Falcon 9 Booster B1076 lifts off of SLC-40 on February 29, 2024 to start the Starlink 6-40 mission.
While Crew-8’s Falcon 9 sits on Pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center this morning waiting for weather to improve along its launch corridor, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 carrying 23 more Starlink Version 2 Mini satellites to low-Earth orbit from its other launch pad on the Eastern Range at SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Liftoff at 10:30 AM EST under almost-overcast skies, with the rocket completely disappearing 10-15 seconds after liftoff when it entered the cloud deck and rose towards orbit. About 8.5 minutes later, Booster B1076 completed its 12th mission and landed safely offshore on the company’s autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) Just Read The Instructions.
Falcon 9 Booster B1069 in flight with Starlink 6-39 on February 25, 2024
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 today from Pad SLC-40 and sent another twenty-four Starlink satellites to orbit. Liftoff occurred at 5:06 PM EST on what might best be described as a “travel brochure day” — crystal clear skies, with a light breeze and temperatures in the high 60s. In other words, the sort of winter day in Florida draws many tourists because the weather is darn near perfect.
Space Falcon 9 rises off of SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station shortly after 10:30 AM EST on February 29, 2024. Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
While Crew-8’s Falcon 9 sits on Pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center this morning waiting for weather to improve along its launch corridor, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 carrying 23 more Starlink Version 2 Mini satellites to low-Earth orbit from its other launch pad on the Eastern Range at SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Liftoff at 10:30 AM EST under almost-overcast skies, with the rocket completely disappearing 10-15 seconds after liftoff when it entered the cloud deck and rose towards orbit. About 8.5 minutes later, Booster B1076 completed its 11th mission and landed safely offshore on the company’s autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) Just Read The Instructions.
JRTI will now head back to Port Canaveral and should arrive several days from now to offload the booster so it can be inspected and refurbished for another flight.
Today’s launch was the 13th of the year so far as February comes to a close. That’s a launch rate of one every 4.6-odd days on the average.
Next Launch
SpaceX and NASA hope to launch Crew-8 from pad LC-39A on Saturday, March 2nd from Pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. This launch was rescheduled from 12:04 AM EST March 1st, due to weather concerns along its flight path as it heads towards the International Space Station.
Crew-8 Members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 from left to right, NASA astronauts Jeanette Epps, mission specialist; Michael Barratt, pilot; Matthew Dominick, commander; and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, mission specialist; are photographed inside the crew access arm at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo: SpaceX
NASA announced this morning that “due to unfavorable weather conditions forecast in offshore areas along the flight track, NASA and SpaceX now are targeting Saturday, March 2 at 11:15 p.m. EST for Crew-8 launch.”
Weather here on the Space Coast appears to be acceptable for a launch, and it appears that forecasters have scaled back their rain estimates for the area — down from 40% chances of precipitation overnight to as little as 15%. Unfortunately, the forecasts aren’t as good along the launch corridor, and in the unlikely case of a launch abort, the crew would be descending into unacceptable conditions.
Illustration of forecasted high-altitude winds in the launch corridor of Crew-8 tonight at 12 AM EST. While these are merely estimates, they do illustrate the conditions that the astronauts could face during an abort event. The trajectory of Falcon 9 towards ISS is the yellow line. Forecast: Windy.com
NASA’s Manager of Commercial Crew, Steve Stich, outlined this in a press conference at Kennedy Space Center yesterday. “It’s one of the more complicated times during ascent relative to how we do abort weather,” he said. “We basically have a number of points all across the ascent ground track from the launch pad all the way to orbit insertion. And for each one of those points, we look at a weighted risk.”
Stich also said that “At staging, we look at that location because if you think about all the events that have to happen at staging, when the first stage, the nine Merlin engines shut down, there’s separation and the MVAC engine has to start.”
Should that second stage engine fail to ignite properly, the crew would be in an abort mode and down into weather that NASA and SpaceX officials have deemed too risky to attempt a launch at the original planned liftoff time. Conditions are expected over to improve over the next couple of days as the frontal boundary pushes south.
Saturday’s Weather: Iffy.
