NASA’s Crew-9 Mission on its Way to the ISS

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The launch earlier today of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying tNASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the ISS. (NASA/Keegan Barber)

Earlier today, NASA contractor SpaceX successfully launched the Crew-9 mission towards the International Space Station aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. The two crew members should be aboard the station tomorrow to join the rest of the Expedition 72 crew, who arrived at the station as part of two earlier launches.

While some are calling this a “rescue mission,” it is really a planned mission with a truncated crew roster to accommodate the two Boeing Starliner astronauts on the return back to Earth. Nothing to see here folks.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said it best:

This mission required a lot of operational and planning flexibility. I congratulate the entire team on a successful launch today, and godspeed to Nick and Aleksandr as they make their way to the space station…Our NASA wizards and our commercial and international partners have shown once again the success that comes from working together and adapting to changing circumstances without sacrificing the safe and professional operations of the International Space Station.

NASA has become quite flexible this year as it works with its commercial partners.

Audit Report: Keeping the ISS Afloat is Getting Harder Every Day

Posted on by onespaceman2000

NASA’s Office of Inspect General (OIG) issued an audit report this week, NASA’s Management of Risks to Sustaining ISS Operations through 2030 (IG-24-020), that highlighted the ongoing issues NASA faces to keep the International Space Station (ISS) in orbit as well as plan its decommissioning.

The OIG auditors specifically noted concerns regarding (1) repairing and maintaining the integrity of the station, (2) too little redundancy in the commercial partners carrying crews and supplies to the station, (3) continued risk of micro meteoroids and debris damaging the station, (4) lack of ready-to-use capsules to escape the station in an emergency, and (5) lack of Russian commitment to de-orbiting the station at the end of its life.

That’s a long list of concerns, none of which are surprising given the complexity of the space station and the ongoing environmental issue, be it commercial partners, exterior space, or Russian commitment. It is amazing that the station has had so few major issues to date.

These issues need to be resolved for the current station and be considered as part of any new stations (government-run or commercial), whether they are orbiting the Earth, the Moon, or even Mars.

Crew-9 Mission Grounded by Weather in Florida

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Tropical Storm Helene on Sept. 24, 2024 as captured by the NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP satellite. (NASA Worldview)

SpaceX was scheduled to send astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) tomorrow, but the approaching Hurricane Helene has delayed the launch until Saturday, September 28.

The Crew-9 mission is down to two crew members – NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov – as a result of the two Boeing astronauts stuck on the ISS being added to the Crew-9 mission. The new combined crew will stay on the station until February 2025 and then return to Earth together.

NASA is in the process of locking down its Florida launch sites until the hurricane passes.

Patience is always needed with launches this time of year, and NASA seems to need a lot of patience these days for reasons beyond the weather.

Image (Credit): Crew-9 mission patch designed by SpaceX. (SpaceX)

ISS Crew Safely Back from ISS via Russian Spacecraft

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Soyuz MS-25 crew ship attached to the ISS as an aurora radiates brightly above the Indian Ocean. (NASA)

Astronaut Tracy C. Dyson is now safely back on Earth thanks to the Russian Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft, which also returned cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub. The no drama return from the International Space Station (ISS) was very different from the recent Boeing Starliner return. The press barely paid attention, which is a good thing.

NASA highlighted Dyson’s six-month tour in this way:

Spanning 184 days in space, Dyson’s third spaceflight covered 2,944 orbits of the Earth and a journey of 78 million miles as an Expedition 70/71 flight engineer. Dyson also conducted one spacewalk of 31 minutes, bringing her career total to 23 hours, 20 minutes on four spacewalks.

I just hope that future Starliner’s can intentionally place astronauts in space for six-months or longer and then return to Earth with little attention. That type of clockwork will be success.

Television: Last Days of the Space Age

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Hulu

If you are watching the list of fall shows, you might have noticed Hulu’s upcoming series Last Days of the Space Age. The new drama premieres on October 2, 2024.

Here is the summary from Hulu:

In 1979, a power strike threatens to plunge the region into darkness in Western Australia, while the city hosts the Miss Universe pageant and the US space station, Skylab, crashes just beyond the city’s suburbs.

The trailer provides a little more context, but there is a reason that Skylab is mentioned last in the short summary. The space age plays a small part in a bigger human drama. Fortunately, it is not really the end of the space age as much as the end of a bit of the space age as it falls from the sky. The real Skylab disintegrated in the Earth’s atmosphere on July 11, 1979, leading to debris falling into the Indian Ocean as well as Western Australia.

Once the International Space Station is nudged out of orbit in the coming years, we may have more debris fields generating television ideas. I just wonder if it will take another 45 years to make it to your screen.

This series may be as good as it gets on television until Andor returns next year. The space-related television pickings are pretty slim at the moment.

Update: To be fair, there are a few more shows to check out before the end of the year, including Dune: Prophecy coming on November 17 and another Star Wars series called Skeleton Crew premiering on December 3.