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'It's a complicated situation right now': NASA hopes to send Crew 9 into space next month, but ISS is crowded

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Updated  July 26, 2024 9:05pm EDT
NASA
FOX 35 Orlando

SpaceX to resume Falcon 9 launches

SpaceX is targeting a Falcon 9 rocket launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday at 12:21 a.m., with liftoff opportunities available until 4:21 a.m.

NASA is now looking at Aug. 18 to launch Crew 9 into space. However, there’s an overcrowding issue at the ISS.

Dr. Ken Kremer, a research scientist and the founder of Space Up Close, says there are several problems that could arise.

"It's a complicated situation right now," he said.

The United States portion of the International Space Station only has two docking stations. That’s where Crew 8 is posted right now, and the other station is taken up by a Starliner rocket that had its mission extended.

Sarah Walker, the Director of SpaceX Dragon Mission Management, says the FAA just approved the Falcon 9 rockets' restarting flight. The Falcon 9 is what takes the Starliner into orbit and is necessary for the Starliner mission.

"We wanted to make sure we were meticulous in our return to flight," Walker said.

The Starliner must leave the ISS docking station before Crew 9 arrives, or else the astronauts can’t perform a "hand-off" or "hand-over."

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"It was extended because there were some issues that cropped up, with helium in the thrusters," said Dr. Kremer. "They're not stranded. They're actually doing really useful science work and maintenance work."

There’s supposed to be a couple of days of overlap where the Crew 8 astronauts can show Crew 9 around the Space Station and get them up to speed on any issues and what they know about fixing them.

Dr. Kremer explained that the spacesuits had an issue a few weeks ago. 

"They had to scrub two EVAs [extravehicular activities], two spacewalks."

They would also learn about the experiments Crew 8 has been working on. Dana Weigel, the manager of NASA’s International Space Station Program, says the astronauts are meant to work on a wide range of experiments, such as studying the physics of neutron stars.

"We’re hoping to leverage what we can learn on board without the effects of gravity to improve our ability to predict what our wildfires here on Earth will do," said Weigel. The crew will spend some time studying cell changes, cell morphology, and gene expression changes for cells that have been exposed to longer-duration spaceflight."

That’s one of the elements of this flight the astronauts said they’re most looking forward to.

"We have a mission that is jam-packed full of science," said Zena Cardman, a NASA Spacecraft Commander on Crew 9. "The ISS is an orbiting laboratory; this is one of the most important things we do."

The handoff isn’t mandatory – it’s just preferred.

If it doesn’t work out, this would not be the first time that’s happened. Dr. Kremer says NASA missed one recently because of a weather delay. Plus, NASA has considered indirect handoffs the standard through 2020.

The Falcon 9 rockets are back up and running – there’s actually a launch scheduled for 12:21 a.m. Saturday