SpaceX, NASA launches 3 astronauts and 1 cosmonaut to the ISS ...

SpaceX launches tomato seeds, other supplies to space station | CNN

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SpaceX is carrying a fresh haul of supplies to the International Space Station this weekend after bad weather at the launch site forced the company to wave off its first attempt.

The mission took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida around 2:20 p.m. ET Saturday. The original liftoff date had been Tuesday.

The bounty of supplies on board includes a pair of new solar arrays for the space station, dwarf tomato seeds and a range of science experiments. There will also be treats for the astronauts on the space station, like ice cream and Thanksgiving fare like spicy green beans, cranberry apple desserts, pumpkin pie and candy corn.

The solar arrays will be installed outside the floating laboratory during spacewalks scheduled for November 29 and December 3. They will give the space station a power boost.

SpaceX has launched more than two dozen resupply missions to the space station over the past decade as part of a multibillion-dollar deal with NASA. This launch comes amid SpaceX’s busiest year to date, with more than 50 operations so far, including two astronaut missions.

The cargo on board includes a number of health-related items, such as the Moon Microscope kit. The portable handheld microscope will allow astronauts to collect and send images of blood samples to flight surgeons on the ground for diagnostics and treatment.

Tomatoes in space

Nutrients are a key component of maintaining good health in space. But fresh produce is in short supply on the space station compared with the prepackaged meals astronauts eat during their six-month stays in low-Earth orbit.

“It is fairly important to our exploration goals at NASA to be able to sustain the crew with not only nutrition but also to look at various types of plants as sources for nutrients that we would be hard-pressed to sustain on the long trips between distant destinations like Mars and so forth,” said Kirt Costello, chief scientist at NASA’s International Space Station Program and a deputy manager of the ISS Research Integration Office.

Astronauts have grown and tasted different types of lettuce, radishes and chiles on the International Space Station. Now, the crew members can add some dwarf tomatoes — specifically, Red Robin tomatoes — to their list of space-grown salad ingredients.

The experiment is part of an effort to provide continuous fresh food production in space.

The dwarf tomato seeds will be grown under two different light treatments to measure the impact on the number of tomatoes that can be harvested as well as the plants’ nutritional value and taste. Red Robin tomatoes will also be grown on Earth as a control experiment. The two crops will be compared to measure the effects of a zero-gravity environment on tomato growth.

The space tomatoes will be grown inside small bags called plant pillows installed in the Vegetable Production System, known as the Veggie growth chamber, on the space station. The astronauts will frequently water and nurture the plants.

“Tomatoes will be a new adventure for us on the veggie team, trying to figure out how to keep these thirsty plants well watered without overwatering,” said Gioia Massa, NASA’s space crop production scientist and principal investigator for the tomato study.

The tomatoes will be ready for their first taste test in the spring.

The crew is expecting tomato harvests 90, 97 and 104 days after the plants begin to grow. During taste tests, the crew will rate the flavor, aroma, juiciness and texture of the tomatoes grown using the different light treatments. Half of each tomato harvest will be frozen and returned to Earth for analysis.

Growing plants on the space station not only provides the opportunity for fresh food and creative taco nights, it can also boost the mood of the crew during their long spaceflight.

Surveys will track astronauts’ moods as they care for and interact with the plants to see how nurturing the seedlings enhances the crew’s experience amid the isolation of the space station.

The hardware is still in development for larger crop production on the space station and eventually other planets, but scientists are already planning what plants might grow best on the moon and Mars. Earlier this year, a team successfully grew plants in lunar soil that included samples collected during the Apollo missions.

“Tomatoes are going to be a great crop for the moon,” Massa said. “They’re very nutritious, very delicious, and we think the astronauts will be really excited to grow them there.”

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All-private SpaceX astronaut mission to return home from the ISS ...

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Tesla officially announced a three-for-one stock split, meaning the company’s stock price — which has jockeyed between $600 and $1,000 for a year — is about to get more affordable for investors.

The mission, called AX-1, was brokered by the Houston, Texas-based startup Axiom Space, which books rocket rides, provides all the necessary training, and coordinates flights to the ISS for anyone who can afford it.

The four crew members — Michael López-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut-turned-Axiom employee who is commanding the mission; Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe; Canadian investor Mark Pathy; and Ohio-based real estate magnate Larry Connor — are slated to leave the space station aboard their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule on Sunday at 8:55 pm ET. That’s another 24-hour delay from what NASA and Axiom were targeting on Saturday.

They now plan to spend a day free flying through orbit before plummeting back into the atmosphere and parachuting to a splashdown landing off the coast of Florida at about 1 pm ET Monday, according to a tweet from Kathy Lueders, the head of NASA’s human spaceflight program.

AX-1, which launched on April 8, was originally billed as a 10-day mission, but delays have extended the mission by about a week.

During their first 12 days on the space station, the group stuck to a regimented schedule, which included about 14 hours per day of activities, including scientific research that was designed by various research hospitals, universities, tech companies and more. They also spent time doing outreach events by video conferencing with children and students.

The weather delays then afforded to them “a bit more time to absorb the remarkable views of the blue planet and review the vast amount of work that was successfully completed during the mission,” according to Axiom.

It’s not clear how much this mission cost. Axiom previously disclosed a price of $55 million per seat for a 10-day trip to the ISS, but the company declined to comment on the financial terms for this specific mission beyond saying in a press conference last year that the price is in the “tens of millions.”

The mission has been made possible by very close coordination among Axiom, SpaceX and NASA, since the ISS is government-funded and operated. And the space agency has revealed some details about how much it charges for use of its 20-year-old orbiting laboratory.

For each mission, bringing on the necessary support from NASA astronauts will cost commercial customers $5.2 million, and all the mission support and planning that NASA lends is another $4.8 million. While in space, food alone costs an estimated $2,000 per day, per person. Getting provisions to and from the space station for a commercial crew is another $88,000 to $164,000 per person, per day.

But the extra days the AX-1 crew spent in space due to weather won’t add to their own personal overall price tag, according to a statement from NASA.

