January 23-29, 2017 / Vol 36, No 4 / Hawai`i Island, USA

Commemorating Space Explorers with an Eye Toward Future Horizons

Pioneering Astronauts and adventurers who paved the way for Humans to become Multi World Species, guide us toward the Stars and inspire Nations, are being honored this week on Earth and in Space. The 50th observation of Apollo 1 crew members Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee lost during a launch pad test occurs Jan 27. The 31st observation of Challenger STS-51L loss of Francis “Dick” Scobee, Michael Smith, Christa McAuliffe (1st ‘Teacher in Space’), Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnick, Ronald McNair and Gregory Jarvis is Jan 28. And the 14th observation of Columbia STS-107 loss of Richard Husband, Laurel Clark, Ilan Ramon (‘1st Israeli Astronaut’), William McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown and Kalpana Chawla (‘1st Indian American astronaut’ and ‘1st Indian woman in space’) is Feb 1. As the date nears July 20, 2019 – the 50th observation of Apollo 11 / Humanity’s Greatest Advance – international entities are building giant rockets, reusable technologies, Human-rated capsules; preparing Astronauts for LEO, Moon and Mars, and tourists for suborbital trips. Over-arching foundation and legal frameworks set up by the United Nations Outer Space Treaty (which reaches its 50th anniversary this year) will be put to the test more frequently as international commercial space / lunar / asteroid activities, exploration and mining accelerate. (Image Credit: NASA, New Worlds Conference, JPL, Caltech)

MONDAY

Jan 23 — SETI Institute, Mountain View CA: Weekly Colloquium: Exocomets: Now you see them, now you don’t; Barry Welsh of UC Berkeley, 12:00.

ISS in 2017: Advancing Humans in Space with Dragon CRS10, EVAs and Other Activities

A Falcon 9 two-stage rocket with cluster of 9 Merlin Engines generating 7,607 kN thrust at sea level is scheduled to launch Feb 8 carrying Dragon CRS-10 to the International Space Station. The US$61.2M list price per launch Falcon 9 rocket is claimed as the 1st space launch system completely developed in the 21st Century. It will also deploy the SAGE III Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment mission for NASA, a key part of the effort to provide crucial, long-term measurements to help humans understand and care for Earth’s atmosphere. ISS has 4 crewed missions and up to another 13 uncrewed robotic arrivals on the manifest for 2017. Soyuz MS-04 is scheduled March 11 with Expedition 51 Fyodor Yurchikhin, Jack Fischer; MS 05 May 29 Exp. 52 Sergey Ryazansky, Randy Bresnik, Paolo Nespoli; MS-06 Sep 12 Exp. 53 Mark Vande Hei, Alexander Misurkin; and MS-07 Nov 30 Exp 54 Scott Tingle, Alexander Skvortsov, Norishige Kanai. SpaceX Crew Dragon is set to arrive August on a demonstration mission. Early 2017 should see EVAs 40 & 41 in March, as well as QB-50, TechEdSat-5, Lemur-2 CubeSat Deployment. ISS could serve as a launch pad for the ‘Cislunar Super highway’ accelerating human exploration of Solar System Complete in the 21st Century. (Image Credit: SpaceX, NASA)

Jan 23-27 — ESA, Madrid, Spain: Workshop: Ices in the Solar System; at European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC).

Jan 23-27 — Sexten Center for Astrophysics, INAF, ASI, Sexten, Italy: Conference: Beyond the Solar Neighborhood: Entering into the GAIA Era.

Continued from…

NET Jan – Nov — ExoMars 2016 Orbiter, Mars Orbit: ESA Trace Gas Orbiter scheduled to enter Aerobraking phase from Jan-Nov to enter 400-km orbit; set to adjust orbit inclination to 74° on Jan 17.

Jan 8-27 — National Autonomous University of Mexico, Puebla, Mexico: Latin American School of Astronomical Observations.

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

Jan 22-26 — American Meteorological Society, Seattle WA: 97th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS).

TUESDAY

Jan 24 — JAXA, Launch H-2A / DSN 2, Tanegashima Space Center, Japan: Japan H-2A rocket to launch DSN 2 military communications satellite for the Japanese Ministry of Defense.

Jan 24 — Silicon Valley Space Center, Santa Clara CA: TechTalk: Regional Sky Traffic; Brien Seeley, president of the Sustainable Aviation Foundation; 18:30-21:00, at Hacker Dojo.