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Vol 29, No 12
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SpaceX Takes Center Stage as NewSpace Companies Prepare to Fill USA Space Access Gap

Success of the new USA plan for space exploration will hinge on the emergence of NewSpace companies such as SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp. SpaceX is currently preparing for the inaugural launch of its Falcon 9 rocket (TL). After last week's successful firing of all 9 Merlin first stage engines (C), the company is set for an April demonstration mission. During that flight the rocket will carry a qualification unit of the SpaceX Dragon capsule into a low altitude orbit about 250 km above Earth. If that flight is successful and timely, SpaceX will follow with a shakedown flight of the Dragon in July, followed by a rendezvous demonstration with the ISS in November. As agreed in a 2008, US$1.6B contract, NASA is counting on Falcon 9 / Dragon to deliver 18 metric tons of cargo to the ISS in the next 5 years. Theoretically, Falcon 9 and Dragon can be modified to deliver astronauts to LEO by 2013. Orbital Sciences Corp is developing a competing system using the Taurus rocket and Cygnus cargo freighter. Launches of the Taurus 2 (BR) are set to begin in March 2011 from Wallops Island VA. (Credit: SpaceX, Orbital Sciences Corp.)

SETI Institute / Lecture to Explore Europa Jupiter Mission

Jupiter moon exploration will be the focus of a March 24 lecture at the SETI Institute in Mountain View CA. NASA JPL Scientist Bob Pappalardo (BL) will discuss the Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM), a collaborative effort led by NASA and ESA to study Jovian moons Europa and Ganymede. Europa is smaller than Luna with a diameter of 3122 km and Ganymede is the largest with a diameter of 5262 km. The NASA-led orbiter (TL) will study Europa's smooth exterior and subsurface ocean which may support the possibility of life. The ESA-led Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter (CL) will study the Ganymede habitability and collect data on the Jovian magnetosphere. EJSM will be the most comprehensive flagship mission of the outer solar system, shedding new light on ‘habitable worlds around gas giants.’ The mission is slated for 2020 and estimated to cost $4.45 billion, with NASA contributing $3.8 billion and ESA $650 million. (Credit: NASA, SETI)
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: Saturn (W) / Evening Planets: Mercury (W), Venus (W), Mars (SE), Saturn (E).
 

