November 27 – December 3, 2017 / Vol 36, No 48 / Hawai`i Island, USA

Soyuz Launch of Meteor M2-1 from Vostochny Cosmodrome, Pacific Russia

Roscosmos Soyuz 2-1B rocket with Fregat upper stage to lift the Meteor M2-1 weather monitoring satellite into polar orbit November 28 at 14:41:46 local time. Meteor-M 2-1 is a 2,778-kg global weather research platform for monitoring the ozone layer, ocean surface temperatures, ice conditions in polar regions on Earth and the radiation environment in near-Earth space — part of a series of satellites developed around the Resurs-UKP bus by Moscow-based VNIIEM. Also on the manifest are 18 secondary payloads including Baumanets-2, Scout, SEAM, AISSat-3, CubeBel-1, multiple Dove Flock-2, Lemur-2 and Lemur-3 satellites. This is only the second launch from Russia’s newly redeveloped Pacific region Spaceport 600-800 km inland in the far east of the country. Vostochny Cosmodrome is designed as the deep space exploration hub of the future for Russia, easing reliance on access to former Soviet facilities at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. There are plans to upgrade infrastructure at Vostochny to accommodate super-heavy class rockets for interplanetary spacecraft and Vladimir Putin has expressed interest in international cooperation on various activities, as well as efforts to jointly explore Moon and Mars. The second phase of construction is projected to require US$636M, while the first liftoff of the Angara-A5M Heavy rocket from the PU1 launch pad is scheduled for 2021. (Images Credit: Roscosmos, VNIIEM, Planet, UTIAS, Spire, BMSTU)

MONDAY

Nov 27-29 — Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI), Daejeon, Korea: East Asia ALMA Science Workshop 2017.

Blue Origin Rocket Facility Readying for December Opening at Kennedy Space Center

Cutting-edge upgrades to Kennedy Space Center and the 299-acre Exploration Park include the 750,000-sq ft. Blue Origin facility on Space Commerce Way aiming for a grand opening before December 20. The new facility will be responsible for manufacturing and testing 2-stage and 3-stage New Glenn rockets prior to launching from Complex 36 with plans to reach orbit NET 2020. New Glenn reusable first stage utilizes 7 BE-4 methane / oxygen engines providing 17.1 Meganewton thrust. Six orbital launches have been contracted so far: five for OneWeb and one for Eutelsat. Founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin 260,000-sq ft. Headquarters on 26 acres is also expanding its office, manufacturing and warehouse space. It intends to build an engine manufacturing facility in ‘Rocket City’ Huntsville AL to support BE-4 production needed to supply ULA Vulcan rockets. The New Shepard reusable suborbital systems are tested and flown at the Culberson County, Texas site. The third propulsion module New Shepard (NS3) capsule is the first to contain real windows and an initial flight test is expected before end of 2017. NS4 will carry the first test pilots in 2018. The next project is New Armstrong, an even larger booster capable of lunar missions. Bezos has also proposed Blue Moon lunar lander to deliver cargo to Moon South Pole to support human settlement. (Image Credit: Blue Origin)

Nov 27 – Dec 1 — ESA, Belgian Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence, Space Weather Working Team, Brussels, Belgium: 14th European Space Weather Week.

Nov 27 – Dec 1 — Knowledge4Innovation, Ostend, Belgium: 9th European Innovation Summit.

Nov 27 — Amor Asteroid 2017 VX14: Near-Earth Flyby (0.068 AU).

Continued from…

Oct 21 – Dec 4 — Johnson Space Center, NASA, Houston TX: Campaign 4: Mission 3 – Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA 2017); 45 day analog spaceflight / Moon / Mars mission.

NET Dec – Feb 2018 — CNSA, Tiangong-1 Earth Atmosphere Reentry, LEO: China 1st Space Lab to disintegrate during Earth atmosphere reentry; predicted reenter between 43°N and 43°S latitudes during this time frame.

TUESDAY

Nov 28 — Roscosmos State Corporation, Launch Soyuz / Meteor M2-1 (MS-08), Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia: Russia Soyuz rocket to launch Meteor M2-1 polar-orbiting weather satellite and secondary payloads including Earth observation CubeSats for Planet and Spire at 14:41:46 local time.

Nov 28 — Lunar and Planetary Society, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ: LPL Colloquium: Physical Properties of the Trans-Neptunian Objects; Audrey Thirouin of Lowell Observatory, 15:45.

Nov 28 — British Interplanetary Society, London, United Kingdom: Lecture: The Fermi Paradox; featuring Alistair Scott, Gerry Webb, Dave Gifford, Alan Bond, many others; 10:00-16:30.