India PSLV to Launch ISRO Cartosat-2C and 21 International Satellites

calendar feature - CartoSat

The India Space Research Organization operating its increasingly prolific and highly dependable Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is set for a major launch on Jun 20 of its own high-resolution Earth observation satellite and 21 secondary international payloads from Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India. The mission will fly as PSLV-C34 in the CA or “Core Alone” configuration which does not include the six strap-on boosters of the standard variant. The 690-kg Cartosat 2C satellite with Panchromatic Camera and multi-spectral instrument, is expected to provide very high definition imagery at resolutions down to 0.65-meter. It was built at the Space Application Centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad and certified for launch at the ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) at Bengaluru. It has been described by ISRO officials as ‘one of the bests eyes in the sky’ India has ever had. The launch will set a national record for the most satellites launched on a single rocket, with 21 international, academic and commercial secondary payloads including: LAPAN A3 of Indonesia; BIROS, BeeSat 4 of Germany; SKYSAT GEN 2-1, Planet Labs Flock-2x (1-12) of USA; and M3MSat, GHGSat-D of Canada among the many micro and nano sats on board. (Image Credit: ISRO)

MONDAY

Jun 13 — ISS, LEO: Expedition 47 to facilitate release of Cygnus CRS-6 on Tuesday, Exp. 47/48 Change of Command set for Friday, Jeff Williams to become Commander, Malenchenko, Kopra & Peake to return to Earth, 16-cubic meter volume BEAM closed off for few weeks until next inspection by astronauts.

Jun 13 — Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), LEO: NASA satellite enters 5th year of operations in space today, launched 2012; investigating black holes a billion times more massive than Sun, how particles are accelerated to very high energy in active galaxies & elements in supernova remnants.

Jun 13 — Hayabusa 2, Asteroid 162173 Ryugu Trajectory: JAXA 590-kg, sample-return spacecraft now ~86 million km from Ryugu & 38 million from Earth with just over 2 minute communication delays, is traveling at 6.5 km/s and set to arrive at asteroid July 2018, return to Earth Dec 2020.

Jun 13 — Juno, Jupiter Trajectory: More than 2.822 billion km traveled, team preparing for July 4 orbit insertion maneuver / 35-minute burn of Juno main engine, slowing craft by 542 meters per second, media events & news briefings to be held Jun 16, Jun 30, Jul 4, Jul 5 with live coverage available.

Jun 13 Planetary Resources Inc., Redmond WA: NewSpace company, along with Deep Space Industries, is working on an agreement with Luxembourg government to co-fund asteroid survey missions and space-mining technology R&D; plans to have a constellation of 10 ‘Arkyd 100’ microsatellites in LEO by 2019; founders Eric Anderson, Peter Diamandis.

Jun 13 — ALE Company Ltd., Tokyo, Japan: Startup looking to produce Sky Canvas Project – the first human-made meteor shower / shooting stars on demand (perhaps for Tokyo Summer Olympics 2020) by launching satellite filled with ~500 to 1,000 “source particles” and releasing over Earth atmosphere; CEO Dr. Lena Okajima.

JUNE - AUGUST 2016 = All times

for terrestrial events in local time unless noted.

= All times for international terrestrial events in local time unless noted.

= All times for space events, and…

= All times for international space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time;’ Greenwich, England).


Weekly Planet Watch – Evening Planets: Mars (SE), Jupiter (SW), Saturn (SE); Morning Planets: Mercury (ENE), Uranus (E), Neptune (SE).

IPPW-13 Emphasizes Exploring the Solar System via In-Situ Missions

IPPW-13

The 2016 International Planetary Probe Workshop (IPPW-13) is being held June 13-17 at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel MD. More than 150 attendees including engineers, technologists, scientists and students will address the challenges and rewards of delivering space vehicles to other worlds in 8 focused sessions. Featured Speakers are (L-R, T-B) Alan Stern, (New Horizons PI), Ellen Stofan (NASA Chief Scientist), Jim Green (NASA Planetary Science Division), Franco Ongaro (ESA Director of Technical and Quality Management) and Steve Jurczyk (NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate). Robert Buchwald of Airbus DS will talk about “Prospecting and Returning Lunar Surface Samples with Volatiles.” Rich Otero of JPL will discuss “Mars 2020 Candidate Landing Site Case Study.” Research Scientist Sarag Saikia will speak on “All These Worlds Are Yours – Except Europa, Attempt No Landing There” during the airless bodies session. Future and potential missions being discussed are Mars 2020 lander / rover, ESA Phobos sample return, Saturn PRobe Interior and aTmosphere Explorer (SPRITE) and Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble Gases, Chemistry, and Imaging (DAVINCI). Venus science, missions planning and technologies are being investigated at the IPPW short course held June 11-12 and the 2016 Al Seiff Memorial Award will be given to Rob Manning of JPL. (Image Credit: IPPW, JHU/APL, NASA, Joel Kowsky, Aubrey Gemignani)

