Kennedy Space Center

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 Enters Quarantine Ahead of Launch

Photo shows NASA, SpaceX Crew-9 members from right to left, Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov — From right to left, NASA SpaceX Crew-9 members Nick Hague, commander, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, mission specialist, pose for an official crew portrait at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Photo Credit: NASA/Josh Valcarel

Members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission will spend the next two weeks in routine preflight quarantine at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston ahead of their mission to the International Space Station.

NASA and SpaceX have shifted the Crew-9 launch to no earlier than Wednesday, Sept. 25, to complete prelaunch preparations and ensure separation between operations. Liftoff is targeted for 2:28 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft named Freedom. This is the first time a human spaceflight mission will launch from the pad. Additional launch opportunities are available on Thursday, Sept. 26, Friday, Sept. 27, and Saturday, Sept. 28.

NASA astronaut Nick Hague, commander, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, mission specialist, will remain in isolation to prevent exposure to any illnesses before they join the Expedition 72 crew at the space station. As part of the Crew-9 crew, Hague and Gorbunov will join NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who arrived to the space station in June.

Hague and Gorbunov are set to arrive at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, Sept. 20, where the pair will remain in quarantine at the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building until launch.

Crew-9 is the ninth crew rotation mission with SpaceX to the space station under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The crew will spend approximately five months at the orbiting laboratory conducting spacewalks, research demonstrations, and experiments before returning in February 2025.

More details about the launch will be posted on the mission blog, @commercial_crew on X, or commercial crew on Facebook.

Starliner Lands in New Mexico

Boeing’s Starliner touches down at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico at 12:01 a.m. EDT Saturday, Sept. 7, completing the agency’s Crew Flight Test. Photo credit: NASA

At 12 a.m. EDT, Boeing’s uncrewed Starliner spacecraft landed at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.

NASA will provide coverage of a post-landing news conference at 1:30 a.m. on NASA+, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website.

The following will participate in the news conference:

Joel Montalbano, deputy associate administrator, Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington
Steve Stich, manager, Commercial Crew Program, NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida
Dana Weigel, manager, International Space Station, NASA Johnson

Learn more about the mission by following the commercial crew blog, @commercial_crew on X, and @NASACommercialCrew on Facebook.

Sounds from Starliner Speakers Traced to Audio Configuration

Looking down at Boeing's Starliner spacecraft attached to the International Space Station. — The Starliner spacecraft on NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test is pictured docked to the Harmony module’s forward port as the International Space Station orbited 263 miles above the Mediterranean Sea. Photo credit: NASA

A pulsing sound from a speaker in Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft heard by NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore aboard the International Space Station has stopped. The feedback from the speaker was the result of an audio configuration between the space station and Starliner. The space station audio system is complex, allowing multiple spacecraft and modules to be interconnected, and it is common to experience noise and feedback. The crew is asked to contact mission control when they hear sounds originating in the comm system. The speaker feedback Wilmore reported has no technical impact to the crew, Starliner, or station operations, including Starliner’s uncrewed undocking from the station no earlier than Friday, Sept. 6.

NASA, Boeing Chart Course for Starliner Return Review

Image shows Boeing's Starliner spacecraft that launched NASA's Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station is pictured docked to the Harmony module's forward port. This long-duration photograph was taken at night from the orbital complex as it soared 258 miles above western China. — Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft that launched NASA’s Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station is pictured docked to the Harmony module’s forward port on Wednesday, July 3, 2024. Photo credit: NASA

Engineering and spaceflight specialists from NASA and Boeing continue data analysis ahead of a decision this week on the path forward for the Starliner spacecraft’s return from the International Space Station.

NASA’s decision on whether to return Starliner to Earth with astronauts aboard is expected no earlier than Saturday, Aug. 24 at the conclusion of an agency-level review chaired by Ken Bowersox, the associate administrator of NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate. The agency flight readiness review is where any formal dissents are presented and reconciled. Other agency leaders who routinely participate in launch and return readiness reviews for crewed missions include NASA’s administrator, deputy administrator, associate administrator, various agency center directors, the Flight Operations Directorate, and agency technical authorities.

NASA will host a televised news conference following the review’s conclusion to discuss the agency’s decision and next steps. More information on the news conference will be shared once confirmed. After the agency-level decision, program and flight control teams will continue preparing for Starliner’s return, including training sessions and other actions as appropriate.

Ahead of the agency-level review, NASA and Boeing are working to finalize and present flight rationale to various teams across the community and to the program control board. Engineering teams have been working to evaluate a new model that represents the thruster mechanics and is designed to more accurately predict performance during the return phase of flight. This data could help teams better understand system redundancy from undock to service module separation. Ongoing efforts to complete the new modelling, characterize spacecraft performance data, refine integrated risk assessments, and determine community recommendations will fold into the agency-level review.

