Friday / 21 April 2023

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ISRO and Moon Village Association Holding Chandrayaan-3 Student Outreach Video Contest

Under theme Importance of Chandrayaan-3 Mission for India and the Global Moon Exploration and Settlement, in honor of former Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre Director S. Ramakrishnan (L), students around the world in 2 age groups (13-17 / 18-21) are invited to submit 2-3 minute videos accompanied by a transcript and 150-word biography in English; Gold, Silver and Bronze awards will be given within both categories, with Golds receiving free entry to 7th Global Moon Village Workshop & Symposium 6-10 Dec in Kurashiki and Tottori, Japan; Submissions due 31 May

Pictured: ISRO Director of Capacity Building and Public Outreach Sudheer Kumar (M),
MVA President Giuseppe Reibaldi (R); Credits: MVA, ISRO, IAF

Tuesday / 18 April 2023

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Starship Launch Slated for This Week, a Variant is to Carry First Human Moon Missions Artemis 3 / 4 to Surface

Starship in HLS form – minus aerodynamic fins / heat shielding, plus mid-body RCS thrusters – is to land uncrewed demo prior to carrying 2 Artemis astronauts from lunar orbit (transferred from Orion, launched by SLS) to surface near MSP under Option A US$2.89B contract NET Dec 2025 and Artemis 4 NET Sept 2028 under $1.15B Option B; Lunar missions to utilize ‘tanker’ and ‘depot’ scheme in which HLS will be refueled in NRHO; Artemis 5 onward to have TBD alternative lander under NextSTEP Appendix P

Pictured: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Starship Engineering Director Shana Diez, Starship Engineering VP Joe Petrzelka in Starship Mission Control; Credits: SpaceX, Twitter / @WalterIsaacson

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 14-17 April 2023

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JAXA Now Targeting SLIM Moon Lander Launch NET August Amid H3 Upper Stage Failure Investigation

While Japan eagerly awaits first commercial Moon landing with ispace (T-12 days),  SLIM timeline pushed back to at least August pending results of inquiry into unsuccessful inaugural launch of JAXA / Mitsubishi H3 during which the hydrogen-fueled upper stage, similar to H-2A second stage which is to carry SLIM to TLI and XRISM space observatory to GEO, failed to ignite; SLIM is to demonstrate precision landing within ~100 m of Marius Hills Hole and is first in a series of planned landings in support of Artemis, per statements given by JAXA Institute of Space and Astronautical Science Deputy Director Masaki Fujimoto

Credits: JAXA

Friday / 14 April 2023

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ispace Set to Land HAKUTO-R, Aiming to Operate First Commercial Lander on Moon as Stock Surges

HAKUTO-R M1 lander is currently in 100 x 2,300 km elliptical lunar orbit as mission controllers prepare to execute maneuvers, circularizing orbit at 100 km ahead of 25 April at 15:40 UTC landing sequence initiation / touchdown in Atlas Crater (47.5°N, 44.4°E) 1 hour later at 16:40 UTC; Alternative landing sites within Lacus Somniorum, Sinus Iridium and Oceanus Procellarum may be targeted 26 April, 1 May and 3 May; Meanwhile on Earth ispace shares on Tokyo Stock Exchange make strong debut going from ¥254 (US$1.92) to ¥1,201 ($9.06)

Pictured: (T-B) ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada, ispace CFO Jumpei Nozaki; Credits: ispace

Tuesday / 11 April 2023

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ULA Centaur V Anomaly May Further Delay Peregrine Launch, Deployment of Iris Rover

Explosion during pressurization of Vulcan Centaur upper stage at ULA testing facility within MSFC captured by Blue Origin camera monitoring adjacent test stand 29 March (as reported by Eric Berger of Ars Technica) could push certification flight scheduled to launch of Astrobotic Peregrine lunar lander and Kuipersat-1/2 from NET 4 May, pending investigation into incident; Peregrine to carry Iris lunar rover, built by CMU students, set to be the first robotic USA Moon rover, and 25 other payloads (11 NASA / 15 independent)

