This weekend, two NASA astronauts are slated to return home to Earth inside SpaceX’s new passenger capsule, the Crew Dragon. It’ll be the first time that the Crew Dragon carries passengers back to the planet’s surface, ultimately proving if the vehicle can safely transport people to space and back.
Veteran astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will be aboard the spacecraft. The duo made history at the end of May when they launched to the International Space Station inside the Crew Dragon, marking the first time a privately made vehicle carried people to orbit. The launch heralded the return of human spaceflight in the US. The last time people flew to orbit from the United States was in 2011, with the last flight of the Space Shuttle. For nine years, NASA relied on Russian rockets to get astronauts to the ISS — but now the agency can use SpaceX’s vehicles instead.
While the launch received lots of fanfare, getting the astronauts home is an equally critical part of this mission. “From the laws of physics standpoint, we’re only halfway done,” Garrett Reisman, a former NASA astronaut and SpaceX consultant who used to work on the Crew Dragon, tells The Verge. “All that energy you put in [during launch], you have to take every bit of that energy out when you come home.” The Crew Dragon, with Behnken and Hurley inside, will have to undock from the station and plunge itself into Earth’s thick atmosphere. A heat shield should protect the crew from the intense heat created during the descent, which can reach up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Eventually, the Crew Dragon will deploy a suite of parachutes, slowing the vehicle down so that it can splash down relatively gently in the Atlantic Ocean.
SpaceX has brought multiple spacecraft back from space before, but all of those vehicles were cargo versions of the Crew Dragon, which are different in shape and overall function. The Crew Dragon is more asymmetrical than its predecessor, thanks to the inclusion of an emergency abort system. The company has brought the Crew Dragon back to Earth from space before — but only once, during an uncrewed test flight of the vehicle in March 2019.
“Bringing a spaceship home, that’s a really big deal,” Benji Reed, director of crew mission management at SpaceX, said during a press conference on the landing. “And it’s very important, as part of that sacred honor that we have, for ensuring that we bring Bob and Doug back home to their families, to their kids, and making sure that they’re safe.”
This landing is the last big test for SpaceX as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, an initiative aimed at developing private spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from low Earth orbit. But before those flights can get started in earnest, SpaceX has to prove to NASA that its Crew Dragon vehicles are safe. The company had to do an uncrewed test flight of the Crew Dragon — sending it to the station and then back home again — as part of a mission called Demo-1. Behnken and Hurley are part of SpaceX’s first crewed test flight, a mission dubbed Demo-2.
The Crew Dragon has remained docked since arriving at the station on May 31st. The astronauts and NASA have done tons of analysis on the Crew Dragon to see how it’s held up in the space environment, and the vehicle seems to be doing just fine. “The systems on Dragon are doing very well,” Steve Stich, the manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said during the conference. “The spacecraft is very healthy.”
Right now, Behnken and Hurley are scheduled to undock from the space station at around 7:34PM ET on Saturday, August 1st. The capsule will then slowly distance itself from the ISS over the next several hours. Then on Sunday, August 2nd, the Crew Dragon is scheduled to fire up its thrusters at around 1:56PM ET, taking the vehicle out of orbit. The capsule should touch down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida about an hour later at around 2:42PM ET. There are seven different landing sites where the Crew Dragon can potentially touch down.
This is all subject to change, as weather is a big limiting factor. The Crew Dragon is the first human-carrying spacecraft, since the Apollo missions, designed to land in water when it comes back to Earth, which means good weather at the landing site is key. NASA doesn’t want the astronauts landing in choppy water after pulling extra G forces on the way down to Earth. If things are too rough, the capsule could tip over, making it difficult for the astronauts to get out.
So for this landing, NASA wants calm waters and winds below 10 miles per hour at the landing site. The mission team doesn’t want rain or lightning in the area either. Originally, things weren’t looking good for a landing this weekend, as Hurricane Isaias was projected to track up the east coast of Florida on Saturday and Sunday. However, SpaceX has the option to land on the western coast of Florida if necessary, and NASA said it is moving forward with the schedule after a recent weather check.
