What time is SpaceX’s IM-1 private moon lander launch for Intuitive Machines on Feb. 15? – Space.com

Update for Feb. 14: SpaceX is now aiming to launch the IM-1 moon lander mission for Intuitive Machines no earlier than Thursday, Feb. 15, due to a liquid methane temperature issue during preparations to fuel the Odysseus lander. You can read our story and see the updated times for the mission below.

SpaceX will launch a privately built lunar lander to the moon for the company Intuitive Machines on Feb. 15, and if you want to know where and when it will lift off, we've got you covered.

The IM-1 mission, as it's called, will launch Intuitive Machines' first Nova-C spacecraft to the moon from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in a predawn flight atop a Falcon 9 rocket. Liftoff is scheduled for 1:05 a.m. EST (0605 GMT).

If all goes well, the Nova-C lander (Intuitive Machines has named it Odysseus) is expected to land on the moon on Feb. 22 to deliver experiments for NASA and commercial customers to the lunar surface under a $118 million contract with NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Here's how and when to watch it launch.

Currently, SpaceX and Intuitive Machines plan to launch the Odysseus lander early Thursday, Feb. 15, from Pad 39A of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Liftoff is set for 1:05 a.m. EST (0605 GMT).

SpaceX must launch the IM-1 mission during a three-day window this week, which opens on Feb. 14, in order for the Odysseus lander to reach its landing day target of Feb. 22, NASA and Intuitive Machines officials have said. SpaceX originally hoped to launch the mission in January but had to delay the flight after a ripple of other SpaceX launch delays due to bad weather.

An attempt to launch the mission on Feb. 14 at the start of the IM-1 launch window was delayed due to off-nominal methane fuel temperatures ahead of the loading process for the Odysseus moon lander, SpaceX has said.

Yes, you'll be able to watch SpaceX's IM-1 launch for Intuitive Machines and NASA online for free in one of several livestreams. Our guide on how to watch SpaceX launch the IM-1 moon lander has everything you need to know.

NASA will provide a livestream of the launch beginning at 12:20 a.m. EST (0520 GMT) that will be broadcast on NASA TV, the agency's NASA+ streaming channel and its website.

SpaceX will also provide a launch webcast on its X account (formerly Twitter), starting at least 45 minutes before liftoff.

Meanwhile, Intuitive Machines will host the same NASA webcast on its own IM-1 mission website during the launch webcast. Space.com will host a simulcast of NASA's webcast on our homepage, the top of this page and likely our YouTube channel.

During the launch webcast, viewers will be able to see SpaceX's final minutes of prelaunch preparation for the Falcon 9 rocket, which typically includes final fueling for launch. About eight minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9's first stage will return to Earth and land at SpaceX's Landing Zone 1 at the nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, an event that will also be webcast. IM-1 will mark the 18th flight for the mission's Falcon 9 first stage.

Intuitive Machines' IM-1 mission will send the Nova-C lander Odysseus to the moon on a 16-day mission that, if successful, will mark the first-ever private landing on the moon and the first U.S. landing on the lunar surface since NASA's Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

If SpaceX launches the Odysseus lander on time, Intuitive Machines' mission plan calls for a nine-day trip to the moon, followed by a seven-day stay on the lunar surface. Intuitive Machines aims to land the Odysseus spacecraft in Malapert A, a satellite crater of the nearly 43-mile-wide (69 kilometers) Malapert Crater near the moon's south pole.

The mission will end when the two-week long lunar night begins, according to a mission overview.

It is unclear exactly how long NASA and SpaceX will livestream the IM-1 mission's flight after launch, but the webcast is expected to run through at least the landing of the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage eight minutes after liftoff. SpaceX and NASA may opt to provide live coverage through spacecraft separation, so we'll have to wait and see.

If SpaceX is unable to launch the IM-1 mission on Feb. 15, the company will have at least one more chances this week, depending on the reason for a delay.

SpaceX, NASA and Intuitive Machines have a three-day window that includes launch opportunities on Feb. 14, Feb. 15 and Feb. 16 before SpaceX would have to stand down until some time in March, according to Trent Martin, vice president of lunar access for Intuitive Machines. A launch on Feb. 15 would take place at 1:05 a.m. EST (0605 GMT), according to SpaceX. A potential delay to Feb. 16 could likely shift slightly later in the 1 a.m. hour.

Regardless of which day IM-1 launches during this week's window, the Odysseus lander would still be on target for a Feb. 22 moon landing, Martin added.

"If we were to push into the March window, it is also a three-day window, and we're coordinating with SpaceX and that as well," Martin told reporters in a Jan. 31 briefing.

Complicating the launch options for IM-1 is NASA's Crew-8 astronaut mission, which SpaceX is also scheduled to launch from KSC's Pad 39A this month. That mission, which will send four astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on a Crew Dragon spacecraft, was originally scheduled to launch on Feb. 22.

"Right now, we're working towards the 22nd, with the possibility of going later depending what happens with IM," NASA associate administrator Jim Free told reporters in a Feb. 5 press conference, referring to the Crew-8 mission.

On Tuesday (Feb. 13), NASA and SpaceX delayed the Crew-8 launch to Feb. 28.

Editor's note: This story was update at 12:30 am ET on Feb. 14 to include the new launch date and time due to a SpaceX delay.

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What time is SpaceX's IM-1 private moon lander launch for Intuitive Machines on Feb. 15? - Space.com

Dawn Breaks Over Earth: A Spectacular Sunrise Seen From the Space Station – SciTechDaily

Astronaut photograph of the Sun rising above Earths horizon captured from the International Space Station on September 29, 2023.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are uniquely positioned to capture striking photos of the Sun and Earth.

