The crew spent 197 days docked at the ISS and welcomed seven visiting vehicles while on orbit. Splashdown off the coast of Florida is anticipated around 5:50 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, March 12.
Join us for a roundup of the week’s space news with reporters covering the big stories. Spaceflight Now’s Will Robinson-Smith is joined by Irene Klotz, Senior Space Editor for Aviation Week, and Richard Tribou, Space Reporter and Senior Content Editor for The Orlando Sentinel.
The mission to the orbiting outpost featured three NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut who will spend roughly 180 days on the space station. Liftoff occurred at 10:53 p.m. EST (0353 UTC) from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
The slide system differs notably from the slide wire basket system used over at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. NASA officials said pad 40 will be ready for astronaut launches this year.
The quartet touched down at the Launch and Landing Facility around 1:45 p.m. EST (1845 UTC). They’re set to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Friday, March 1, at 12:04 a.m.
The mission is the first of the year for NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the Kennedy Space Center. The Falcon 9 rocket is lifted off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 1:33 a.m. EST (0633 UTC) on Feb. 8.
The spacecraft named PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) has a nominal operating life of three years with the amount of fuel to potentially have it last a decade. It’s set to launch onboard a Falcon 9 rocket on Tuesday, Feb. 6.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced on Tuesday that Artemis 2 will be delayed until Sept. 2025 and Artemis 3 until Sept. 2026. The additional time is needed both from a hardware readiness perspective as well as to answer outstanding questions about the heat shield.
The mission will be a first for both ULA’s Vulcan rocket as well as Astrobotic’s lunar lander, Peregrine. Liftoff is set for Monday, Jan. 8 at 2:18 am EST (0718 UTC).
In a blend of interesting circumstances and happenstance, two private companies and Japan’s space agency are all poised to land on the Moon in the back half of January 2024.