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.
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station earlier this evening. Liftoff was at 7:05 PM EDT, with the rocket taking a southeasterly direction into late afternoon skies. Around eight and one-half minutes after liftoff, B1077, the booster used for the mission, touched down safely on ASDS Just Read The Instructions. At the same time, the second stage continued to orbit, where it delivered another 23 satellites for the Starlink network.
The fourth of four informational sessions regarding the Department of the Air Force’s (DAF) ongoing Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for a potential launch pad at the Cape for SpaceX’s Starship will be held online tonight.
Officials from the Department of the Air Force, the US Space Force, the Federal Aviation Administration, the US Coast Guard, NASA, and the US Coast Guard will be present to answer questions from members of the public who are interested in learning more about the DAF / SpaceX proposed action to lease SLC-37 to SpaceX once Delta IV Heavy launch activities conclude over the next several weeks, or to build a new launch pad between SLC-37 and SLC-40. That pad would be named Space Launch Complex 50, or SLC-50. Another option is no action, meaning no Starship launch activities from the Cape.
Option 1 at a Glance: Use Current SLC-37
Option 1: Re-engineer and utilize existing pad LC-37. In the upper part of the photo is the dormant LC-37A, which would be included. Photo: Google Maps
Option 2 at a Glance: Build a New Launch Pad, SLC-50
Approximate location of a new launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station that would be used for SpaceX Starship if it is constructed. Photo: Google Maps. Graphics: Talk of Titusville
In-Depth Looks
Below are two links that can provide much 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, the risk of pollution from them, and the Proposed Actions.
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.
A Draft EIS is planned to be released in December 2024.
Starlink 6-43 rising into the Florida sky on March 10, 2024. Photo: Charles Boyer / ToT
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station earlier this evening, kicking off what could prove to be quite a week for the company.
Falcon 9’s flame plume tonight. Photo: Charles Boyer / ToT
Liftoff was at 7:05 PM EDT, with the rocket taking a southeasterly direction into late afternoon skies. Around eight and one-half minutes after liftoff, B1077, the booster used for the mission, touched down safely on ASDS Just Read The Instructions, while the second stage continued to orbit, where it delivered another 23 satellites for the Starlink network.
Falcon 9’s second stage ignites a few minutes into Starlink 6-43’s ascent to orbit this evening. Photo: Charles Boyer / ToT
Booster B1077 will return to Port Canaveral, after which it will be taken to SpaceX’s Hangar X facility at Kennedy Space Center, where it will be inspected, refurbished at prepared for its next flight.
SpaceXBooster B1077
Flight
Mission
Date
1
Crew-5
10/15/2023
2
GPS III SV06
01/18/2023
3
Inmarsat-6 F2
02/18/2023
4
Starlink Group 5-10
03/29/2023
5
Dragon CRS-2 SpX-28
06/05/2023
6
Galaxy 37
08/03/2023
7
Starlink Group 6-13
09/01/2023
8
Starlink Group 6-25
10/30/2023
9
Starlink Group 6-33
12/07/2023
10
Northrup Grumman NG-20
01/30/2024
11
Starlink Group 6-43
03/10/2024
Booster 1077 flight record
A formation high in the sky: from left, Booster B1077 falling away from Falcon 9, two fairings, the second stage continuing to orbit. Photo: Charles Boyer / ToT
That’s just the first part of SpaceX’s week to come. They are planning to loft more satellites to orbit later tonight from California’s Vandenberg Air Force base when they launch the Starlink 7-17 mission.
A Busy Week Ahead For SpaceX
Several hours after the scheduled Vandenberg launch, Crew-7 and its four astronauts are scheduled to board their Crew Dragon capsule “Endurance” and depart the International Space Station at 11:05 AM EDT Monday morning. Splashdown for the crew is slated to happen off the Florida Coast at 5:35 AM EDT Tuesday.
Wednesday evening, the company plans to launch another batch of Starlink satellites, this time from Pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center here in Florida on the Starlink 6-44 mission.
Amidst all that activity, SpaceX has also announced that it is planning for the third test flight of its Starship Heavy rocket from Texas. They are currently awaiting a launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration for that launch, but at this point in time, that permit seems to be forthcoming, as the FAA has included Starship in its weekly planning document that it issues to aviators.
