NASA

Soyuz MS-25 crew members: (L-R) Tracy C. Dyson, Oleg Novitskiy, and Marina Vasilevskaya.
Photo: Credits: GCTC/Andrey Shelepin

After an incredibly busy week for spaceflight last week, this week promises to be equally busy. We have two Starlink launches (one from Vandenberg, another from KSC), SpaceX/NASA CRS-30 from SLC-40 sending supplies to ISS, and a Rocket Lab launch from Wallops early on the 21st. Also, a NASA astronaut is heading to ISS aboard a Soyuz on Thursday as well.

NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus, are scheduled to lift off on the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:21 AM EDT (6:21 p.m. Baikonur time).

Dyson, Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya will be taking the fast-track to ISS, with a two-orbit, three hour journey with a planned docking at the Russian Prichal module at 12:39 PM EDT.

MS-25 Crew

Tracy C. Dyson will be taking her second long-duration mission to the ISS, with her first being a stint coming from her being a member of the Expedition 23/24 crew from April 2010 to September 2010. She also flew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor on STS-118 in 2007, and has spent over 188 days in space. She will spend several months aboard ISS as part of Expedition 70/71, with a planned return date of September 24, 2024 aboard Soyuz.

Oleg Novitskiy is a former Lieutenant Colonel in the Russian Air Force, and an old salt when it comes to space travel: he has spent some 588 days in orbit already, as a member of Expedition 33/34, Expedition 50/51 and Expedition 64/65, and will serve as the commander for this flight, Soyuz MS-25. His stay at ISS is planned for twelve days.

Marina Vasilevskaya is not officially designated by Roscosmos as a cosmonaut, but instead as a spaceflight participant. The Belarusian was selected from over 3,000 applicants to be the country’s first woman in space by the Belarus Academy of Sciences. She has been training at Star City with Roscosmos since July of last year in theoretical and practical training for the flight as well as emergency operations and zero gravity conditions. As part of the 21st Visiting Expedition to ISS, she will also spend approximately twelve days aboard the orbiting international outpost.

Loral O’Hara To Return With Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya

Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya will return aboard Soyuz MS-24, which has been docked at ISS since September of last year. Dyson will remain aboard ISS, and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara will return with them, concluding her roughly six month assignment on orbit. The spacecraft has a planned landing zone in Kazakhstan after re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.

Launch Viewing

Launch coverage will begin at 8:20 a.m. on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website.

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SpaceX capsule Endurance, post-landing on March 12, 2024
Photo: SpaceX

The Crew-7 mission to the ISS ended this morning with a splashdown at 5:50 AM EDT this morning in the Gulf of Mexico. The splashdown near Pensacola, Florida marked the end of a six and one half month mission aboard the International Space Station for the crew of four.

By 6:13 AM EDT, the Crew Dragon Spacecraft Endurance was hoisted safely aboard the SpaceX recovery ship Megan, with the crew exiting Endurance around 6:36 AM.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 crew in training at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, before their mission to the International Space Station. Imagery provided by SpaceX / NASA

NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov launched on August 26, 2023 from the Kennedy Space Center. Their mission extended for 199 days, logging a 84,434,094 mile journey consisting of 3,184 orbits around Earth.

While in orbit, the crew conducted over 200 science experiments, one of which was a critical study on the impact of spaceflight on immune function. Additionally, the crew engaged in testing innovative membranes intended for the removal of contaminants from wastewater—a critical advancement for future deep space expeditions where water recycling is essential.

Infographic courtesy Spaceintel101.com

The mission set a new record for the Crew Dragon spacecraft, Endurance. This mission marked Endurance’s third flight and took its total days in space to 534, more than any other crew-rated vehicle in history. Space X’s Crew Dragon capsules are currently rated for reuse on five missions, but the success rate has been so high across SpaceX’s fleet of four Crew Dragons, the company plans to pursue flight certifications to substantially increase that rating to around fifteen.

The return of Crew-7 paves the way for future missions, including the forthcoming cargo Dragon Resupply Mission, CRS-30 next week, as well as Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner capsule’s scheduled test mission in May. While Crew 7 was docked at the ISS, there were a total of six docking ports being used for various crew and cargo modules, creating enough congestion that the Boeing Starliner flight test was pushed from April to May.