Alongside the crew members of Expedition 71, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, commander, and Suni Williams, pilot, continue supporting a host of research, maintenance, and other activities aboard the microgravity laboratory since arriving on Starliner on June 6.

NASA Adjusts Crew-9 Launch Date for Operational Flexibility

Image of NASA Crew-9 mission patch — NASA, SpaceX Crew-9 mission patch

NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than Tuesday, Sept. 24, for the launch of the agency’s Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station.

This adjustment allows more time for mission managers to finalize return planning for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test currently docked to the orbiting laboratory. Starliner ground teams are taking their time to analyze the results of recent docked hot-fire testing, finalize flight rationale for the spacecraft’s integrated propulsion system, and confirm system reliability ahead of Starliner’s return to Earth. NASA and Boeing continue to evaluate the spacecraft’s readiness, and no decisions have been made regarding Starliner’s return.

The Crew-9 launch adjustment also deconflicts the next SpaceX rotation with the upcoming Soyuz handover targeted for no earlier than mid-September. Teams are working to prepare the Crew-9 mission to be ready to launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida to deconflict with pad preparations for NASA’s Europa Clipper mission beginning this September at nearby Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center. NASA also will adjust the launch of SpaceX’s 31st commercial resupply services mission to no earlier than mid-October.

The agency will host a media teleconference at 12:30 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, Aug. 7, with agency leadership to discuss ongoing operations, including NASA’s Crew-9, Crew-8, and Crew Flight Test missions.

NASA, Universities to Study Earth’s Soil, Use New Technology in Orbit

Image shows Arizona State University student Marco Lalonde stows the DORA solar panels in preparation for flight — Arizona State University student Marco Lalonde stows the DORA solar panels in preparation for flight. Photo credit: Danny Jacobs

NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative soon will send two CubeSats to the International Space Station as cargo on the 21st Northrop Grumman commercial resupply mission.

CySat-1, designed and built by students from Iowa State University, measures Earth’s soil moisture content from low Earth orbit. The measurements will be taken with a software-defined radiometer, a system that uses software to process analog radio signals. Students will create computer programs to analyze those signals to determine levels of moisture in the soil present on the Earth. As Iowa State University’s first CubeSat, CySat-1 will be a technology demonstrator for future CubeSat missions.

Students at Arizona State University and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California developed DORA (Deployable Optical Receiver Aperture), a new technology CubeSat.

In the past, small satellites required precision pointing and only achieved low data transmissions in gathering information. The technology will demonstrate new optical communications without precision pointing and use a solid-state photon detector to gather high data rates using wide-field optical receivers. To test the detector’s performance, DORA will measure the background light from reflected sunlight, moonlight, and city lights when deployed from the space station into low Earth orbit.

The two demonstrations, CySat-1 and DORA, are both 3U CubeSats, a class of small satellites. The cube-shaped spacecraft are sized in standardized units, or Us, typically up to 12U. One CubeSat unit is defined as a volume of about 10x10x10 cm in size and typically weighs less than 2 kilograms.

The satellites will be released from the International Space Station using the Nanoracks CubeSat Deployer. One of the space station’s arms grabs and points the deployer in the proper direction to release the CubeSats into orbit.

Launch of the Cygnus spacecraft is targeted at 11:28 a.m. EDT Saturday, Aug. 3, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

NASA, Boeing Complete Second Docked Starliner Hot Fire Test

Image shows Boeing's Starliner crew capsule docked to the Harmony module's forward port at the International Space Station — Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule docked to the Harmony module’s forward port at the International Space Station on July 3, 2024.
Photo credit: NASA

Engineering teams with NASA and Boeing completed a hot fire test of the Starliner spacecraft’s reaction control system jets on July 27 to evaluate the spacecraft’s propulsion system. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, assigned to the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, were seated inside the docked spacecraft during the test as part of preparations before their return aboard Starliner from the International Space Station.

The test involved firing 27 of the spacecraft’s 28 jets for short bursts, moving through them one at a time to check thruster performance and helium leak rates. Preliminary results show all the tested thrusters are back to preflight levels based on thrust and chamber pressure.

As part of the test configuration, all helium manifolds, which control and direct the flow of helium, were opened allowing engineers to continue evaluation of Starliner’s helium supply and leak rates. The teams verified Starliner continues to show the margin needed to support a return trip from the station. Following the test, the helium manifolds were closed and will remain closed until Starliner activates its propulsion system ahead of undocking. Teams also will verify the helium leak rate before Starliner undocks.

Teams are reviewing data from the docked hot fire test and the recent ground testing of a Starliner thruster at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico before holding an agency return readiness review. Following this agency-level review, NASA and Boeing will select a target return date.