Jun 13 — Front Range Airport / Colorado Spaceport, Watkins CO: Hoping for approval from FAA as soon as this summer for horizontal launches allowing for space tourism, satellite launches, easier access to Space for CO; Spaceport Director David Ruppel; currently 10 FAA-licensed commercial spaceports in USA, 6 in planning or licensing stage.

Jun 13 — Lunar and Planetary Institute, Johnson Space Center, NASA, Barringer Meteor Crater AZ: Applications Due: Field Training and Research Program at Barringer Meteor Crater; to be held Sep 3-11.

Jun 13-15 — US Geological Survey, Astrogeology Science Center, Universities Space Research Association, Flagstaff AZ: Planetary Geologic Mappers Annual Meeting; chaired by David Williams of Arizona State University.

Jun 13-15 — NExSS, NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), Exoplanet Exploration Program (ExEP), Online: Preworkshop: Exoplanet Biosignatures Workshop Without Walls; workshop to be held Jul 27-29.

Jun 13-16 — Laboratory Astrophysics Division of American Astronomical Society, San Diego CA: 2016 Annual Laboratory Astrophysics Division of the AAS Meeting.

Jun 13-17 — Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL), Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA, Laurel MD: International Planetary Probe Workshop (IPPW-13).

Jun 13-17 — AIAA, Washington DC: AIAA Aviation and Aeronautics Forum and Exposition (AIAA AVIATION 2016); 8th AIAA Atmospheric and Space Environments Conference; at Washington Hilton.

Jun 13-17 — Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto, Japan: Yukawa International Seminar 2016: Quantum Matter, Spacetime and Information (YKIS2016).

Jun 13 — Moon: 6.7° SSE of Pleiades, 06:00.

Jun 13 — Apollo Asteroid 2015 XZ378: Near-Earth flyby (0.025 AU).

Continued from…

May 23 – Jul 29 — The Lunar and Planetary Institute, Johnson Space Center, NASA, Houston TX: Exploration Science Summer Intern Program.

May 29 – Jun 24 — Vatican Observatory, Castel Gandolfo, Italy: 2016 Summer School in Astrophysics: Water in the Solar System and Beyond.

Jun 5-18 — Science Center Pedro Pascual, Benasque, Spain: Astro-GR@Benasque: Dense Stellar Environments as a Probe of Astrophysics and General Relativity.

Jun 7-17 — Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA, Greenbelt MD: 4th Space Weather Bootcamp – REDI.

Jun 8-17 — United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, Vienna, Austria: 59th Session of Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space; at United Nations Office at Vienna.

Jun 12-15 — ESA, Cobham Gaisler Facility, Airbus, TESAT, Atmel, et al, Gothenburg, Sweden: 6th International Workshop on Analogue and Mixed-Signal Integrated Circuits for Space Applications.

Jun 12-16 — American Astronomical Society, San Diego CA: 228th Meeting of the AAS; at Hilton San Diego Bayfront.

Jun 12 – Jul 3 — Aspen Center for Physics, Aspen CO: Workshop: Testing the Laws of Gravity with Cosmological Surveys.

TUESDAY

Jun 14 — ISS, Cygnus OA-6 Release & Undocking, LEO: Orbital ATK resupply craft to be released from ISS, 13:30 UT live coverage available, and burn up in Earth atmosphere with waste from ISS.

Jun 14 — SpaceX, Launch Falcon 9 / Eutelsat 117 West B & ABS 2A, Cape Canaveral AFS FL: SpaceX to launch Eutelsat 117 West B & ABS 2A communications satellite, launch window 10:32-11:17.