MONDAY
Mar 22 — International Space Station, LEO: E-22 crew members busy with inspections, experiments and scheduled maintenance activities; http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html.
Mar 22 — NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), Lunar Orbit: First 6 months of science data from LRO instruments now available to researchers / public; http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/subscription_service/SS-20100315.shtml.
Mar 22 — International Lunar Observatory Association, Hawai`i Island HI / Global: Galaxy Forum Architecture announcement to enable ILO international education-fundraising strategy, to be advanced by Galaxy Forums in Beijing, China and Bangalore, India in late summer; GF 2010 Hawaii - Waimea event successful with CFHT astro, Hawaii culture, ILO mission, Hawaii Island teachers' participation; http://www.iloa.org/.
Mar 22 — ESA Mars Express Spacecraft, Red Planet: Scientists study recent imagery of far side of Phobos Mars Express flyby which shows proposed landing sites of forthcoming Phobos-Grunt mission set to take place in early 2012; http://www.marsdaily.com/reports.
Mar 22 — International Institute of Space Law, Online: 'Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition,' submission of requests for clarifications to the Moot problem, North America; http://www.spacemoot.org/currentfinal.htm.
Mar 22 — San Jacinto College, Houston TX: 'Lecture: Poetry of the Night - The Night Sky in the Time of William Shakespeare;' http://beta.sanjac.edu/node/3119.
Mar 22-23 — Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, London, United Kingdom: 'Workshop: Science with the William Herschel Telescope 2010-2020;' http://www.ing.iac.es/conferences/wht201020/index.html.
Mar 22-25 — Square Kilometer Array, Manchester, United Kingdom: 'SKA2010: International SKA Science and Engineering Meeting;' http://www.skatelescope.org/pages/SKA2010/ska2010.htm.
Mar 22-25 — Applied Technology Institute, Cape Canaveral FL: 'Fundamentals of Orbital and Launch Mechanics;' http://www.aticourses.com/fundamentals_orbital_launch_mechanics.htm.
Mar 22-Apr 1 — United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, Vienna, Austria: '49th Session of the Legal Subcommittee 2010;' http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/COPUOS/Legal/2010/index.html.
Continued from . . .
Jan 30 — Museum of Science and Industry, Confucius Institute / University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom: 'Exhibition: From Gunpowder to Space Rockets - The China Space Program,' includes models of ancient rockets, recent satellites, rockets, space ships and a lunar rover; through Aug 7; http://www.mosi.org.uk/whats-on/china-space-exhibition.
Mar 18 — The Planetary Society, Anchorage; Fairbanks AK: 'Alaska Aurora Borealis: Come See the Greatest Light Show on Earth;' through Mar 24; http://betchartexpeditions.com/na-alaska_aurora_borealis.htm.
Mar 19 — `Imiloa Astronomy Center, Hilo HI: 'Imi Na'auao Wayfinding and Navigation Crew Training Workshops;' through Mar 22; http://www.imiloahawaii.org/16/special-events.
Mar 21 — American Chemical Society, San Francisco CA: 'Spring 2010 Meeting of the American Chemical Society: Recent Advances in Observational and Experimental Astrochemistry;' through Mar 25; http://portal.acs.org/portal/acs/corg/content?.
TUESDAY
Mar 23 — The Lunar Society, Birmingham, United Kingdom: '7th LS Annual Lecture: Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Renewable Energy,' Jonathon Porritt; http://www.lunarsociety.org.uk/pages/366.htm.
Mar 23 — The Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston TX: 'Impact Cratering in Heterogeneous Targets: Formation Mechanisms and Implications,' Teemu Öhman; http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpi/seminars/#1521.
Mar 23-Apr 2 — The University of Utah, Snowbird UT: '2010 Snowbird Workshop on Particle Astrophysics, Astronomy and Cosmology;' http://www.physics.utah.edu/snowpac/.
Mar 23 — Moon: At First Quarter; 10:02.
Mar 23 — Asteroid 2000 EW70: Near-Earth Flyby; (0.059 AU).
WEDNESDAY
Mar 24 — The SETI Institute, Mountain View CA: Colloquium Series Lecture: 'Exploring the Habitability of Icy Worlds: The Europa Jupiter System Mission,' Bob Pappalardo; http://www.seti.org/csc/lectures.
Mar 24 — US House of Representatives Office of Science and Technology, Washington DC: 'Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics Meeting: Proposed Changes to NASA’s Exploration Program - What’s Known, What’s Not, and What Are The Issues for Congress?; http://science.house.gov/publications/hearings_markups_details.aspx?newsid=2776.