Saturday may well end up as a repeat of today: weather will likely still be a concern, and a scrub may be necessitated according to today’s forecast by the US Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron:
Rendering of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner docked at ISS Graphic: Boeing Corporation
During the NASA Administrator Briefing from the Kennedy Space Center mainly centered around Crew-8 readiness today, Steve Stich, the Manager of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program gave some insight about the status of the planned first crewed flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner. That launch is currently planned for late April of this year.
Steve Stich, Manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at the NASA Administrator Briefing held at the NASA Press Site at Kennedy Space Center on February 28, 2024 Photo: NASA livestream
On the Starliner capsule’s readiness, Stich said “Over at Boeing the Starliner spacecraft is pretty much closed out. We’ve loaded the fluid for the cooling system. The next big event, really, is to load propellant on the crew module and propellant in the service module. And that’ll happen in mid-March.”
“We’re going to work hand in hand with Joel [Montalbano, NASA’s Manager of the International Space Station Program] on the right decision points to go fuel Starliner. As Joel said, it’s a busy time, so we may adjust the date. Right now, we’re targeting the Crew Flight test in late April.”
Stich also mentioned that the launch date for Starliner may be affected by the availability of a docking port, so the late April date appears that it may still be somewhat fluid. The good news for Boeing is that the spacecraft appears to be in good condition to fly, pending additional flight readiness reviews.
ULA Stacking Atlas-V for Starliner at SLC-41
On a post on the X platform yesterday, NASA Commercial Crew said “A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket was moved into the company’s Vertical Integration Facility to start stacking operations ahead of the first crewed Starliner launch to [the International] Space Station.”
Atlas V being prepared in the Vertical Integration Facility at SLC-41 on February 27, 2024. Photo: NASA
If The Crew Flight Test Is Successful?
Stich said that there are effectively two crews training for Starliner flights: “We really have two crews, primarily in training,” he said. “Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, for CFT. Mike Finke is the backup astronaut for that flight.”
NASA astronauts Suni Williams, left, and Mike Fincke, right, pose for photographs while visiting NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, May 18, 2022, in advance of the agency’s Boeing Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Photo: NASA
Stich did not identify an additional astronaut that would be training for Starliner One, the first operational mission of the CST-100 Starliner system. He did, however, outline post-CFT plans for the Starliner system. “Our plan is to really watch the progress of how Starliner One is progressing with the hardware build and the certification products,” he said.
“Just like we did for [SpaceX Crew Dragon] Demo-2, to get to our [Starliner] Crew One flight,” Stich added, “We have a certification process that we go through after that test flight to get to the first Starliner mission. We’ll do that toward the end of this year.”
Assuming all goes well for the Starliner CFT mission, Stich said that, “The Starliner One mission is scheduled for February of 2025.”
While weather here on the Space Coast looks as though it will have a 90% chance of acceptable launch conditions early Friday morning for a 12:04 AM EST launch of astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin to the International Space Station, NASA officials raised concerns that weather along the watch corridor may not be acceptable.
In a pre-flight press conference this morning at the Kennedy Space Center Press Site, Steve Stich, NASA’s Manager for the Commercial Crew Program said, “Launch weather looks really favorable for Friday morning’s early launch. I would say the abort weather is what we’re watching very carefully.”
45th Weather Squadron Forecast
The 45th Weather Squadron released their first launch forecast for Crew-8 at 12:00 PM EST today:
Steve Stich, NASA’s Manager for the Commercial Crew Program at today’s Crew-8 Press Conference. via: NASA Livestream
Additional Stich Comments At Today’s Press Conference
“We have to have weather along the east coast ground track to be acceptable for launch,” Stich added. “That weather right now is not looking as favorable as we’d like. We’ll do another weather briefing tonight and then we’ll take a look at the weather again.”
He added later that the weather forecast is in the marginal column, but not yet in the zone that would necessitate a scrub out of an abundance of caution. “I would say it’s marginal right now based on the forecast,” Stich said. “We’ll go look at the weather tonight and make a decision. Do we push the launch 24 hours at that point, or do we take it down further? And that’s really going to be based on the weather models and the prediction of this trough. And then sometimes we’ll take it all the way down to the day of launch, and we just have to look at the data a little bit more.”
Why Is Launch Corridor Weather A Critical Concern?
