SpaceX is poised to launch three astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station (ISS) this week on the company's Crew-8 mission for NASA.

The crew members' spacecraft, SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endeavor, will ride atop a Falcon 9 rocket on its fifth flight from the historic Launch Complex-39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Liftoff is currently scheduled for no earlier than Saturday, March 2 at 11:16 p.m. EST (0419 GMT on March 3). Liftoff had been scheduled for early Friday morning (March 1), but bad weather forced a delay.

Crew-8 includes NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick (mission commander), Michael Barratt (mission pilot), Jeanette Epps (mission specialist) and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin (mission specialist). The quartet will spend roughly six months aboard the orbital lab, taking part in over 200 research investigations and tending to space station maintenance.

Related: 'It's white-knuckle time:' NASA chief stresses safety for Crew-8 astronaut launch

NASA's broadcast of the Crew-8 launch coverage will begin Saturday at 7:15 p.m. EST (0015 GMT on March 3), and will be available here at Space.com.

Coverage of Crew-8's ride to orbit will involve checkpoints beginning with Falcon 9's main booster returned to SpaceX's landing zone at Cape Canaveral and culminating in the release of Endeavor from Falcon 9's second stage. Following the spacecraft's orbital insertion, the Crew Dragon coverage will then switch to an audio-only feed until the beginning of the rendezvous and docking broadcast.

Approximately two hours after liftoff, NASA is expected to hold a post-launch news conference. The early-morning mission check-in will include NASA's commercial crew program manager Steve Stich and ISS program manager Joel Montalbano, as well as SpaceX director of Dragon mission management Sarah Walker.

This is Montalbano's final crewed mission as ISS program manager. Continuing his service to NASA, Montalbano has been promoted to NASA's deputy associate administer of space operations. NASA announced that Dana Weigel will begin as ISS program manager April 7; Weigel will be the first woman to hold the role.

Once in orbit, Crew-8 will spend a little more than 15 hours catching up to the ISS.

Rendezvous coverage is scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) on Sunday (March 3), about 2.5 hours before docking is expected to take place. Crew Dragon Endeavor is slated to dock to the forward-facing port of the station's Harmony module. Hatch opening will occur about two hours later, after which the current space station crew will come together with members of the newly-arrived Crew-8 for a welcome ceremony a long-standing tradition whenever astronauts first come aboard the ISS.

Crew-8's arrival will also mark the imminent departure of the station's Crew-7 astronauts. NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli,European Space Agency(ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov launched to the ISS aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endurance in August. They'll soon be wrapping up their own six-month stay.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 1:20 a.m. ET on Feb. 29 with news of the launch delay to March 2.

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How to watch SpaceX launch Crew-8 astronauts to the space station on March 2 (free livestream) - Space.com

Only have a minute? Listen instead

The Federal Aviation Administration announced Monday that it has closed a SpaceX-led mishap investigation into the Nov. 18 Starship-Super Heavy orbital flight attempt from Boca Chica.

The test flight successfully launched and achieved stage separation, though the Super Heavy booster rocket (stage one) automatically self-destructed shortly afterward, the stage-two Starship following suit several minutes later, before reaching orbit.

The FAA said it accepts the root causes and 17 corrective actions that SpaceX identified and documented in its mishap report. Seven corrective actions were identified as necessary for the 33-engine Super Heavy, including vehicle hardware redesigns, upgraded control-system modeling, reevaluation of engine analyses based on flight data from the test flight, and updated engine-control algorithms, according to the FAA.

The agency said 10 corrective actions were identified for the six-engine Starship, including vehicle hardware redesigns, operational changes, flammability analysis updates, installation of additional fire protection, and guidance and modeling updates.

After a successful ascent and stage separation early the morning of Nov. 18, Super Heavy BN9 ran into trouble during its boost-back burn (to reverse the boosters course for landing), resulting in a midair explosion and loss of the vehicle, the FAA said. Starship SN25 successfully started its six engines, separated from the booster, and began a planned liquid-oxygen propellant dump before shutting off its engines.

Over the next minute, several explosions and sustained fires were observed in onboard camera aft video streams, ultimately resulting in a loss of communication between the forward and aft flight computers, the FAA reported. This resulted in a commanded shut-down of all six engines, and an Autonomous Flight Safety System flight termination triggering at (7:10:55 a.m.) per flight safety rules.

The agency defined the launch as a mishap per Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations, and required SpaceX to conduct the mishap investigation.

The FAA has been provided with sufficient information and accepts the root causes and corrective actions described in the mishap reports, the agency said. Consequently, the FAA considers the mishap investigation that SpaceX was required to complete to be concluded.

This was SpaceXs second orbital flight attempt with Starship. The first took place on April 20, 2023, beginning with a successful liftoff and ascent but ending when stage-separation failed to occur and Starship-Super Heavy exploding far above the Gulf of Mexico compliments of onboard flight-termination systems. The reinforced concrete launch pad at Boca Chica was also destroyed during liftoff.

Closure of the investigation into the Nov. 18 test flight does not mean SpaceX is immediately authorized to make a third Starship orbital flight attempt attempt from Boca Chica, the FAA emphasized.

Prior to the next launch, SpaceX must implement all corrective actions and receive a license modification from the FAA that addresses all safety, environmental and other applicable regulatory requirements, the agency said. The FAA is evaluating SpaceXs license modification request and expects SpaceX to submit additional required information before a final determination can be made.

Meanwhile, SpaceX has requested a waiver from the FAA in order to conduct at least nine Starship launches from Boca Chica per year, as opposed to the five launches per year the FAA has already approved (as long as SpaceX meets the agencys requirements for each launch).

Kevin Coleman, FAA administrator for Commercial Space Transportation, told reporters earlier this month that SpaceX is looking at a pretty aggressive launch schedule this year.

Weve been talking to SpaceX constantly around the clock, coming together and trying to figure out how do we do this, he was quoted as saying. Were invested with the company, and so well work with them to get them back (flying) as soon as they can.

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FAA demands 17 'corrective actions' from SpaceX in Starship mishap investigation - MyRGV

SpaceX last tried to launch its Starship megarocket in November 2023, and while it made it farther than the first test, both Starship and the Super Heavy booster were lost in flight. The company has now completed the required incident review with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), clearing the way for another launch in the near future. The report details what went wrong with the rocket and the mitigations SpaceX has implemented to ensure it doesn't happen again.

The Nov. 18 launch was Starship's second, following a maiden voyage that incinerated the launchpad. SpaceX shielded the ground infrastructure from Starship's intense exhaust, but the vehicle still didn't reach its destination. About three minutes after launch, Starship completed a "hot staging" maneuver (above) to free itself of the Super Heavy first stage. Super Heavy was supposed to descend and land gently in the Gulf of Mexico, but it exploded just after leaving Starship behind. Meanwhile, Starship flew for a further four minutes before it, too, experienced "rapid unscheduled disassembly," as SpaceX is fond of saying.

The FAA report explains what caused both rocket stages to go up in smoke. After hot staging, Super Heavy fired 13 of its 33 Raptor engines to begin slowing its descent. However, several engines faltered, and one of them failed "energetically." SpaceX blames a liquid oxygen filter that had become clogged. The loss of inlet pressure in the oxidizer turbopumps and this sputtering led to the engine failure. SpaceX says it has already implemented hardware fixes to ensure that filter does not become obstructed in future launches.

As for Starship, SpaceX has expanded on a previous statement that put the blame on a fuel dump. Because Starship was not carrying a payload, too much liquid oxygen was on board as it reached the edge of space. To gather valid data on future payload behavior, SpaceX vented a large amount of oxygen. Unfortunately, a leak developed in the aft section of the vehicle when the oxygen was vented. This sparked a fire inside the rocket, which led to a loss of communication. Starship's autonomous control system attempted to shut down all six engines, but the "Autonomous Flight Safety System" decided Starship was too far gone and initiated a programmed self-destruct.

