SpaceX sent another crew of four to the International Space Station tonight (March 3).
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 10:53 PM EST tonight (0353 GMT, March 4) with four astronauts of NASA’s Crew-8 mission. .
The rocket’s two stages separated 2.5 minutes after launch. About five minutes after that, the first stage returned to Earth at Cape Canaveral, making the company’s 204th consecutive booster landing. Then, 12 minutes and 15 seconds after liftoff, the Falcon 9 upper stage deployed the mission’s Crew Dragon capsule, named Endeavour, into low Earth orbit (LEO).
The astronauts of Crew-8 are currently en route to the space station; Matthew Dominick (commander), Michael Barratt (pilot), and Jeanette Epps (mission specialist) from NASA, and mission specialist Alexander Grebenkin from Russia’s space agency Roscosmos. The entire crew is new to space, except for Barratt, who is making his third spaceflight.
“Hello World! I want you to know, this looks like some kind of rollercoaster ride with a bunch of really excited teenagers,” Barratt said to mission control immediately after Endeavor’s deployment to LEO. “Thank you so much to our friends and colleagues at SpaceX for this amazing journey. It’s great to be back in space!”
Relating to: Meet the SpaceX Crew-8 astronauts launching to the ISS
Crew-8 represents SpaceX’s 13th crewed flight overall and the eighth operational flight for NASA under the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. The company has now sent a total of 50 people into orbit, although astronaut Michael López-Alegría has flown twice as commander of both the Ax-1 and Ax-3 special missions. different people.
Tonight’s launch was the first flight of this particular Falcon 9 rocket and marked the sixth time SpaceX has used a non-flying rocket in a crewed launch.
On the other hand, the Endeavor capsule is a seasoned veteran. Endeavor flew on the first manned test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft on May 30, 2020, carrying NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the ISS.
Since then, Endeavor has also flown the Crew-2 and Crew-6 missions for NASA and, in 2022, the Ax-1 special mission for Houston-based company Axiom Space. Crew-8 therefore marks five flights for Endeavor; this is the most of all Crews. Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, said at a news conference at KSC on Feb. 28 that Dragon has made him a “fleet leader.”
But despite how many times these capsules have flown — in addition to SpaceX’s increasing pace of launching manned missions to its orbital laboratory — NASA refuses to let its guard down. At the same briefing on February 28, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson emphasized that crew safety is “primary” for the agency. “This is risky business,” he said.
Nelson added later during the briefing: “Every time we launch, it’s white knuckle time — and especially when people are on top.” “We never want to get into the mindset that this is so routine that it’s like getting in your car and going for a drive on a Sunday afternoon.”
This safety culture was on display tonight ahead of the launch. Shortly after the four astronauts locked onto Endeavor, mission team members noticed a slight crack in the thermal seal around the capsule’s lid. After much discussion and analysis, NASA and SpaceX determined that the problem was minor and would not pose an undue risk to the crew and proceeded with the launch.
“We estimated the square area of this defect to be approximately 0.02 square inches. [0.13 square centimeters]”That’s less than half of what it would take to qualify this system for holes, cracks or other defects,” SpaceX Dragon mission management director Sarah Walker said at a press conference about an hour after launch. “About 0.05 inch [0.32 square cm]I believe it is the limit of proficiency.”
In addition, the crack will be on the lee side of Endeavor when it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere in about six months, meaning it will not be subjected to the most extreme heating that the capsule was subjected to. Stich said during the post-launch briefing that the seal material would likely expand during reentry and eliminate the defect.
Tonight’s launch took place a few days later than expected; It was withdrawn several times due to bad weather conditions.
During their six-month stay aboard the ISS, Crew-8 astronauts will conduct more than 200 scientific experiments and technology demonstrations in microgravity, including research that will support human exploration in deep space.
NASA is already looking to the future with its current human-related science research efforts to a time when humans could live on private space stations or conduct long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars through the agency’s Artemis program.
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Kristin Fabre, deputy chief scientist for NASA’s Human Exploration Program, says much of the agency’s current human science research, like Crew-8’s science focus, is geared toward not only advancing LEO but also keeping human crews safe and healthy on exploration missions. she told Space.com. “The need to understand all the changes that occur during exploration missions, as well as the changes in the human body in a diverse population, is more critical than ever,” Fabre said.
Once the Crew-8 quartet reaches the space station, it will briefly join Crew-7’s four international astronauts, after which the second group will pass the torch and begin preparations for their departure, which will not occur until March 11. 8 will also meet three members of Russia’s MS-24 mission, including NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara.
SpaceX is one of two commercial companies that have signed multibillion-dollar contracts to fly astronauts to the ISS and back to NASA. Another company, Boeing, aims to launch its first manned flight with its Starliner spacecraft before April 22.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 12:55 a.m. ET on March 4 to include more information about the thermal seal defect in the post-launch press conference.