Manned space launch and meteor shower in the May Astronomical Calendar

The month of May 2024 has few, but some of the most important astronomical events of the year. The main one is the launch of Boeing’s Starliner mission. For the first time, the spacecraft must take off manned. Still this month there is the Eta Aquaridas meteor shower, one of the main ones of the year.

Read more:

Check out the May astronomical calendar

1st May: May’s waning moon arrives at 8:27 am

may 2nd: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the first pair of WorldView Legion Earth observation satellites for Maxar Technologies.

May 6: First manned launch of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner. The mission will be launched atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 11:30 p.m. Brasília time.

Starliner will be piloted by Barry “Butch” Wilmore, a former NASA space shuttle program pilot and two-time ISS visitor. Alongside him will be Suni Williams, who has two space missions under his belt. In 2007, she became the first person to “run a marathon” in space when she ran on the station’s treadmill for more than four hours. In addition to the duo, NASA astronaut and three-time space station resident Mike Fincke was cast as the mission’s backup pilot.

May 5th and 6th: Active from April 19 to May 28 in the southern hemisphere, peaking on May 5, the Eta Aquáridas meteor shower is one of the main showers of the year, with a maximum forecast of 50 meteors per hour. The pieces of space debris that create the Eta Aquarids come from a very famous comet: Halley’s Comet.

May 8: The New Moon of May arrives at 00:21

15th May: The May Crescent Moon arrives at 8:48 am

May 23: May’s Full Moon, known as the Flower Moon, arrives at 10:53 a.m.

This month

The month of May still has some events planned, but without official confirmation. These include Blue Origin’s NS-25 manned suborbital launch and China’s Chang’e-6 mission to the far side of the moon. SpaceX can still launch Starship again, considering that Elon Musk intends to carry out 6 more takeoffs in 2024, May is a month to consider.