email to MASS on April 10, 2020 titled "My 3rd weekly MASS update"

I hope everyone is doing ok, Carol and I are hunkered down. We’ve started to exhaust our Netflix video content and are considering playing chess with each other. We’ll see if I pull off a Queen’s Gambit with her. I just don’t want to jeopardize my portion of that great home cooking.

Even under these difficult conditions, Commercial Crew is making progress. NASA has said they will supply SpaceX with a C130 transport plane so they can perform their last 2 parachute tests for the Crew Dragon. 24 successful tests have already been done but SpaceX recently lost their helicopter based testing device when it had to be dropped before the chutes were enabled. NASA also said one final review of the Super Draco thruster engines on the Dragon has to be done. After these 2 criteria, the first Crew Dragon is still scheduled for the second half of May. I’ve put a new version of the MASS Prize on the website that correctly labels Harry’s date guess. Look for it under, MASS on Commercial Crew – MASS Prize 3.

Boeing’s position has also clarified. They will repeat their botched uncrewed test of the StarLiner capsule this Fall. Their manned first mission will probably not occur until 2021. So NASA will be relying on SpaceX to keep the ISS crew well stocked with American astronauts.

Russia has just launched another crew of 3 to the ISS on Thursday, April 9. It consists of 2 Russians and 1 American astronaut, Chris Cassidy. In just 7 days, Chris will be the only American on the ISS. NASA now plans for the 2 SpaceX astronauts on the initial mission to spend 2 to 3 months on the ISS. Those astronauts will return to Earth one month before SpaceX launches another operational crew of 4 astronauts (2 SpaceX, 1 NASA and 1 Japanese) to the ISS. That might occur before the end of 2020. Things are moving fast.

This weekend was to be a worldwide celebration called “Yuri’s night” to commemorate Yuri Gagarin’s April 12, 1961 first man in space accomplishment. Those festivities and the ones to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 13 have also been postponed. Hopefully things will return to normal soon. We also passed the 4 year mark on April 8 for the 2024 total solar eclipse moving south to north across the United States. Start your count down now.

Finally, Keith has done a great job revamping of our MassCosmos.org website. It has a new look and some added features. You can now get Chicago times for Sun, Moon and planet rises and sets, plus ISS sightings and tracking of any satellite you choose from Leo Labs. I find it fascinating to enter “starlink” satellites and increase the speed to 100 and watch those satellites wiz by over Chicago. Look for the new features under Midwest Stats. I’ve also added my weekly emails under Jim’s Blog if you ever need to refer back to them if they get lost in your inbox. Keith’s new look to the website has enhanced the site’s indexing in Google. Now if you Google “masscosmos” we are the first site returned.

Take care, Ad Astra, Jim