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Vol 28, No 12
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Moon, Venus New Results Highlight 40th LPI Conference

The '40th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference' takes place on Mar 23-27 in Houston TX. The event features the latest results of research in planetary sciences, including the latest data from ESA's Venus Express and 3 Moon orbiter missions: Japan Kaguya (TL), China Chang'e-1 (BL) and India Chandrayaan-1 (BR). Kaguya and Chandrayaan-1 continue studying the Moon's environment, while Chang'e-1 impacted the lunar equatorial region on Mar 1 after completing its mission. The conference brings together international specialists in astronomy, geology, geophysics, geochemistry and petrology to discuss current and future missions and research to the planets and moons of our Solar System. The conference will be preceded by a public forum on 'Reaching Audiences through New Media,' and the Masursky Lecture will be given on Monday by Alan Stern (TR) titled, 'Planet Categorization and Planetary Science: Coming of Age in the 21st Century.' Other special sessions include a NASA Headquarters briefing Monday afternoon, a community forum on future lunar missions Tuesday, and a forum on a decadal survey for planetary sciences Wednesday. Sponsored by the Lunar and Planetary Institute, the 40th LPSC will be held at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel and Convention Center. (Credit: LPI, NASA, JAXA, CNSA, ISRO)

ISS Expedition 19 Crew Set To Launch, Discovery Preparing To Depart Station

The International Space Station will be a busy place this week as the Expedition 19 (E19) crew launches from Baikonur, Kazakhstan Thursday on their long-duration mission to live and work in the orbital complex, while the visiting Space Shuttle Discovery STS-119 crew prepares to return to Earth at the end of the week. The E19 crew consists of Commander Gennady Padalka (TC) of Russia and Flight Engineer Michael Barratt (TL) of USA / NASA, and will be joined by 2nd-time spaceflight participant and software pioneer Charles Simonyi (BR). Simonyi previously flew to the station in April 2007 as a spaceflight participant with the Expedition 15 crew. It is estimated he is paying US$35M for this space flight, while the 2007 trip cost $25M. Padalka and Barratt will replace Michael Fincke and Yury Lonchakov of Expedition 18 aboard the ISS, and will be joined by Koichi Wakata (TR) of JAXA / STS-119. Simonyi will return to Earth with the E18 crew in Apr. In May, Padalka, Barratt and Wakata will be joined by Roman Romanenko of Russia, Frank De Winne of ESA and Robert Thirsk of Canada. Together, they will form Expedition 20 – the first 6-member ISS crew. Timothy Kopra and Nicole Stott will also join E20 for 3-month stints. Kopra is scheduled to replace Wakata via STS-127 in Jun, while Stott will replace Kopra via STS-128 in Aug. (Credit: NASA)

THIS WEEK
MARCH
APRIL
MAY
LEGEND
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 – Morning Planets: Venus (E), Mars (ESE), Jupiter (ESE), Saturn (S) / Evening Planets: Venus (W), Saturn (E).
 