In the relatively unlikely event of a launch abort, NASA and SpaceX want to ensure that conditions for an unplanned splashdown of the crew at sea are safe.
Stich illustrated this with some in-depth comments: “At staging, we look at that location because if you think about all the events that have to happen at staging, when the first stage, the nine Merlin engines shut down, there’s separation and the MVAC engine has to start.”
“It’s one of the more complicated times during ascent relative to how we do abort weather, we basically have a number of points all across the ascent ground track from the launch pad all the way to orbit insertion. And for each one of those points, we look at a weighted risk,” Stich said.
Should that second-stage engine ignition fail to occur, an abort would be necessary. Again, this unlikely, but bad weather is an unacceptable risk for astronauts descending from a far-from-nominal state in their spaceflight.
Not Scrubbed, Not Yet, Stay Tuned
To be clear, at the time of this writing, 1:00 PM EST on Wednesday, the mission has not been delayed. That decision will be made later, so stay tuned.
Due to its final position on the lunar surface, Intuitive Machine’s IM-1 Nova-C “Odysseus” lander will cease operations within 24 hours. That will be two days earlier than planned. Still, IM said in an update this morning that they continue receiving data from the first American lunar lander to successfully touch down on the moon’s surface in over fifty years.
IM-1 approximately 30 meters above the lunar surface. Photo: Intuitive Machines
Flight Controllers continue to communicate with Odysseus. This morning, Odysseus efficiently sent payload science data and imagery in furtherance of the Company’s mission objectives. Flight controllers are working on final determination of battery life on the lander, which may continue up to an additional 10-20 hours.
The images included here are the closest observations of any spaceflight mission to the south pole region of the Moon. Odysseus is quite the photographer, capturing this image approximately 30 meters above the lunar surface while his main engine throttled down more than 24,000 mph. Another day of exploration on the south pole region of the Moon. (27FEB2024 0835 CST)
After the lander is in the darkness of lunar night and its batteries are exhausted, the mission will end. That endpoint was originally scheduled for sometime Thursday, February 29th, but will occur early due to the angle and final resting position of Odysseus. Because it is on its side, rather than standing vertically, the amount and strength the lander receives to provide power through its solar panels is less than optimal.
As for the final results of the experiments aboard Odysseus, we will have to wait for them to be released by NASA and Intuitive Machines.
Next CLPS Missions
While IM-1 is near its end, NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program is really just getting started with planned lunar landings in support of both the Artemis program to return humans to the moon and also lunar science in general.
Firefly Aerospace
Blue Ghost M1, by Firefly Aerospace, is set to launch in the third quarter of this year aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9. “Firefly is excited and ready for our Blue Ghost Mission 1,” Trina Patterson, VP of Marketing and Communications told Talk of Titusville. “We got next!”
Blue Ghost lander image: Firefly Aerospace
The 2 x 3.5 meter spacecraft’s landing target is MareCrisium (Latin for “Sea of Crises”) a spot that is barely visible to observers with the naked eye. It will, according to Firefly, carry “ten NASA-sponsored payloads” and is designed to last “for an entire lunar day (about 14 Earth days), and well into the freezing lunar night.”
Mare Crisium on the lunar surface.
Intuitive Machines IM-2
In the fourth quarter of this year, Intuitive Machines will try again with IM-2, its second Nova-C lander. It will land in the southern polar region of the moon, this time carrying a drill (PRIME-1) combined with a mass spectrometer, to attempt harvesting ice from below the surface among other experiments. Like IM-1 and Firefly’s Blue Ghost M1, IM-2 is planned to fly aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on its initial journey to space.
Astrobotics, the Pennsylvania company that built the Peregrine lander that failed to reach the moon earlier this year, has its VIPER lander slated to head towards the lunar South Pole region later this year as well.
2025 will also see multiple CLPS missions to the lunar surface. Intuitive Machines, Firefly and Draper Laboratories all have missions penciled in for next year.
Crew-8: (L-R) Cosmonaut Alexander Grebenken, Astronauts Michael Barratt, Matthew Dominick, and Jeanette Epps on the tarmac at KSC’s Launch and Landing Facility on February 25, 2024. Photo: Charles Boyer, Talk of Titusville
On Friday at 12:04 AM EST, NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, along with one Roscosmos cosmonaut, Alexander Grebenkin, are scheduled to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 with Crew Dragon and head towards the International Space Station. The crew arrived at Kennedy Space Center yesterday to begin their final preparations for the launch on March 1st.
