Texas Emerging as Astronautical Hub of NewSpace Rocket Construction & Testing

Commonly known as the Lone Star State, properly the Friendship State, Texas is increasingly central to the USA space effort. Home to some 6,290 aerospace engineers, second only to California per U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, space enterprises new and legacy have established major operations in the geographically massive state. World launch mass leader SpaceX is still officially headquartered in Hawthorne CA; however, CEO Elon Musk has relocated himself and much of company operations to the SpaceX South Texas launch site near the southernmost tip of the state, 8 km from the Mexico border, dubbed ‘Starbase’. The largest rocket in history (Starship 20, 120 m) is being prepared at the site for first orbital test planned to land in the Pacific off the island of Kaua’i. Musk has declared ambitious plans for Starbase, including launch of human Mars missions. On the west side of Texas, 40 km north of Van Horn, Blue Origin Launch Site One ‘Corn Ranch’ sits on 668 km², famous for the July 20 New Shepard launch of both the oldest (Wally Funk, 82, TR) and youngest (Oliver Daemen, 18) people to reach space. Firefly Aerospace, recipient of $93.3M NASA CLPS contract, is developing Blue Ghost lunar lander from its HQ and 15,240 km² manufacturing facility in Cedar Park, 25 km north of downtown Austin in central Texas. (Image Credits: Elon Musk Via Twitter, Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau, Blue Origin, Firefly)

MONDAY

Aug 16-17 — National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, Online / Washington DC: Decadal Survey on Biological and Physical Sciences Research in Space 2023-2032 (Meeting #1).

Supporting SPD-1 / Artemis Missions: 10th Lunar Surface Science Workshop Focuses on Physical Sciences

Integrating input from science communities, commercial companies and NASA Divisions are Lunar Surface Science Workshops – now holding #10 Fundamental and Applied Lunar Surface Research in Physical Sciences August 18-19, online. Under Space Policy Directive-1, human lunar return at Moon South Pole 2024 and sustaining a Moon base by 2028, LSSWs work to preempt necessary tools, payloads, experiments and infrastructure to maximize science and exploration by Astronauts. This Workshop will see ~80 talks, 40 posters, 2 plenary, 2 breakout and 8 concurrent sessions. During Fundamental Physics Research session Jan Harms will talk about Lunar Gravitational Wave Antenna, Gerard van Belle on Optical Interferometer for Ultra-High-Resolution Astronomy from the Lunar Surface, Simone Dell’Agnello on MoonLIGHT + MPAc, Ashish Goel on Lunar Crater Radio Telescope, with others talking about neutron sensors, laser ablation / ionization mass spectrometry, and time & metrology on the lunar surface. Apollo 17 Astronaut Harrison Jack Schmitt will give a Keynote on Day 2 on Apollo Legacy, followed by Carle Pieters (Moon’s Properties and Its Geology), Kevin Cannon (Lunar Ice and Mapping), Zach Pirtle (CLPS) and Tony Colaprete (VIPER). Other presentations will discuss dusty plasma investigations with PmL Instrument on Luna-25 and New Shepard as a Suborbital Lunar-g Testbed. LSSW #11 Lunar Science Accomplished with a Robotic Arm Part 1 is set for September 9 followed by Part 2 Sep 30. (Image Credits: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Jack Burns, Univ. of CO – Boulder, Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay, GSFC)

Aug 16 — Moon: 4.4° NNE of Antares, 12:00; at perigee (distance 369,104 km), 23:20.

Aug 16 — Mars and Neptune: At heliocentric opposition, 03:00.

Continued From…

Jun 28 – Aug 27 — International Space University (ISU), Granada, Spain: ISU Space Studies Program 2021.

Aug 2 – Oct 31 — SpaceBase, Planet, Christchurch, New Zealand and Online: Space for Planet Earth Challenge; seeking innovative ideas from New Zealand, Australia, and Pacific Island residents at High School and University / Start-up level to address climate change through space technologies.

Aug 15-21 — Meteoritical Society, Chicago IL and Online: 84th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society.

TUESDAY

Aug 17 — Kappa Cygnids Meteor Shower Peak: Shower appears to line up in sky by Cygnus and star Kappa Cygni, typically produces slow (25 km/sec) mostly faint meteors 3-5 per hour with a few very bright.

Aug 17 — Lunar and Planetary Institute, Online / Houston TX: Seminar: Sharing Planetary Science: Addressing Controversial Topics; featuring LPI Education and Public Engagement team, 16:00 CDT.

Aug 17-18 — NASA, JHU / APL, Online: 2nd Parker Solar Probe Scholars Meeting.

Aug 17-19 — Chandra X-ray Center, Online / Cambridge MA: Chandra Data Science – Novel Methods in Computing and Statistics for X-ray Astronomy.

Aug 17-19 — National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, Online / Washington DC: Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032 Meeting #18.