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Saturday’s DARC SkyNet is at 9PM CT.
Recent Astronomical Discoveries
Brenda WB5OZL
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/02/250205142757.htm
Discussion Topic of the Evening.
This weekend we celebrate the anniversary of a different kind of “Moon Shot”!
What brand of golf ball did astronaut Alan Shepard hit off the moon?
http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-020625a-alan-shepard-golf-balls-apollo-14-moon-brand.html
Carlos Villagomez behind his bar in Webster, TX
Signed Shepard Golf Ball
http://www.collectspace.com/images/news-020625a-lg.jpg
Shepard and Villagomez Family
Shepard’s Makeshift Club
https://assets.atlasobscura.com/article_images/5747/image
Spalding Promotional Ad
http://www.collectspace.com/review/apollo_14_spalding_moonball_ad01.jpg
Daisy Airgun Museum
Fra Mauro Highland
https://divulgazione.uai.it/images/thumb/PSL_Fra_Mauro_icona.jpg/602px-PSL_Fra_Mauro_icona.jpg
Shepard’s Golf Ball Lies
Waz Up
Space Exploration and Space History
Space Exploration News
NASA CubeSat Finds New Radiation Belts After May 2024 Solar Storm
More Than 400 Lives Saved with NASA’s Search and Rescue Tech in 2024
https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/ksc-20240225-ph-kaa01-0071orig.jpg?resize=1536,1024
Space-Related Birthdays
Joe F. Edwards Jr. 03-Feb-1958 STS-89
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/28/Joe_Edwards.jpg/220px-Joe_Edwards.jpg
Mary Cleave, 05-Feb-1947 STS-61-B, STS-30
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Mary_Cleave.jpg
Andrew Morgan, 05-Feb-1976 Exp. 60/61/62
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Andrew_R._Morgan_official_portrait_%282%29.jpg
Jonny Kim, 05-Feb-1984 None – short list for Artemis
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Jonny_Kim_official_portrait.jpg
Alfred Worden, 07-Feb-1932 Apollo 15
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Al_Worden_Apollo_15_CMP.jpg
Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, 7-Feb-1963 STS-115, STS-126
This Week in Space History
February 4:
February 4, was the 58th anniversary of the launch of Lunar Orbiter 3. The Lunar Orbiter program was a series of five uncrewed missions launched from 1966 through 1967.
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/image/lunar_orbiter_render.jpg
1906:
Clyde Tombaugh was born.
https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/2-1928-2280-GettyImages-515132042-1609×2048.jpg
February 5:
1971:
The Apollo 14 Lunar Module “Antares” touched down on the Moon.
https://c02.purpledshub.com/uploads/sites/48/2021/01/GettyImages-90758652-4f065d0.jpg?w=1456&webp=1
February 6:
1995:
The Shuttle Discovery approached the Russian space station Mir and completed a flyaround, thus marking the first shuttle rendezvous with Mir as a part of the Shuttle-Mir Program.
February 7:
1984:
Astronaut Bruce McCandless performed the first untethered spacewalk.
1999:
NASA’s Stardust mission launched.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/stardust/photo/ksc9902071.jpg
February 8:
1974:
Skylab 4 crew returned from the third and final mission to the first US space station.
https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/skylab-4-splashdown-5-s74-17742.jpg?resize=600,429
1992:
The Ulysses probe arrived at Jupiter to perform a swing-by maneuver in order to establish an orbit around the Sun.
2013:
The Curiosity Rover drilled into a portion of Martian bedrock, collecting the first sample ever obtained from the interior of another planet.
Miss Carolyn’s Constellation of the Week
Auriga, the charioteer or shepherd.
