A Falcon’s 9 Lives
The Falcon 9 experiences an anomaly for the third time in three months, the ISS welcomes the Crew-9 astronauts, and China's new EVA suit will have its lunar astronauts dressed to the nines.
Crew-9, Feelin’ Fine – Hope they have enough Tang up in Earth’s orbiting space station because the ISS just gained two new passengers. As part of the Crew-9 mission, astronauts Nick Hague of NASA and Aleksandr Gorbunov of Rosmosmos flew to the International Space Station on September 28th, by way of a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket. While the ISS crew rotation missions typically host four people, two astronauts – Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson – got booted from the flight. This was to make room for Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, whose ride (*cough* Starliner *cough*) ditched them on the station to fly back to Earth solo. According to NASA’s associate administrator for space operations, Ken Bowersox, the agency “looked at the skill mix of the crew” to decide on Hague and Gorbunov over Cardman and Wilson. Phew, glad to hear it didn’t have anything to do with their being women. Moving right along, the Crew-9 launch also marked the first crewed mission to take off from Space Launch Complex (SLC) 40, a launch pad dating back to the 1960s. At NASA’s request, SpaceX began building a crew tower on the pad a couple years ago, establishing SLC-40 as an alternate to the existing Launch Complex (LC) 39A. The use of the new pad allowed NASA to prepare LC-39A for the Europa Clipper mission, which could launch with a Falcon Heavy rocket as early as October 10th.
You’re Grounded! – Luckily, Crew-9 snuck into the station just before SpaceX had to ground its Falcon 9 rocket, in order to investigate an anomaly with its upper stage. Despite the successful astronaut delivery, the rocket’s second stage had an issue with its deorbit burn and hence landed outside of the FAA-approved safety zone. Of course, SpaceX was quick to clarify that the booster still “safely landed in the ocean, but outside of the targeted area." This wouldn’t be much to sneeze at if it wasn’t the third Falcon 9 anomaly in the last three months. Also, the snafu comes as tensions have already been high between the FAA and SpaceX over Starship. So, we can’t imagine the agency will be too lenient with the Musk-led space firm while overseeing its newest investigation. That said, important science missions relying on Falcon 9 rockets have put pressure on the federal agency, such as NASA’s Europa Clipper and ESA’s Hera planetary defense mission.
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Been Hera Before – As it turns out, the European Space Agency’s timely asteroid observation mission was enough to move the FAA needle, with the agency making a one-time exception to the Falcon 9’s grounding, permitting the Hera mission to launch to orbit on the SpaceX rocket yesterday. The Hera spacecraft – along with its two CubeSat sidekicks – has set out to investigate an asteroid known as Didymos, and its orbiting “moonlet,” Dimorphos. The shape and orbit of Dimorphos was altered by NASA in 2022, when the space agency’s DART spacecraft intentionally bumped into it, as a demonstration of asteroid deflection. While we’ll have to wait approximately two years for Hera to reach the asteroid duo, we look forward to the progress it could incite regarding planetary defense strategies.
Without a Leak to Stand On – The thing about leaks is that you can ignore them up to a certain point. The same applies to the International Space Station, which has been battling a leak in the Russian “Zvezda” module since 2019. More recently, the leak rate has significantly increased, so much so that NASA’s Office of Inspector General released a report categorizing the risk level as the highest in its risk management system. While the agency assured the public ahead of the Crew-9 launch that everything was under control – adding that recent repairs had reduced the leak rate – NASA is still faced with some serious decisions moving forward. Some solutions thrown out include keeping the hatch door to the affected area permanently closed, until the end of the decade and thus, the space station’s life. But what if the station’s replacement isn’t ready in time? Given the condition – not to mention geopolitical tensions – extending the lifespan of the ISS might not be in the cards. So, no pressure, Axiom. Until then, we’ll keep our eyes on the leak; according to the OIG report, “NASA and Roscosmos have not reached an agreement on the point at which the leak rate is untenable.”
Honorable Mentions
Our final notable nuggets.