That’s quite the week for a country, much less a single company.
Booster B1077 prior to its last launch, North Grumman NG-20 Photo: Charles Boyer / FMN
SpaceX plans to launch the Starlink 6-43 mission Sunday, March 10 aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.
The payload will be another tranche of 23 Starlink satellites that will be ferried low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. According to the company, “liftoff is targeted for 7:05 p.m. ET, with backup opportunities available until 11:03 p.m. ET. If needed, additional opportunities are also available on Monday, March 11 starting at 6:40 p.m. ET.”
Weather
At this time, the 45th Weather Squadron has not released a Probability of Violation forecast for the launch.
Starliner has been delayed again, this time because of ISS logistics. The mission, Crew Flight Test, planned for NET April 22, will now launch in early May. When it launches, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will be aboard.
The schedule change is not due to any technical or logistics reason on the part of Boeing and the Starliner team, but instead it appears to be a simple matter of scheduling: SpaceX will launch NASA’s CRS-30 resupply mission to sometime in mid-March, and once there, the Dragon will remain at ISS for about a month.
Following CRS-30’s departure, ISS managers plan to move Crew-8’s “Endeavour” capsule from its current docking port at the Harmony module to the Zenith port sometime after that to open a docking port for Starliner when it arrives.
Starliner’s flight is some fourteen years in the making. The CST-100 capsule was first unveiled in 2010, funded by NASA in 2011 and finally flying an uncrewed mission in 2019.
Orbital Flight Test 1
That mission, OFT-1, went awry quickly. Shortly after the launch, its autonomous flight-control system misfired due to an incorrect clock issue that had been overlooked in mission planning. Starliner could not dock with ISS, and the mission was abbreviated. After that, the capsule re-entered and made a safe landing at White Sands Space Harbor a few days later.
OFT-1 after landing at White Sands Space Harbor. Photo: Boeing
Orbital Flight Test 2
Boeing OFT-2 launches on May 19, 2022 Photo: Charles Boyer / ToT
Boeing and NASA went back to the drawing board, determined OFT-1’s issues, made corrections and improvements and then planned to fly OFT-2, a mission Boeing paid for out of its own pocket, in August of 2021. That was not to be: thirteen propulsion system valves experienced problems from corrosion, and Starliner was returned to Boeing’s facility in Kennedy Space Center. OFT-2 finally flew in May of 2022 and completed its mission after landing in New Mexico.
The Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is seen after it landed in White Sands, New Mexico, Sunday, Dec. 22, 2019. The landing completes an abbreviated Orbital Flight Test for the company that still meets several mission objectives for NASA’s Commercial Crew program. The Starliner spacecraft launched on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 6:36 a.m. Friday, Dec. 20 from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
After OFT-2, New Problems Create More Delays
Afterward, more issues: it was determined that the “soft links” used on the suspension lines of Starliner’s three main parachutes could not handle a load of Starliner if one failed, leading to a loss of the crew aboard the spacecraft. Additionally, testing determined that a type of tape called P-213 that was used to protect wiring harnesses inside the spacecraft could be flammable under certain conditions. That tape needed to be replaced before another flight. Boeing also experienced some valve problems on OFT-2 and did further work to resolve those issues in preparation for the Crewed Flight Test Mission.
Crewed Flight Test Being Readied
That work has been done. United Launch Alliance at SLC-41 is stacking Starliner’s Atlas-V and Starliner preparations. On February 25, Steve Stich, NASA Manager of the Commercial Crew Program, gave a Starliner update, saying that the issues that were discovered “[H]ave been resolved, and we’re in the middle of some final certification work on the parachutes and a few other things.”
This delay, one certainly not of its own making, will give Boeing some breathing space on their launch campaign timeline. Given the issues this program in particular, and Boeing in general, have been experiencing, that must be welcome news. They can triple-quadruple-check and recheck things on Starliner and hopefully have a successful mission in May.
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:
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.”
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.
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.
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:
Be a U.S. citizen
Have a master’s degree* in a STEM field, including engineering, biological science, physical science, computer science or mathematics, from an accredited institution.
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.
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.
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.
Crew-8 lifts off aboard Crew Dragon Endeavour and a Falcon 9 on March 3, 3024
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.
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.
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