December 2-8, 2019 / Vol 38, No 48 / Hawai’i Island, USA

African Space Leadership Congress Builds on Africa Space Generation Workshop

The 8th African Space Leadership Congress on Space Science and Technology for Sustainable Development is being held December 2-4 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, following the 3rd Africa Space Generation Workshop November 30 to December 1. With an African space economy valued at US$7B, ASLC is aimed at capitalizing and socializing efforts of African nations on space technologies. Addis Ababa is home to the Entoto Observatory and Research Center, East Africa’s only space observation facility, built by the Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS). Egypt TIBA-1 satellite successfully launches on an Ariane 5 booster. Since launch of the first Egypt NILESAT101 in 1998 over US$3B has been spent on space projects in Africa. Angola recovers from the Dec 2017 loss of ANGOSAT-1 with ANGOSAT-2 planned for launch by Roscosmos from Kazakhstan in 2020 and ANGOSAT-3 under construction by Airbus. South African Space Agency is in talks with NASA to contribute to Moon and Mars missions. Ethiopia’s first satellite ET-RSS1 is prepared for launch Dec 17 from China with a ground station at Entoto. Ethiopia Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visits China Academy of Space Technology to inspect the satellite during 2019. Ethiopia signs agreement with ArianeSpace to begin building in Jan 2020 a satellite manufacturing, assembly, integration and testing facility. The African Union chooses Egypt among several competitors as 21st-Century headquarters for the new African Space Agency. (Image Credits: ESA, CAST, Entoto Observatory, Space Generation)

MONDAY

Dec 2 — Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), LEO: ESA / NASA craft studying sun, reaches 24 full years / begins 25th year of operations in space today, launched 1995; has discovered more than 3,000 comets.

International Moon Village Workshop & Symposium 2019 Set for Dec 5-8 in Japan

Established in 2017 on the International Space University (ISU) campus in Strasbourg, France, the non-governmental Moon Village Association (MVA) based in Vienna, Austria, holds its 3rd annual Workshop & Symposium with events in the cities of Tokyo and Kyoto. The MVA association statute explains its mission is to encourage Moon stakeholders to “collaborate together for sustainable operations on the lunar surface as well as in cis-lunar space”. 26 Institutional members and 220 individual members from 39+ countries make MVA a decidedly international endeavor. Workshop chairs include astronauts Chiaki Mukai (L) and Takao Doi (R). Mukai, first Japanese woman to enter space, is representing co-host Tokyo University of Science, Doi represents co-host Kyoto University. Local sponsors The Science Union for Human Planetary Habitation in Space (SUHPHS) [composed of partner organizations the Japanese Association of Space Radiation Research (JASRR), the Japan Society of Aerospace and Environmental Medicine (JSASEM)] and JAXA support MVA Workshop & Symposium 2019. President Giuseppe Reibaldi will report on the latest activities of Moon Village, including MoU signings with ISU and Cyprus Space Exploration Organisation (CSEO). Astronaut Naoko Yamazaki is to give a keynote address on the Sustainability of Human Moon Exploration. Taro Asazuma and Takeshi Hakamada of Japan ispace will moderate a panel on Moon commerce, as will space entrepreneur Misuzu Onuki. Paul Wooster of SpaceX will give an announcement titled ‘Using Starship to Build a Base on the Moon’. (Image Credits: MVA, ISU, JAXA)

Dec 2 — Cornell University,

Dec 2 — Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ: Lecture: Beyond the Known World – New Horizons Mission into the Kuiper Belt; by Veronica Bray of LPL.

Dec 2-4 — Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute, Ethiopian Space Science Society, African Union et al, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: 8th African Space Leadership Congress on Space Science and Technology for Sustainable Development: Prospects and Challenges of African Space Development.

Dec 2 — Phoenicid Meteor Shower Peak: Meteor shower may produce 5 per hour, slow moving (18 km/sec) meteors from debris of comet 289P Blanpain.

Continued from…

Jan 2019 – Sep 2020 — New Horizons, Kuiper Belt: Full data collected from 7 instruments during KBO Ultima Thule flyby to be transmitted to Earth over this time period.

Nov 2019 – Nov 2020— Hayabusa2, Earth Trajectory: JAXA Hayabusa2 with two samples collected from C-type asteroid 162173 Ryugu on trajectory for Earth return.

Nov 29 – Dec 5 — European Commission, EU Space Programme, Copernicus, EGNOS, Galileo Network, ESA, et al, Helsinki, Finland: European Space Week 2019; featuring keynotes, discussions and conference sessions, hackathon, accelerator boot camp, a festive awards ceremony and more.

NET Dec — CNSA, Launch Long March 5 / Shijian 20 (SJ 20), Wenchang Satellite Launch Center, Hainan Island, China (19° N): China Long March 5 return to flight carrying SJ-20, an 8-metric ton technological demonstration satellite, into geosynchronous orbit.