MONDAY
Mar 23 — International Space Station, LEO: Expedition 19 crew set to launch Wed to replace E18 crew; Discovery STS-119 preparing to leave ISS to return to Earth at end of week; Koichi Wakata of JAXA / STS-119 to remain on station, replace Sandra Magnus who returns with Discovery; http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html.
Mar 23-24 — Applied Technology Institute, Beltsville MD: 'Space-Based Laser Systems Course;' 'Satellite Design & Technology Course;' 'Spacecraft Quality Assurance, Integration & Testing Course;' http://www.aticourses.com/.
Mar 23-26 — Aerospace Corporation, Torrance CA: 'Ground System Architectures Workshop;' http://csse.usc.edu/gsaw/.
Mar 23-26 — American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Washington DC: '7th US Missile Defense Conference and Exhibit;' http://www.aiaa.org/content.cfm?pageid=230&lumeetingid=1961.
Mar 23-27 — Lunar and Planetary Institute, The Woodlands TX: '40th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC 2009);' http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2009/.
Mar 23-29 — NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena CA: Online poll to help select a name for the Mars Science Laboratory mission; http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/mar/HQ_09-062_MSL_Naming_Poll.html.
Mar 23-Apr 3 — United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, Vienna, Austria: '48th UN COPUOS Legal Subcommittee Meeting;' http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/oosa/en/meetings.html.
Mar 23 — Mars Exploration Rovers, Red Planet: Twin rovers Opportunity, Spirit continue in 6th year of exploration of Mars; Opportunity approaches rim of Endeavour Crater, Spirit heads on new route along west side of Home Plate plateau; http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20090318a.html.
Mar 23 — Asteroid 2008 WN2: Near-Earth Flyby; (0.049 AU).
Mar 23 — Moon: 1.9° NNW of Neptune; 02:00.
Continued from . . .
Mar 9 — NASA Headquarters, Washington DC: 'NASA 2009 Mission Madness Tournament'; online game, fans vote for favorite NASA space mission, winner to be determined on Apr 8; http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/missionmadness/index.html.
TUESDAY
Mar 24 — Launch Delta 2 / GPS 2R-20 (M7), Cape Canaveral FL: United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket will launch the 7th modernized NAVSTAR Global Positioning System Block 2R military navigation satellite; http://www.spaceflightnow.com/tracking/index.html.
Mar 24 — Small Entrepreneurial and Functional Spaceworks, Stanford University, et al., Palo Alto CA: 'Space 3.0 Emerging Commercial Applications for Small Satellites;' http://www.kstc.com/conferences/spaceworks/info.cfm.
Mar 24-27 — European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, ESO Garching, Germany: 'ALMA and ELTs: A Deeper, Finer View of the Universe;' http://www.eso.org/sci/meetings/almaelt2009/.
Mar 24-27 — Satellite Today, Washington DC: 'SATELLITE 2009: Solutions Start Here;' http://www.satellitetoday.com/satellite2009/.
Mar 24-27 — Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, Ringberg Castle, Germany: 'Reinonization@Ringberg - The Cosmic Evolution of Helium and Hydrogen;' http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/~reionize/index.html.
Mar 24 — Cassini OTM-184, Saturn Orbit: Spacecraft conducts Orbital Trim Maneuver #184 today; http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/.
Mar 24 — Moon: 3.7° NNW of Mars; 00:00.
WEDNESDAY
Mar 25 — Launch Soyuz TMA / ISS E19, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan: Russia Soyuz rocket to boost Expedition 19 crew (Commander Gennady Padalka, Flight Engineer Michael Barratt, Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi) to ISS; http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition19/index.html.
Mar 25-27 — European Space Agency, Rome, Italy: '5th Terrafirma User Workshop & Terrafirma Product Training Day;' http://www.congrex.nl/09m05/.
Mar 25-27 — ESA / ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany: '27th Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) Meeting;' http://www.congrex.nl/09c14/.
Mar 25 — Moon: 4.4° NNW of Uranus; 06:00.
Mar 25 — Moon: 5.7° NNW of Mercury; 20:00.
THURSDAY
Mar 26-27 — Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore MD: 'Beyond JWST: The Next Steps in UV-Optical-NIR Space Astronomy;' http://www.stsci.edu/institute/conference/beyondjwst.
Mar 26 — Moon: New Moon; 06:07.
Mar 26 — Moon: 3.8° SSE of Venus; 10:00.
Mar 26 — Asteroid 7958 Leaky: Closest Approach to Earth; (1.029 AU).
FRIDAY
Mar 27 — Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore MD: 'Astro2010: Decadal Survey Townhall Meeting;' http://www.stsci.edu/resources/astro2010.html.
Mar 27 — NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Nationwide USA: NASA movie 'Frozen' about Earth's changing ice and snow cover opens at science centers and museums across the USA; http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/mar/HQ_09-063_Frozen_movie.html, http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/frozen/index.html.
Mar 27 — Cassini Titan Flyby, Saturn Orbit: Spacecraft conducts close flyby of Saturn moon Titan (altitude = 960 km); http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/saturntourdates/.
SATURDAY
Mar 28 — Landing Discovery STS-119, Cape Canaveral FL: Discovery STS-119 is scheduled to land in NASA Kennedy Space Center at 07:43; http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/launch/index.html.
Mar 28 — Asteroid 2002 VX91: Near-Earth Flyby; (0.065 AU).
SUNDAY
Mar 29 — Daylight Savings Time Begins, Europe: European Union changes clocks forward 1 hour from Standard Time to Summer Time; 01:00 becomes 02:00.
Mar 29 — Cassini OTM-186, Saturn Orbit: Spacecraft conducts Orbital Trim Maneuver #186 today; http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/.
Mar 26 — Asteroid 18458 Caesar: Closest Approach to Earth; (1.016 AU).
 
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Space Calendar Published Weekly, Mondays. ISSN 0741-1731. All Rights Reserved. Copyright Mar 23, 2009, Space Age Publishing Company, 65-1230 Mamalahoa Highway - Suite D-20, Kamuela, Hawaii 96743; 480 California Avenue - Suite 303, Palo Alto, California 94306, USA. Editor & Publisher, ILOA Director / Steve Durst. Associate Editor, ILOA Executive Director / Charles Bohannan. Managing Editor / Jason Ventura. Assistant Editor / Joseph Sulla. Marketing Editor / Michelle Gonella. Special Contributors: Hawaii Aloha. Australia / Kirby Ikin. Canada / Robert Richards. China, Asia / Patricia Yu, Chen Kan Arth. Europe-Russia / Theo Pirard. India, South Asia / Radhakrishna Rao, USA, Bill Carswell. www.spaceagepub.com, news@spaceagepub.com.