June 16-22, 2025 / Vol 44, No 24 / Hawai`i Island, USA

First Women in Space and on the Moon, Advanced at ISDC and European Lunar Symposium?

A triad of observations occurs this week commemorating the first woman in space (Valentina Tereshkova in 1963), first woman from USA in space (Sally Ride in 1983) and the first woman from China / PRC in space (Liu Yang in 2012). To date there have been about 100 women that have gone beyond the 100-km Kármán line. The first astronauts originally from United Kingdom (Helen Sharman), South Korea (Soyeon Yi), and Iran (Anousheh Ansari) were women. The Artemis 2 mission, possibly as soon as February, is planned to launch the first woman to the Moon – Christina Koch. This Artemis 2 circumlunar mission, and more so the touchdown of the yet-to-be-named Artemis 3 Astronauts on the lunar surface, will be a highly significant event, expanding the sphere of women’s influence and activity by many millions of times. USA Administration changes / choices and budget cuts endanger the focused progress that NASA and commercial partners have made for step-by-step Moon-to-Mars and Solar System complete exploration. Two large gatherings this week, the National Space Society International Space Development Conference expecting 1,000+ people, and the European Lunar Symposium expecting a diverse group of international participants, hopefully will continue to advance and advocate for the inclusive, peaceful, scientific return to the Moon as soon as possible. (Image credits: NASA, Roscosmos, CNSA, SPC)

MONDAY

☆ Jun 16 — International Space Station, ~415-km LEO: Expedition 73 seven-member crew repairing “new pressure signature” / leak in the Zvezda service module of the ISS Russian segment that is delaying Axiom-4 flight to the station, studying behavior of tiny particles / colloids and proteins in water, viewing deep-sea bacteria in 3D microscope, wearing virtual reality glasses to study balance in microgravity, scanning eyes with ultrasound.

☆ Jun 16 — Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: Shenzhou 20 three-member crew enjoying name of bacterial strain they found, Niallia tiangongensis, a variant of a known terrestrial species, inspecting / testing space suits ahead of expected EVA, carrying out medical rescue drills.

★ Jun 16 — United Launch Alliance, Launch Atlas V551 / Project Kuiper (KA-02), SLC41, Cape Canaveral SFS FL: Second launch for operational Kuiper satellites; planned to become a constellation of 3,276 in 98 orbital planes.

★ Jun 16 —  SpaceX, Launch Falcon 9 / Starlink Group 15-9, SLC-4E, Vandenberg SFB CA: Next batch of Starlink satellites to launch for LEO mega-constellation.

o Jun 16 — 62nd Observation of the 1st Woman in Space, Global: Public events and commemorations occur to celebrate the first woman to fly in Space, Valentina Tereshkova of the former Soviet Union; in 1963 she orbited Earth 49 times in Vostok 6.

o Jun 16 — 13th Observation of the 1st Woman from China in Space, Zhongguo / Global: First Woman from China in Space, Liu Yang, celebrated today for her 2012 flight aboard Shenzhou 9, while nation plans completion of Tiangong Space Station and landing people on the Moon.

o Jun 16 — British Interplanetary Society, Online / London, United Kingdom: Abstracts due for Reinventing Space Conference: The Rapidly Changing Context of Global Space; to be held Oct 27-29.

India a Leader in Space Ventures with Shukla to ISS and NISAR to LEO

Shubhanshu Shukla, inspiring youth in India as the first Indian in space in 40+ years, will oversee science on his Axiom-4 mission to the ISS then look forward to the Gaganyaan human spaceflight program, now approved a budget equivalent to US$2.4 billion with first crewed mission set for 2027 after planned robotic mission later this year. NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR), launching on a GSLV-F16 from Sriharikota, is called the most expensive Earth-imaging satellite and the 1st dual-frequency synthetic aperture radar. NASA and ISRO are collaborating on NISAR across 14,500+ km and 13 times zones. With 24-cm L-Band and 10-cm S-band, Earth will be imaged in all weather and at night. Every pass of the satellite will provide an order of magnitude more data than past satellites have delivered, with 2 scans during each pass, every 12 days. An infrastructure is being created to process the expected “fire hose” of data. The antenna reflector is 12 meters wide, yet traditional radar would need a 19-km instrument to get similar images. ISRO Space Applications Center (SAR) looks to freely provide data, and solicits innovation, technology development, and industry collaboration from Non-Governmental Entities regarding NISAR Operational Science Products that include soil moisture, crops, forests, glaciers, snow, surface water and ocean surface wind speed, garnered from the 2800-kg satellite. (Image Credits: ISRO, Axiom Space, NASA / JPL-Caltech; Pictured L-R upper: SAR ground antenna, flag of India, S Shukla; L-R lower: NISAR, sample NISAR image of ground moisture, ISS)

o Jun 16-20 — Space Faculty, United States Air Force Academy, Singapore: Introduction to Spacecraft Design; high-intensity bootcamp suitable for professionals with a technical background.

● Jun 16-20 — Space Center Houston, Houston TX: Space U (Ages 11-14); learning opportunities tied to NASA missions including space habitats, thermal protection systems, rocketry, robotics; US$720-$960.

o Jun 16-22 — French Aerospace Industries Association (GIFAS), Paris Le Bourget, France: 55th International Paris Air Show.

☆ Jun 16 — Apollo Asteroid 2025 HN6: Near-Earth Flyby (0.016 AU)