A first for private space travel and technology: A United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket plans to send Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander to the Moon.
The mission is flying via NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which aims to deliver up to 14 NASA payloads to the lunar surface on Peregrine. Sixteen different customers have signed up for the flight to date.
https://www.space.com/astrobotic-ula-centaur-moon-lander-2021.html
Folks in Canada, Greenland and Russia will be treated to a spectacular annular solar eclipse. As opposed to a total eclipse when the moon completely obscures the sun’s rays, in an annular eclipse, a circle of the sun’s light—or a “ring of fire”—surrounds the moon’s shadow.
In the U.S., all or parts of Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin, and West Virginia will experience a partial solar eclipse.
https://nationaleclipse.com/maps/map_06102021.html
In the northern hemisphere, this marks the first day of summer and is the day with most hours of light in the year — when the Sun is farthest north. In the southern hemisphere, this is your winter solstice, marking the shortest day of the year.
This is of particular interest to astrologically minded folks. See URL for more info…
This is the last of three supermoons for 2021. The Moon will be near its closest approach to the Earth and may look slightly larger and brighter than usual. (12% larger than when it is at it’s smallest and most distant from earth, or apogee.)
This full moon was known by Native American tribes as the Strawberry Moon because it signaled the time of year to gather ripening fruit. It also coincides with the peak of the strawberry harvesting season. This moon has also been known as the Rose Moon and the Honey Moon.
In the southern hemisphere, we could call this the Long Night’s Moon
or the Moon before Yule. The midwinter full Moon has a high trajectory across the sky because it is opposite a low Sun. These are the longest nights of the year. It might also be called The Full Dark Moon. In Australia this might be called The Full Dingo Moon as this month marks the end of their breeding cycle and the first litters are appearing.