Mar 24-25 — Near Space Security, ESA, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: 'Near Space Security 2010;' http://www.nearspacesecurity.com/asic/nss/index.html.
Mar 24-26 — NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD: 'NASA Servicing Study,' study to assess feasibility, practicality and cost of servicing satellites using elements of currently planned / future NASA human spaceflight systems and/or robotic technologies; http://servicingstudy.gsfc.nasa.gov/.
Mar 24-26 — High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, Tsukuba, Japan: '1st Asia-Europe Physics Summit: Physics Towards Science Innovations;' http://aseps.kek.jp/.
Mar 24-28 — European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, British National Space Center, et al, Surrey, United Kingdom: 'UK Space Conference 2010;' http://www.ukspaceconference.org/.
Mar 24 — Moon: 7.2° SSW of Pollux; 12:00.
THURSDAY
Mar 25 — Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR), Hilo HI: BLNR hearing to consider approval of Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea summit; http://www.maoliworld.com/profiles/blogs/aloha-mauna-kea-three-things.
Mar 25 — University of Houston - Clear Lake, Houston TX: 'Space Center Lecture Series: Update - Russian Space Program,' James Oberg; http://spacecenterlectureseries.com/future.html.
Mar 25-26 — University of California Irvine Center for Cosmology, Irvine CA: '6th Annual Workshop: The View from 5 AU -Measuring the Diffuse Sky Brightness from the Outer Solar System;' http://physics.uci.edu/5AU/Poster.pdf.
Mar 25-26 — Macau University of Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, et al, Macau, China: 'International Symposium on Lunar Science,' International academic exchange on topics of processing, analysis, research and application of Lunar exploration data related to Kaguya, Chang'E-1, Chandrayaan-1, SMART-1 and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter; http://www.must.edu.mo/must/ISLS2010/index.htm.
Mar 25-26 — ESA, Noordwijk, The Netherlands: 'TEC-EPS Workshop: Solar Array Reg. Based Upon DET / MPPT - When and Why;' http://www.congrex.nl/10m11/.
Mar 25-27 — NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland OH: 'Buckeye Regional 1st Robotics Competition;' http://www.oai.org/firstbuckeye/index.htm.
Mar 25 — Moon: 4.3° SSW of Mars, 01:00; 3.0° S of Beehive Cluster, 12:00.
Mar 25 — Asteroid 3355 Onizuka: Closest Approach To Earth (1.218 AU).
FRIDAY
Mar 26-27 — NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena CA: 'Climate Day 2010: Bringing Scientists, Students and Communities Together To Promote Global Climate Literacy;' http://climate.nasa.gov/ClimateDay/.
Mar 26 — Cassini OTM-240, Saturn Orbit: Spacecraft conducts Orbital Trim Maneuver #240 today; http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/.
Mar 26 — Asteroid 2004 FU162: Near-Earth Flyby (0.082 AU).
SATURDAY
Mar 27 — NASA, Belmont NH: 'NASA WISE Teacher Workshop;' http://wise.ssl.berkeley.edu/education_workshop.html.
Mar 27 — Zero Gravity Corporation, Chicago IL: Commercial weightless flight onboard G Force One at Chicago O'Hare International Airport; http://www.gozerog.com/.
Mar 27 — The Challenger Center, Needville TX: 'Space Night at the Challenger Center;' http://www.hmns.org/see_do/george_observatory/challenger_at_the_george.asp#SpaceNight.
Mar 27 — Imiloa Astronomy Center, Hilo HI: Premiere: 'Tycho on the Moon;' http://www.imiloahawaii.org/35/planetarium#.
Mar 27 — Moon: 3.9° SSW of Regulus; 00:00; At Perigee (Distance 56.74 earth-radii).
SUNDAY
Mar 28-Apr 2 — ESA, Les Houches, France: 'Workshop Mars III,' Aims to integrate main results of recent Earth-based observations and missions to Mars (MarsExpress, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Phoenix and Mars Exploration Rovers) into a new global picture of Mars evolution; http://www.rssd.esa.int/index.php?project=MARSEXPRESS&page=planet_mars3.
Mar 28-Apr 2 — Stellar Observations Network Group, Beijing, China: '3rd Workshop of the Stellar Observation Network Group;' http://astrowww.bnu.edu.cn/SONG/.
Mar 28 — Daylight Saving (Europe): Set Clock 1 hr. Ahead.
 
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Space Calendar Published Weekly, Mondays. ISSN 0741-1731. All Rights Reserved. Copyright © March 22, 2010. 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. Assistant Editor / Joseph Sulla. Marketing Editor / Michelle Gonella. Special Contributors: Hawaii Aloha. Australia / Kirby Ikin. Canada / Robert Richards. China, Asia / Chen Kan Arth. Europe-Russia / Theo Pirard. India, South Asia / Radhakrishna Rao, USA, Bill Carswell. www.spaceagepub.com, news@spaceagepub.com.