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30th Anniversary of The Planetary Society
 

The Planetary Society Weblog

By Emily Lakdawalla


Future Space Events of Note

This is a list of future space events that I'm planning to keep an eye on. I list space and major mission events going out several years, but meetings only for the upcoming year. Have any suggestions for additions?

2010

Endeavour Launches

February 7: Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-130 mission to deliver final connecting node, Node 3, and "the Cupola, a robotic control station with six windows around its sides and another in the center that provides a 360-degree view around the station."

 

February 9: Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO): Launch

Rhea at a scale of 50 km/pixel

March 2: Cassini: Targeted flyby of Rhea (100 kilometers)

Helene at a scale of 1 kilometer per pixel

March 3: Cassini: Targeted flyby of Helene (1803 kilometers)

MEETING

March 1-5: 41st Meeting of the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston, TX (Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel and Convention Center, near IAH.) meeting website

MEETING

March 17-18: Meeting of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG), Monrovia, California. MEPAG website

Endeavour Launches

March 18: Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-131 mission to deliver science racks to the space station.

Dione at a scale of 50 km/pixel

April 7: Cassini: Targeted flyby of Dione (504 kilometers)

Enceladus at a scale of 20 km/pixel

April 28: Cassini: Targeted flyby of Enceladus (103 kilometers)

MEETING

May 2-7: European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly, Vienna, Austria. EGU 2010 website

Endeavour Launches

May 14: Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-132 mission to deliver spare parts and a Russian Mini Research Module to the space station. Unless plans change, this will be Atlantis' last flight.

Enceladus at a scale of 20 km/pixel

May 18: Cassini: Targeted flyby of Enceladus (201 kilometers)

Hayabusa sampling Itokawa

June: Hayabusa: Possible return to Earth?

MEETING

July: Third MSL Landing Site Engineering Assessment Workshop

Planet-C at Venus

July: Akatsuki (Venus Climate Orbiter/PLANET-C): Launch

Rosetta

July 10: Rosetta: Asteroid Lutetia flyby

MEETING

July 18-25: 8th Scientific Assembly of the Committee on Space research (COSPAR), Bremen, Germany meeting website

Endeavour Launches

July 29: Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-134 mission to deliver spare parts. Unless plans change, this will be Endeavour's last flight.

MEETING

September: Fourth MSL Landing Site Community Workshop

Endeavour Launches

September 16: Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-133mission to deliver spare parts to the space station. Unless plans change, this will be Discovery's last flight.

MEETING

October 3-8: 42nd annual meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society (Pasadena, California)

Deep Impact

November 4: Deep Impact: Comet 103P/Hartley 2 flyby

Planet-C at Venus

December: Venus Climate Orbiter/PLANET-C: Venus arrival

MEETING

December 13-17: American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California AGU meeting website

2011

Stardust

February 14: Stardust: Flyby of comet Tempel 1

MESSENGER

March 18: MESSENGER: Mercury orbit insertion

New Horizons

March 22: New Horizons: Passes mean orbital distance of Uranus

Dawn July: Dawn: Vesta arrival
Juno August 5: Juno: Launch period opens
GRAIL September 8: GRAIL: Launch period opens
Mars Science Laboratory October: Mars Science Laboratory: launch period opens
  October: Phobos Grunt and Yinghuo-1: launch
MEETING

October: 43nd annual meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society (Nantes, France; joint with EPSC?)

2012

MESSENGER

March 18: MESSENGER: End of nominal mission

Dawn July: Dawn: Vesta departure

2013

MAVEN

December?: MAVEN: Launch period opens

2014

Rosetta

May: Rosetta: Arrival at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

International Cometary Explorer

August 10: International Cometary Explorer: Return to Earth

New Horizons

August 29: New Horizons: Passes mean orbital distance of Neptune

ExoMars rover

June-September: Exomars: Mars landing

2015

New Horizons

January-July: New Horizons: Pluto/Charon flyby

New Horizons

August: New Horizons: Kuiper belt object targeting maneuver (will set up future Kuiper belt object flyby TBD)

Dawn February: Dawn: Ceres arrival
Dawn July: Dawn: End of nominal mission
Rosetta

December: Rosetta: End of nominal mission

2016

  ???: Venera-D launch
Juno August: Juno: Jupiter arrival

2017

2018

ExoMars rover

April: Exomars: Launch period opens

   

Past events »

Some Useful Sources of Calendar Information

The JPL Space Calendar, maintained by Ron Baalke
My Cassini-Huygens Tour Page
U.S. Naval Observatory: Earth's Seasons - Moon Phases -