33 Raptor engines firing to launch Starship. Credit: SpaceX

At the time of Starship's destruction, it had reached an altitude of about 93 miles (150 kilometers), well past the transition between Earth and outer space. Its speed was a whopping 24,000 miles per hour, just shy of escape velocity (28,000 mph). SpaceX says it will implement new electronic thrust control systems in Starship to improve reliability. So, if Starship explodes again, it will be for a completely different reason.

SpaceX has four Starship vehicles waiting in the wings, but it can't launch them just yet. The FAA has accepted SpaceX's explanation of events, but there are a few regulatory hurdles yet to clear. The FAA is expected to grant Starship clearance in early to mid-March, and a third test flight should follow soon after.

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SpaceX Reveals Why Its Second Starship Exploded in Flight - ExtremeTech

SpaceX has delayed its first NASA astronaut launch of 2024 to no earlier than Saturday (March 2) due to offshore weather concerns near the mission's Florida launch site.

The four-astronaut SpaceX mission, called Crew-8, will now lift off on a Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than Saturday night at 11:16 p.m. EST (0416 on March 3 GMT) from Pad 39A of the U.S. space agency's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. It's the latest schedule slip for the launch, which was initially given a Feb. 22 launch date.

Read more: SpaceX Crew-8 astronaut mission: Live updates

"Joint teams selected the updated launch opportunity due to unfavorable weather conditions forecast for Friday, March 1, in offshore areas along the flight track of the Dragon spacecraft," NASA wrote in a mission update just after midnight on Feb. 29. "High wind and waves along the eastern seaboard have been observed and are forecast to continue through Saturday morning."

Unsteady sea conditions could pose safety concern for recovery teams if SpaceX's Dragon capsule suffers a launch emergency that forces the capsule to abort in mid-flight and splashdown in the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

"In the unlikely case of an abort during launch or the flight of Dragon, the wind and wave conditions must be within acceptable conditions for the safe recovery of the crew and spacecraft," NASA officials wrote in the update.

SpaceX's Crew-8 mission will launch NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin to the International Space Station to begin a six-month mission in orbit. The astronauts are due to return to Earth in late August.

NASA and SpaceX initially hoped to launch the Crew-8 mission on Feb. 22, but delayed it to Feb. 28, then to just after midnight on March 1, to allow more time between an earlier SpaceX launch on Feb. 18 from the same pad.

Crew-8 will mark SpaceX's ninth crewed flight for NASA under a multi-billion-dollar agreement to fly astronauts to and from the space station. SpaceX has been flying astronaut missions for NASA since May 2020. A second company, Boeing, is expected to begin its own crewed flights for NASA in April using its own Starliner spacecraft.

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SpaceX delays Crew-8 astronaut launch for NASA to March 2 due to bad weather - Space.com

Practice makes perfect, which is especially true for moon missions with astronauts on board.

That's why SpaceX and NASA recently completed more than 200 docking scenarios together with Starship hardware. Starship is the landing system that will bring astronauts to the lunar surface with the Artemis 3 mission, no earlier than 2026.

Engineers at NASA's Johnson Space Center spent 10 days using hardware from the Starship lander and NASA's Orion orbiter (designed by Lockheed Martin) at "various approach angles and speeds," NASA officials said in a release. "These real-world results, using full-scale hardware, will validate computer models of the moon lander's docking system," agency officials wrote on Wednesday (Feb. 28).

Related: NASA astronauts test SpaceX Starship elevator for future moon landings

The Artemis 3 moon landing requires two spacecraft: the Orion capsule, which will ferry the astronauts to lunar orbit, and the Starship lander, which will send the astronauts to the moon's south pole. The agency eventually aims to create a permanent settlement in this region to take advantage of its potential water ice, which would be beneficial for fueling and other mission needs.

The testing put Starship into the active docking role, with its hardware being a "chaser" to the Orion target docking system, NASA officials explained. Testing was meant to ensure SpaceX's soft capture system could extend to Orion, while Orion's passive system stayed retracted. The two hardware pieces join through "latches and other mechanisms," according to the agency.

While Starship has not yet made it to Earth orbit, its lunar docking system has a lot of flight heritage: it's based on the Dragon 2 docking system used for International Space Station missions. On future missions following Artemis 3, Starship will dock, alongside Orion, with NASA's Gateway space station for astronaut transfer.

SpaceX was initially chosen as the winner in 2021 of the Human Landing System (HLS) contract for the NASA-led Artemis program, which intends to bring a coalition of nations to the moon's surface under the Artemis Accords. NASA at first said it was planning on selecting multiple vendors, making the sole-source award a surprise.

Blue Originand Dynetics, other companies competing for the opportunity, filed protests to the Government Accountability Office and cited "flawed acquisition" for the program as well as "issues and concerns" with the award process. The GAO turned those protests down and, in its detailed rationale released that August, said it found no "competitive prejudice" in NASA's decision. The U.S. Senate, however, directed NASA to select a second company in October 2021, and the agency eventually went with Blue Origin for its Blue Moon lander system.

Starship made two test flights in 2023 in an attempt to reach Earth orbit, but neither were successful. The most recent SpaceX-led investigation into the November launch attempt was closed by the Federal Aviation Administration this week, and SpaceX is now working on the launch license for its third attempt.

The Artemis 3 landing, along with the Artemis 2 round-the-moon mission which will have astronauts onboard as well, was delayed in January due to several technical issues that included Starship delays. Artemis 3 will now land in 2026 at the earliest, a year later than planned, while Artemis 2 is launching nine months later in September 2025.

SpaceX's progress with Starship has been a concern for NASA for quite a while. NASA associate administrator Jim Free said in June 2023, for example, that SpaceX will need to finish "a significant number of launches" successfully before the agency gives the green light for Artemis.

In its Tuesday update, NASA officials noted SpaceX has finished "more than 30 HLS specific milestones" regarding hardware ranging from generating power and developing a guidance and navigation system, to mechanisms for propulsion, life support and protection from space's harsh environment.

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SpaceX Starship docking system readies for moon missions in tests with NASA - Space.com

NASA and the agencys international partners are sending scientific investigations to the International Space Station on the 30th SpaceX commercial resupply services mission, including tests of technologies to monitor sea ice, automate 3D mapping, and create nanoparticle solar cells. The companys Dragon cargo spacecraft is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in early March.

Read more about some of the research making the journey to the orbiting laboratory:

Plants can be used in regenerative life support systems, to provide food, and to contribute to the well-being of astronauts on future deep space exploration missions. C4 Photosynthesis in Space (APEX-09) examines how microgravity affects the mechanisms by which two types of grasses, known as C3 and C4, capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Plants respond to stressful conditions based on their genetic makeup and the environment, said Pubudu Handakumbura, principal investigator with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. We aim to uncover the molecular changes involved in plants exposed to spaceflight stressors and develop an understanding of the mechanisms of photosynthesis in space. Results could clarify plant responses to stressful environments and inform the design of bio-regenerative support systems on future missions, as well as systems for plant growth on Earth.

The ocean significantly affects the global climate. A technique called Global Navigation Satellite System reflectometry (GNSS-R), which receives satellite signals reflected from the surface of Earth, shows promise as a way to monitor ocean phenomena and improve climate models. Killick-1: A GNSS Reflectometry CubeSat for Measuring Sea Ice Thickness and Extent (Nanoracks KILLICK-1) tests using this technique to measure sea ice. The project supports development of space and science capabilities in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, by providing hands-on experience with space systems and Earth observation. More than 100 undergraduate and graduate engineering students participated in the project.

The most exciting aspect of this project is that students have the opportunity to launch a mission into space, said Desmond Power, a co-investigator with C-CORE of Canada. It is also exciting to build a tiny satellite that does different things, including contributing to our knowledge of climate change.

GNSS-R technology is low-cost, light, and energy efficient. Its potential applications on Earth include providing data for weather and climate models and improving the understanding of ocean phenomena such as surface winds and storm surge.