“Knowing that International Space Station mission objectives like the recently conducted Russian spacewalk or weather challenges could result in a delayed undock, NASA negotiated the contract with a strategy that does not require reimbursement for additional undock delays,” the statement reads.

It’s not the first time paying customers or otherwise non-astronauts have visited the ISS, as Russia has sold seats on its Soyuz spacecraft to various wealthy thrill seekers in years past.

The 11-person crew aboard the International Space Station on April 9, 2022. Clockwise from bottom right: Expedition 67 Commander Tom Marshburn with Flight Engineers Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev, Sergey Korsakov, Raja Chari, Kayla Barron, and Matthias Maurer; and Axiom Mission 1 astronauts (center row from left) Mark Pathy, Eytan Stibbe, Larry Conner, and Michael Lopez-Alegria. NASA

But AX-1 is the first mission with a crew entirely comprised of private citizens with no active members of a government astronaut corps accompanying them in the capsule during the trip to and from the ISS. It’s also the first time private citizens have traveled to the ISS on a US-made spacecraft.

The mission has set off yet another round of debate about whether people who pay their way to space should be referred to as “astronauts,” though it should be noted a trip to the ISS requires a far larger investment of both time and money than taking a brief suborbital ride on a rocket built by companies like Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic.

López-Alegría, a veteran of four trips to space between 1995 and 2007 during his time with NASA, had this to say about it: “This mission is very different from what you may have heard of in some of the recent — especially suborbital — missions. We are not space tourists. I think there’s an important role for space tourism, but it is not what Axiom is about.”

Though the paying customers will not receive astronaut wings from the US government, they were presented with the “Universal Astronaut Insignia” — a gold pin recently designed by the Association of Space Explorers, an international group comprised of astronauts from 38 countries. López-Alegría presented Stibbe, Pathy and Connor with their pins during a welcome ceremony after the group arrived at the space station.

Here's why it's taking NASA so long to attempt another Artemis I launch

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NASA’s massive new moon rocket hit another snag during its latest attempt to launch an uncrewed test mission, and it will be at least a few weeks — rather than days — before the rocket can make its next attempt.

The longer delay can be attributed to several factors, including quirks of scheduling, possible traffic at the launch site, and NASA’s desire to make sure it’s solved the latest issues with leaky fuel.

To recap what went down on Saturday, September 3: Launch officials went confidently into this weekend’s attempt to launch the rocket, called the Space Launch System or SLS. But then, as the rocket was once again being loaded with super-cold liquid hydrogen propellant, it sprung a big leak. And NASA said Tuesday that it will begin to attempt to correct those issues while the rocket is still on the launch pad.

But, eventually, the space agency will still need to roll the rocket back to the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building, a 4.2-mile trip that takes roughly 10 hours, in order to “reset the system’s batteries,” according to a Tuesday blog post from NASA.

And when it comes to setting a new launch date, timing will be complicated.

Timing can be everything

On a given day, there are specific spans of time — or “launch windows” — set aside when the rocket is permitted to launch, and they can range from about a half hour to a few hours per day. But even those windows aren’t available every day. There are also “launch periods,” which are spans of days when the moon lines up with the Earth in a way that’s favorable for this mission.

The latest launch period ended on Tuesday, September 6, and NASA had said there was no way the SLS would be ready to fly during that time.

The next launch period runs from September 19 to October 4. But there’s another potential issue: NASA is planning to launch its Crew-5 mission, which will carry a fresh crew of astronauts to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX rocket, on October 3. And NASA will have to work to make sure that one launch won’t conflict with another.

Later in October, yet another launch period will begin, running from October 17 to October 31. That period will offer up 11 possible launch windows for the SLS. (Note: there are no available launch times on October 24, 25, 26 and 28.)

Exactly which period and window NASA targets will depend on a variety of factors, including how well it can coordinate with SpaceX regarding the Crew-5 launch and how long the SLS rocket remains on the launch pad as engineers work through the leak issue, according to Jim Free, NASA’s associate administrator for exploration systems development.

Super-cool fuel

When the SLS rocket is fueled up, it requires massive amounts of super-chilled liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen to be pumped into the rocket’s tanks. When loading the hydrogen, the fuel begins pumping in slowly but then ramps up its speed in what’s called a “fast fill.” And it was during that fast fill that a “large leak” occurred — bigger even than the leaks that NASA identified during the August 29 launch attempt.

That’s why launch officials want to make sure they pin down a fix and the root of the issue before making the next attempt. As of Saturday, one guess was that an issue with a valve may have caused the hydrogen to be overpressurized, putting it under 60 pounds per square inch of pressure rather than the 20 pounds per square inch they’d hoped, Michael Sarafin, Artemis Mission Manager, said Saturday.

Leading up to Saturday, NASA had also tried to troubleshoot several issues it encountered during the first attempt to launch the SLS rocket on August 29. It addressed some leaks that occurred during fueling, and assessed the risks on an issue with an engine cooling system and a crack in some foam coating one of the rocket’s tanks.

NASA may choose to take another peek at those issues as it works toward the next launch attempt as well.

Further complicating the selection of the next target launch date is the precarious Florida weather. For any rocket launch, rough winds, lightning or other unfavorable conditions can force more delays. Late summer and early autumn can also bring hurricanes to the Florida coastline where the SLS sits.

NASA is working through the possibilities, and the public can expect more answers in the coming days and weeks.

This is rocket science

As NASA officials have said before, they’re hoping to convey that these delays and technical issues don’t necessarily point to a significant issue with the rocket.

Before the SLS, NASA’s Space Shuttle program, which flew for 20 years, endured frequent scrubbed launches. SpaceX’s Falcon rockets also have a history of scrubs for mechanical or technical issues.

This is, after all, rocket science.

“I can tell you that these teams know exactly what they’re doing, and I’m very proud of them,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Saturday. “We tried to stress that this is a test and a test has certain risk, and we pounded that in every public comment that we had in order to get expectations in alignment with reality.”

Free, the NASA associate administrator, added that his team will always go into a launch attempt optimistic that liftoff will occur.

