New Vostochny Cosmodrome Ready for First Launch, Gearing Up for New Rocket and Lunar Missions

From Amur Oblast in the Russian Far East newly certified Vostochny Cosmodrome pivots Russia space access infrastructure to the Pacific and to sovereign territory, away from Baikonur, Kazakhstan in Central Asia. Literally meaning “eastern” Vostochny consists of a vast complex occupying over 500 km² located at 51°N approximately 600-800 km from the Ocean depending on launch azimuth. The space center is expected to permanently employ 20,000-25,000 people and RSA estimates the total cost of construction at US$2.9B, though other estimates are as high as US$13.5B. The inaugural launch is set for 02:01 UT April 27 with an RSA Soyuz-2.1a & Volga upper stage boosting the Mikhail Lomonosov ultra high energy cosmic ray observatory to Sun-synchronous geocentric orbit. The rocket is also carrying two secondary payloads for Samara Aerospace University: Aist 2, a 53-kg MicroSat in cooperation TsSKB-Progress and SamSat–218/D, a 4-kg 3U CubeSat. There are plans to begin construction at Vostochny in 2017 of an additional launch pad to host operations of the still-in-development Angara heavy-lift rocket that is expected to begin flying in 2021. Crewed flights in the next-generation piloted spacecraft known as Federation are expected by 2025. It was recently announced by RSC Energia that all operations and launches related to the RSA lunar program had been shifted to Vostochny, but had been postponed to 2025 due to budget cuts. (Image Credit: RSA, Google Earth, Anatoly Zak)

MONDAY

April 25 — ISS, LEO: Expedition 47 six-member crew transferring ~3,000 kg of cargo from Dra gon CRS-8 and filling with ~1,000 kg of return science / cargo, setting up specialized microscope to study how particles behave at nanoscales, preparing to deploy Flock-2e-Prime cubesats, collecting samples for Plant Gravity Sensing-3 experiment.

Apr 25 — Tiangong 1, LEO: China space lab continuing its gradual descent into Earth atmosphere over next few months for fiery disintegration in preparation for new space station to be completed by 2020.

April 25 — AKATSUKI, Venus Orbit: JAXA craft, the only one at Venus, planning for regular observations of Venus after successful test observations, will acquire image data (hours at a time) of Venus complete cloud structure.

April 25 — Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Moon Elliptical Polar Orbit: Investigating South & North Poles, craft designed to support a Human return to Moon, collecting high-resolution visible, ultraviolet data for global maps – each map encompasses more than 10,000 Wide Angle Camera individual images.

 April 25 — Bigelow Aerospace LLC, Las Vegas NV: NewSpace company Bigelow Expandable Activity Module attached to ISS will be expanded to its full capacity at 16 cubic meter volume in May, Astronauts will periodically enter for visual inspections & measurements, company will monitor pressure, temperature, radiation protection, micro-meteoroid/debris impact detection for 2 years.

April 25 — Exoterra Resource LLC, Littleton CO: Receiving NASA Phase 1 award for Nano Icy Moons Propellant Harvester cubesat-scale ISRU system that would harvest water for icy moons sample return missions using micro-landers, also working on SolRider microsatellite to reach Mars, and Lunar Infrastructure including power, ISRU & propellant delivery systems; Founder Michael VanWoerkom.

 April 25 — Moon World Resorts Inc., Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: Chairman / CEO Michael Henderson proposing US$4B Moon USA functional & realistic lunar colony across 10 acres under 230-meter tall sphere at Indio CA by 2018 with university-affiliated science & technology campus, convention center, 4,000-suite hotel, health spa, beach club, golf course.

Hawai`i Celebrates AstroDay 2016, Astronomy from Sacred Mountains, and Ideal Moon, Mars Analogs

The 15th annual AstroDay 2016 is being held at Prince Kuhio Plaza, Hawaii April 30 with support from University of Hawaii at Hilo, CFHT, Gemini, Subaru, Keck, IfA, East Asian Observatories, Submillimeter Array, UKIRT and IRTF, and organized by Mauna Kea Astronomy Outreach Committee with help from Roy Gal of IfA. There will be over 40 exhibits, demonstrations, activities and musical performances. Also participating will be Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES), with Executive Director Rob Kelso, which has 17 partnerships to further Moon and Mars technology development. Examples include Lunar / Mars landing pad construction and MoonRIDERS lunar flight experiment. The CFHT 11th users meeting held May 1-4 in Nice, France will discuss CFHT accomplishments and challenges, the addition of new dome vents which increased image quality, and the establishment of the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer Project Office in Waimea. HI-SEAS 365-day Mission 4 continues on the slopes of Mauna Loa at  2,440-meter altitude until August 28. Six scientists are investigating effects of isolated missions, food research and crew dynamics while performing various experiments. The May 7 Universe Tonight Talk held every 1st Sunday will feature Warren Skidmore of TMT. Other local programs include Mauna Kea Skies at ‘Imiloa on the third Saturday of every month, Under the Night’s Sky at Mauna Kea every fourth Saturday of each month and West Hawai’i Astronomy Club. (Image Credit: Richard Wainscoat/Gemini Observatory/AURA/NSF, HI-SEAS, PISCES, MKAOC)

Apr 25 — Cornell University, Ithaca NY: Lecture: Cosmological Results from Planck; Simon White from Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, 16:00.

Apr 25 — NASA Astrobiology Institute, Online / Mountain View CA: Webinar: SHERLOC: On the Trail of Potential Biosignatures on Mars; presented by Luther Beegle and Rohit Bhartia (JPL), 13:00.

Apr 25 — Johnson Space Center, NASA, Houston TX: Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Competition (Micro-g NExT).

Apr 25-28 — European Astrobiology Network Association, COST Action “Origins and Evolution of Life in the Universe”, Nordic Network of Astrobiology, Vilnius, Lithuania: From Star and Planet Formation to Early Life; at Art Nouveau style Hotel Artis Centrum.

Apr 25-30 — National Taras Shevchenko University, Main Astronomical Observatory of National Academy of Science of Ukraine, EAS Publications, Kyiv, Ukraine: 23rd Young Scientists’ Conference on Astronomy and Space Physics.

Apr 25 — Moon: 3.3° N of Saturn, 10:00.

Apr 25 — Apollo Asteroid 2016 FY3: Near-Earth flyby (0.017 AU).

Apr 25 — Aten Asteroid 2003 KO2: Near-Earth flyby (0.046 AU).

Apr 25 — Aten Asteroid 2003 KO2: Near-Earth flyby (0.067 AU).

Continued from…

Aug 28, 2015 – Aug 28, 2016 — NASA, University of Hawai`i at Mānoa, Mauna Loa HI: Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) Mission 4; at 2,440-meter altitude.