The Multi-resolution Scanner (MRS) Payload for Astrobee (Multi-Resolution Scanning) tests technology to automate 3D sensing, mapping, and situational awareness systems.

Our MRS on an Astrobee free-flying robot will create 3D maps inside the space station, said Marc Elmouttie, project lead with Australias national science agency, CSIRO, which developed the technology with The Boeing Company. The scanner integrates technologies developed by our mining and robotics teams. By combining data from multiple sensors, we compensate for weaknesses in any one system. This provides very high-resolution 3D data and more accurate trajectory data to help us understand how the robot moves around in space.

The technology could be used to autonomously operate spacecraft with minimal or no human occupancy where robots must sense the environment and precisely maneuver, including the lunar Gateway space station, said Principal Investigator Connie Miller of Boeing. Other uses could be to inspect and maintain spacecraft and for autonomous vehicle operations on other celestial bodies. Results also support improvements in robotic technologies for harsh and dangerous environments on Earth.

The Nano Particle Haloing Suspension investigation examines how nanoparticles and microparticles interact within an electrical field. A process called nanoparticle haloing uses charged nanoparticles to enable precise particle arrangements that improve the efficiency of quantum-dot synthesized solar cells, according to Stuart J. Williams, principal investigator with the University of Louisville Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Quantum dots are tiny spheres of semiconductor material with the potential to convert sunlight into energy much more efficiently. Conducting these processes in microgravity provides insight into the relationship between shape, charge, concentration, and interaction of particles.

The investigation is supported by NASAs Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), which partners with government, higher education, and industry on projects to improve a research infrastructure and research and development capacity and competitiveness.

Download high-resolution photos and videos of the research mentioned in this article.

Melissa Gaskill International Space Station Program Research Office Johnson Space Center

Search this database of scientific experiments to learn more about those mentioned above.

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NASA's SpaceX 30th Resupply Mission to Launch Experiments to Station - NASA

SpaceX is counting down to launch its first NASA astronaut flight of 2024 and you'll be able to see it lift off live online, but you'll need to know where and when to watch.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA on the Crew-8 mission. Liftoff is currently now scheduled for Saturday (March 2) at 11:16 p.m. EST (0416 March 3 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but exactly when the mission launches will depend on weather and the launch vehicle's readiness.

Read more:SpaceX Crew-8 astronaut mission: Live updates

Crew-8 will launch NASA astronauts NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barrett, Jeannette Epps and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin on a six-month mission to the ISS. The space quartet will relieve their colleagues of SpaceX's Crew-7 mission. Here's when they'll launch and how long the flight will be.

Currently, SpaceX is targeting Saturday, March 2, for the launch of its Crew-8 astronaut mission for NASA. Liftoff is set for an instantaneous launch window at 11:16 p.m. EST (0416 GMT).

An "instantaneous window" means SpaceX only must launch at its exact target time in order to reach the ISS on time, unlike some NASA shuttle missions that had a few minutes of hold time to work with.

Earlier, SpaceX was targeting a Crew-8 launch just after midnight on March 1, with the U.S. Space Force's 45th Weather Squadron forecasting an 85% chance of good weather at launch time. High winds at liftoff and the potential of flying through precipitation or rain are the only concern, according to the forecast.

But NASA and SpaceX delayed the launch to late Saturday due to unfavorable offshore weather.

"Joint teams selected the updated launch opportunity due to unfavorable weather conditions forecast for Friday, March 1, in offshore areas along the flight track of the Dragon spacecraft," NASA wrote in an update early Feb. 29. "High wind and waves along the eastern seaboard have been observed and are forecast to continue through Saturday morning. In the unlikely case of an abort during launch or the flight of Dragon, the wind and wave conditions must be within acceptable conditions for the safe recovery of the crew and spacecraft."

NASA and SpaceX initially aimed to launch the Crew-8 mission on Feb. 22, but delayed it to Feb. 28 (and ultimately March 1) to allow extra time following SpaceX's successful Feb. 18 launch of a private Intuitive Machines moon lander from the same pad.

Related: 'It's white-knuckle time:' NASA chief stresses safety for Crew-8 launch

Yes, you can watch SpaceX's Crew-8 launch live online, and you've got a few options.

NASA will offer a free livestream online via its NASA TV YouTube channel and NASA+ streaming service, as well as its NASA TV broadcast service. The webcast will actually begin late on March 2 at 7:15 p.m. EST (0015 March 3 GMT) and run through spacecraft separation.

About 2 hours after launch, NASA is expected to hold a post-launch press conference to discuss the results of the launch. That briefing will also be livestreamed via NASA TV and NASA+.

SpaceX will offer its own live webcast of the Crew-8 launch on its @SpaceX account on X (formerly Twitter), starting one hour before liftoff, which is March 2 at 10:16 p.m. EST (0316 GMT).

Space.com will simulcast NASA's Crew-8 launch livestream on our VideoFromSpace YouTube channel, beginning March 2 at 7:15 p.m. EST. You can also see that livestream at the top of this page.

If SpaceX successfully launches the Crew-8 astronauts on March 2, less than 24 hours to reach the ISS and you'll be able to watch that live, too.

NASA will provide a livestream of SpaceX's Crew-8 docking operations starting Sunday, March 3, at 11:30 a.m. EST (1630 GMT), according to a NASA schedule.

If all goes well, the Crew-8 Dragon space capsule Endeavour will dock itself at the ISS at 2:10 p.m. EST (1910 GMT) on March 2, parking at a forward-facing berth on the station's U.S.-built Harmony module.

While SpaceX originally designed its Dragon crew capsule to carry up to seven astronauts, the company has only flown a maximum of four people at a time its crewed vehicles. The Crew-8 mission follows that pattern. You can see detailed biographies of the Crew-8 astronauts in our Meet the Crew-8 Astronauts guide, but here is a brief synopsis.

Crew-8 is commanded by NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick, 42, a U.S. Navy test pilot who joined NASA's astronaut corps in 2017. This will be his first career spaceflight.

Veteran NASA astronaut Michael Barratt, 64, is a physician-turned-astronaut who serves as Crew-8 pilot and began his astronaut work in 2000 after serving as flight surgeon since 1992. Unlike his crewmates, Barrett has two spaceflights under his belt: a six-month expedition on the ISS in 2009 and the 13-day STS-133 shuttle flight in 2011, which marked the final voyage of NASA's space shuttle Discovery.

NASA astronaut Jeannette Epps, 53, is a Crew-8 mission specialist who making her first spaceflight. Epps is a physicist and aerospace engineer who joined NASA's astronaut corps in 2009 after working for the Ford Motor Co. and the Central Intelligence Agency.

Rounding out the crew is Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, 41, of the Roscosmos space agency. Grebenkin joined Roscosmos' cosmonaut corps in 2018 after flying as a pilot for the Russian Air Force. He has degrees in engineering, maintenance and repair of aircraft radio navigation systems, and in radio communications, broadcasting, and television.

Related:SpaceX Crew-8 astronauts eager for launch to ISS on March 1: 'Things surprise you, but we're ready'

While SpaceX's full Crew-8 mission for NASA will last six months (from launch to landing), the actual launch will be over in about 13 minutes.

Crew-8 will mark the fifth flight of SpaceX's Dragon crew capsule Endeavour, which the company used to launch its first-ever crewed flight for NASA - Demo-2, in May 2020. It has been used to fly three NASA crews (Crew-2 and Crew-6 are the others) and the private Ax-1 mission for Axiom Space.

SpaceX has not listed any previous flights for the Falcon 9 first-stage booster for Crew-8. The rocket is expected to return to Earth and land at SpaceX's Landing Zone 1 at the nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for later reuse.

While the weather looked promising for SpaceX's Crew-8 launch in the wee hours of March 1, SpaceX did have to burn through its initial backup dates available for the mission.

