After today’s successful launch of Crew-9, Falcon 9’s second stage was disposed in the ocean as planned, but experienced an off-nominal deorbit burn. As a result, the second stage safely landed in the ocean, but outside of the targeted area.

We will resume launching after we better understand root cause

Steve Stich states at today's Crew-9 news conference that Dragon has a new contingency capability if all 4 parachutes fail; the SuperDracos will ignite prior to splashdown.

The Crew-8 return to Earth will also have this capability.

(He said this about 20 minutes after the start of the stream.)

Welcome to the SpaceX Crew-9 Launch Discussion & Updates Thread!

Time to pick up Butch and Suni!

| Scheduled for (UTC) | 2024-09-28, 17:17:21 | |

|

| | Scheduled for (local) | 2024-09-28, 13:17:21 (ET) | |Docking scheduled for (UTC)| | | Mission | Crew-9 | | Launch site | LC-40, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA. | | Booster | B1085-2 | | Landing | LZ-1 | | Dragon | C212-4 (Freedom) | | Commander | Nick Hague 🇺🇸| | Mission Specialist | Aleksandr Gorbunov 🇷🇺| | Mission success criteria | Successful launch and docking to the ISS |

Note: This mission is launching with two empty seats for returning Barry E. Wilmore 🇺🇸 and Sunita Williams 🇺🇸 from the ISS.

Webcasts

| Stream | Link | |

|

| | NASA | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKXtysRx0b4 | Space Affairs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvMUVxflvxI | Spaceflight Now | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eKnPK5RswM | NASASpaceflight | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLZpj_rtzEo | Everyday Astronaut | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X67-Y-jJx40 | The Launch Pad | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnQO8rN4nq8 | SpaceX | | The Space Devs |

Stats

Sourced from NextSpaceflight, c/SpaceX, and r/SpaceX:

☑️ 1st crewed Dragon launch from SLC-40

☑️ 45th launch from SLC-40 this year

☑️ 11 day turnaround for this pad

☑️ 46th landing on LZ-1

☑️ 24th consecutive successful Falcon 9 launch (if successful)

☑️ 354th Falcon Family Booster landing

☑️ 93rd Falcon 9 mission this year, 379th Falcon 9 mission overall

☑️ 94th SpaceX mission of 2024, 394th mission overall (excluding Starship flights)

☑️ 96th SpaceX launch this year, 408th SpaceX launch overall (including Starship flights)

Mission info

• NextSpaceflight mission page
• SpaceX mission website

SpaceX Crew-9 is the ninth operational crewed rotation mission of a Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. The original intended crew comprised Commander Zena Cardman, Pilot Nick Hague, Mission Specialist Stephanie Wilson, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mission Specialist Aleksandr Gorbunov.

NASA has since decided to launch Crew-9 with only 2 crew members to allow the 2 Starliner CFT crew to return on Crew-9. The mission's commander will be Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov will be a mission specialist.

Starlink Group 9-8 launch out of SLC-4E in California currently scheduled for 2024-09-25 04:01 UTC, or 2024-09-24 21:01 local time (PDT). B1081-10 to land on Of Course I Still Love You.

• NextSpaceflight page
• SpaceX mission page

Webcasts:

• Space Affairs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRklRPky5tQ
• Spaceflight Now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7Yy3P2Y7FA
• NASASpaceflight:
• The Launch Pad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac5oqqnQ3eQ
• SpaceX: https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1838789456331223071
• The Space Devs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLxKu_vyCeU

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1837613770736390558

Previous post on the topic: FAA fines SpaceX for launch license violations

ARS Technica article

Response on the situation from David Harris, SpaceX VP legal: https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1836765012855287937

SpaceNews article: SpaceX letter criticizes FAA for “systemic challenges” in launch licensing

Starlink Group 9-17 launch out of SLC-4E in California currently scheduled for 2024-09-20 13:50 UTC, or 2024-09-19 06:50 local time (PDT). B1075-13 to land on Of Course I Still Love You.

• NextSpaceflight page
• SpaceX mission page

Webcasts:

• Space Affairs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJrDoL5OA78
• Spaceflight Now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeU4fcHq77Q
• NASASpaceflight:
• The Launch Pad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjAjk68Z7HE
• SpaceX: https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1837125621203288194
• The Space Devs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXTOEnNAXws

The FAA announced Sept. 17 that it notified SpaceX of $633,009 in proposed fines for violating terms of its launch licenses during the June 2023 Falcon 9 launch of the Satria-1, or PSN Satria, broadband satellite and the July 2023 Falcon Heavy launch of Jupiter-3, or EchoStar-24, broadband satellite. Both launches were successful.