As the International Space Station orbited over the southern Indian Ocean, an astronaut looked eastward and captured this photo of the Sun rising above Earths horizon.

This edge-on photo of Earths limb reveals several atmospheric layers. The lowest layer, known as the troposphere, appears orange and red as these wavelengths of light are scattered by particles of dust, smoke, and smog. Directly above the troposphere is the stratosphere. This blue layer is usually cloud-free and extends as much as 50 kilometers (30 miles) above Earths surface. The region directly above the stratosphere is known as the mesosphere.

The Sunthe focal point in this imageis front and center in NASAs Heliophysics Big Year. This big year celebration began with the annular solar eclipse in October 2023 and continues with a total solar eclipse in April 2024. It concludes with the Parker Solar Probes closest approach to the Sun in December 2024.

The total solar eclipse in April 2024 will pass over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. In addition to putting on an impressive show, the eclipse offers research opportunities including the chance for scientists to study the Suns effect on Earths ionosphere. This is the region spanning from about 80600 kilometers (50400 miles) above Earths surface, overlapping with the top of the atmosphere and the beginning of space. It is where the space station and other satellites in low Earth orbit hang out, and where radio and GPS signals bounce around.

During a solar eclipse, astronauts on the space station can sometimes see the Moons shadow passing over Earth. Views of sunrises are much more common, with astronauts witnessing as many as 16 sunrises every 24 hours.

Astronaut photograph ISS070-E-1178 was acquired on September 29, 2023, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a focal length of 170 millimeters. The image was provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit at Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 70 crew. It has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public and to make those images freely available on the Internet.

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Dawn Breaks Over Earth: A Spectacular Sunrise Seen From the Space Station - SciTechDaily

Watch live as astronauts on the ISS celebrate the station’s 25th anniversary today (video) – Space.com

Astronauts on the International Space Station will celebrate 25 years of their vehicle in orbit on Wednesday (Dec. 6), and you can watch the event live.

The six astronauts of the International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 70 crew will mark the 25th anniversary of the Russian Zarya and U.S. Unity modules meeting up Dec. 6, 1998. You can watch the event live here at Space.com, via NASA Television, at 12:25 p.m. EST (1725 GMT).

The Expedition 70 astronauts include commander Andreas Mogensen (European Space Agency), Jasmin Moghbeli (NASA), Satoshi Furukawa (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), Loral O'Hara (NASA) and Russian cosmonauts Konstantin Borisov, Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub. The crew, by coincidence, represents all the largest ISS partners on the orbiting complex.

The Zarya module blasted to space on its own on Nov. 20 1998, using a Russian Proton rocket launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Unity came to space on board the STS-88 space shuttle Endeavour mission that launched on Dec. 4, 1998.

The commander of STS-88, Bob Cabana, will also join the event in his current role as NASA's associate administrator alongside Joel Montalbano, ISS program manager. Cabana was also the first American to enter the ISS, NASA officials said in a release about the anniversary event.

Related: Track the ISS: How and where to see it

The ISS has greatly expanded from its two-room origins into a six-bedroom complex that has hosted 273 individuals from 21 countries, according to NASA statistics. The complex has had nearly 270 spacewalks servicing or assembling the space station, including 198 on the U.S. side and 71 on the Russian side. Crews typically complete hundreds of experiments during missions that can last between six months and 12 months at a time.

In addition to the station itself, the vehicles serving the ISS have changed a lot in the last quarter-century. The early days used the space shuttle and Russian Soyuz for crews, alongside government cargo vehicles from Russia, Japan and Europe. The space shuttle retired in 2011, and for nearly a decade, Soyuz was the exclusive ride to the space station. Soyuz continues to launch all Russian crews today, alongside some U.S. astronauts under an agreement with NASA.

Today, private SpaceX Dragon and Northrop Grumman cargo ships resupply the space station. U.S. companies also have two vehicles on offer for astronauts: SpaceX's Crew Dragon (in service since 2020) and Boeing's Starliner (expected to run its first mission with astronauts in 2024.) Meanwhile, Axiom Space is running independent private missions to the space station for commercial purposes, using paying customers to pay for seats.

Related: Private space station: How Axiom Space plans to build its orbital outpost

The ISS also aims to fly a diverse set of individuals in space, and has celebrated numerous societal milestones in the last five years. A few include the first all-woman spacewalk in 2019, the first long-duration missions by a Black man (NASA astronaut Victor Glover) and Black woman (NASA's Jessica Watkins) and the first long-duration mission by a Native American woman (NASA's Nicole Mann).

Also, this year Hispanic-American Frank Rubio accidentally set the record for longest NASA mission in space, 371 days, following an issue with his Soyuz spacecraft that doubled his stay in orbit. Astronauts from several countries outside the U.S. have set their own records for spacewalking, space station commands, long-duration missions and similar milestones, too.

Most partners of the ISS have committed to extending the partnership until at least 2030, and NASA has committed to funding several private space stations to keep a presence in low Earth orbit in the next decade. Russia will remain with the ISS until at least 2028, although it may be longer. (The ISS is one of Russia's few remaining space partnerships internationally after its unsanctioned invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which is ongoing.)

The moon is the new focus of the ISS partners. NASA has formed the Artemis Accords, a coalition of more than 30 countries that are aiming for peaceful space exploration together; a few of those partners are also working on moon missions with the NASA-led Artemis program. Russia has allied with China, and a few other countries, on its own moon-facing alliance in the coming years.

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Watch live as astronauts on the ISS celebrate the station's 25th anniversary today (video) - Space.com