"Of course, we have two backup opportunities," Steve Stitch, NASA's Commercial Crew program manager, said in a Feb. 25 briefing. "Another one in the evening on March 1 at 11:41 p.m. Eastern and then another a day later, March 2, at 11:16 p.m. Eastern."

The weather outlook worsened slightly for a potential launch on March 1 at 11:41 p.m. EST (0441 GMT), dropping to a 65% chance of good weather (down from 85%) for that attempt, according to the 45th Weather Squadron.

The weather forecast worsens for a 48-hour delay, dropping to a 40% chance of good weather.

If SpaceX is unable to launch on March 2, it does have at least one more backup opportunities on March 3.

The company could attempt to launch Crew-8 on Sunday, March 3, at 10:53 p.m. EST (0352 on March 4 GMT), SpaceX wrote in a mission overview.

Editor's note: You can watch SpaceX's Crew-8 launch to the ISS on this page beginning Feb. 29 at 8 p.m. EST (0100 on March 1 GMT). This story was updated at 1 a.m. EST to reflect the new launch day for the SpaceX Crew-8 mission.

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What time is the SpaceX Crew-8 astronaut launch for NASA on March 2? - Space.com

SpaceX and NASA are officially go to launch their next astronaut mission to International Space Station (ISS) this week, with its four-person crew arriving at their Florida launch site on Sunday (Feb. 25).

Called Crew-8, the upcoming SpaceX mission will launch four astronauts into orbit on the Dragon capsule Endeavour and Falcon 9 rocket from Pad 39A of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. Liftoff is scheduled for March 2 at 11:16 p.m. EST (0416 GMT on March 3).

Related: 8 ways SpaceX has transformed spaceflight

"Even though we all go today, we're constantly paying attention to what the rocket and spacecraft are telling us so that we'll make sure that we launch when the crew and the spacecraft are ready to go, and we're ready to have a good flight to the station and a good return," Ken Bowersox, NASA's associate administrator for space operations and a former astronaut, told reporters in a Sunday night teleconference.

SpaceX's Crew-8 mission for NASA will launch NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barrett, Jeannette Epps and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin on a six-month expedition to the ISS. They will relieve their Crew-7 predecessors, another four-astronaut team, who will return to Earth on a SpaceX Dragon a week after Crew-8 reaches the ISS.

Dominick will command the Crew-8 flight to the ISS with Barrett as pilot. Epps and Grekenkin are mission specialists. The mission is the first career spaceflight for all but Barrett on the Crew-8 team. NASA and SpaceX initially aimed to launch Crew-8 to the ISS on Feb. 22, but delayed it to March 1 to clear a path for a private moon launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from their same launch pad on Feb. 15.Bad weather pushed the liftoff back again, to March 2.

The Crew-8 astronauts arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday afternoon as they spend their final days on Earth ahead of launch. The quartet will perform a dress rehearsal for their launch overnight on Monday and Tuesday, with SpaceX expected to perform a so-called "hot-fire" test of the Falcon 9's first stage engines a day later.

Steve Stich, NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager, told reporters Sunday that NASA and SpaceX are working through some final issues to clear ahead of the Crew-8 launch. Those include reviews of composite material fasteners on the Dragon/Falcon 9 launch vehicle for Crew-8 that are expected to be resolved before flight. Engineers are also reviewing some paint discoloration on Crew-7's Dragon capsule currently docked at the ISS, apparently due to residue tape on the capsule, to ensure it's not an issue for reentry and landing.

Crew-8 will mark the fifth flight of the Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour, which first flew astronauts to the ISS in May 2020 on SpaceX's first-ever human spaceflight, Demo-2. SpaceX and NASA are currently working to certify the reusable Dragon capsules for up to 15 spaceflights, NASA officials said.

SpaceX is one of two commercial companies with multi-billion-dollar contracts to fly astronauts to and from the ISS for NASA. The other company, Boeing, aims to launch the first crewed flight on its Starliner spacecraft no earlier than April 22.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 1:20 a.m. ET on Feb. 29 with news of the launch delay to March 2.

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SpaceX, NASA 'go' to launch Crew-8 astronaut mission to ISS on March 2 - Space.com

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has closed the investigation into the second flight of SpaceX's huge Starship vehicle, the agency announced this afternoon (Feb. 26).

That test mission, which launched from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas on Nov. 18, ended with a bang. Two bangs, actually: Both of Starship's stages exploded high above Earth, around 3.5 minutes and eight minutes after liftoff, respectively.

Ever since, SpaceX has been prepping for Starship flight number 3, in keeping with the company's fast-paced "build, fly and iterate" philosophy. But today's news does not constitute clearance to launch, the FAA stressed.

"Prior to the next launch, SpaceX must implement all corrective actions and receive alicensemodification from the FAA that addresses all safety, environmental and other applicable regulatory requirements," agency officials wrote in an emailed statement today.

"The FAA is evaluating SpaceXs license modification request and expects SpaceX to submit additional required information before a final determination can be made," they added.

Related:See stunning photos and video of Starship's 2nd launch

The mishap investigation, which SpaceX led, identified 17 corrective actions, which the FAA accepted. Seven of them concerned Starship's huge first-stage booster, known as Super Heavy, "including vehicle hardware redesigns, updated control system modeling, reevaluation of engine analyses based on OTF-2 [Orbital Flight Test-2] flight data and updated engine control algorithms," the FAA's emailed statement reads.

The other 10 corrective actions deal with the vehicle's 165-foot-tall (50 meters) upper stage, which is called Starship. Among these modifications are "vehicle hardware redesigns, operational changes, flammability analysis updates, installation of additional fire protection and guidance and modeling updates," FAA officials wrote.

The stainless-steel Starship is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built. When stacked, it stands about 400 feet (122 meters) tall and future versions will likely be even taller, according to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk.

The company is developing the fully reusable vehicle to help humanity settle the moon and Mars and perform a variety of other ambitious exploration feats. NASA is invested in the vehicle's success; the agency picked Starship to be the first crewed lunar lander for its Artemis moon program.

Starship first flew in April 2023. The vehicle suffered a number of issues on that mission, including the failure of its two stages to separate as planned, and SpaceX detonated the tumbling craft about four minutes after liftoff.

Things went much better on flight two this past November. The two stages separated on time, for example, and the upper stage likely would have reached orbit if it had been carrying a payload, Musk said last month. (The upper stage's detonation was caused by a venting of liquid oxygen, and there wouldn't have been any liquid oxygen left to vent if Starship had been carrying a satellite, he said.)

The FAA closed the investigation of Starship's first flight on Sept. 8 of last year, and the vehicle got off the ground again on Nov. 18. But you shouldn't expect such a lengthy wait this time around, considering how much progress SpaceX made on flight number two. That first-flight investigation, for example, identified 63 corrective actions for SpaceX to make, compared to 17 after the November launch.

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FAA closes investigation into explosive 2nd flight of SpaceX's Starship megarocket - Space.com

Four new astronauts are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station on Saturday (March 2) as part of NASAs SpaceX Crew-8 mission.

Crew-8, the eighth operational commercial crew mission for NASA, will lift off Saturday at 11:16 p.m. EST (0416 GMT on March 3) from Kennedy Space Center in Florida using the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft, situated atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The Crew Dragon spacecraft will then dock with the orbiting lab the following day around 2:10 p.m. EST (1910 GMT).

The crew includes NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick (commander), Michael Barratt (pilot) and Jeanette Epps (mission specialist) along with mission specialist Alexander Grebenkin, of the Russian space agency Roscosmos. Over the course of their six-month stay in space, the astronauts will conduct more than 200 scientific experiments and technology demonstrations, including research that will support human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit.

Related: SpaceX rolls out rocket, capsule for Crew-8 astronaut launch (photos)

Saturday's launch will be the first for all of the crew members but Barrett, who will be making his third flight and second long-duration stay on the space station. You can learn more about each of them below.

