What’s Happening in Space Policy October 6-12, 2024

What’s Happening in Space Policy October 6-12, 2024

By Marcia Smith | Posted: October 6, 2024 11:33 am ET | Last Updated: October 13, 2024 3:39 pm ET

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of October 6-12, 2024 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess until after the November elections except for pro forma sessions.

During the Week

Some of the biggest events this week are on the tentative list.

Hurricanes are complicating Crew-8’s return including new Tropical Storm Milton in the Gulf of Mexico that’s expected to become a hurricane and threaten Florida’s west coast mid-week. When NASA’s Matt Dominick, Mike Barratt and Jeanette Epps and Roscosmos’s Aleksandr Grebenkin will depart the ISS is TBD. NASA had been targeting a Monday undocking and Tuesday splashdown, then shifted it a day later, but that was before it was clear the new storm would form. We’re listing it on our Calendar for Tuesday, but stay tuned for updates. According to the NASA broadcast schedule, it’ll be a quick return: undocking is at 3:05 am ET and while it doesn’t show the splashdown time, coverage of deorbit burn and splashdown begins at 8:15 am the same day. (On Friday, NASA’s broadcast schedule listed an event for this morning, Sunday, at 9:55 am ET where Crew-8 was to make farewell remarks, but it disappeared. We don’t know if it’ll  be rescheduled.)

UPDATE: Just after we posted this Sunday morning, NASA said they’re postponing the undocking until no earlier than Thursday at 3:05 am ET and they continue to monitor the weather, so that’s still tentative. [And looking at the expected track and timing of Milton, Thursday’s not looking good for this or the Europa Clipper launch.]

Crew-8 will return to Earth this week, weather permitting. L-R: Aleksandr Grebenkin (Roscosmos), Mike Barratt (NASA), Matt Dominick (NASA), Jeanette Epps (NASA). Photo credit: NASA/Bill Stafford and Josh Valcarcel

ESA’s Hera and NASA’s Europa Clipper planetary missions have been worrying not only about “weather,” but “whether” — whether SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is ready to return to flight. SpaceX suspended all Falcon 9 launches after the September 28 Crew-9 launch because the Falcon 9’s second stage “experienced an off-nominal burn.” It landed safely in the ocean, but outside the targeted area.

The FAA decided it needed to investigate the anomaly before issuing licenses to resume launches.

ESA and NASA both have been optimistic that would happen expeditiously and went ahead with encapsulating the spacecraft in their respective fairings so they’re ready to go whenever the FAA gives a thumbs up and Mother Nature cooperates.

It worked out for Hera, anyway.  Moments before we were about to post this edition of What’s Happening, the FAA issued a statement saying they are approving the launch of Falcon 9, but only for Hera because it does not involve a second stage reentry.

Curiously, that says the FAA approved the Hera launch on October 4, which was Friday, but they only made it public today.

Hera will launch on a Falcon 9 from SpaceX’s Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS). It’s headed to the double asteroid Didymos/Dimorphos to study how they changed after NASA’s DART mission impacted Dimorphos in 2022. The launch is scheduled for 10:52 am ET tomorrow (Monday), but it can launch any day through October 27 and arrive in late 2026. It has an instantaneous launch window that moves a little earlier each day. ESA agreed that if Hera’s launch got within 48 hours of Europa Clipper’s, they would step aside and let Clipper go first, but with the FAA’s approval of tomorrow’s launch, hopefully Hera will be well on its way before Clipper’s window opens. The FAA approval was critical, but launches can be delayed for any number of technical or weather-related issues. Note that the weather forecast for tomorrow is an 85 percent probability of violation (POV), which means just 15 percent “go” and Milton hasn’t even become a hurricane yet. ESA will livestream the launch whenever it happens.

Today’s FAA approval didn’t include Europa Clipper because as a U.S. government mission it doesn’t requre one. That launch window opens on Thursday, October 10, at 12:31 pm ET and runs through November 6. [As noted above, Milton’s current projected track and timing doesn’t make a Thursday launch look likely anyway.] Clipper will orbit Jupiter, making 49 close passes of Europa, one of Jupiter’s four largest moons first observed by Galileo in 1610. Scientists believe a liquid ocean of water exists beneath Europa’s icy crust. Where there’s water, there may be life — albeit microbial. Clipper is not a life detection mission, but the data it provides will help scientists determine if the moon is habitable, meaning it has an environment that could support life.

