July 19-25, 2021 / Vol 40, No 29 / Hawai`i Island, USA

Blue Origin to Attempt Its First Crewed Spaceflight Beyond 100 Km

The next space-enterprise billionaire taking a far-out ride is Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, planning July 20, 08:00 CDT New Shepard launch from Launch Site One in west Texas to >100 km Kármán line. The unpiloted, 10-minute flight, providing ~3 minutes of weightlessness, will see the single-stage booster fire its BE-3 engine for ~110 seconds, separate near peak altitude and attempt to land on Earth, while crew capsule descends via parachute / retro rocket / crushable bumper systems. The newly dubbed Astronauts would be Jeff and Mark Bezos, Mercury 13 aviator Wally Funk, and runner-up auction winner Oliver Daemen. Under FAI definition of Space – Wally Funk would become the 65th woman and the oldest person to have flown in Space at 82; and Oliver will be the youngest at 18. The challenges of reaching Space vs. getting to orbit include an energy increase of roughly of 32 times; a fact not lost on Blue Origin which has been working on New Glenn 2-stage rocket since 2012; nor on SpaceX which currently carries people to ISS, plans its first orbital Starship test possibly in July, and crewed lunar tourism flight NET 2023. This will be the 16th overall flight for the VTVL New Shepard, and its launch window approved by FAA will remain open until the end of August. (Image Credits: Blue Origin, NASA, Scarsdale10583)

MONDAY

2021 Space Exploration Day, July 20 Marks Next Phase in Moon-Mars-Beyond Advancement

Still on the cusp of 2020s decade, hope rises for the Artemis generation, NewSpace industry, international partners and numerous nations making their marks in Space legacy. While humankind continues its work to overcome the Covid-19 ‘alien’ virus with perseverance Ad Astra to the Stars, this July 20 will be the 52nd observation of Apollo 11 first human Moon landing, and 45th observation of USA Mars Lander craft reaching the red planet. Meeting online July 20-23 is 2021 Joint NASA Exploration Science Forum & European Lunar Symposium, sponsored by NASA, SSERVI, Ames Research Center, Open University. It will have ~30 sessions, awards and networking, 124 Posters and >160 speakers including experts Carle Pieters, James Head, Noah Petro, Gregory Schmidt, Mahesh Anand, David Kring and Jack Burns. The 10 remaining Apollo Moonworkers could see the first steps on the Moon by a woman and person of color by 2024 during Artemis 3 mission to the unexplored Moon South Pole. As International Moon Village, Artemis Base Camp and Russia-China International Lunar Research Station concepts take shape, being prepared for flight Oct 1 is Luna-25, Capstone lunar orbiter Oct 20 and SLS / Orion Artemis 1 on Nov 22 carrying 13 CubeSats. Also exploring outward this year will be Lucy 8-asteroid mission, James Webb, Double-Asteroid Redirection Test impactor, and numerous human spaceflights. (Image Credits: Cici Koenig / Caltech Graphics Group, NASA, Lockheed Martin, SSERVI, ESF & ELS)

Jul 19 — National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine

Jul 19-23 — NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, JPL, Caltech, NASA, Pasadena CA: 2021 Sagan Summer Workshop: Circumstellar Disks and Young Planets.

Jul 19-23 — NASA Network for Life Detection (NFoLD) and Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS), Online: Standards of Evidence for Life Detection Community Workshop.

Jul 19 — Apollo Asteroid 2021 NX1: Near-Earth Flyby (0.017 AU)

Continued From…

May 24 – Aug 6 — Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, NASA, Pasadena CA and Online: JPL Planetary Science Mission Design School Session 1.

Jun 1 – Aug 6 — Lunar and Planetary Institute, Online / Houston TX: 2021 LPI Summer Intern Program in Planetary Science.

Jul 11-27 — Lāhainā Noon: As the Sun passes through the Zenith, directly overhead tropic locations, vertical objects cast no shadows; lā hainā means ‘cruel sun’; Hawaii Islands dates / times available.

Jul 12-23 — International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, Online / Berlin, Germany: 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2021).

Jul 18-23 — Royal Astronomical Society, University of Bath, Online / Bath, United Kingdom: United Kingdom National Astronomy Meeting 2021.

Jul 18-24 — Rencontres du Vietnam, Quy Nhon, Vietnam: 17th Rencontres du Vietnam: Cosmology.

TUESDAY

Jul 20 — Blue Origin, First Crewed New Shepard Flight, Van Horn TX: First planned crewed suborbital flight with 4 passengers after 15 uncrewed test missions: Jeff Bezos, Mark Bezos, Wally Funk, unnamed auction winner; live coverage available, 08:00 CDT.