Matthew Dominick, Crew-8's commander, is a 42-year-old U.S. Navy test pilot who joined NASA as an astronaut candidate in 2017. Dominick has more than 1,600 hours of flight time in 28 aircraft, 400 carrier-arrested landings and 61 combat missions on his resume. When Dominick was selected as an astronaut candidate in June 2017, he was at sea on the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) serving in the U.S. Navy as a naval aviator and a department head for Strike Fighter Squadron 115.

Dominick was born and raised in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, where his parents still live today. He is married to Faith Dominick, with whom he shares two daughters, according to his biography from NASA. Dominick has a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of San Diego with minors in physics and mathematics. Following his graduation in 2005, he was commissioned through the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) and attended Primary Flight Training at Naval Air Station Pensacola. He was designated a naval aviator in 2007.

He completed F/A-18 Super Hornet training and then served two deployments with Strike Fighter Squadron 143 (VFA-143) before attending the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, where he earned a Master of Science in systems engineering. He later graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School and was assigned to Air Test Evaluation Squadron 23 (VX-23), where he served as the developmental flight test project officer for a variety of carrier suitability test programs. Having completed two years of training as an astronaut candidate in 2019, Dominick is now an active-duty U.S. Navy astronaut. While waiting for his chance to fly in space, he was also promoted to Navy Commander in 2020.

Michael Barratt, Crew-8's pilot, is a 64-year-old physician specializing in aerospace medicine. He served as a flight surgeon for NASA before he was selected as an astronaut candidate in 2000. Barratt has played a pivotal role in developing NASA's space medicine initiatives for both the Shuttle-Mir Program and the International Space Station (ISS).

Barratt was born in Vancouver, Washington, but considers Camas, Washington, to be his hometown. He has a Doctor of Medicine degree from Northwestern University and is board-certified in both internal and aerospace medicine. He is married to Dr. Michelle Lynne Sasynuik and has five children, according to his official biography.

Barratt has spent a total of 212 days in space across two prior spaceflights, including Expedition 19/20 in 2009 which saw the transition from three to six permanent ISS crew members and STS-133 in 2011, near the end of NASA's Space Shuttle program. Barratt served as Flight Engineer for Expedition 19/20 and performed two spacewalks during this mission. The long-duration flight mission involved crews studying bone loss, cardiac atrophy, immune system changes and nutritional dynamics in microgravity. STS-133, Space Shuttle Discovery's final mission, delivered the Permanent Multipurpose Module and fourth Express Logistics Carrier to the space station.

Barratt managed the Human Research Program at NASA's Johnson Space Center from January of 2012 through April of 2013 and has provided expertise on human factors and space medical risks for newly developed space vehicles for the Commercial Crew and Artemis Programs.

Jeanette Epps, Crew-8's mission specialist, was selected as an astronaut candidate in 2009. Prior to joining NASA, she worked at Ford Motor Co. and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Hailing from Syracuse, New York, the 53-year-old holds a Bachelor of Science in physics from LeMoyne College and a Master of Science as well as a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park. As a NASA Fellow during graduate school, Epps authored several highly referenced journal and conference articles, according to her NASA biography.

During her time at Ford Motor Company, she received both a provisional patent and a U.S. patent for her research. She later worked as a technical intelligence officer for the CIA. Since becoming an astronaut, she has served on the Generic Joint Operation Panel working on space station crew efficiency, as a crew support astronaut for two expeditions and as lead capsule communicator at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Epps was previously assigned to NASA's Boeing Starliner-1 mission, but was reassigned due to delays concerning the mission's development, making Crew-8 her first spaceflight. During the upcoming mission, she will assist with monitoring the spacecraft for launch and re-entry.

Alexander Sergeyevich Grebenkin, Crew-8's mission specialist, served in the Air Force of the Russian Armed Forces before joining Roscosmos as a cosmonaut candidate in 2018.

Grebenkin graduated from Irkutsk High Military Aviation School in Irkutsk, Russia, majoring in engineering, maintenance and repair of aircraft radio navigation systems. The 41-year-old also has a degree in radio communications, broadcasting, and television from Moscow Technical University of Communications and Informatics, according to a statement from NASA.

During his time in the Russian Armed Forces, Grebenkin worked as an aircraft readiness technician and engineer to prepare aircraft, later serving as head of the regulations and repair group of a military unit. Since becoming a cosmonaut, he has participated in mock missions on Earth, with Crew-8 representing his first spaceflight. He will serve as flight engineer during Expeditions 70/71 on the space station.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 1:20 a.m. ET on Feb. 29 with news of the launch delay to March 2.

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Meet the SpaceX Crew-8 astronauts launching to the ISS on March 2 - Space.com

Nova-C (Odysseus), the lunar lander that is currently carrying more than 100 Jeff Koons sculptures into space, is expected to lose power and communication with flight control engineers after a botched landing. According to Intuitive Machines, the company that designed it, the craft came down on its side on 22 February, severely impacting its intergalactic performance. This is the first time a nongovernmental space apparatus has accomplished a landing on the moon, despite the obstacles.

Two rangefinder lasers were unable to guide the touchdown due to a variety of glitches and trajectory calculation inaccuracies, including engagement of the landers safety switches, which can only be manually disabled. The vessels tipped-over position re-oriented Odysseuss solar panels and antennas, limiting power and preventing contact with engineers on the ground.

In a briefing , the Intuitive Machines chief executive officer Steve Altemus said that the cargo occupying Odysseuss compromised side is Koonss Moon Phases, a collection consisting of 125 one-inch miniature sculptures. Each sculpture represents a phase of the moon and is dedicated to a different historical figure (Mozart and Leonardo da Vinci feature in the suite). The sculptures are tethered to a collection of Koons NFTs available through Pace Verso, the gallerys Web3 platform.

The Moon Phases Project" was initially destined for take-off in July of 2022, and were launched spacewards on a Falcon 9 rocket designed by SpaceX, controversial billionaire Elon Musks company, on 14 February, 2024. Koons work is officially the first example of fine art on the moon.

I grew up listening to President Kennedy speak about going to the moon, Koons told the New York Times before the rockets takeoff. It gave our society a vision and drive that we could believe in ourselves and accomplish things.

Intuitive Machines will attempt to "wake up" Odysseus in two to three weeks.

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'Good night, moon lander': SpaceX lunar craft carrying 125 Jeff Koons sculptures expected to lose power - Art Newspaper

WASHINGTON The Federal Aviation Administration has closed its investigation into the second Starship/Super Heavy launch in November, bringing SpaceX a step closer to launching its third test flight as soon as mid-March.

The FAA announced Feb. 26 that it closed the investigation into the Nov. 18 launch, designated Orbital Flight Test (OFT) 2, by accepting the root causes into the failure identified by SpaceX. That includes 7 corrective actions for the Super Heavy booster and 10 for the Starship upper stage.

On that launch, the vehicle appeared to perform as expected through stage separation. However, the Super Heavy booster broke apart shortly after separation as it was attempting to perform a controlled reentry and splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The Starship upper stage continued its ascent until the final minute of its burn, when it broke apart. SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said in January that liquid oxygen venting triggered a fire and explosion of Starship.

The letter noted that Starships ascent was going normally until seven minutes and five seconds after liftoff, when the vehicle started a pre-planned dump of excess liquid oxygen. Over the next minute, several explosions and sustained fires were observed in onboard camera aft video streams, ultimately resulting in a loss of communication between the forward and aft flight computers, the letter stated. That led to a shutdown of all six engines and a triggering of the vehicles autonomous flight safety system a minute after the vent started.

SpaceX, in its own statement about the investigation, said the fires in Starship came from a leak in the aft section of the vehicle when the liquid oxygen vent started. The vehicle was carrying the excess oxidizer to gather data representative of future payload deploy missions and needed to be disposed of prior to reentry to meet required propellant mass targets at splashdown.