NASA and SpaceX will continue to evaluate if they need to move the undocking. But ultimately, undocking can be called off right at the last minute. “Literally, we have about an hour period where we can undock and if at the last minute we thought that the weather or something wasn’t okay, the SpaceX team could command the vehicle and Bob or Doug could stop and stop the whole undock sequence,” Reed said.
Once the Crew Dragon does undock from the station, that means the spacecraft is most likely going to splash down, according to Reisman. “Once you separate from the space station, you’re committed to coming back,” he says. “Because you are using up consumables on board the vehicle — like propellant, oxygen, and so forth.” SpaceX does have flexibility over when that splashdown occurs. Most of the landing opportunities occur about 15 or 17 hours after undocking, according to Reed. But SpaceX can delay the splashdown until two days later if necessary. The Crew Dragon also has enough resources on board — such as food, oxygen, and more — to last up to three days.
Once in the water, Behnken and Hurley will wait inside the Crew Dragon until SpaceX’s two recovery boats arrive. The first vessel is designed to pull the Crew Dragon out of the water, while a crew of more than 40 people on board will help the astronauts out of the capsule. A second boat will recover the Crew Dragon’s parachutes, which will detach from the capsule after landing. If for some reason the astronauts are experiencing some kind of emergency, there is a helipad on board the main recovery boat, enabling a helicopter to evacuate Behnken and Hurley quickly from the splashdown site. But if that’s not necessary, the boat will take everyone to shore.
A successful landing should help pave the way for SpaceX to start doing routine missions to the ISS. A new Crew Dragon is already slated to fly in late September, carrying a crew of four to the space station for a longer mission. And then in spring of 2021, the Crew Dragon is scheduled for another flight with a crew of four. In fact, that mission next year will use the same Crew Dragon that Behnken and Hurley are coming home in. Just after SpaceX launched this Crew Dragon, NASA approved the company to reuse the capsules on future flights. And SpaceX says it won’t take long to turn them around. “We should be able to have Dragon refurbished and ready to go in just a matter of a couple months — two months,” Reed said.
But before Crew Dragon can be fly again, it has to come home. All eyes are on Behnken and Hurley’s return, and anxiety is high as the two attempt a safe landing. “Until they’re on the boat or even until they’re on shore and I see them get out of the Gulfstream [jet] in Houston, waving to the crowd, I’m still going to be nervous,” Reisman says.
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.
The European Space Agency is fast-tracking a new mission called Ramses, which will fly to near-Earth asteroid 99942 Apophis and join the space rock in 2029 when it comes very close to our planet — closer even than the region where geosynchronous satellites sit.
Ramses is short for Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety and, as its name suggests, is the next phase in humanity’s efforts to learn more about near-Earth asteroids (NEOs) and how we might deflect them should one ever be discovered on a collision course with planet Earth.
In order to launch in time to rendezvous with Apophis in February 2029, scientists at the European Space Agency have been given permission to start planning Ramses even before the multinational space agency officially adopts the mission. The sanctioning and appropriation of funding for the Ramses mission will hopefully take place at ESA’s Ministerial Council meeting (involving representatives from each of ESA’s member states) in November of 2025. To arrive at Apophis in February 2029, launch would have to take place in April 2028, the agency says.
This is a big deal because large asteroids don’t come this close to Earth very often. It is thus scientifically precious that, on April 13, 2029, Apophis will pass within 19,794 miles (31,860 kilometers) of Earth. For comparison, geosynchronous orbit is 22,236 miles (35,786 km) above Earth’s surface. Such close fly-bys by asteroids hundreds of meters across (Apophis is about 1,230 feet, or 375 meters, across) only occur on average once every 5,000 to 10,000 years. Miss this one, and we’ve got a long time to wait for the next.
