Next week’s SpaceX launch received a key go-ahead as astronauts get ready to take off from U.S. soil for the first time since NASA retired the space shuttle in 2011.
On Friday, NASA concluded a flight readiness review and cleared SpaceX, after some last-minute turmoil hit the space agency’s upper ranks.
“There are no significant open issues, I am happy to report,” said Steve Jurczyk, associate NASA administrator, who chaired the flight review.
A static fire of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket went smoothly Friday afternoon, as did a dress rehearsal with the astronauts on Saturday. A final launch readiness review is set for Monday.
The SpaceX launch will take place Wednesday on May 27 at 4:33 p.m. ET from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. But the Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron said there is only a 40% chance of good conditions for the launch window.
The Crew Dragon capsule will carry astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the space station, docking 19 hours after launch.
But even before the abrupt resignation of NASA’s human spaceflight chief Monday, the stakes were already high for the SpaceX launch.
A successful mission would validate NASA’s goal of relying on private-sector companies like SpaceX and perhaps Boeing (BA) to provide transport to and from the International Space Station, freeing it to focus on deep-space exploration.
It also would open the door for SpaceX to leap ahead in the growing space tourism sector, which includes Virgin Galactic (SPCE) and Amazon (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. While SpaceX has been putting satellites into orbit and delivering supplies to the space station, it has never taken humans into space.
(SpaceX)
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla (TSLA), has added his own flair to the SpaceX launch. Behnken and Hurley will ride a Tesla Model X to the Falcon 9 rocket that will take them to the space station.
While in space, the astronauts’ main objectives will be to check the capsule’s systems. But beyond that, things are less certain. NASA has said the mission could run anywhere from one month to the end of September, and a decision will come when the astronauts are on orbit. The Crew Dragon is capable of staying on orbit for 210 days.
Crewed SpaceX Launch A Long Time Coming
In 2014, NASA awarded Boeing a $4.2 billion contract and SpaceX a $2.6 billion contract to develop space taxis for missions to the space station and end its reliance on Russia’s Soyuz capsules.
After nine years, that day may finally come. If next week’s SpaceX launch goes as planned, the first operational Commercial Crew mission will come later this year, taking U.S. astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker as well as Japan’s Soichi Noguchi to the space station for a six-month mission.
(SpaceX)
Still, NASA is hedging its bets. Earlier this month, it reportedly paid over $90 million for an extra seat on a Soyuz capsule in mid-October in case there is still a delay with the SpaceX launch.
But NASA isn’t SpaceX’s only Crew Dragon customer as Axiom Space, which builds habitats and modules for the space station, signed a deal with SpaceX to fly three paying customers to the space station in late 2021.
SpaceX is also working with Space Adventures to fly four space tourists around the Earth’s orbit. No time frame has been given for the tourist flight.
NASA Stuns Just Before SpaceX Launch
But just over a week from the SpaceX launch, NASA shocked the space community when it announced Tuesday that Doug Loverro, associate administrator for human exploration and operations, had resigned effective Monday.
(NASA)
His tenure was just six months. Loverro took over when predecessor Bill Gerstenmaier left, reportedly over slowness on the Trump administration’s ambitious goal to return to the moon by 2024.
In a resignation letter, Loverro indicated his departure wasn’t related to the Commercial Crew program but to the Artemis moon program.
Weeks earlier, NASA awarded contracts to SpaceX, Leidos‘ (LDOS) Dynetics unit and a Blue Origin-led team, which also includes Lockheed Martin (LMT) and Northrop Grumman (NOC), to develop lunar landers for Artemis.
On Friday, associate NASA administrator Jurczyk was asked if Loverro’s sudden departure meant more work to prepare as he had to take over the role of leading the flight readiness review.
“Actually, I’ve been conducting agency level reviews of the Commercial Crew Program for the last two years, as the associate administrator,” he said. “So those reviews prepared me really well to step in and share the flight Readiness Review.”
Crew Dragon, Starliner Delays
The SpaceX launch marks the company’s second test flight for NASA’s Commercial Crew program, following an uncrewed demonstration to the space station last year.
But delays have plagued the program for both Boeing and SpaceX as NASA implemented strict protocols for testing and other requirements for human-rated capsules.
(SpaceX)
Officials were worried earlier about SpaceX’s plans to fuel rockets while astronauts are on board, especially after a Falcon 9 exploded on the launchpad in 2016 while being fueled for a test fire. Last year, an empty Crew Dragon exploded while its thrusters were tested. SpaceX has also run into snags developing the parachutes for the capsule. NASA also questioned the safety culture at the company after Musk smoked marijuana on a popular podcast.
On Friday, NASA’s Commercial Crew manager, Kathy Lueders, was asked about last year’s capsule explosion and her thoughts on the upcoming SpaceX launch. “Don’t ever underestimate the value of a failure,” she replied.
Boeing has faced its own mishaps, and the aerospace giant has yet to successfully complete an uncrewed test of its Starliner capsule. In December, the Starliner set off on its uncrewed test, but it failed to reach the space station as planned because a software error prevented it from getting into the proper orbit.
An internal timer on the capsule was off by 11 hours. That caused the Boeing Starliner to believe that it was further into the mission than it actually was. Another software issue was found with the thrusters that could have lead to a catastrophic spacecraft failure.
As Boeing works through the coding issues, it plans to redo the uncrewed test and took a $410 million pretax charge in the fourth quarter for related costs.
Follow Gillian Rich on Twitter @IBD_GRich for space news and more.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