Note: this article was originally published by Florida Media Now and was authored by Mark Stone.

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SpaceX Starship
Photo: SpaceX

Today, the US Space Force (along with the Department of the Air Force) held the third of three in-person meetings in Cape Canaveral to provide information about a Proposed Action that would ultimately see SpaceX’s Starship launch and land at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

At these meetings, the public was able to ask public affairs officials about the ramifications of SpaceX using launch pad SLC-37 or building a new launch complex, SLC-50, between current pads SLC-37 and SLC-40 on the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Either of those facilities that could be used for Starship operations if they are chosen and later constructed.

Public Information Session at The Radisson today in Cape Canaveral
Photo: Charles Boyer / ToT

Officials from the Department of the Air Force, US Space Force, the Federal Aviation Administration, US Coast Guard, NASA, and the US Coast Guard were present today to answer questions from a large number of members of the public interested in learning more about the DAF / SpaceX proposed action. Visitors could also submit their comments in person, which many folks took the time to do in the past three days.

At today’s meeting in Cape Canaveral

Online Meeting Coming Soon

For those who could not attend the information sessions in Cocoa, Titusville or Cape Canaveral in person, there is one remaining meeting, this time online:

March 12 6:00 PM EDT: at spaceforcestarshipeis.com, under “Public Meetings.”

A registration link has not yet been posted, and is labeled as “Coming Soon.” It will be activated closer to the date of the meeting.

What’s An EIS Again?

An Environmental Impact Study takes a look at multiple factors that could be affected by a project like a re-engineered or new launch pad at Cape Canaveral.

  • Those factors include:
  • Airspace and maritime resources
  • Air quality
  • Climate change
  • Noise
  • Cultural resources
  • Biological resources
  • Water resources
  • Hazardous materials and wastes
  • Land use
  • Infrastructure and utilities
  • Geology
  • Socioeconomics
  • Environmental justice
  • Safety and occupational health
  • Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act of 1966

The American Bar Association explains it this way:

“[An] environmental impact statement (EIS) is a government document that outlines the impact of a proposed project on its surrounding environment. In the United States, these statements are mandated by federal law for certain projects. Environmental impact statements are meant to inform the work and decisions of policymakers and community leaders.

“In the United States at the federal level, an EIS is a report mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), to assess the potential impact of actions “significantly affecting the quality of the human environment.” This requirement under NEPA does not prohibit harm to the environment, but rather requires advanced identification and disclosure of harm.”

American Bar Association

New: The Role of the FAA

The Federal Aviation Administration is responsible for commercial spaceflight as well as its traditional roles in aircraft such as private planes, and commercial airlines, among others. One thing that was not included in the EIS public handouts was specifically what their role is in terms of Starship launches from the Cape:

The role of the Federal Aviation Administration in Starship potentially flying from Cape Canaveral was illustrated in a display at the EIS Public Meeting in Cape Canaveral on March 7, 2024.

Notable: the Environmental Impact Statement will fulfill the FAA’s obligation for an environmental review, and any mitigations deemed necessary will need to be completed in order for the FAA to issue SpaceX a launch license (after the pad is constructed.)

In-Depth Looks

Below are two links that can provide a great deal of information about the Proposed Action. First, the official site for the EIS has a great deal of information, and in particular, a PDF file of the information displayed at the in-person meetings can be downloaded. The second is our informational article published earlier this month. In it, Talk of Titusville gives additional information regarding Starship, Starship’s propellant and the risk of pollution from them as well as a look at the Proposed Actions.

Official Site: Starship-Super Heavy Operations At Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Environmental Impact Statement

Talk of Titusville: The US Air Force Is Studying Space Coast Launch Pads For SpaceX Starship

Timeline:

After the final Public Meeting on March 12, a relatively quiet period will follow where studies will be conducted and a draft Environmental Impact Statement is created.

After next week, work will be done behind the scenes where many of the factors that affect the project are studied, public sentiment from the meetings will be gauged and a draft EIS released by the end of the year.

Then, in December of this year, that Draft Environmental Statement will be publicly released, and a Public Hearing will be conducted. Public comments on the Draft EIS will be solicited, and finally, in the summer of 2025, the preferred altenative will be identified along with the release of the Final EIS.

