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The next crew of astronauts to the International Space Station may be the last to land in the ocean near the U.S. East Coast.
The Crew Dragon Crew-9 mission is scheduled to launch with astronauts to the International Space Station no later than August 18, which could make it the last NASA-led ISS mission to reach the Atlantic Ocean aboard Crew Dragon.
Recurring issues with large pieces of debris from the Dragon spacecraft — the “boxes” that hold fuel and electrical supplies — have caused it to repeatedly land in areas ranging from Australia to North Carolina. One way to fix that, SpaceX said during a news conference today (July 26), is to have future spacecraft after Crew-9, possibly Crew-10, land on the U.S. Pacific Coast.
“What we will do is implement a software change to complete the deorbit burn before jettisoning the trunk, as we did with Dragon 1, and then the trunk will be intentionally landed […] “In an unpopulated area of the ocean, and to make that change possible, we will be moving the Dragon recovery ship into the Pacific Ocean sometime next year,” SpaceX Dragon mission director Sarah Walker said in the livestreamed briefing.
Related: SpaceX launches to International Space Station under independent NASA review after rare Falcon 9 rocket failure
In addition to having less space debris, the Pacific coast tends to experience fewer extreme weather events and hurricanes, which could add more predictability to the end-of-manufacturing schedule, Walker noted.
The crew of Crew 9 includes four astronauts: Commander Zena Cardman (NASA), Pilot Nick Hague (NASA), Mission Expert Stephanie Wilson (NASA), and Mission Expert Alexander Gorbunov (Roscosmos).
Crew-9 won’t launch into space until NASA approves another Falcon 9 launch to the International Space Station, but so far everything is going well for the launch on August 18. The Falcon 9’s second stage suffered an oxygen leak on July 11 during the launch of a Starlink satellite. SpaceX says it has resolved the issue with the Federal Aviation Administration and plans to launch other missions again as soon as Saturday (July 27).
NASA said the FAA-approved fixes will go before the space agency’s Crew-9 program control board, but the agency has been part of SpaceX’s investigation the entire time and is confident in the work so far. “We understand exactly what they did,” NASA said. [SpaceX] “We did it,” Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, said at the press briefing.
It's been a busy month for the International Space Station, as Boeing Starliner engineers continue their investigation into issues that occurred during the first astronaut docking test mission on June 5. Ground tests showed problems with the booster isolation and thrust flow that could potentially affect the approach to the ISS, according to a news conference yesterday (July 25).
Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have spent more than 50 days on what was supposed to be a 10-day mission and a landing date has yet to be set as Boeing and NASA continue to investigate problems with the propulsion system and helium leaks. Those issues will need to be addressed before Starliner’s six-month operational missions to the International Space Station, which begin in 2025.
Wilmore and Williams are living on a four-month supply reserve aboard the ISS before their return, which will be sometime before Crew 9 arrives at the ISS. They will finally receive their personal items aboard the Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the ISS aboard the Falcon 9, scheduled for no earlier than August 3, when their bags had to be pulled at the last minute from CFT’s Starliner to transport a critical part of the ISS’s water system.
“There are a number of challenges that we can face that lead to a shortage of supplies on board, for example, if you have a cargo flight that slips [delays]”The reason for this sanctuary is that it exists,” International Space Station Program Manager Dana Weigel said in a press conference for Space.com.
The reserves include clothing, food, water, oxygen, nitrogen and other essential supplies. “We have a lot of general supplies on board, so we just asked Butch and Sonny to use them,” Weigl said.
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