Eternal Sunshine – As Angelenos, we’re spoiled with sunlight. But to capture enough to make the world run on solar power, even Los Angeles would need more. That’s why a startup has set out to control the sunlight aimed at Earth, through a delicate dance of space mirrors. And before you “@” them for playing god, we’re only talking about laser-like light directed at solar panels – not a complete manipulation on the diurnal cycle. Apologies to any Alaskans reading this.
Keeping it SSPICY – NASA is funding a space debris inspection mission dubbed SSPICY, or Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability. The mission will investigate a group of defunct US satellites in LEO, and will be the only NASA-funded servicing mission outside of OSAM-1 (On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing 1), the fate of which is uncertain due to cost overruns and delays.
You Beta Work – Systems to navigate traffic are essential, both here on Earth (shoutout Google Maps) and in space. In an effort to establish a Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS), the US Office of Space Commerce has kicked off beta testing of the work-in-progress service.
The JWST Download
Charon, Pluto’s largest moon, apparently contains frozen carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide on its surface, according to new JWST findings. The discovery can tell us a lot about irradiation in our solar system, as the hydrogen peroxide was formed by years of sun-driven ultraviolet radiation on water ice.
Now, “superheated gas” may not sound like a good thing, but in the space realm, it’s pretty cool. Webb has spotted a galaxy with a unique light signature caused not by its stars but by, well, extraordinarily hot gas.
The JWST has recently attributed differing atmospheric compositions to the lopsided nature of a “puffball” exoplanet. Sheesh, astronomers, a lopsided puffball? Lay off WASP-107 b – it’s doing its best!
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A Global Space
China – At a ceremony held in Chongqing on September 28th, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) unveiled a new spacesuit. With a design inspired by traditional Chinese armor, the nation intends to use this suit for crewed missions to the Moon, which it aims to accomplish before 2030. Compared to China’s current Feitian EVA suit, which has been used in LEO missions, the newly revealed design will be more lightweight, enhancing mobility for low-gravity tasks on the lunar surface. Other key features include a strong fabric that can stand up to lunar regolith, a helmet with integrated cameras, and red stripes depicting the “flying apsaras,” or flying celestial figures often featured in Buddhist art. Along with this space fashion reveal, China also launched Shijan-19 at the end of September, a reusable satellite developed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST). Carried to orbit by a Long March 2D rocket, Shijan-19 contains plant seeds, with which the nation aims to conduct breeding experiments. The goal is to assess how LEO’s radiation could positively affect breeding, such as accelerating breeding cycles. Despite the mission patch featuring rabbits, there are no animals on board this mission – not this time, anyways.
ESA – Yesterday’s Hera launch is not the only big news for the European Space Agency this week. As part of its Zero Debris Charter initiative, ESA also plans to launch an investigative mission in 2027, to study exactly how satellites break apart during reentry. The mission, dubbed DRACO, or Destructive Reentry Assessment Container Object, is essentially a spacecraft built to die. Specifically, the propulsion-less craft will feature 200 sensors and four cameras, which will capture its destruction during reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. A small capsule built to survive the blast will save and transmit the data back to the agency within a 20-minute window as it falls to the ocean. And if you think that sounds implausible, well, you’ll soon find out that some wizarding families space missions are better than others, Potter. Sorry, but you simply cannot name your spacecraft DRACO and expect us not to make a Harry Potter reference.
Russia – With a growing number of commercial Earth-observation satellites, militaries can no longer hide their secret missile testing. Russia is no exception. Picked up by Maxar and Planet spacecraft, the nation attempted to test its Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in September from Plesetsk Cosmodrome. However, the missile exploded during launch, marking the second Sarmat failure – or second recorded, at least – in less than two years. It doesn’t look great for Russia, which often touts its nuclear capabilities, particularly amidst tensions over Ukraine. Satellite imagery showed a large crater at the launch site, amongst other damages. Maybe it’s a sign to lay the “super weapon” to rest, and we can all put down our swords. We know – world peace isn’t realistic, but come on, let us have our pipedreams.
And that’s a wrap on this week in space news! A big thank you to Tess Ryan for writing this edition and for keeping up with the cosmos! We hope you enjoyed reading Continuum this week. And if you really, really like us, then consider making it official and becoming a paid subscriber or spreading the space gospel and gifting a subscription.
Keep it celestial people,
Britt
CEO of Celestial Citizen & Creator of Continuum