The SpaceX statement also discussed the loss of the Super Heavy booster. Thirteen of its 33 Raptor engines were firing in a boostback maneuver after stage separation when several engines shut down, including one that failed energetically. That led to the booster breaking apart at an altitude of 90 kilometers over the Gulf of Mexico.

The company said the most likely explanation for the failure is a filter blockage in a liquid oxygen line that reduced inlet pressure in engine turbopumps that eventually resulted in one engine failing in a way that resulted in loss of the vehicle.

The Super Heavy corrective actions, the FAA stated in its letter to SpaceX, include redesigns of vehicle hardware to increase tank filtration and reduce slosh, updated thrust vector control system modelling, reevaluation of engine analyses based on OFT-2 data, and updated engine control algorithms.

The Starship corrective actions, according to the FAA letter, include hardware redesigns to increase robustness and reduce complexity, hardware changes to reduce leaks, operational changes eliminating pre-second engine cutoff propellant dumps, flammability analysis updates, installation of additional fire protection, creation of analytical guidance, performance of transient load analysis, and modeling updates.

Neither the FAA nor the SpaceX statements offered a schedule for completing the corrective actions and launching a third test flight. Musk, in a conversation on his social media platform X Feb. 19, said he was looking to the second week of March to launch the vehicle. Nominally its, like, March 8. Were trying to get it to be sooner than March 8, he said. My guess is that it happens at some point in the first half of next month. A fourth launch, he added, could take place shortly thereafter.

Other company officials have repeated Musks timeline for the mission. During a panel discussion at the FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference Feb. 21, Nick Cummings, senior director of program development at SpaceX, said the upcoming launch will also conduct a propellant transfer test within Starship, something NASA officials previous said might be included as part of an agency Tipping Point award.

The company is also working to accelerate its rate of test flights. Im very excited about the fact that weve got four sets of Starships and Super Heavies basically already built at Starbase, ready to go for the next flights, Cummings said.

The next flight, though, still requires the FAA to update SpaceXs Starship launch license. The FAA said SpaceX must first demonstrate to the FAA that it has implemented those corrective actions. The FAA is evaluating SpaceXs license modification request and expects SpaceX to submit additional required information before a final determination can be made, the agency stated.

In a briefing with reporters during the FAA conference Feb. 21, Kelvin Coleman, FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation, since it appeared feasible to have a license ready in time for a launch by mid-March. Thats where Im hearing things are headed right now, he said.

The timing of subsequent launches, he said, will depend on the outcome of the third launch. Theyre looking at a pretty aggressive launch schedule this year, he said, with at least nine launches proposed for 2024. Well work with them to get them back going as soon as they can.

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FAA closes investigation into second Starship test flight - SpaceNews

Talks between SpaceX and the Vietnamese government for Starlink satellites to provide broadband satellite in the Southeast Asian country reportedly hit a snag over foreign ownership regulation.

Citing unnamed sources, Reuters reported that discussions between the two parties had been put on hold since November after the country's amended telecommunications law, which will take effect in July, did not ease the existing provision on foreign ownership.

SpaceX had been seeking an exception to the rule restricting foreign ownership to a non-controlling 50% stake in telecommunication companies with network infrastructure.

Vietnam has been looking into satellite-based broadband Internet services to improve coverage in its mountainous and underserved areas that cannot be reached by terrestrial networks. It is also planning to upgrade its Internet infrastructure in the aftermath of recent outages at its five major underwater fiber-optic cables.

Reuters said SpaceX and Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) had held several meetings for months from at least the middle of last year until November 2023

The stalled talks led to the interruption starting in November of Starlink's previously unreported pilot services for Vietnam's coast guard, which used the satellites to guide drones in the South China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand.

Sources told Reuters they do not know when talks would resume.

New regulatory hurdles

Aside from the limitation on foreign ownership, foreign satellite service providers face new regulatory hurdles before entering the Vietnamese market.

According to the Vietnam New Agency, a draft decree that will implement the revised law added a requirement for foreign satellite service providers to set up a local ground gateway connected to the public telecoms network. Foreign satellite providers must ensure that all traffic generated by satellite subscriber terminals in Vietnam must pass through this local ground gateway.

The draft decree classifies satellite broadband services such as Starlink as cross-border services. The MIC, which is tasked to finalize the document after public consultation, considers cross-border satellite communications to be a risk in terms of data from Vietnamese Internet users being collected abroad and used illegally.

Furthermore, the draft decree specifies that foreign satellite service providers must meet capital and investment conditions. For example, the VNA said that contributed charter capital must be at least 30 billion Vietnamese Dong ($1.2 million), and total investment capital in the network must be at least VND100 billion ($4.2 million) in the first three years.

Foreign satellite service providers must also have a commercial agreement with a licensed domestic telecommunications enterprise and a technical plan to ensure information security, perform emergency prevention and shut off services when ordered to do so by relevant state agencies.

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SpaceX's talks with Vietnam over Starlink service stalled over ownership rule report - Light Reading

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US-NEWS-SCI-SPACEX-GET | | thedailynewsonline.com - The Daily News Online

The SpaceX Starship is a historic breakthrough, providing high-technology systems for fast and secure spaceflight. With its promising features, the new spacecraft can help the federal government carry out its interplanetary missions. Lets take a deeper look into the SpaceX Starship and the future it holds.

Starship is a fully reusable spacecraft designed and created by SpaceX. This invention supports human exploration and missions beyond Earths orbit. Starship has the potential to transform long-distance Earth travel, satellite placement, cargo delivery, and human space exploration.

Starship is a flexible and powerful spaceship designed to transform space exploration and increase accessibility to interplanetary travel. It replaces SpaceX Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.

Lets take a look at the fundamental specifications of the Starship.

The SpaceX Starship has two main components: the Starship Rocket and the Super Heavy Booster. These two components are integrated with the SpaceX Starship system to perform different missions, including cargo transport and satellite deployment.

The Starship Spacecraft is the upper part of the Starships system. The spacecraft is designed to carry the crew and passengers. The upper stave has a payload bay, crew compartments, and engines. It also features a heat shield that slows down the spacecraft and protects the passengers when reentering Earths atmosphere.

The Super Heavy Rocket, also known as the Super Heavy Booster, is the lower stage of the Starships system. The lower stage is designed to lift the starship spacecraft into space. The Super Heavy booster has several Raptor Engines installed, powered by methane and liquid oxygen. These engines generate force to propel the rocket off the ground. After launching, the lower stage detaches from the Starship spacecraft to return to Earth for further usage.

Fully Reusable. The Starship spaceships Super Heavy booster has been engineered for swift reuse, which contributes to a significant decrease in space travel expenses. Unlike the Falcon 9, which can reuse the booster only over ten times, Starships booster is designed to complete thousands of flights before any significant refurbishment.

Massive Payload Capacity. The Starships cargo and crew payload capacities are much bigger than those of the previous SpaceX spacecraft. In comparison, the Starships lower stage, Super Heavy, is almost as tall as the Falcon Heavys overall height.

Aerodynamic Design. Its aerodynamic shape is streamlined for atmospheric entry and reusability.

In-orbit Refueling. The Starship is built with onboard refueling features. It results in more efficient missions, reaching farther destinations compared to a spacecraft with a single fuel tank.

We invite you to join the 2024 Space Summit and learn from the discussions of space industry leaders. You may register for the event here.

Starship revolutionizes human space exploration. Here are the three primary uses of Starship.

The Starship is built to transport people on missions that take them beyond Earths orbit. It aims to carry astronauts to Mars, the Moon, and other planets in our solar system to conduct further studies, research, and development.

Moreover, the two-stage spacecraft can deploy satellites into Earths orbit and facilitate global internet coverage. It can be helpful for Earth observation and other satellite-based services.

Given its size of 160 ft tall and 30 ft in diameter, Starships payloads can carry a ton of cargo. Specifically, it allows supply missions to Moon bases, space stations, and other locations.

Point-to-point transportation on Earth is another feature of Starship. This fantastic feature allows transit to any global location in one hour or less.