Later in the day, mission managers and engineers conducted a Flight Readiness Review for the mission, where they assessed the rocket’s readiness, the crew and several other critical factors to approve the mission start.
Crew Arrival
Early in the afternoon, the crew arrived at the Launch and Landing Facility (LLF) at Kennedy Space Center, where they gave brief remarks to the press before leaving for other duties.
Mission Commander Matthew Dominick
Dominick, a former US Navy test pilot and a NASA astronaut since 2017 remarked that it is an “incredible time for spaceflight,” where launch activities at Kennedy Space Center and the Eastern Range happen so often that Crew-8 was slightly delayed to accommodate other missions:
Crew-8 Mission Commander Matthew Dominick’s gave remarks after he arrived at Kennedy Space Center.
Mission Pilot Sr. Michael Barratt
Dr. Barratt is an experienced and well-seasoned astronaut, having flown twice on Soyuz, and once on the Space Shuttle before he became a member of Crew-8. He has been extensively involved in medical and human factors applications for new space vehicles in the Commercial Crew and Artemis Programs, space medical risks, and research efforts. He began working at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in May 1991.
Barratt remarked that Kennedy Space Center has rebounded greatly since the end of the Shuttle program, and that today it is an incredibly busy place:
Mission Specialist Dr. Jeanette Epps
Dr. Epps, who has been with NASA since 2009, remarked on the long road to the launch pad and how she was trained on Russian, Boeing, and SpaceX flight systems. She holds a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland and is a well-respected and oft-cited researcher in her field and an astronaut.
In her remarks, she thanked everyone who participated in getting the mission to launch readiness.
Dr. Jeanette Epps speaks on February 25, 2024 after she arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Rusian Cosmonaut Alexander Grebenken
Grebenken, has served in the technical and operational units of the Air Force of the Aerospace Forces of the Russian Armed Forces and has been a member of the Russian cosmonaut corps since 2018, first as a cosmonaut candidate, and in 2020 he was awarded the qualification of a test cosmonaut. He spoke through an interpreter during his brief remarks.
Alexander Grebenken on February 25, 2024 after he arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Flight Readiness Review
Also yesterday, a Flight Readiness Review for Crew-8 was conducted by mission managers at NASA and SpaceX to assess whether the mission was ready to proceed with the launch as planned on Friday.
Ken Bowersox, Associate Administrator of the Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA said, “We talked about some of the technical items, on the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft, the readiness of the crew, and the Space Station and even some of the science the crew will conduct.”
Bowersox said results were positive: “At the end of the review, everybody polled ‘Go’ and we’re on track for a launch at 12:04 EST on Friday March 1st from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center.”
Falcon 9 lifts off to begin the Starlink 6-39 mission today at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Pad SLC-40. Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 today from Pad SLC-40 and sent another twenty-four Starlink satellites to orbit. Liftoff occurred at 5:06 PM EST on what might best be described as a “travel brochure day” — crystal clear skies, with a light breeze and temperatures in the high 60s. In other words, the sort of winter day in Florida draws many tourists because the weather is darn near perfect.
Booster Touches Down Safely
About eight and a half minutes after liftoff, Booster B1069 touched down safely on SpaceX’s A Shortfall of Gravitas automated droneship located offshore in the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas. It was the booster’s fourteenth flight since it went into service on December 21, 2021, launching the CRS-24 mission to ferry supplies to the International Space Station.
Shortly before staging, Falcon 9 flies high above the Florida coastline today. Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
After returning to Port Canaveral several days from now, Booster B1069 will be returned to SpaceX’s facilities at Hangar X at Kennedy Space Center, where it will be inspected, refurbished, and presumably prepared for its next flight.
Falcon 9 Performance Boosts
In a post on the X platform today, SpaceX noted that today’s “mission [was] carrying one additional Starlink satellite from previous East Coast missions thanks in part to performance increases on Falcon 9.”