While ground teams work to finalize Starliner’s return to Earth, Wilmore and Williams continue to work alongside the Expedition 71 crew, assisting with science investigations and maintenance activities. On July 29, Wilmore and Williams entered their spacecraft and checked its water systems, called down to Boeing mission personnel for a conference, and put on their space suits long enough to perform a pressure test. Wilmore started his morning in the Harmony module, assembling the BioServe centrifuge as Williams reviewed procedures for operating the Astrobee free-flying robotic assistants.

For the latest mission updates, follow the commercial crew blog, @commercial_crew on X, and commercial crew on Facebook.

NASA’s Rocket On Roll: Core Stage Arrives at Vehicle Assembly Building

After completing its journey from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans aboard the Pegasus barge, teams with Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) transport the agency’s powerful SLS (Space Launch System) core stage to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building in Florida on Tuesday, July 23, 2024. Once inside, SLS will be prepared for integration atop the mobile launcher ahead of the Artemis II launch. — After completing its journey from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans aboard the Pegasus barge, teams with Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) transport the agency’s powerful SLS (Space Launch System) core stage to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building in Florida on Tuesday, July 23, 2024. Photo credit: NASA/Isaac Watson

NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket core stage for the Artemis II mission is inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Tugboats and towing vessels moved the barge and core stage 900-miles to the Florida spaceport from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where it was manufactured and assembled.

Team members with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program safely transferred the 212-foot-tall core stage from the agency’s Pegasus barge, which arrived at NASA Kennedy’s Complex 39 turn basin wharf on July 23, onto the self-propelled module transporter, which is used to move large elements of hardware. It was then rolled to the Vehicle Assembly Building transfer aisle where teams will process it until it is ready for rocket stacking operations.

In the coming months, teams will integrate the rocket core stage atop the mobile launcher with the additional Artemis II flight hardware, including the twin solid rocket boosters, launch vehicle stage adapter, and the Orion spacecraft.

The Artemis II test flight will be NASA’s first mission with crew under the Artemis campaign, sending NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Reid Wiseman, as well as CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back.

NASA Starliner Astronauts Work Research, Maintenance Aboard Station

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, crewmembers of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test mission, performed a host of research activities and other roles aboard the International Space Station. Wilmore and Williams give the microgravity laboratory a complement of nine people working through daily tasks.

On Monday, Wilmore and Williams reviewed the procedures for using the Fluid Systems Servicer, which drains, purges, and circulates fluids on systems aboard the space station. Wilmore then refilled coolant loops in the water pump assembly located in the Columbus module. Tuesday saw the pair take turns during the morning pedaling on an exercise cycle while attached to heart and breathing sensors that measured their aerobic capacity. The duo then split up as Wilmore serviced a pair of research freezers that preserve scientific samples and Williams installed hardware on an experiment that explores atmospheric reentry and thermal protection systems.

The seven-member Expedition 71 crew joined the two Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts to practice an emergency drill in collaboration with mission controllers. The teams aboard the orbital outpost and on the ground coordinated communications and reviewed procedures in the unlikely event of a pressure leak, chemical leak, or fire aboard the space station. Following that, Wilmore and Williams spoke to reporters from the space station, answering questions about their mission and the Starliner vehicle. NASA and Boeing managers also discussed the Crew Flight Test mission with the media in an audio teleconference afterward. Watch the crew news conference here and listen to the media briefing here. The duo also completed life support work refilling temperature loops with water in the Tranquility module’s internal thermal control system.

Advanced biology research also was underway aboard the orbiting lab on Thursday with astronauts exploring how living in space affects the human body and mind. Williams extracted DNA to identify microbe samples collected from station water systems. Results from the genetic biotechnology experiment may improve ways to keep crews healthy and spacecraft systems clean on future missions.

NASA astronaut Michael Barratt also assisted Wilmore, who spent all day servicing a pair of spacesuits in the Quest airlock. The duo cleaned the suits’ cooling loops and checked the communication systems ahead of a spacewalk planned for July 29.

NASA, Boeing Conduct Ground Tests Ahead of Starliner Return

Photo shows NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore during a news conference aboard the International Space Station on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. — NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore speak during a news conference aboard the International Space Station on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. Photo credit: NASA Television

NASA and Boeing continue working to increase their understanding of the Starliner spacecraft’s propulsion system before the return of agency astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to Earth from the International Space Station. Teams are conducting ground tests at the agency’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico using a new Reaction Control System thruster previously planned for use on a future Starliner flight.

Wilmore and Williams provided an update Wednesday about their flight on Starliner and work aboard the space station during an Earth to space call. Following the crew news conference, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich and Boeing Commercial Crew Program Manager and Vice President Mark Nappi spoke extensively about the mission and testing plans ahead of the Crew Flight Test return. Listen to a replay of the leadership briefing.

After an agency-level readiness review later this month, NASA and Boeing plan to select a new target return date for the Crew Flight Test. Following this review, NASA plans to host a televised briefing and will share more details on that when finalized.

Follow the commercial crew blog, @commercial_crew on X, and commercial crew on Facebook for the latest mission updates.