“I’m sure there’s going to be a question of, ‘Are we confident?’” he said. “I actually love that question because it’s like (asking), ‘Are you confident you were going to get out of bed this morning?”

This mission, called Artemis I, is expected to pave the way for numerous other missions to the moon. The Artemis II mission, slated for as early as next year, is expected to follow a similar flight path around the moon but will have crew on board. And later this decade, Artemis III is expected to land astronauts on the lunar surface for the first time since NASA’s mid-20th century Apollo program.

Artemis I: NASA's mega moon rocket is back on the launchpad for ...

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The hulking rocket at the heart of NASA’s plans to return humans to the moon arrived at the launchpad Friday morning as the space agency gears up for another attempt to get the Artemis I mission off the ground.

Liftoff of the uncrewed test mission is slated for November 14, with a 69-minute launch window that opens at 12:07 a.m. ET. The launch will stream live on NASA’s website.

The Space Launch System, or SLS, rocket began the hours-long process of trekking 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) from its indoor shelter to Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida late Thursday evening. It arrived at its destination nearly 9 hours later.

The rocket had been stowed away for weeks after issues with fuel leaks that thwarted the first two launch attempts and then a hurricane rolled through Florida, forcing the rocket to vacate the launchpad and head for safety.

The Artemis team again is monitoring a storm that could be heading toward Florida, but officials felt confident to move ahead with rollout, according to Jim Free, associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate.

The unnamed storm could develop near Puerto Rico over the weekend and will slowly move northwest early next week, said meteorologist Mark Burger, the launch weather officer with the US Air Force at Cape Canaveral.

“The National Hurricane Center just has a 30% chance of it becoming a named storm,” Burger said. “However, that being said, the models are very consistent on developing some sort of a low pressure.”

Weather officers don’t anticipate it becoming a strong system, but they will watch for potential impacts into the middle of next week, he said.

Returning the 322-foot-tall (98-meter-tall) SLS rocket to the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB, gave engineers a chance to take a deeper look at issues that have been plaguing the rocket and to perform maintenance.

In September, NASA raced against the clock to get Artemis I off the ground because there was a risk of draining batteries essential to the mission if it spent too long on the launchpad without liftoff. Engineers were able to recharge or replace batteries throughout the rocket and the Orion spacecraft atop it as they sat in the VAB.

The overall goal of NASA’s Artemis program is to return humans to the moon for the first time in half a century. And the Artemis I mission — expected to be the first of many — will lay the groundwork, testing the rocket and spacecraft and all their subsystems to ensure they are safe enough for astronauts to fly to the moon and back.

But getting this first mission off the ground has been trying. The SLS rocket, which cost roughly $4 billion, ran into problems as it was loaded with super-chilled liquid hydrogen, springing a series of leaks. A faulty sensor also gave inaccurate readings as the rocket attempted to “condition” its engines, a process that cools the engines down so they’re not shocked by the temperatures of its super-chilled fuel.

NASA has worked to troubleshoot both issues. The Artemis team decided to mask the faulty sensor, essentially ignoring the data it puts out. And following the second launch attempt in September, the space agency ran another ground test when the rocket was still on the launchpad.

The purpose of the cryogenic demonstration was to test the seals and use updated “kinder and gentler” loading procedures of the supercold propellant, which is what the rocket would experience on launch day. While the test didn’t go exactly as planned, NASA said it met all its objectives.

NASA officials again emphasized that these delays and technical issues don’t necessarily point to a significant problem with the rocket.

Before the SLS, NASA’s space shuttle program, which flew for 30 years, endured frequent scrubbed launches. SpaceX’s Falcon rockets also have a history of scrubs for mechanical or technical issues.

“I do want to reflect on the fact that this is a challenging mission,” Free said. “We’ve seen challenges just getting all our systems to work together and that’s why we do a flight test. It’s about going after the things that can’t be modeled. And we’re learning by taking more risk on this mission before we put crew on there.”

The Artemis I mission is expected to pave the way for other missions to the moon. After takeoff, the Orion capsule, which is designed to carry astronauts and sits atop the rocket during liftoff, will separate as it reaches space. It’ll fly empty for this mission, apart from a couple of mannequins. The Orion capsule will spend a few days maneuvering out to the moon before entering its orbit and beginning the trek back home days later.

Overall, the mission is expected to last for 25 days, with the Orion capsule’s splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego set for December 9.

The purpose of the journey is to gather data and test out the hardware, navigation and other systems to ensure both the SLS rocket and Orion capsule are ready to host astronauts. The Artemis program aims to land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface this decade.

The Artemis II mission, slated for 2024, is expected to follow a similar flight path around the moon but will have crew on board. And in 2025, Artemis III is expected to land astronauts on the lunar surface for the first time since NASA’s Apollo program.

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SpaceX launch: Tourists just launched to the ISS. Here's everything ...

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Tesla officially announced a three-for-one stock split, meaning the company’s stock price — which has jockeyed between $600 and $1,000 for a year — is about to get more affordable for investors.

SpaceX/Axiom Space

The spacecraft, which separated from the rocket after reaching orbit, is now free flying through orbit and will spend all day Friday slowly maneuvering closer to the ISS, where it’s slated to dock Saturday around 7:45 am ET.

The trip was brokered by the Houston, Texas-based startup Axiom Space, which seeks to book rocket rides, provide all the necessary training, and coordinate flights to the ISS for anyone who can afford it. It’s all in line with the US government’s and the private sector’s goal to boost commercial activity on the ISS and beyond.

On board this mission, called AX-1, are Michael Lopez-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut turned Axiom employee who is commanding the mission; Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe; Canadian investor Mark Pathy; and Ohio-based real estate magnate Larry Connor.

It’s not the first time paying customers or otherwise non-astronauts have visited the ISS, as Russia has sold seats on its Soyuz spacecraft for various wealthy thrill seekers in years past. But this is the first mission that includes a crew entirely comprised of private citizens with no active members of a government astronaut corps. It’s also the first time private citizens have traveled to the ISS on a US-made spacecraft.