In a 2022 CNBC article, SpaceX plans to use Starship for commercial space tourism, enabling the public to fly into space. The Starship has the potential to create jobs and draw in more tourists by offering space passenger transportation.

During the Starships return for a landing in 2023, multiple engines of the Super Heavy booster failed to light up properly. This incident led to an investigation by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

Last February 26, 2024, the FAA closed the investigation regarding SpaceXs Starship Super Heavy Orbital Test explosion. The FAA and the space firm agreed on new protocols for upcoming flights. So, whats next with SpaceX Starship?

SpaceX plans to test the Starship prototypes to improve their functionality, dependability, and design. The spacecrafts performance is demonstrated by carrying out more suborbital and orbital test flights, testing their launch, reentry, and landing.

SpaceX will soon get Starship back into operational status. It is set to start routine missions like crewed space exploration, satellite deployment, and potentially point-to-point Earth travel.

Future beyond-Earth orbit projects can bring SpaceX and NASA together. NASA can use the Starship for the Artemis Moon Mission to carry its team to the Moon and other beyond Earth destinations.

Commercial clients can utilize SpaceXs Starship services for satellite placement, cargo transportation, and space travel. Commercial services like contracting with private businesses may also be available soon.

SpaceX is a privately held business that has built a reputation for successfully launching a spaceship in low-Earth orbit. Elon Musk founded the firm in 2002 with the goal of lowering the cost of space transportation.

SpaceX develops, designs, and manufactures its rocket and spacecraft in facilities in Hawthorne, California, and Boca Chica, Texas.

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SpaceX Starship: What Does the Future Hold? - Executive Gov

Enlarge / Starship launches on its second flight on November 18, 2023.

SpaceX

A little more than three months after the most recent launch of a Starship vehicle, which ended with both the booster and upper stage being lost in flight, the Federal Aviation Administration has closed its investigation of the mishap.

"SpaceX identified, and the FAA accepts, the root causes and 17 corrective actions documented in SpaceXs mishap report," the federal agency said in a statement issued Monday. "Prior to the next launch, SpaceX must implement all corrective actions and receive a license modification from the FAA that addresses all safety, environmental and other applicable regulatory requirements."

SpaceX must still submit additional information to the FAA, which is responsible for the safety of people and property on the ground, before the agency completes its review of an application to launch Starship for a third time. The administrator for Commercial Space Transportation at the Federal Aviation Administration, Kelvin Coleman, said last week that early to mid-March is a reasonable timeline for the regulatory process to conclude.

A launch attempt is likely to follow soon after.

In conjunction with Monday's announcement, SpaceX released details for the first time of what happened to cause the November 18 launch to go awry.

In this update, SpaceX noted that the Super Heavy first stage of the rocket performed nominally, with all 33 Raptor engines on this massive rocket igniting successfully. The booster then performed a full-duration burn to reach stage separation. At this point, the upper stage executed a successful "hot staging" maneuver in which the Starship stage separated from the booster while some of the booster's engines were still firing.

For the Super Heavy booster, the next step was to perform a series of burns to make a soft landing in the Gulf of Mexico. As part of the initial burn, 13 of the rocket's engines were intended to fire.

"During this burn, several engines began shutting down before one engine failed energetically, quickly cascading to a rapid unscheduled disassembly of the booster," SpaceX said. "The vehicle breakup occurred more than three and a half minutes into the flight at an altitude of ~90 km over the Gulf of Mexico."

The problem was subsequently linked to a problem with supplying liquid oxygen to the Raptor engines.

"The most likely root cause for the booster RUD was determined to be filter blockage where liquid oxygen is supplied to the engines, leading to a loss of inlet pressure in engine oxidizer turbopumps that eventually resulted in one engine failing in a way that resulted in loss of the vehicle," the company stated. "SpaceX has since implemented hardware changes inside future booster oxidizer tanks to improve propellant filtration capabilities and refined operations to increase reliability."

As Super Heavy was experiencing these problems, the six Raptor engines on the Starship upper stage were burning nominally and pushing the vehicle along a flight path intended to take it nearly two-thirds of the way around Earth before splashing down near Hawaii. However, at about seven minutes after liftoff, a large vent of liquid oxygen occurred. There was excess liquid oxygen on the vehicle, SpaceX said, to gather data representative of future payload deployment missions. It needed to be released before Starship splashed down.

"A leak in the aft section of the spacecraft that developed when the liquid oxygen vent was initiated resulted in a combustion event and subsequent fires that led to a loss of communication between the spacecrafts flight computers," the company said. "This resulted in a commanded shut down of all six engines prior to completion of the ascent burn, followed by the Autonomous Flight Safety System detecting a mission rule violation and activating the flight termination system, leading to vehicle breakup."

At the time, the vehicle had reached an altitude of 150 km, well into outer space, and had achieved a velocity of about 24,000 km/h. This is just short of orbital velocity, which is 28,000 km/h.

In its statement, SpaceX said it was implementing changes to the Super Heavy and Starship stages to account for these issues. The company is also seeking to improve the overall performance of Starship, with the addition of a new electronic Thrust Vector Control system for Starships upper-stage Raptor engines and more rapid propellant loading operations prior to launch.

SpaceX has four Starships in complete, or nearly complete, build stages. Should the next flight go smoothly, the company could begin to launch the world's largest rocket on a more frequent basis.

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SpaceX discloses cause of Starship anomalies as it clears an FAA hurdle - Ars Technica

NASA and SpaceX have recently performed full-scale qualification testing of the docking system that will connect SpaceXs Starship Human Landing System (HLS) with Orion and later Gateway in lunar orbit during future crewed Artemis missions. The docking system will help astronauts move between different spacecraft during lunar landings as part of NASAs Artemis campaign.

The Artemis III mission will see astronauts riding the Orion spacecraft from Earth to lunar orbit and then transfer to the Starship Human Landing System (HLS) to land on the moons surface. Once their activities on the surface are complete, they will return to Orion in lunar orbit via Starship.

For future missions, the astronauts will move from Orion to Starship through the Gateway lunar space station. The Starship docking system is based on SpaceXs flight-proven Dragon 2 docking system, which has been used in missions to the International Space Station. The Starship docking system can be configured to connect the lander to Orion or Gateway.

The recent docking system tests for Starship HLS were conducted at NASAs Johnson Space Center. The tests were carried out for over 10 days and covered more than 200 docking scenarios with varying approach angles and speeds. These real-world results using full-scale hardware will help validate computer models of the Moon landers docking system.

During the dynamic testing, the Starship system could perform a soft capture while in the active docking role. This means the soft capture system (SCS) of the active docking system can attach to the passive system of the other spacecraft, allowing the two spacecraft to dock. This was demonstrated during the testing, where one vehicle assumed an active chaser role while the other was in a passive target role.

NASA says the docking mechanism is on its way to formal certification in the run-up to the launch of Artemis III in 2026.

SpaceX has achieved a lot since it was chosen as the lander to take humans back to the Moon. They have completed over 30 HLS specific milestones, which involved defining and testing hardware for power generation, communications, guidance and navigation, propulsion, life support, and space environments protection.

NASAs Artemis campaign is focusing on landing the first woman, first person of color, and first international partner astronaut on the lunar surface. The mission is also preparing for human expeditions to Mars for the benefit of all. Commercial human landing systems are crucial for deep space exploration, along with the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, advanced spacesuits and rovers, exploration ground systems, and the Gateway space station.

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NASA, SpaceX test Starship docking system for moon missions - Inceptive Mind

In this photo released courtesy of NASA, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Dragon spacecraft on top is seen during sunset on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for the Crew-8 mission on Feb 27, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, US. [AFP PHOTO / HANDOUT / NASA]

LOS ANGELES -- NASA and SpaceX are targeting Saturday to launch the eighth crew mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

The mission, codenamed "Crew-8," is the eighth rotational mission to the ISS for NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the crew aboard a Dragon spacecraft from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 11:16 p.m. Saturday Eastern Time, according to NASA.

