Successful launch of NASA’s Crew 9, but second stage anomaly

Falcon 9, carrying Crew Dragon Freedom, roars off SLC-40. Image credit: SpaceX

At 17:17 UTC on September 28th 2024 a Falcon 9 carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov lifted off from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral. This marked the first human spaceflight mission from this pad, which SpaceX only last year equipped with a tower and crew access arm. As a result of this, Crew Dragon can now launch from two separate pads, giving redundancy and the potential for crew launches and Falcon Heavy launches to happen close to each other (as Falcon Heavy requires a fair amount of time to reconfigure LC-39a’s transporter erector), as is the case for Europa Clipper - which is currently scheduled to launch in 11 days.

The Falcon 9 roared uphill, threading the needle through rather inclement weather, putting on an impressive display for those watching! The first stage booster, flying for its second flight after a water leak issue forced it to be tested on a Starlink mission first, performed flawlessly, executing a bullseye touchdown on LZ-1. The second stage continued to fire until SECO, upon which checkouts of Crew Dragon Freedom began. Once these were completed (at around the T+12 minute mark), Freedom separated from the upper stage of the rocket. This began the roughly 28 hour cruise phase, as it “catches up” to the ISS, in which the crew will have some free time before their 5 month mission begins aboard the orbiting laboratory. 

However, whilst Dragon’s mission was progressing perfectly, the same cannot be said for the poor second stage, as during its deorbit burn it experienced an anomaly, meaning that it impacted the ocean outside of the targeted area. This has prompted SpaceX to begin a root cause investigation, which we all hope they wrap up quickly (prior precedent certainly suggests they are capable of doing so!). Any substantial delays would impact upcoming important SpaceX missions, including ESA’s Hera probe launching in 8 days to inspect the asteroid DART hit back in 2022, and NASA’s flagship Europa Clipper spacecraft, launching aboard a Falcon Heavy in 11 days to orbit and study the icy moon of Jupiter. Although, I’m sure SpaceX will not risk the safety of these missions with a faulty second stage, so they’ll want to be confident of finding and fixing the issue before they launch. 

Once Crew 9 reaches the ISS, they will begin conducting the over 200 science experiments they are bringing with them, along with other activities aboard. They are currently scheduled to return, along with former Starliner Astronauts Butch and Sunni, in February of 2025.

Thank you for reading this article by Luke Madgett