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NASA astronaut candidate Kayla Barron is seen after donning her spacesuit, Friday, July 12, 2019 at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. She has since spent spent 177 days in orbit as members of the Expedition 66/67 crew.
Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

When a lot of us were kids, when we were asked what we wanted to be when we grew up, we had the same answer: an astronaut. For some of us, that dream may be about to become a reality: NASA is taking applications for its next group of astronauts, and are inviting the public to apply.

The requirements for selection are of course quite high. According to NASA:

  1. Be a U.S. citizen
  2. Have a master’s degree* in a STEM field, including engineering, biological science, physical science, computer science or mathematics, from an accredited institution.
  3. Have a minimum of three years of related professional experience obtained after degree completion (or 1,000 Pilot-in-Command hours with at least 850 of those hours in high performance jet aircraft for pilots) For medical doctors, time in residency can count towards experience and must be completed by June 2025.
  4. Be able to successfully complete the NASA long-duration flight astronaut physical.
*The master’s degree requirement can also be met by:
– Two years of work towards a doctoral program in a related science, technology, engineering, or math field.
– Completed Doctor of Medicine, Osteopathic Medicine, or related medical degree
– Completion (or current enrollment that will result in completion by June 2025) of a nationally recognized test pilot school program.

In addition, they are looking for candidates with a proven track record of “leadership, teamwork and communications.”

NASA adds that “Artemis Generation astronauts will explore and conduct experiments where humans have never been: the lunar South Pole.”

Not bad work, if you can get it. Only 12 people have been to the moon thus far, and this new group of astronauts will join other current astros in job assignments that are quite literally out of this world. And on top of that, experienced astronauts who remain with NASA may well be selected for a US effort to land on Mars at some point in the future.

The application period is March 5 – April 2, 2024, and after that, NASA’s Astronaut Selection Board will review all applications, narrow them down to a smaller group and invite them for in-person interviews to take place in Texas.

NASA also says that potential candidates of any age are allowed to apply: “There are no age restrictions for the program. Astronaut candidates selected in the past have ranged between the ages of 26 and 46, with the average age being 34.” Ostensibly, if you are older than 46, meet the education, experience, leadership and of course physical requirements, you have as good a chance as anyone.

The pay rate is approximately $152,258.00 per year, according to NASA, or about what a typical mid-career manager in a typical Fortune 500 company would earn.

If you’re interested, and you qualify, you can do so here: https://www.usajobs.gov/job/779261100

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Cavum or “Holepunch” clouds seen January 30, 2024, from using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview.
Photo NASA

Famed fine-arts photographer Clyde Butcher once said of Florida, “Out west they have their mountains. We have our clouds.” Butcher’s observation was spot-on, the Sunshine State is home to some incredible sights in our skies — be it the setting sun illuminating a far away thunderstorm, a wall cloud from an approaching tropical storm, or even just a regular day where the clouds take on shapes where they appear to be animals or something else familiar.

An almost typical summer sunset over the Indian River in Cocoa, Florida: a thundercloud, backlit by the setting sun rises and casts shadows on the sky above. These are the “mountains of Florida” that photographer Clyde Butcher was speaking of.

Every in once in a while, we see something incredible that looks other-worldly: “holes in the sky,” or cavum clouds — something that some folks have claimed were caused by extraterrestrial spaceships, or by “weather control” experiments by some anonymous and nefarious government agency. Apparently, alien life-forms have nothing better to do after travelling trillions of miles to Earth than make donut holes in the clouds.

No Super-Secret Government Agencies Needed

The truth is far simpler than that, cavum clouds are a natural phenomenon that is caused by “mid-level clouds are composed of liquid water droplets that are supercooled,” according to NASA’s Adam Voiland at the agency’s Earth Observatory website.

Supercooling is relatively common in our atmosphere — altocumulus clouds, for example, are supercooled and they cover at least eight percent of the Earth on the average. In simple terms, that’s when water droplets in the sky — the things clouds are made of — remain liquid even when they are below their normal freezing point.

