Thursday has a packed schedule full of space-related activities. Accompanying two rocket launches slated for today is a spacecraft docking, a lunar orbit arrival and even an asteroid impact by JAXA’s Hayabusa2. Although this action is occurring all over the Earth and beyond, it can all be enjoyed live online – here is how.
Thursday begins with the launch of an un-crewed Russian Progress 72 cargo ship by Russia’s Roscosmos space agency.
Liftoff is scheduled for 11.01am BST (6.01am EDT) from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome.
US space agency NASA will begin their livestream at 10.45 BST (5.45 EDT).
Progress 72 will ferry 3 tons of food, fuel and other vital supplies for the crew living on the International Space Station (ISS).
Progress 72 is scheduled to dock itself at the station’s Russian-built Pirs docking compartment at 2.25am BST (9.25am EDT), and this event can also be watched on a NASA webcast beginning at 1.45am BST (8.45am EDT).
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The Israeli Beresheet spacecraft is expected to arrive at the moon at 2.15am BST (9.15am EDT), when it performs an engine manoeuvre to enter an elliptical lunar orbit.
You can watch this historic event live via the Beresheet mission’s livestream on Twitter.
The man-sized Beresheet is Israel’s first spacecraft ever launched on a moon mission.
Beresheet is also the world’s first private lunar lander and costed an estimated $100million (£75million).
The Israeli mission launched toward the moon using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in February and has been steadily raising its orbit around Earth in order to reach the moon.
If today’s operation is a success, Beresheet will continue adapting its orbit until it is ready to land on the moon’s Sea of Serenity on April 11.
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Thursday’s packed space schedule continues with the 4.30pm BST (11.30pm EDT) launch of an Arianespace Soyuz.
This rocket is ferrying four 03b communications satellites into orbit for the SES satellite communications company.
Arianespace’s launch webcast will begin approximately 20 minutes before launch, via Arianespace.
The four 03b satellites will join 16 other satellites already in orbit for SES’ growing fleet improving video and data connectivity on Earth.
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The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will provide a live webcast at 1am BST April 5 (8pm EDT April 4) as the Hayabusa2 spacecraft fires a bullet at the Ryugu Asteroid in order to create an artificial crater.
The actual asteroid impact is scheduled for 2.36am BST April 5 (9.36pm EDT April 4) and this spectacular event can be watched via JAXA.
Hayabusa2 will fire its Small Carry-on Impactor into Ryugu to examine the asteroid’s composition.
The Japanese spacecraft will release the impactor from 1,640ft (500m), then retreat behind Ryugu as the bullet creates a cloud of debris.
Later, JAXA scientists hope to land Hayabusa2 at the crater site to study the impact site in more detail.
The cutting-edge spacecraft will return to Earth in December with its extraordinary samples.
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