India, Russia and Japan Craft Prepare to Join China Landers Operating on Moon

China will reach 10 years of continuous activity on the lunar surface December 14, and Chang’E-3/4 should finally have company at that time. ISRO Chandrayaan-3, now separated from propulsion module, is zeroing in on landing site ~20 km west of Manzinus U crater (69.368°S, 32.348°E). ISRO operators work to finish landing system firing tests from 153 x 163 km polar orbit ahead of 2 deorbiting maneuvers which will bring Chandrayaan-3 into an elliptical 30 x 100 km landing orbit. If all goes as anticipated, touchdown to occur NET August 23 at 12:17 UTC. Science instruments on Vikram lander which will be utilized over the 1-lunar day nominal mission (14-Earth days) include plasma density sensor RAMBHA, ChaSTE thermal sensor, ILSA seismometer, and a passive retroreflector array supplied by NASA, while Pragyan rover carries an X-ray spectrometer and a laser spectroscope. Roscosmos Luna-25 may already be in the vicinity when Chandrayaan-3 lands, having achieved lunar orbit insertion Aug 16 and targeting landing at 69.545°S, 43.544°E, ~50 km northeast of Boguslawsky crater NET Aug 21, 23:10 UTC. Luna-25 carries 8 instruments including STS-L panoramic / local imager, ARIES-L plasma sensor, LASMA-LR mass spectrometer, LIS-TV-RPM infrared spectrometer and a retroreflector. Not to be left out, Japan is also launching Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) with Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2 rover to a site ~500 m east of Shioli crater (13.33°S, 25.23°E) NET Aug 26, aiming to achieve 100-m landing accuracy. (Image Credits: ISRO, Roscosmos, JAXA)

MONDAY 

☆ Aug 21 — International Space Station, ~415-km LEO:  Expedition 69 seven-member crew working with space manufacturing study, maintaining spacesuits, transferring cargo from Progress 84P, preparing for Progress 85P docking.

☆ Aug 21 — Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: Shenzhou 16 three-member crew now ~1/2 through mission, continuing station upgrades, conducting fluid mechanics experiments; Heavens Above offers visible pass tracking.

☾ = Moon activity

★ = Space and… ☆ = International space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time’).

ISS: Humans Continuously in Space; SpaceX and Soyuz Launches

In space human activity continues as SpaceX Crew 6 with Andrey Fedyaev, Woody Hoburg, Stephen Bowen and Sultan Alneday prepare to leave ISS at the end of August after a 6-month mission, conducting over 200 experiments to help prepare for future missions to Moon, Mars and beyond. Crew 7 is scheduled to launch no earlier than 02:45 EDT August 25 with international Astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli (NASA), Andreas Mogensen (ESA), Satoshi Furukawa (JAXA), Konstantin Borisov, (Roscosmos) for a 6-month mission, the 11th overall crewed orbital flight. They are scheduled to dock to the orbiting laboratory about 03:49 EDT Aug 26, to the space-facing port of the Harmony module. SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance Spacecraft marks the eighth human spaceflight mission supported by a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and the seventh crew rotation mission to the space station since 2020 for NASA. Russia also plans Aug 23 launch of resupply mission Soyuz 85th Progress cargo delivery ship to ISS. It is preceded by successful launch in May of Progress 84 resupply cargo freighter carrying about 2,500 kg of supplies including experiments, fuel and food to support crew of Expedition 69. ISS has been continuously occupied since November 2000 with Astronauts testing technologies, conducting science experiments, developing skills needed to operate future commercial destinations in low-Earth orbit for the benefit of all. (Image Credits: NASA, SpaceX, Roscosmos)

★ NET Aug 21 — SpaceX, Launch Falcon 9 / Starlink 7-1, SLC-4E, Vandenberg SFB CA: Falcon 9 to carry second generation Starlink V2 Mini internet satellites; Falcon first stage to land on ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ drone ship in Pacific.

● Aug 21 — Celestis, Online: Facebook Live: Updates on ULA Cert 1 flight for Vulcan Centaur; with ULA President Tony Bruno, 15:00 CDT.

★ Aug 21 — Parker Solar Probe, Heliocentric Orbit: Spacecraft to perform 6th flyby of Venus today.

● Aug 21-25 — NASA, KnowInnovation (KI), Greenbelt MD: Astrobiology Mission Ideation Factory: The Search for Life on Mars.

☆ Aug 21 — Moon: 2.27° NE of Spica, 03:00.

☆ Aug 21 — Apollo Asteroid 2023 PM1: Near-Earth Flyby (0.020 AU).

Continued From…

o Jun 26 – Aug 25 — International Space University (ISU), National Institute for Space Research (INPE), Aeronautics Institute of Technology (ITA), et al, São José dos Campos, Brazil: 35th ISU Space Studies Program (SSP 2023).

TUESDAY

☆ Aug 22 — Roscosmos, Launch Soyuz-2.1a / Progress 85P, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan: Soyuz rocket to launch 85th Progress cargo delivery ship to ISS; live coverage available.

☆ Aug 22 — Amor Asteroid 2023 PM: Near-Earth Flyby (0.024 AU).

WEDNESDAY 

☾ NET Aug 23 — Chandrayaan-3, Lunar Landing: India Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover to attempt Moon South Pole region landing site near Manzinus U (69.368°S, 32.348°E) ~17:47 IST; second landing window in September.

☆ NET Aug 23 — Rocket Lab, Launch Electron/ ‘We Love the Nightlife’, Mahia Penninsula, New Zealand: First four of Capella Space next-generation Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Earth-imaging satellites “Acadia” with 200-300 kg payload.

☆ Aug 23 — NASA, Online: Pre-Departure Interviews With Crew-6 Aboard ISS; 02:40 EDT.

☆ Aug 23 — Moon: At first quarter, 23:57.

☆ Aug 23 — Apollo Asteroid 6037 1988 EG: Near-Earth Flyby (0.040 AU).

THURSDAY 

☆ Aug 24 — International Space Station, Progress 85P Rendezvous, ~415-km LEO: Roscosmos Progress 85P cargo ship to rendezvous and dock at ISS; live coverage available.