Here’s everything you need to know.

How much did this all cost?

Axiom previously disclosed a price of $55 million per seat for a 10-day trip to the ISS, but the company declined to comment on the financial terms for this specific mission — beyond saying in a press conference last year that the price is in the “tens of millions.”

The mission is made possible by very close coordination among Axiom, SpaceX and NASA, since the ISS is government-funded and operated.

And the space agency has revealed some details on how much it’ll charge for use of its 20-year-old orbiting laboratory.

Food alone costs $2,000 per day, per person, in space. Getting provisions to and from the space station for a commercial crew is another $88,000 to $164,000 per person, per day. For each mission, bringing on the necessary support from NASA astronauts will cost commercial customers another $5.2 million, and all the mission support and planning that NASA lends is another $4.8 million.

Who is flying?

Lopez-Alegría, a veteran of four trips to space between 1995 and 2007 during his time with NASA, is commanding this mission as an Axiom employee.

Ax-1 Crew (left to right) Larry Connor, Mark Pathy, Michael López-Alegría, and Eytan Stibbe. Chris Gunn for Axiom Space

For more about the three paying customers, check out our coverage here.

Is it safe to go to the ISS, given the Russia conflict?

Russia is the United States’ primary partner on the ISS, and the space station has long been hailed as a symbol of post-Cold War cooperation.

US-Russian relations on the ground, however, have hit a fever pitch amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The United States and its allies have slapped hefty sanctions on Russia, and the country has retaliated in numerous ways, including by refusing to sell Russian rocket engines to US companies. The head of Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, has even taken to social media to threaten to pull out of the ISS agreement.

Despite all the bluster, NASA has repeatedly sought to reassure that, behind the scenes, NASA and its Russian counterparts are working together seamlessly.

“NASA is aware of recent comments regarding the International Space Station. US sanctions and export control measures continue to allow US-Russia civil space cooperation on the space station,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a recent statement. “The professional relationship between our international partners, astronauts and cosmonauts continues for the safety and mission of all on board the ISS.”

Are they astronauts or tourists?

This is a question stewing in the spaceflight community right now.

The US government has traditionally awarded astronaut wings to anyone who travels more than 50 miles above the Earth’s surface. But commercial astronaut wings — a relatively new designation handed out by the Federal Aviation Administration — might not be handed out quite so liberally.

Last year, the FAA decided to end the entire Commercial Space Astronaut Wings program on January 1, 2022. Now, the FAA plans to simply list the names of everyone who flies above the 50-mile threshold on a website.

Whether it’s fair to still refer to people who pay their way to space as “astronauts” is an open question, and countless observers — including NASA astronauts — have weighed in.

Not everyone is too concerned about mincing words.

“If you’re strapping your butt to a rocket, I think that’s worth something,” former NASA astronaut Terry Virts told National Geographic when asked about the issue. “When I was an F-16 pilot, I didn’t feel jealous about Cessna pilots being called pilots. I think everybody’s going to know if you paid to be a passenger on a five-minute suborbital flight or if you’re the commander of an interplanetary space vehicle. Those are two different things.”

If you ask the AX-1 crew, they don’t love being referred to as “tourists.”

“This mission is very different from what you may have heard of in some of the recent — especially suborbital — missions. We are not space tourists,” Lopez-Alegría told reporters earlier this month, referring to the brief supersonic flights put on by Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin. “I think there’s an important role for space tourism, but it is not what Axiom is about.”

The crew did undergo extensive training for this mission, taking on much of the same tasks as professional astronauts-in-training. But the fact is that the three paying customers on this flight — Stibbe, Pathy, and Connor — weren’t selected from a pool of thousands of applicants and aren’t dedicating much of their lives to the endeavor.

Axiom itself has been more flippant about word usage in the past.

“Commercial human spaceflight. Space Tourism. Whatever you call it — it’s happening. And soon,” the company wrote on its website.

What will they do while they’re in space?

Each of the crew members has a list of research projects they plan to work on.

Connor will be doing some research on how spaceflight affects senescent cells, which are cells that have ceased the normal replication process and are “linked to multiple age-related diseases,” according to Axiom. That research will be done in partnership with the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic.

Among the items on Pathy’s to-do list is some additional medical research, focused more on children’s health, that he’ll conduct in partnership with several Canadian hospitals, and some conservation-awareness initiatives.

Stibbe will also do some research and focus on “educational and artistic activities to connect the younger generation in Israel and around the globe,” according to Axiom. Stibbe is flying on behalf of the Ramon Foundation — a space education non-profit named for Israel’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003. Stibbe’s Axiom bio says he and Ramon shared a “close” friendship.

During downtime, the crew will also get a chance to enjoy sweeping views of Earth. And, at some point, they’ll share a meal with the other astronauts on board. Their food was prepared in partnership with celebrity chef and philanthropist Jose Andrés. Their meals “lean on flavors and traditional dishes of Commander López-Alegría’s native Spain,” according to Axiom.

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, world's most powerful rocket, launches ...

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SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy — a towering, three-pronged vehicle that is the most powerful operational rocket in the world — returned to the skies on Tuesday for the first time since mid-2019.

The rocket launched at 9:41 a.m. ET from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, hauling satellites to space for the US military in a secretive mission dubbed USSF-44.

The Falcon Heavy debuted in 2018 to much fanfare as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk elected to launch his personal Tesla Roadster as a test payload on the launch. The car is still in space, taking an oblong path around the sun that swings out as far as Mars’ orbital path.

Since that first test mission, SpaceX has launched only two other Falcon Heavy missions, both in 2019. One sent a hulking TV and phone service satellite to orbit for Saudi Arabia-based Arabsat, and the other delivered a batch of experimental satellites for the US Department of Defense.

But the rocket had not launched since 2019, as the vast majority of SpaceX’s missions don’t require the Falcon Heavy’s amped up power. SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, on the other hand, has launched nearly 50 missions so far this year alone.

With each Falcon Heavy launch, the rocket puts on a dramatic showing back on Earth.

