference; Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.