The Crew-8 mission will carry NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, as well as Alexander Grebenkin of Roscosmos to the space station.

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NASA, SpaceX target Saturday for launching 8th crew mission to space station - China Daily

The Space X Falcon 9 stands tall at Pad 39A, and on top, the Endeavour Crew Dragon is ready to take the four-member Crew 8 to the International Space Station. But the crew has an extra day on Earth since the launch has been pushed back to Saturday night.

The launch was originally set for Friday at 12:04 a.m. ET but it was pushed back to Saturday at 11:16 p.m. ET, stated SpaceX. NASA cited unfavorable weather conditions as the reason behind the change of launch date.

The mission is a partnership between NASA and SpaceX to prep for this latest astronaut mission, dating back to the early demo flights.

Pouring through all that data, all the leak checks and checkouts, that are required to get it ready to fly, said John Posey, NASA Crew Dragon engineer, of the missions status.

The Crew-8 team landed at Kennedy Space Center Sunday afternoon.

NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Matthew Dominick, Jeanette Epps and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin are readying for launch and a six-month stay at the orbiting outpost.

Posey hopes each mission inspires future generations.

We hope that kids will be inspired to go and work in that field, learn what it takes to do spaceflight safely, and come and join the work, he said.

SpaceX will soon be launching crews from Pad 40 next door at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station once the certification process wraps.

That could happen in the very near future.

Read more from the original source:

SpaceX's ISS mission pushed to Saturday night - News 13 Orlando

SpaceX closed out an impressive nine-launch month earlier today by flying its first-ever Falcon 9 on a Leap Day, 29 February. Following hard on the heels of eight earlier missions in the past four weeksincluding a NASA-led ocean/climate-monitoring mission, an Indonesian geostationary communications satellite, a highly classified group of payloads for the U.S. Space Force, Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and Space Development Agency (SDA) and Intuitive Machines high-profile IM-1 voyage to the Moons South Pole under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contracta many-times-used Falcon 9 roared uphill from Space Launch Complex (SLC)-40 at Floridas Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:30 p.m. EST Thursday, laden with a 23-strong batch of Starlink low-orbiting internet communications satellites.

Following Wednesdays decision to postpone the launch of Dragon Endeavour and her Crew-8 quartet of NASA astronauts Matt Dominick, Mike Barratt and Jeanette Epps, together with Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Grebenkin to no earlier than 11:16 p.m. EST Saturday, SpaceX elected to squeeze a ninth Falcon 9 mission into Februarys final day, flown out of Space Launch Complex (SLC)-40 at Floridas Cape Canaveral Space Force Station using the 11-times-flown B1076 booster. It marked the first-ever U.S. orbital launch on a Leap Day, although the crew of shuttle Columbia observed the quadrennial day during their 16-day STS-75 mission in 1996 and at least one U.S. astronaut have been aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for each Leap Day since 2004.

Todays mission firmed up yesterday with the appearance of an associated weather forecast update, via the 45th Weather Squadron at Patrick Space Force Base, and an announcement late Wednesday from SpaceX. In earlier comments provided by Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich, NASA does not permit a Falcon 9 launch within 48 hours of a Crew Dragon flight, due to insufficient time for data review.

However, citing a steadily deteriorating weather picture SpaceX and NASA announced late Wednesday that they would forego the opening pair of launch attempts for Crew-8both instantaneous, the first timed for 12:04 a.m. EST Friday, the second almost 24 hours later at 11:41 p.m. EST Fridayand aim instead for the third opportunity at 11:16 p.m. EST Saturday. It was noted that both opening launch tries had been called off in response to poor predicted weather across Dragon Endeavours flight path in the event that a launch contingency should force an aborted landing.

High wind and waves along the eastern seaboard have been observed and are forecast to continue through Saturday morning, NASA noted late Wednesday. In the unlikely case of an abort during launch or the flight of Dragon, the wind and wave conditions must be within acceptable conditions for the safe recovery of the crew and spacecraft.

As such, Thursdays Starlink mission by B1076 closed out February on nine Falcon 9 flights, with weather conditions hovering around 85-percent-favorable, tempered by a slight chance of violating the Cumulus Cloud Rule and Liftoff Winds Rule. However, the outlook for the backup opportunity at 10:04 a.m. EST Friday was expected to decline sharply to only 65 percent favorability.

Cloud cover will increase as a weak boundary approaches Central Florida tomorrow morning, the 45th noted of Thursdays forecast. A narrow band of light showers will form along the boundary, but any showers that develop will likely be too shallow to cause a weather violation due to very dry air in the mid-levels.

A slip to Friday morning, however, was expected to produce a far murkier picture. Conditions become more unfavorable for the backup window on Friday, it was continued, as the cirrostratus layer thickens and decreases in altitude. The result would be a risk of thick clouds, as well as Atlantic low-topped showers.

Todays mission targeted a two-hour window from 10:30 a.m. EST through 12:30 a.m. EST and marked the second outing by B1076 this year and her 11th flight overall. B1076s career began in November 2022, when she lofted the CRS-26 Cargo Dragon for a six-week berth at the International Space Station (ISS).

She flew an additional eight times last year, heaving 40 broadband satellites uphill for London, Englands OneWeb in the second week of January 2023, followed by the heavyweight Intelsat 40e geostationary communications satelliteco-manifested with NASAs Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) payloadin early April, five batches of Starlinks in February, May, July, September and October and a pair of O3b mPOWER communications satellites in November. Her 2024 campaign began with last months launch of the Swedish Ovzon-3 geostationary broadband satellite.

Aboard B1076 was a 23-strong Starlink V2 Mini payload stack, weighing an estimated 40,600 pounds (18,400 kilograms) and brought to almost 270 the total number of these flat-packed, low-orbiting internet communications satellites inserted into space so far this year and over 5,900 lofted by more than 140 Falcon 9 missions since May 2019. Deployment of the satellites occurred 65 minutes into todays flight.

As a network, Starlink enables high-speed and low-latency internet provision to over 70 sovereign nations and international markets in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania and Africa. Landlocked Eswatiniformerly Swazilandin southern Africa and Honduras and Paraguay joined Starlink in December.

The downsized V2 Mini satellites, first flown last February, boast three to four times greater usable bandwidth than earlier Starlink iterations. V2 Minis include key technologiessuch as more powerful phased-array antennas and the use of E-Band for backhaulwhich will allow Starlink to provide 4x more capacity per satellite than earlier iterations, SpaceX explained. Among other enhancements, V2 Minis are equipped with new argon Hall thrusters for on-orbit maneuvering.

Florida-based intercity operator Brightline adopted Starlink on its trains in 2023, the first passenger rail service in the world to do so. Additionally, El Salvadors Ministry of Education has begun integrating Starlink capability into its schools to help close the digital divide between urban and remote rural communities and 50 Rwandan schools are now connected via Starlinks high-speed internet service.

And last month, SpaceX lofted its first six Direct-to-Cell Starlinks, which permit mobile network providers to offer seamless global access to texting, calling and browsing, whether on land, lakes or coastal waters, without the need to change hardware or firmware. Within six days of that first launch, SpaceX engineers sent and received their first text messages via Direct-to-Cell.

In readiness for tonights launch, the Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS), Just Read the Instructions, put to sea out of Port Canaveral last Sunday, bound for a recovery position about 390 miles (630 kilometers) offshore in the Atlantic Ocean. This was be JRTIs second deployment in 2024: having taken center-stage during last Decembers premature loss of B1058the one-time ride of Demo-2 astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnkenshe was returned to dry dock for a month of repair and refurbishment, only re-entering operational service last week to recover the 17-times-flown B1067 booster after a successful mission to launch Indonesias Merah Putih-2 geostationary communications satellite.

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SpaceX Leaps, Launches and Lands Falcon 9, Delivers 23 Starlinks to Orbit - AmericaSpace