When Apophis was discovered in 2004, it was for a short time the most dangerous asteroid known, being classified as having the potential to impact with Earth possibly in 2029, 2036, or 2068. Should an asteroid of its size strike Earth, it could gouge out a crater several kilometers across and devastate a country with shock waves, flash heating and earth tremors. If it crashed down in the ocean, it could send a towering tsunami to devastate coastlines in multiple countries.
Over time, as our knowledge of Apophis’ orbit became more refined, however, the risk of impact greatly went down. Radar observations of the asteroid in March of 2021 reduced the uncertainty in Apophis’ orbit from hundreds of kilometers to just a few kilometers, finally removing any lingering worries about an impact — at least for the next 100 years. (Beyond 100 years, asteroid orbits can become too unpredictable to plot with any accuracy, but there’s currently no suggestion that an impact will occur after 100 years.) So, Earth is expected to be perfectly safe in 2029 when Apophis comes through. Still, scientists want to see how Apophis responds by coming so close to Earth and entering our planet’s gravitational field.
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“There is still so much we have yet to learn about asteroids but, until now, we have had to travel deep into the solar system to study them and perform experiments ourselves to interact with their surface,” said Patrick Michel, who is the Director of Research at CNRS at Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in Nice, France, in a statement. “Nature is bringing one to us and conducting the experiment itself. All we need to do is watch as Apophis is stretched and squeezed by strong tidal forces that may trigger landslides and other disturbances and reveal new material from beneath the surface.”
The Goldstone radar’s imagery of asteroid 99942 Apophis as it made its closest approach to Earth, in March 2021. (Image credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/NSF/AUI/GBO)
By arriving at Apophis before the asteroid’s close encounter with Earth, and sticking with it throughout the flyby and beyond, Ramses will be in prime position to conduct before-and-after surveys to see how Apophis reacts to Earth. By looking for disturbances Earth’s gravitational tidal forces trigger on the asteroid’s surface, Ramses will be able to learn about Apophis’ internal structure, density, porosity and composition, all of which are characteristics that we would need to first understand before considering how best to deflect a similar asteroid were one ever found to be on a collision course with our world.
Besides assisting in protecting Earth, learning about Apophis will give scientists further insights into how similar asteroids formed in the early solar system, and, in the process, how planets (including Earth) formed out of the same material.
One way we already know Earth will affect Apophis is by changing its orbit. Currently, Apophis is categorized as an Aten-type asteroid, which is what we call the class of near-Earth objects that have a shorter orbit around the sun than Earth does. Apophis currently gets as far as 0.92 astronomical units (137.6 million km, or 85.5 million miles) from the sun. However, our planet will give Apophis a gravitational nudge that will enlarge its orbit to 1.1 astronomical units (164.6 million km, or 102 million miles), such that its orbital period becomes longer than Earth’s.
It will then be classed as an Apollo-type asteroid.
Ramses won’t be alone in tracking Apophis. NASA has repurposed their OSIRIS-REx mission, which returned a sample from another near-Earth asteroid, 101955 Bennu, in 2023. However, the spacecraft, renamed OSIRIS-APEX (Apophis Explorer), won’t arrive at the asteroid until April 23, 2029, ten days after the close encounter with Earth. OSIRIS-APEX will initially perform a flyby of Apophis at a distance of about 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from the object, then return in June that year to settle into orbit around Apophis for an 18-month mission.
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Furthermore, the European Space Agency still plans on launching its Hera spacecraft in October 2024 to follow-up on the DART mission to the double asteroid Didymos and Dimorphos. DART impacted the latter in a test of kinetic impactor capabilities for potentially changing a hazardous asteroid’s orbit around our planet. Hera will survey the binary asteroid system and observe the crater made by DART’s sacrifice to gain a better understanding of Dimorphos’ structure and composition post-impact, so that we can place the results in context.
The more near-Earth asteroids like Dimorphos and Apophis that we study, the greater that context becomes. Perhaps, one day, the understanding that we have gained from these missions will indeed save our planet.
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