Space Launches For This Week
Space Flight Now Launch Schedule
TBD Falcon 9 • Starlink 10-12
Launch time: TBD
Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch another batch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit. A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, the first stage booster will land on a SpaceX droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
Updated: January 24
NET February 26 Falcon 9 • IM-2
Launch time: TBD
Launch site: Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch Intuitive Machines’ second robotic mission to the Moon. Onboard will be a Nova-C class lander named Athena or Attie, for short. It will fly several commercial payloads along with three NASA science payloads as part of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. NASA also has its Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft launching as a rideshare payload, which will be deployed separately. The Lunar Trailblazer was selected as part of NASA’s Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program in 2019. Following stage separation, the Falcon 9 first stage booster will target a touchdown at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Updated: January 31
February 27/28 Soyuz 2.1a • Progress MS-30 / 91P
Launch time: 10:24 p.m. MSK on Feb. 28 (4:24 p.m. EST, 1924 UTC on Feb. 27)
Launch site: Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
An uncrewed Progress cargo ship will launch atop a Russian Soyuz rocket to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. It is expected to dock with the station at 6:03 p.m. EST (2303 UTC) on March 1.
Updated: February 05
NET February 27/28 Falcon 9 • SPHEREx and PUNCH
Launch time: 7:10 p.m. PST (10:10 p.m. EST, 0310 UTC)
Launch site: SLC-4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch two co-manifested missions on behalf of NASA. The primary payload is the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) observatory, which is designed to map the entire sky in infrared light. The total mission cost for SPHEREx, including launch is about $488 million. Sharing the Falcon 9 rocket is the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH), which consists of four suitcase-sized satellites designed to map a region around the Sun where the corona transitions to solar wind. Both missions will launch to a polar orbit and will be deployed about 11 minutes apart. A little less than eight minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9 first stage booster will target a touchdown at Landing Zone 4 back at VSFB.
Updated: February 01
NET March Falcon 9 • Transporter-13
Launch time: TBD
Launch site: SLC-4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch a dozens of satellites on the company’s 13th smallsat rideshare mission to a sun-synchronous orbit. Among those satellites are a trio of CubeSats for NASA’s Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) mission; Arvaker 1, the first microsatellie for Kongsberg NanoAvionics’ N3X constellation; and the Botsat-1 satellite from Botswana. Less than eight minutes after liftoff, the first stage booster will return for a touchdown at a landing pad near the launch site.
Updated: January 31
NET Spring 2025 New Glenn • EscaPADE
Launch time: TBD
Launch site: Launch Complex 36, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket will launch a pair of identical spacecraft on NASA’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE) mission. The two satellites, named Blue and Gold, will make a roughly 11-month journey to Mars where they will then perform about an 11-month science mission while orbiting the Red Planet. Blue and Gold were manufactured by Rocket Lab over about 3.5 years and carry science experiments from the University of California, Berkeley. This launch of the New Glenn rocket will also feature a landing attempt on its landing barge in the Atlantic Ocean. Delayed from October 13.
Updated: September 11
NET April 8 Soyuz 2.1a • Soyuz MS-27 / 73S
Launch time: 8:47 a.m. MSK (1:47 a.m. EDT, 0547 UTC)
Launch site: Baikonur Cosmodrome, Site 31
A Russian Soyuz 2.1a rocket will launch a three-man crew to the International Space Station. Crew commander Sergey Ryzhikov will be joined by fellow cosmonaut Alexey Zubritsky and NASA astronaut Jonny Kim. The Soyuz is set to dock with the ISS at about 5:04 a.m. EDT (0904 UTC). The spacecraft will remain docked with the orbiting outpost until about Dec. 8, 2025. This will be the third spaceflight for Ryzhikov and the first for both Zubritsky and Kim.
Updated: February 05
TBD 2025 Vulcan Centaur • Dream Chaser 1
Launch time: TBD
Launch site: SLC-41, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
A United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket will launch on its second demonstration flight with Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser cargo vehicle for the International Space Station. The Dream Chaser is a lifting body resupply spacecraft that will launch on top of a rocket and land on a runway. This will be the Dream Chaser’s first flight to space. The Vulcan Centaur rocket will fly in the VC4L configuration with four GEM-63XL solid rocket boosters, a long-length payload fairing, and two RL10 engines on the Centaur upper stage. Delayed from August 2022, December 2023, January 2024, April 2024 and September 2024.
Updated: October 17
Visible satellite passages over the next couple of days.
All times are “local” (Dallas) time.
ISS
Feb. 11
Feb. 12
Feb. 13
Feb. 14
Feb. 15
Tiangong
Feb. 9