Credits: ULA, Twitter / @SciGuySpace, Astrobotic

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 7-10 April 2023

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Lunar Orbital and Surface Missions Ongoing and Soon to Commence in Q2, Q3 2023

While CNSA Chang’E-3 and 4 continue surface operations and NASA / Advanced Space Capstone 145 days into 6-month primary mission; ispace HAKUTO-R operates from lunar orbit as ground controllers maintain comms during Moon occultations while preparing for landing this month; Astrobotic launching NET 4 May on ULA Vulcan Centaur; Intuitive Machines Nova-C launching on SpaceX F9 NET June; Luna-25 to launch NET 13 July via Soyuz-2.1b; JAXA SLIM postponed NET Aug pending H3 failure review due to H2A upper stage shared components

Pictured: ispace ground controller Ponglert Rattanachinalai; Credits: NASA, LinkedIn, ispace, Roscosmos, Canadensys

Friday / 7 April 2023

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Artemis 2 Crew Set to Be First Astronauts to Reach Moon in Modern Era, Travel Further from Earth than Any Previous Mission

Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists Christina Hammock Koch & Jeremy Hansen are training intensively for 10-day lunar flyby Artemis 2 mission launching to multiple-burn trans lunar injection NET Nov 2024; Luna flyby will take crew 7,400 km past Moon, setting record for distance currently held by Apollo 13 (1970), which flew 254 km from lunar far side; Koch, Glover and Hansen to be first woman, person of color and non-USA citizen (respectively) to fly past LEO, cross Van Allen Belts and flyby Moon

Credits: NASA

Tuesday / 4 April 2023

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2-Day Online Lunar Surface Science Workshop First Steps in a Bold New Era of Human Discovery to Consider Candidate Artemis III Landing Sites

Organized by (L-R) JSC planetary scientist Samuel Lawrence and Artemis 3 project scientist Noah Petro of GSFC, supported by LPI & USRA, LSSW 19 to showcase latest research into scientific viability of 13 prospective Artemis III landing sites within 6° of MSP; Comments to be given by NASA SMD Deputy Associate Administrator Sandra Connelly, SpaceX Director of Crew Starship engineering Eduardo Velazquez, Apollo 17 Astronaut Harrison Schmitt on 4 April; Sessions devoted to Malapert, DeGerlache, Haworth and DeGerlache-Kocher Massif, Faustini and Shackleton regions to be held 5 April

Credits: NASA, LinkedIn

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 31 March – 3 April 2023

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Artemis 2 Crew, First to Moon in 21st Century, to Be Announced Monday; Artemis 3 Moon Landing NLT 4 July 2026 Advances

NASA and CSA-ASC livestream 11:00 EDT on 3 April to announce official selection of 4 Astronauts to fly 7,402 km beyond the far side of the Moon NET Nov 2024; NASA will choose 3 crew from its 41 Astronauts (16 being women); Canada will select 1 Astronaut from its 3 men / 1 woman team; Looking forward to Artemis 3 / First Woman on the Moon (cast your vote on Space Age Pub / LED Poll), raises significant question of which international / non-USA person will be first to touch Moon surface

Credits: NASA, CSA-ASC
SPC Editorial Comment: In respects to Artemis 2 crew selection, our team hopes the mission will include 2 Women and 1st Person of Color to fly to the Moon
 

Friday / 31 March 2023

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Artemis Management Comes Under New Moon to Mars Program Office at NASA HQ

Amit Kshatriya, a 16+ year NASA veteran with background in ISS operations, to oversee hardware / mission development and risk management for major Artemis components – SLS, Orion, HLS, Gateway, xEMU spacesuits, and Exploration Ground Systems – as Deputy Associate Administrator of Moon to Mars Program Office; Kshatriya (L-R) reports to Associate Administrator Jim Free of Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate (representing ~30% of NASA total FY2024 budget of US$27.2B) and Deputy Associate Administrator Catherine Koerner, who also serves as Director of Strategy and Architecture Office, which interfaces with SMD / STMD

Credits: NASA