After Tuesday’s mission, the company only attempted to recover two of the Falcon Heavy rocket’s first-stage rocket boosters — the tall white sticks that are strapped together to give the rocket its heightened power at liftoff.

As planned, the center booster was left to plunge into the ocean, where it will remain, because it did not have enough leftover fuel to guide its journey home, according to a news release from the US military’s Space Systems Command.

The two side boosters, however, made their signature synchronized landing on ground pads near the Florida coastline.

In the past, SpaceX has attempted to land all three of the rocket’s boosters back on landing pads on land and at sea so that they can be refurbished and reused on future missions. It does this to cut down on mission costs. The company has yet to suceed at retrieving all three, although it’s come dramatically close. The two side boosters made a pinpoint, synchronized landing on ground pads after an April 2019 mission, and the rocket’s center booster touched down on a sea-faring platform. But then, rough waves at sea toppled it over.

All about this rocket

Though the Falcon Heavy is the most powerful operational rocket in the world, there are two massive rockets waiting in the wings to claim that title.

NASA’s Space Launch System, or SLS, rocket, which is currently slated to attempt its inaugural launch later in November to send the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission around the moon, is sitting in the Kennedy Space Center’s towering Vehicle Assembly Building, which lies just a few miles from the launch pad where the Falcon Heavy will take flight.

While the Falcon Heavy gives off about five million pounds of thrust, SLS is expected to put off as much as 8.8 million pounds of thrust — 15% more thrust than the Saturn V rockets that powered the mid-20th Century moon landings.

And just across the Gulf Coast, at SpaceX’s experimental facilities in South Texas, the company is in the final stages of preparing for the first orbital launch attempt of its Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket. Though the test flight is still awaiting final approval from federal regulators, it could take flight before the end of the year.

The Starship system is expected to out-power both SLS and Falcon Heavy by a wide margin. The forthcoming Super Heavy booster, which is designed to vault the Starship spacecraft into space, is expected to put off about 17 million pounds of thrust alone.

Both the SLS rocket and SpaceX’s Starship are integral to NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the surface of the moon for the first time in half a century.

SpaceX also has its own, ambitious vision for the Starship: ferrying humans and cargo to Mars in the hopes of one day establishing a permanent human settlement there.

All about this mission

There is not much publicly available information about the USSF-44 mission. In a news release, the US military’s Space Systems Command said only that the launch will put multiple satellites into orbit on behalf of the Space Systems Command’s Innovation and Prototyping Delta, which is focused on quickly developing space technology as it relates to tracking objects in space as well as a range of other activities.

The Space System Command declined to provide additional information about the mission when reached by email. It referred questions to the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, which also declined comment.

The US military is one of the primary drivers of the domestic rocket economy, doling out lucrative launch contracts that are coveted by private launch companies including SpaceX and its chief competitor in the area, United Launch Alliance, which is a joint operation between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Artemis 1: Why NASA wants to return to the moon before sending ...

Turn to CNN for live coverage from Kennedy Space Center in Florida this week. Space correspondent Kristin Fisher will bring us moment-by-moment reporting from the launch, along with a team of experts.

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Before landing the first humans on Mars, NASA wants to return to the lunar surface – but in a way that we’ve never explored the moon before.

When the uncrewed Artemis I mission launches on Wednesday, it’s just the first step toward the future of space exploration.

The last crewed landing on the moon, Apollo 17, was nearly 50 years ago. The final Apollo mission’s record for the longest crewed deep space flight still stands: 12.5 days.

Through the Artemis program, which aims to land humans at the unexplored lunar south pole and eventually on Mars, astronauts will go on long-duration deep space missions that test all of the bounds of exploration.

“We’re going back to the moon in order to learn to live, to work, to survive,” said NASA administrator Bill Nelson during a news conference earlier this month.

“How do you keep humans alive in those hostile conditions? And we’re going to learn how to use the resources on the moon in order to be able to build things in the future as we go – not a quarter of a million miles away, not a three-day journey – but millions and millions of miles away on a months and months if not years-long journey.”

New posters from NASA depict different stages of the Artemis I journey. NASA

NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik discussed the importance of using lunar exploration as a way to prepare for landing on Mars.

When camping in the Alaskan wilderness, you wouldn’t just rely on new gear and shoes that haven’t been broken in yet, he said. Mars isn’t the place to test out new gear for the first time, either.

“We’re gonna go to some local places a little closer first,” Bresnik said. “Then you can come back home if your if your shoelaces break or something like that.”

Astronauts have lived and worked aboard the International Space Station, which circles about 254 miles above the planet in low-Earth orbit, for more than 20 years. Their experiences, which can last between six months to nearly a year, have revealed how the microgravity environment affects the human body.

“Every day that I personally spent on the space station, I looked at it as walking on Mars,” said NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, Chief of the Astronaut Office at Johnson Space Center in Houston. “That is why we’re up there. We’re trying to make life better on Earth and we’re trying to expand humanity into our solar system.”

READ MORE: Artemis I by the numbers

On Artemis II, scheduled for 2024, astronauts will follow a similar path as Artemis I – circling the moon at a wider distance than any of the Apollo missions. Artemis III, slated for late 2025, will land the first woman and the next man at the moon’s south pole, where permanently shadowed regions may harbor ice and other resources that could sustain astronauts during long moonwalks.

“Our moon serves as basically a celestial library right next door,” said Jacob Bleacher, NASA’s chief exploration scientist. “Lunar rocks and lunar ice basically serve as the books of this library. We can use them to begin to reveal how the solar system has evolved. This can really help us gain insight into what was happening here on Earth when life was establishing a foothold in the solar system.”

The Artemis program involves establishing a sustained human presence on the moon and putting an orbiting lunar outpost called the Gateway in place.

This illustration shows SpaceX's Starship human lander design that will carry the first NASA astronauts to the surface of the moon through the Artemis program. NASA

“We want to stay on the lunar surface and learn on the lunar surface so that we can get the most science and know how we’re going to go to Mars,” said Jim Free, associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. “On Apollo, we did incredible science at the equator. This time, we’re going to the South Pole.”