A launch any day through November 6 will get the spacecraft to Jupiter in April 2030. Clipper is launching on a Falcon Heavy (three Falcon 9s joined together) from Kennedy Space Center’s LC-39A, adjacent to CCSFS. Falcon Heavy launches usually wow onlookers when the two side boosters return to CCSFS landing almost in unison. Unfortunately that won’t be the case this time. Clipper needs every drop of propellant the three boosters have, so none will be left over for boost back burns.That means they also don’t have the extra weight of the landing hardware, another plus for this, the biggest planetary spacecraft NASA has ever built. None of the boosters will be recovered this time.

UPDATE: This evening NASA announced that the Clipper launch is being postponed (and pre-launch events as well) because of Milton. New dates are pending.

One launch that should stay on schedule is Blue Origin’s next New Shepard, NS-27, tomorrow morning from West Texas. The company is debuting a new human-rated vehicle. No passengers will be aboard this verification flight, but a dozen scientific experiments and “tens of thousands”of postcards for the company’s Club for the Future. The launch window opens at 8:00 am Central Time (9:00 am Eastern) and Blue Origin will webcast it starting 15 minutes in advance. “The new crew capsule is named RSS Kármán Line. The vehicle features technology upgrades to improve the vehicle’s performance and reusability, an updated livery, and accommodations for payloads on the booster” according to the company.

Apart from launches, there are several other very interesting events this week including the annual American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences — or DPS — conference in Boise, Idaho starting today; the fall meeting of the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine at the Academies’ Beckman Center in Irvine, CA (Tuesday-Wednesday); a meeting of the Academies’ Committee on Biological and Physical Sciences in Space, same days, same location; and a meeting of the NASA Advisory Council’s Science Committee at Kennedy Space Center (Tuesday-Thursday) ending just in time for them to step outside and see the Europa Clipper launch.

Maj. Gen. Devin Pepper will speak at a Mitchell Institute webinar on Thursday.

On the national security space front, on Wednesday George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute (SPI) will host an event to launch a new book, “Space Warfare Strategy, Principles, and Policy” by SPI professor John Klein. Klein will be joined by Col. William Sanders and SPI professor Pete Hays and SPI Director Scott Pace. Sanders is U.S. Space Force’s Division Chief, Strategy, Policy, and Plans, but the event’s webpage notes he will sharing “his own views” not those of DOD, the Air Force or the Space Force. The event is in-person and livestreamed.

And on Thursday, the Mitchell Institute will hold its next Schriever Spacepower Series webinar with U.S. Space Force Maj. Gen. Devin Pepper, Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Plans and Policy, Allied Command Transformation, NATO’s Strategic Warfare Development Command. He’ll discuss “how NATO is responding to the rapidly evolving and complex global security environment.”  Allied Command Transformation, one of NATO’s two strategic commands (Allied Command Operations is the other), is based in Norfolk, VA. Pepper’s promotion to Major General was just confirmed by the Senate on September 24.

Thursday evening, Women in Aerospace will hold its annual awards dinner in Arlington, VA. Former astronaut and former NOAA Administrator Kathy Sullivan is the recipient of this year’s Lifetime Achievement award. Other recipients are Dan Dumbacher, who just retired as CEO of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), for the “Allyship Award”; Wanda Peters, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, for the Leadership Award; Debra Facktor, Head of U.S. Space Systems at Airbus U.S. Space and Defense, for the Aerospace Awareness Award; Sylvie DeLaHunt, Assistant Supervisor of the Discovery Program at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab (APL), for the Initiative, Inspiration, Impact Award; and Marissa Galfond, Assistant Group Supervisor of the Tactical Weapons System Engineering Group at APL, for the Outstanding Achievement Award.

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday morning are shown below.  Check back throughout the week for others we learn about later and add to our Calendar or changes to these.

Sunday-Thursday, October 6-10

Monday, October 7

Tuesday, October 8

  • Crew-8 Return from ISS [UPDATE: As noted above, NASA just announced they are postponing this to Thursday, and it’s still tentative due to weather constraints. Check back for additional updates.]
    • 1:00 am ET, NASA coverage of hatch closing begins
    • 2:45 am ET, NASA coverage of undocking begins
    • 3:05 am ET, undocking
    • 8:15 am ET, NASA coverage of deorbit burn and splashdown (splashdown time not provided)
  • Europa Clipper Pre-Launch Science Briefing, KSC, 3:30 pm ET (livestreamed)  UPDATE: The launch has been postponed, and the associated pre-launch events as well, because of Hurricane Milton.

Tuesday-Wednesday, October 8-9

Tuesday-Thursday, October 8-10

Wednesday, October 9

Thursday, October 10

Clarification:  An earlier version of this article noted that the FAA had not approved Europa Clipper’s launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy. We’ve added that such a license is not required because it is a U.S. government mission. 

Last Updated: Oct 13, 2024 3:39 pm ET

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