Picture Perfect Launch
Initially scheduled for yesterday, today’s launch was the second attempt to complete the Starlink 6-39 mission. Crowds of spectators lined the parks on US-1 in Titusville, the beaches and along FL-528W to watch the liftoff, and weren’t disappointed by the views they could see. Falcon 9 was visible all the way through first stage and slightly afterwards, which is a rare site for a daytime launch.
Next Launch
It will be a busy week at the Eastern Range, so long as the weather cooperates: SpaceX will launch another batch of Starlink satellites to orbit on Wednesday, February 28th, with the Starlink 6-40 mission slated to liftoff between 11:00 AM and 2:31 PM EST from Pad SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Not long after that, at 12:04 AM EST on Friday, March 1st, Crew-8 will head to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center.
While Intuitive Machines soft-landing on the moon yesterday was successful, and the first by an American spacecraft in over fifty years, the news today is not all good: the company thinks that Odysseus, the company’s lunar lander is highly tilted or perhaps on its side.
In a NASA-hosted press conference late this afternoon, Intuitive Machines CEO and co-founder, Steve Altemus said that “We think we came down about 6 miles an hour [downwards towards the surface] and about 2 miles an hour [sideways] and caught a foot in the surface. And the lander has tipped [horizontally.] We believe this is the orientation of the lander on the moon.”
As he spoke, Altemus also showed a model of the lander in the orientation he believes that it is in:
Intuitive Machines Steve Altemus illustrating the orientation that mission controllers and engineers believe their lander is in on the lunar surface. Screencapture of NASA news conference from April 23, 2024
As to yesterday’s statement that Odysseus had landed in an upright condition, Altemus said “We thought we were upright. The reason was that the tanks were reading, [in] the X direction. And the tanks were reading, gravity on the moon, that the fill levels, [that] there were still residuals in the tank.”
He went on further to say yesterday’s announcement from IM that Odysseus was upright was incorrect after new data arrived and further review. “That was stale telemetry,” Altemus said. “When we worked through the night to get other telemetry [data] down, we noticed that in the Z-direction is where we’re seeing residual tank quantities. And so that’s what tells us, with fairly certain terms, the orientation of the vehicle.”
Intuitive Machines Steve Altemus at today’s press conference. Screencapture from NASA livestream
In short, new information and further assessment led Intuitive’s engineers to change their assessment of the lander’s final position. That assessment could change further as new data becomes available.
“My theory is just a theory,” Altemus said. He added that analysis of data will continue, and that photographs will be taken to help clarify the final result.
Science Experiments Are Actively Collecting Data
Altemus added that not all is lost, and that the IM-1 mission is continuing. “The majority of our payloads are all in view, and we are collecting science,” he said.
He illustrated his point further later in the press conference. “Fortunately, for most [experiments aboard Odysseus] of the payloads exposed to the outside, above the surface.”
On its side, of course, one panel has to be downwards close to the lunar surface. “That panel has a single payload on it, and it’s not an operational payload. It’s a static payload and we’re going to try to take a picture of that payload if we can.” Altemus continued by adding that it is believed that the panel holds the artwork payload, the Moon Phases Pace Verso / 4Space / NFMoon Sculpture created by artist Jeff Koons.
From a science standpoint, this may be the best possible outcome, allowing active experiments to continue gather data given the position Odysseus is now resting in. Odysseus’ surface operations are expected to take place through Thursday, February 29th, after which the landing site will be in lunar night and without any power from solar panels. With no power, the spacecraft cannot continue operations.
Still Working On Photos
As to photos, Altemus said that “Now that we’re on the Goonhilly dish in the United Kingdom, we’re downloading data from the buffers in the spacecraft trying to get you surface photos because I know that everyone’s hungry for those surface photos.”
Landing Still A Success, But Not An Unqualified Success
At the end of the day, given the novel territory that Intuitive Machines was operating in — this was their first foray to the lunar surface — it is fair to say that while they succeeded in landing their spacecraft safely, it did not land in an optimal position. It is also fair to say that many of the science objectives can probably still be met before the mission concludes, but like the lander, they too may not achieve all of their objectives.
At the end of the day, Intuitive Machines, NASA and scientists operating the experiments aboard Odysseus will learn a great deal. That knowledge will inform future missions and add to their chances of complete success.
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