Over time, the SLS rocket will evolve, Nelson said. By the time the Artemis IV mission rolls to the launchpad later this decade to dock with the Gateway, the rocket will be taller and even more powerful than the version used for Artemis I.

Artemis I is a test mission, Nelson stressed. It serves as the inaugural flight of the Space Launch System Rocket, the Orion spacecraft and its heat shield, as well as protective gear for future astronauts and measuring radiation exposure.

A series of science experiments and technology demonstrations inside Orion and flying outside of it on small satellites called CubeSats, will gather additional data about the space environment future Artemis astronauts will face.

The lessons learned from Artemis I, which will be collected when it splashes down in October, could inform the next steps of the Artemis program.

Currently, the first five Artemis missions have been planned, and NASA is working on laying out the details for missions six through ten, Free said.

Teams at NASA are “going through the broad exploration objectives and then narrowing down to an architecture which takes us out to Mars,” Free said. “We’re looking at rolling through that architecture, decisions and process in the early part of next year.”

The goal of landing humans on Mars by 2033 was set by the Obama Administration, and NASA administrators have upheld the goal ever since.

“With the Artemis I launch, NASA is at a historic inflection point, poised to begin the most significant series of science and human exploration missions over a generation,” said Bhavya Lal, NASA associate administrator for technology, policy, and strategy.

SpaceX to launch another historic astronaut mission tomorrow ...

New York CNN Business —

Tesla officially announced a three-for-one stock split, meaning the company’s stock price — which has jockeyed between $600 and $1,000 for a year — is about to get more affordable for investors.

This mission, called Crew-4, will mark a return to the crewed launches that SpaceX conducts in partnership with NASA after the company concluded the first all-private mission to the space station for wealthy paying customers on Monday. Crew-4 is slated to take off in the early hours of Wednesday morning — at 3:52 am ET, to be exact — before arriving at the ISS around 8 pm ET that same day.

On board Crew-4 will be NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren (who will command the mission), Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins, and Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, who is flying on behalf of the European Space Agency.

The less than 40-hour turnaround between the conclusion of SpaceX’s all-private mission, called AX-1, and the launch of Crew-4 is unprecedented for the company. NASA’s human spaceflight lead, Kathy Leuders, said during a press conference Tuesday that the safety teams recognized they needed to take things “one step at a time.”

“This is the time where you’ve got to rest and get ready to fly and still be watching the hardware and making sure you’re making the right decision,” Leuders said.

Here’s everything you need to know about Crew-4.

What makes this flight historic?

Watkins will become the first Black woman to complete such a mission.

Though more than a dozen Black Americans — including four Black women — have traveled to space since Guion Bluford became the first to do so in 1983, no Black woman has had the opportunity to live and work in space for an extended period, as the ISS has enabled more than 200 astronauts to do since 2000.

“This is certainly an important milestone, I think, both for our [space] agency and for the country,” Watkins said during a press conference last month. “I think it really is just a tribute to the legacy of the Black women astronauts that have come before me as well as to the exciting future ahead.”

She has a long history with NASA, having begun her career there as an intern, and she previously held roles at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where she worked with the Curiosity Mars rover. A trained geologist, she’s studied the surface of the red planet.

Watkins’ crew mates refer to her by the nickname “Watty.”

Who else is on this mission?

This mission’s crew is among the first to include as many women as men. Cristoforetti, who previously traveled to the ISS in 2014, is also the sole woman in ESA’s astronaut corps. But Cristoforetti told reporters last month that the situation was “bound to end very soon.”

“We definitely expect to have some some great female [ESA] colleagues by the end of the year,” she added.

Cristoforetti, a veteran of the Italian Air Force who’s earned her fighter pilot wings, joined ESA in 2009.

Hines is a 22-year veteran of the US Air Force, and this will mark his first time traveling to space since he was selected for the NASA astronaut corps in 2017.

NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins, left, Kjell Lindgren, second from left, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, second from right, and NASA astronaut Robert Hines, right, are seen as they depart the Launch and Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Joel Kowsky/NASA

Lindgren, who will command this mission, is certified in emergency medicine, and used to work as a flight surgeon on the ground at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, supporting other astronaut missions. Lindgren was born in Taiwan and spent much of his childhood in England before moving to the United States and attending the US Air Force Academy.

The four astronauts have spent months training together, and even took time to do some extracurricular bonding. Watkins noted they went on a kayaking trip in Eastern Washington “just to get to spend some time getting to know each other and understanding how we all function … and what makes each of us tick, and I think that’s going to be really crucial.”

“We get along great. It is just such a joy to have these folks on this team,” Lindgren added.

How are they getting to space?

The crew will travel to the ISS aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which will mark the seventh crewed mission since entering service in 2020.

Though SpaceX designed the Crew Dragon to be reusable and three capsules are already in service, Crew-4 will fly aboard a brand new spacecraft.

The astronauts get to select the name for their capsule, and this group chose Crew Dragon “Freedom.”

The Crew Dragon was developed by SpaceX under a $2.6 billion contract with NASA as part of the “Commercial Crew Program.” The idea behind the program was to move NASA into a customer role — allowing private companies to design, build and test a new spacecraft to serve NASA astronauts while still giving the company ownership over the vehicle.

Since SpaceX controls the vehicle, it has the ability to sell seats to whomever it wishes, hence the all-private mission that the company just concluded and one previous space tourism mission last September.

NASA has deemed the program a massive success, and the space agency is adopting the same contracting method for several vehicles involved in its efforts to explore the moon.

What will they do in space?

After arriving Wednesday evening, the crew will be greeted by the cohort of astronauts already aboard the ISS — including three NASA astronauts and an ESA astronaut who were part of SpaceX’s Crew-3 mission — and three Russian cosmonauts.

There’ll be a five-day handover period, during which the Crew-3 astronauts will help the Crew-4 astronauts settle in, before Crew-3 returns home aboard their own SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

Then the Crew-4 astronauts will set to work on all the science experiments and space station maintenance duties they have on their to-do list.