A pretty common Florida sight (or anywhere) are altocumulus clouds — they are “supercooled.”
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Voiland goes on the explain further how that relates to cavum clouds, “Supercooled clouds have their limits. As air moves around the wings and past the propellers of airplanes, a process known as adiabatic expansion cools the water by an additional 20°C or more and can push liquid water droplets to the point of freezing without the help of airborne particles. Ice crystals beget more ice crystals as the liquid droplets continue to freeze. The ice crystals eventually grow heavy enough that they begin to fall out of the sky, leaving a void in the cloud layer.”

An F-22 at an airshow in Titusville in 2022 created an example of “adiabatic cooling” as part of its exhibition.
Photo: Charles Boyer, ToT

So, basically, a cavum cloud is usually created by a common airplane flying through a typical cloud structure and setting off a cascade of ice formation inside that creates this “hole in the sky.”

No aliens or super-secret government agencies needed, but a cool thing to see if a cavum cloud passes overhead.

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SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off of LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center at 10:53 PM EST on March 3, 2024
Photo: Charles Boyer / ToT

It’s often said that the third time is the charm. For Crew 8 commander Matthew Dominick, co-pilot Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, the third launch attempt was the one that lifted them off of Pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center late Sunday evening.

A few hours before liftoff, the astronauts of Crew-8 greeted friends and family as they left from the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building on their way to the launch pad.
Photo: Charles Boyer / ToT

Twice in previous days, adverse weather had forced mission managers to call off a launch attempt: first, on Friday due to high winds and rough seas beneath the planned ascent corridor. On Saturday, conditions hadn’t improved for a launch attempt, but by late Sunday they were acceptable and the Crew-8 liftoff and journey to the International Space Station was cleared to proceed. The reason for the weather aborts was simple, if a little counterintuitive to the average person: in the case of a launch abort, the crew would have into seas as high as 20 feet in the Atlantic.

Late Countdown Concerns

After a seemingly uneventful countdown that allowed the astronauts and ground crew to get ahead of schedule, late concerns were raised about a crack in the hatch seal of Crew Dragon Endeavour that was discovered after it was sealed. According to SpaceX and NASA commentators, there were concerns that the crack could cause an atmospheric leak during re-entry, which of course would be unacceptable and potentially cause a scrub to facilitate repairs.

With Falcon 9 being loaded with propellants and the countdown clock inexorably ticking down to zero, engineers responsible for this aspect of the spacecraft were consulted, and with ten minutes left in the count, the astronauts were informed by ground control that the crack was too small to pose a threat. Engineers also stated that the crack would seal itself during re-entry heating, was on the “side” of Crew Dragon as it was re-entering, and would not be a problem. The countdown was cleared to continue.

Liftoff at 10:53 PM

An “Aurora” after stage separation during Crew-8’s ascent on March 3. 2024.
Photo: Charles Boyer / ToT

A brand-new booster to the Falcon 9 fleet, B1083, fired up at 10:53 PM EST, sending the crew to orbit and ultimately to the International Space Station. Endeavour will dock autonomously to the forward port of the station’s Harmony module about 3 a.m. Tuesday, March 5.

After staging, the return booster put on an incredible display over the Florida coastline, first, as it began its RTLS (Return To Launch Site) maneuvers then later during its re-entry burn — all of which was visible to spectators from near the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center. Some eight and a half minutes after liftoff, Booster B1083 concluded its first mission with a pair of sonic booms after it touched down, followed by the roar of the landing burn.

On to Station

Crew-8 will now catch up with the International Space Station, and autonomous dock is planned for the forward port of the station’s Harmony module about 3 a.m. Tuesday, March 5. After settling in to ISS, Crew-8 will begin a six month assignment on Station to begin a slate of more than 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations that will take place during their mission.

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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 during a dress rehearsal on Monday, Feb. 26, 2024, in preparation for the Crew-8 mission. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 is the eighth crew rotation mission with SpaceX to the station and the ninth flight of Dragon with people as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Liftoff from Launch Complex 39A is scheduled for 12:04 a.m. EST on Friday, March 1.
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:

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Rendering of Starliner docked at ISS.
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.”

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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.

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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.

In a post on the company’s website and also on the X platform, Intuitive Machines said this morning that

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 Mare Crisium (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.

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