Jun 14 — ESA, Noordwijk, The Netherlands: Failure Test and Operations Data Workshop (FADAT): Joint Design, Verification, and Operations Expertise to Improve Spacecraft Reliability and Performance.

Jun 14 — American Astronomical Society, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, European Southern Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, San Diego CA: AAS Splinter Session: North American ALMA Development Program.

Jun 14-15 — Royal Society, London, United Kingdom: Meeting: Cometary Science after Rosetta.

Jun 14-17 — Keck Institute from Space Studies, Pasadena CA: Workshop: Methane on Mars – Part II.

Jun 14-17 — CU-Boulder, Goddard Spaceflight Center, NASA, Boston MA: MAVEN science-team meeting; at Boston University.

Jun 14 — Moon: 5.1° NNE of Spica, 15:00.

WEDNESDAY

NET Jun 15 — Blue Origin, Kent WA: Preparing New Shepard vehicle for 4th flight before end of this month to increase vehicle accuracy and test capsule safety / landing with deliberately failed parachute.

Jun 15 — British Interplanetary Society, London, United Kingdom: Lecture: Reusable Launch Vehicles? Dr. Bob Parkinson of BIS.

Jun 15 — Moon: At apogee (distance 404,558 km), 02:00.

Jun 15 — Apollo Asteroid 382758 (2003 GY): Near-Earth flyby (0.079 AU).

THURSDAY

Jun 16 — Arianespace, Launch Ariane 5 / EchoStar 18 & BRIsat, Kourou, French Guiana: Arianespace to launch Ariane 5 ECA rocket, designated VA230, to deploy EchoStar 18 and BRIsat communications satellites.

Jun 16 — 1st Woman in Space 53rd Observation, Global: Public events and commemorations occur to honor the first woman to fly in Space, Valentina Tereshkova of the former Soviet Union; in 1963 Tereshkova orbited Earth 49 times in Vostok 6.

Jun 16, 17 — Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech/NASA, Pasadena CA: von Kármán Lecture Series 2016: 2015-2016 El Niño Winter and California Water: What did we see from space? with Tom Painter, Tom Farr, Jay Famiglietti, Duane Waliser.

Jun 16-17 — University College London Department of Space & Climate Physics, Mullard Space Science Laboratory, London, United Kingdom: Conference: Cometary Science After Rosetta – Future Directions.

Jun 16 — Aten Asteroid 2002 LT38: Near-Earth flyby (0.070 AU).

FRIDAY

Jun 17 — ISS, Undocking of Soyuz TMA-19M / ISS 45S, LEO: Expedition 46/47 members Timothy Peake, Yuri Malenchenko, Timothy Kopra scheduled to return to Earth, undock at 05:51 UT live coverage available, will land near Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan after ~3.5-hour journey.

Jun 17 — AIAA San Francisco Section, San Carlos CA: 2016 AIAA-SF Annual Banquet; networking, local aerospace business tabling, dinner, guest speaker, at Hiller Aviation Museum.

Jun 17 — British Interplanetary Society, Online / London, United Kingdom: Abstracts Due: 14th Reinventing Space Conference (RIspace); held Oct 24-27 at Royal Society.

Jun 17 — Moon: 6.9° NNE of Mars, 03:00.

SATURDAY

Jun 18 — 1st American Woman in Space 33rd Observation, Nationwide USA / Global: Celebrating the first American woman to fly in Space, Sally Ride of USA on Space Shuttle Challenger STS-7 mission.

Jun 18 — Moon: 9.6° N of Antares, 11:00; 3.2° N of Saturn, 15:00.

Jun 18 — Mercury: 3.8° NNW of Aldebaran, 21:00.

SUNDAY

Jun 19 — ESA, Paris, France: European Interparliamentary Space Conference / European Space Agency: Space for Sustainability Award; European students and young professionals present innovative ideas on sustainable development of space for society.

Jun 19 — NSS Chicago Society for Space Studies (CSSS), Schaumburg IL: Prospects for Interstellar Travel – Chicago Meeting; featuring David Raske formerly of Argonne National Laboratory & a veteran of the Apollo program, at Schaumburg Township District Library.

Jun 19 – Jul 10 — Aspen Center for Physics, Aspen CO: Workshop: Emergence, Evolution and Effects of Black Holes in the Universe – The Next 50 Years of Black Hole Physics.

Jun 19 — Venus: 0.41° S of M35, 05:00.