“Experiments will include studies on the aging of immune systems, organic material concrete alternatives, and cardiorespiratory effects during and after long-duration exposure to microgravity,” according to NASA. “These are just some of the more than 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations that will take place during their mission.”

A SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts — including the first Black woman to join the International Space Station crew — successfully docked with the ISS Wednesday evening, kicking off a five-month mission.

NASA funds four ideas for commercial space stations, plans ISS ...

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For the past 20 years, commercial space companies have focused on ways of getting people and cargo to space.

Now, they are turning their attention to creating destinations in space.

With the International Space Station set to be decommissioned by 2030, NASA will transition from premier gatekeeper of U.S. access to the space station to become just one of many customers of private space stations in what many hope will be a robust low-Earth orbit economy.

Currently, there are only two destinations in low-Earth orbit, the ISS and a smaller modular station being built by China.

Within the next decade, NASA expects that to change.

ISS is costly and old, commercial stations are not

The ISS, which has been continuously occupied since 2000, is beginning to show its age.

The main portion of the station repeatedly endures impacts from visiting spacecraft, as well as harsh cycles of heating and cooling from orbiting the Earth 16 times a day.

NASA spends about $1.1 billion in operating and maintenance costs on the station.

With an increasingly expensive and aging station and higher-than-ever confidence in the low-Earth orbit capabilities of its commercial partners, NASA intends to shift its focus to its return-to-the-moon Artemis program.

With NASA as a customer, private companies will foot the bill for maintenance and operation of destinations in space, potentially saving NASA — and the American taxpayers — billions.

NASA funding commercial station development

Every space station since the Soviet Union's pioneering Salyut 1 in 1971, has been built by NASA and its partners or the national space programs of Russia or China.

The agency's plan to transition from a low-Earth orbit destination provider to a customer of independent commercial low-Earth orbit destinations (CLDs) was first outlined in the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017. At the time, the ISS was set to be decommissioned in 2024.

Since then, the Biden administration has committed to extending operations of the ISS through 2030. NASA's international partners have also signaled their intention to continue operations until then.

In an effort to duplicate the success it had in fostering commercial cargo and crew transportation to the ISS, NASA is funding initial efforts with Axiom Space, Blue Origin, Nanoracks, and Northrop Grumman to develop commercial space destinations through 2025.

Axiom Space has been tapped to develop at least one transitional module that will attach to the ISS and one day separate to become its own space station.

Blue Origin, Nanoracks, and Northrop Grumman Systems were selected by NASA to develop free-flying, independent commercial low-Earth orbit destinations (CLDs).

Commercial stations aren't a new idea

The concept of commercial destinations in space is not new.

Bigelow Aerospace, a company founded 20 years ago to develop orbital destinations, had been floating the idea of a commercial space station to NASA years before the agency planned for the retirement of the ISS.

In 2017, it proposed an idea to launch a small outpost station to the moon with United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket.

It also planned to pursue an opportunity to develop a free-flying station with NASA using its B2100 "Olympus" inflatable habitat designed for crew and tourists.

Bigelow Aerospace was certainly ahead of its time in 2010 when it proposed the concept of connecting an inflatable module to the ISS.

Its Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 and installed on the ISS in 2016.

Since then, Bigelow Aerospace passed on an opportunity to bid on a NASA contract to connect another commercial module to the ISS.

That opportunity was ultimately awarded to Axiom Space for the development of its Axiom Hub 1 — a major first step in the race to develop commercial destinations in space.

Company founder, Robert Bigelow, said that the funding was too low and his company was more interested in an opportunity to develop a free-flying space station.

Bigelow Aerospace suffered what many architects of the future do, facing the reality of grand ideas.

In practicality, getting massive inflatable space stations and large numbers of crew members to orbit requires massive launchers — such as Blue Origin's New Glenn, SpaceX's Starship, NASA's SLS, or ULA's Vulcan — and multiple fast, reliable, and safe crew transportation options.

Even now, those options are not readily available. SpaceX is a sole provider of commercial crewed spaceflight, while the New Glenn, Starship, SLS, and Vulcan rockets are all still in development.

Being ahead of its time and citing impacts from the global pandemic, Bigelow Aerospace has all but closed up shop.

In March 2020 its entire workforce was laid off. In December 2021, it transferred ownership and operation of the ISS BEAM module to NASA Johnson Space Center.

There are other commercial providers succeeding where Bigelow Aerospace failed.

Nanoracks owns and operates a commercial airlock on the ISS.

Sierra Space has its own version of an inflatable habitat in the works called the Large Integrated Flexible Environment which is a planned component of Blue Origin's bet on a commercial space station called the "Orbital Reef."

Both of these companies have won big with NASA investment to develop the next era of commercial space stations in a robust economy in low-Earth Orbit.

Axiom Station to lead the way

The first step toward a revolutionary new economy in low-Earth orbit was taken in 2020 when NASA awarded Axiom Space a $140 million contract ordering at least one habitable commercial module that will attach to the ISS — the opportunity that Bigelow Aerospace passed on.

As explained in a statement provided by NASA, the contract is a first stepping stone for a commercial partner “to demonstrate its ability to provide products and services and begin the transition to a sustainable low-Earth orbit economy in which NASA is one of many customers.”

Axiom Space has plans to build not only the module that will attach to the ISS but to build onto the initial module and ultimately separate from the ISS as a free-flying, self-sustaining facility called Axiom Station.

Axiom Hub 1, the first module of the eventual Axiom Station, will consist of crew quarters with windows and will be capable of supporting research and in-space manufacturing.

Speaking to FLORIDA TODAY, Axiom Space Executive Chairman Kam Ghaffarian said, “We're expecting the first module in our space station to be launched in mid-2024.”

“There will be additional modules that will be launched. And initially, our modules will dock with the current ISS. And then as ISS retires, somewhere between 2028 to 2030, we will separate from the International Space Station, and we'll be operating as the first private commercial space station in orbit,” continued Ghaffarian.