For the Satria-1 launch, the FAA said in its enforcement notice to the company that SpaceX had requested in May 2023 changes to its communications plan to allow the use of a new launch control center at the company’s “Hangar X” facility at the Kennedy Space Center and to skip a poll of launch controllers at two hours before liftoff.

The FAA notified SpaceX shortly before the scheduled launch that it would not be able to approve those changes and modify the license in time, although the enforcement notice did not state why. SpaceX went ahead and used the Hangar X control center and skipped the “T-2 hours” poll for the launch.

A month later, SpaceX conducted the Falcon Heavy launch of Jupiter-3, but nine days before the launch the company requested a modification to its launch license to allow it to use a new tank farm for RP-1 fuel at KSC’s Launch Complex 39A, according to a separate enforcement notice.

The FAA notified SpaceX two days before the scheduled launch that the agency would not be able to modify the license in time, but SpaceX nonetheless used the new tank farm for the launch. The agency said it proposed to fine SpaceX the maximum $283,009 for that violation.

| Scheduled for (UTC) | 2024-09-17, 22:50 | |

|

| | Scheduled for (local) | 2024-09-17, 18:50 (EDT) | | Launch site | SLC-40, Cape Canaveral SFS, Florida, USA | | Booster | B1067-22 | | Landing | Just Read the Instructions | | Payload | Galileo FOC FM26 & FM32 | | Customer | ESA/EUSPA | | Mission success criteria | Successful delivery of payload to MEO |

Webcasts

| Stream | Link | |

|

| | Space Affairs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib_SNrBKOng | Spaceflight Now | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPLDpwpXy5M | NASASpaceflight | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TBeAMl-aEc | The Launch Pad | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3rqB8fFOOM | SpaceX | https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1836173431122907318 | The Space Devs |

Stats

Sourced from NextSpaceflight and r/SpaceX:

☑️ 21st consecutive successful Falcon 9 launch (if successful)

☑️ 44th launch from SLC-40 this year

☑️ 5 days, 13:58:00 turnaround for this pad

☑️ 38 day turnaround for B1067

☑️ 92nd landing on JRTI

☑️ 350th Falcon Family Booster landing, 361st Falcon recovery attempt

☑️ 90th Falcon 9 mission this year, 376th Falcon 9 mission overall

☑️ 91st SpaceX mission of 2024, 391st mission overall (excluding Starship flights)

☑️ 93rd SpaceX launch this year, 404th SpaceX launch overall (including Starship flights)

Mission info

• SpaceX mission page
• NextSpaceflight mission page

Galileo is a global navigation satellite system that went live in 2016, created by the European Union through the European Space Agency (ESA) and operated by the European GNSS Agency (GSA). The €10 billion project is named after the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. One of the aims of Galileo is to provide an independent high-precision positioning system so European nations do not have to rely on the US GPS, or the Russian GLONASS systems, which could be disabled or degraded by their operators at any time.

The use of basic (lower-precision) Galileo services is free and open to everyone. The higher-precision capabilities are available for paying commercial users. Galileo is intended to provide horizontal and vertical position measurements within 1-metre precision, and better positioning services at higher latitudes than other positioning systems. Galileo is also to provide a new global search and rescue (SAR) function as part of the MEOSAR system.

The first Galileo test satellite, the GIOVE-A, was launched on 28 December 2005, while the first satellite to be part of the operational system was launched on 21 October 2011. By July 2018, 26 of the planned 30 active satellites (including spares) were in orbit. Galileo started offering Early Operational Capability (EOC) on 15 December 2016, providing initial services with a weak signal and reached Full Operational Capability (FOC) in 2019. The full Galileo constellation will consist of 24 active satellites, which is expected by 2021. It is expected that the next generation of satellites will begin to become operational after 2025 to replace older equipment, which can then be used for backup capabilities.

Infographic source: rykllan

https://x.com/_rykllan/status/1835310267904741878

• B1061 is the current flight leader at 22 flights. (B1062 reached 23 but failed recovery)
• B1067 in second place with 21 flights
• B1063 in third place with 20 flights.
• B1069 and B1071 tied for 4th place at 18 flights.
• B1073 in 5th place at 17 flights.

https://x.com/_rykllan/status/1835310271939723447