FAA clears Falcon 9 for ESA asteroid mission launch today

Plus: NASA hit with open records requests about Musk and Trump, and Impulse Space wins Space Force contract.

A SpaceNews daily newsletter | Monday, October 7, 2024 Top Stories The FAA has given the green light to SpaceX for a Falcon 9 launch of an ESA asteroid mission today. The FAA said Sunday it cleared SpaceX to conduct the launch of the Hera spacecraft this morning, the first for the Falcon 9 after an anomaly on an upper-stage deorbit burn on the Crew-9 mission Sept. 28. The FAA noted its approval was only for the Hera mission because the upper stage will not deorbit on this launch and thus there is no public safety risk of a similar incident. The FAA is still reviewing SpaceX's investigation into the incident and has yet to authorize other Falcon 9 launches. The Hera launch is scheduled for 10:52 a.m. Eastern but with only a 15% chance of acceptable weather. [SpaceNews] A hurricane is delaying other launches from, and spacecraft returns to, Florida. NASA said late Sunday it was delaying Thursday's scheduled launch of the Europa Clipper mission on a Falcon Heavy because of Hurricane Milton, which is scheduled to make landfall Wednesday as a major hurricane on Florida's Gulf coast and pass directly over Cape Canaveral by early Thursday. NASA said it will wait until after the storm passes to reschedule the launch. NASA is also delaying the return of the Crew-8 mission from the International Space Station on a Crew Dragon. That spacecraft was scheduled to undock Monday from the ISS, but NASA has delayed its departure to at least Thursday because of weather conditions at splashdown zones off the Florida coast. [NASA] Impulse Space won a Space Force contract for two in-space transportation missions. Under the $34.5 million contract announced last week, Impulse Space will deploy two orbital transfer vehicles, one to low Earth orbit and the other to geosynchronous transfer orbit, that will carry space surveillance payloads for missions intended to enhance U.S. military capabilities in space domain awareness. One of the missions, Victus Surgo, will fly on the inaugural mission of Impulse Space's new Helios kick stage. These efforts are part of the U.S. Space Force's Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS) program. [SpaceNews] Astronomers are concerned about the brightness of the first satellites of a Chinese broadband constellation. In a paper published last week, astronomers said the first 18 satellites of the Qianfan, or "Thousand Sails," constellation were as bright as magnitude 4, bright enough to be seen by the naked eye and far brighter than limits recommended by astronomers to mitigate interference with major observatories. Astronomers said they published the results to raise awareness of the issue and encourage China to modify later satellites to reduce their brightness, as SpaceX did with Starlink satellites. [SpaceNews]   Other News Blue Origin plans to launch a new suborbital vehicle this morning. The company has scheduled a 9 a.m. Eastern liftoff of a New Shepard vehicle from the company's West Texas test site. The uncrewed NS-27 mission will be the first flight of RSS Kármán Line, a new crew capsule, and a new booster. The company said this vehicle, the second human-rated New Shepard, will allow it to "better meet growing customer demand." This flight will carry a set of experiments and payloads. [Space.com] A conservative think tank is bombarding NASA with open records requests to see what NASA employees are saying about Elon Musk and Donald Trump. The Heritage Foundation has filed what the agency says is an "unprecedented" number of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, including 150 in a two-day period, seeking emails and other records. Heritage says it wants to determine if NASA is stymieing progress by SpaceX and other private companies in space. Critics of the effort say it is an attempt to compile an "undesirables list" of NASA employees that a future Trump administration could seek to fire. [Reuters] The FCC is allowing SpaceX to provide direct-to-device Starlink services in regions hit by Hurricane Helene. The commission announced Sunday that it provided temporary authorization to SpaceX and T-Mobile to provide services to cellphones in North Carolina using direct-to-device payloads on Starlink satellites. SpaceX said the satellites will be able to broadcast emergency alerts and potentially offer basic texting services, all on a "best-effort basis" since the constellation is still being deployed. [The Verge]   Dawn Aerospace has performed two flights of a rocket-powered plane in one day. The two flights took place in late September from the New Zealand airport the company has been using for tests of the uncrewed Aurora Mark 2 vehicle. The flights, eight hours apart, reached speeds of Mach 0.9 and altitudes of 19,200 meters. The company performed the flights as part of a test program that seeks to eventually reach supersonic speeds. [Dawn Aerospace]   The Week Ahead Monday: West Texas: Scheduled launch of an uncrewed New Shepard suborbital vehicle on Blue Origin's NS-27 mission at 9 a.m. Eastern. Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying ESA's Hera asteroid mission at 10:52 a.m. Eastern. Monday-Thursday: Boise, Idaho/Online: The Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society holds its 56th annual meeting to discuss planetary science research. Tuesday-Wednesday: Online: The National Academies' Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board holds its fall meeting, including sessions on NASA space technology and exploration. Online: The Space Studies Board's Committee on Biological and Physical Sciences in Space holds its fall meeting. Tuesday-Thursday: Online: The NASA Advisory Council's Science Committee meets for updates on NASA science programs. Prague: The International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety holds its 13th conference with the theme of "Building a Safe, Secure, and Sustainable Space." Thursday: Xichang, China: Projected launch of a Long March 3B carrying an unidentified payload at 9:50 a.m. Eastern. Online: The Mitchell Institute's Schriever Spacepower Series hosts a webinar with Maj. Gen. Devin R. Pepper of NATO's Strategic Warfare Development Command at 10 a.m. Eastern. Thursday-Saturday: Milan: The Space Generation Congress 2024 for young professionals takes place before the start of the International Astronautical Congress.   A premier press release service designed to elevate your company's visibility and target our audience. Publish your company's press release with Stellar Dispatch today. Belgian spacetech gem VEOWARE secures €2.5 million euro to empower spacecrafts with next-generation agility By Veoware Space SpaceNews Celebrates 35th Anniversary as a Global Media Brand By SpaceNews Uniting Industry Leaders and Cutting-Edge Solutions to Shape the Future of Manufacturing By Manufacturo, Inc Leanspace secures €10.5 Million to Champion Next-Gen Satellite Constellation Operations By Leanspace Forward First Up to a friend or Subscribe for yourself Copyright © 2024 Multiverse Media Inc., All rights reserved. You signed up to receive this newsletter on Spacenews.com. At times you may receive marketing material. 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