Axiom Hub 1 is currently being constructed in Europe by Thales Alenia Space.

Work began in October 2021, just 14 months after the program's launch. The fabrication of the module is expected to wrap up soon followed by initial integration and testing operations.

“We've been working on the project; we've been developing hardware. We will be in orbit by 2024, way ahead of everybody else. And as a result, we would have huge first-mover advantage,” said Ghaffarian.

Ghaffarian believes that Axiom Space has the advantage over other companies working to develop their own free-flying space stations because “the other companies do not have the ability to connect to the International Space Station. We're the only one that has access," he said.

Delivery of Axiom Hub 1 to Houston for final assembly, outfitting, and integration by Axiom Space is expected in early 2023.

While hardware is currently being constructed, Axiom Space still has a few logistics to work through starting with how the first module will make it to orbit in the first place.

"We're not 100% sure yet as to who we're going to contract with for the transportation to take that to orbit for us when it's ready," said Ghaffarian.

In an effort to further open the ISS to commercialization, in 2021 NASA solicited proposals to support up to two private astronaut missions a year to the ISS.

NASA has also selected Axiom Space as the provider of the first two private astronaut missions to the ISS. NASA has stated that it will use data and information collected from the first two private astronaut missions to the ISS before announcing the selection of a third mission.

Like NASA's Commercial Crew Program astronaut missions, Axiom Space is partnered with SpaceX for crew transport using its Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsules.

The first private astronaut mission, AX-1, is slated to launch from Kennedy Space Center on April 3 sending three paying customers and a former professional NASA astronaut on a 10-day mission with eight spent aboard the ISS to conduct scientific research.

The second private astronaut mission, AX-2, is targeted to launch between fall 2022 and late spring 2023.

NASA plans for more than one station

In contrast to Axiom Space's exclusive access to build onto the ISS, 11 companies submitted proposals to NASA to develop independent free-flying space stations.

From the 11 proposals, NASA selected Blue Origin, Nanoracks, and Northrop Grumman Systems in December 2021 awarding a total estimated $415.6 million for Phase 1 development which is expected to last through 2025.

After the initial design phase, NASA intends to move forward with at least one of the companies to certify the space station design as safe for NASA crew members and purchase services from the provider(s).

Blue Origin has partnered with Sierra Space receiving a total $130 million award in Phase 1 funding to develop its proposed "Orbital Reef" space station.

Blue Origin and Sierra Space plan to develop the "Orbital Reef" and make it enticing to business partners, researchers, and tourists alike by teaming with Boeing, Redwire Space, Genesis Engineering Solutions, and Arizona State University (ASU).

In a Blue Origin-provided statement, Brent Sherwood, senior vice president of advanced development programs said, "the Orbital Reef mixed-use space business park will offer reduced costs and complexity, turnkey services, and inspiring space architecture to support any business."

Blue Origin's proposal features the most attractive options for wealthy space tourists, as well as, scientific researchers.

To make "Orbital Reef" an easy-to-reach, all-in-one excursion and destination in space, Blue Origin partnered with Sierra Space and Boeing to provide multiple cargo and crew transportation options.

Lindy Elkins-Tanton, ASU vice president of interplanetary initiative, explained it as "a village. Think of it as many different organizations and people in their own parts of "Orbital Reef" doing their own activities."

At any given time, the large station would be able to support up to 10 occupants.

It would also be large enough to provide spaces for scientific research, in-space manufacturing, and even "exotic hospitality" for tourists.

Also unique to Blue Origin's proposal is the opportunity for visitors to experience space without the constraints of a spacesuit.

Genesis Engineering Solutions will contribute essentially a space version of a one-person submarine to conduct excursions outside of the main station.

“Until now, excursions outside spacecraft have required the challenge, inconvenience, risk, and expense of spacesuits. Orbital Reef changes that with the Single Person Spacecraft, an efficient and tourist-safe alternative,” said Brand Griffin, program manager for Genesis Engineering.

Northrop Grumman — partnered with Dynetics, Leidos, and more unnamed partners — was awarded $125.6 million in Phase 1 funding.

Northrop Grumman expects to leverage its extensive space experience to develop an as-of-yet unnamed space station.

Initially, it will be capable of supporting four permanent crew members with expectations to expand to eight in the future as the market demands.

“Our station will enable a smooth transition from International Space Station-based LEO missions to sustainable commercial-based missions where NASA does not bear all the costs but serves as one of many customers,” said Steve Krein, vice president, civil and commercial space, Northrop Grumman in a Northrop Grumman-provided statement.

Northrop Grumman's design also incorporates capabilities to support science, manufacturing, and tourism.

"Multiple docking ports will allow future expansion to support exploration crew, analog habitats, laboratories, crew airlocks, and facilities capable of artificial gravity," as described in a statement issued by Northrop Grumman.

Nanoracks, awarded $160 million in Phase 1 funding, has partnered with Voyager Space and Lockheed Martin to develop its space station called "Star Lab."

The proposed "Star Lab" will be able to continuously support up to four astronauts and "include a large inflatable habitat, designed and built by Lockheed Martin, a metallic docking node, a power and propulsion element, a large robotic arm for servicing cargo and payloads, and a state-of-the-art laboratory system to host a comprehensive research, science, and manufacturing capability," as explained in a statement provided by Nanoracks.

Nanoracks Chairman Jeffrey Manber, says that it's smart that NASA is investing in multiple space stations, just as it provided funding for more than one ISS cargo supplier and chose both SpaceX and Boeing to ferry passengers to the ISS.

He pointed out that for nearly a decade the U.S. had relied on one provider — Russia — to carry NASA astronauts to the space station before SpaceX began doing so in 2019.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine would have complicated, if not ended, the NASA-Russia flights, said Manber.

"So you know, this crisis shows the value of the United States moving into a new era where there will be multiple smaller private space stations," Manber said. "So that we're not single-point dependent on any company, any team, and we have a really robust presence in space."

Jamie Groh is a space reporter for Florida Today. You can contact her at JGroh@floridatoday.com. Follow her on Twitter at @AlteredJamie.