Avoid stormy weather hurricane miltonSpaceX on Monday launched the European Space Agency’s $398 million Hera probe on a follow-up flight to determine exactly how a satellite orbiting a small asteroid was affected. High-speed impact of NASA’s DART spacecraft in 2022.
launch I had doubts Moisture drawn in by hurricanes intensifying in the west brought heavy clouds and rain to Florida’s Space Coast until the final moments.
Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now
However, as launch time approached, conditions improved enough to meet launch safety regulations, and NASA administrators cleared the rocket to take off. Right on time, at 10:52 a.m. EDT, the Falcon 9’s first stage engine exploded and the booster rose smoothly away from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The launch came just in the nick of time for the hundreds of European Space Agency administrators, scientists, engineers and journalists who flew to Florida to watch the launch.
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Hurricane Milton is expected to bring extreme winds and heavy rain The prediction prompted NASA to cancel plans to launch Thursday’s launch of the agency’s $5.2 billion Europa mission to Jupiter and its icy moon Europa.
Instead, NASA said late Sunday that the rocket and its expensive payload would remain on Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39A until Milton had passed and safety officials had a chance to inspect spaceport facilities for signs of damage. It was announced that it would be stored in a SpaceX hangar at the base.
The weather is also disrupting NASA’s plans to return three NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut to Earth after 217 days on the International Space Station.
Crew 8, captains Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, Janet Epps, and astronaut Alexander Grebenkin, were scheduled to undock on Monday.
But NASA announced Sunday that the departure would be postponed until at least Thursday because of expected bad weather. Crew Dragon ferries require calm winds and seas in the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean to land safely.
Missions to asteroids and their satellites
Meanwhile, despite the initial grim forecast, SpaceX was able to take advantage of the weather break to begin Hera’s two-year voyage to the asteroid Didymos and its small moon Dimorphos.
ESA
of Impact on DART The 495-foot-wide Dimorphos’ orbit was altered to 11 hours and 55 minutes, reducing the time needed to complete one orbit around its parent asteroid Didymos by 31 minutes. The experiment confirmed the possibility that it may someday be possible to throw a threatening asteroid off course before it causes a catastrophic impact on Earth.
But whether the reorientation is successful depends on a variety of factors, including when the threat was detected (the farther the better) and the composition of the asteroid.
ESA’s Hera spacecraft will orbit the Didymos star system, examining both asteroids in detail with 11 high-tech cameras and other instruments, and deploying two small “cube-sat” satellites to study Dimorphos’ internal structure. and DART impact craters, internal structure and composition of the Moon.
The goal of Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) is to better understand the technologies that may be needed to prevent a collision with Earth.
“The good news is that no one will be killing dinosaurs on Earth for the next 100 years,” said Richard Moisle, director of ESA’s Planetary Defense Agency. “We’re safe from that scenario, but there’s also a smaller scenario that really threatens life on the ground, especially at 50 meters or more of this dangerous size.”
ESA
He said the first step in planetary defense is detection, followed by detailed observations to determine the asteroid’s orbit and whether it has a chance of colliding with Earth.
“For small objects, civil protection is the best bet,” he said. “But if it’s more than 50 meters (160 feet in diameter), we really hope this doesn’t hit the Earth or threaten any populated areas. Then step three comes into play: deflection.
“But again, it’s always good to know what you’re up against, and this is where Hella and Dart come into play.”
Unlike most Falcon 9 flights, there was no plan to recover the rocket’s first stage. To give Hera the speed it needs to break free of Earth’s gravity, Falcon 9’s two stages are programmed to use up all their propellant, leaving reserves for a powered first stage landing. There’s nothing left.
The flight plan called for Hera to fire its upper stage engines twice before taking off on its own, 1 hour and 16 minutes after takeoff.
To reach Didymos and Dimorphos, Hera will need to fire its deep space thrusters in November, set up a gravity-assisted flyby of Mars in March, and navigate within about 3,700 miles of Mars. Along the way, the spacecraft will pass within 620 miles of Mars’ small moon Deimos.
“By swinging Mars’ gravity field in its direction, the spacecraft will move forward even faster,” ESA project scientist Michael Küppers said on the agency’s website.
“While this close encounter is not part of Hera’s core mission, it will activate some scientific instruments anyway. This will give us another opportunity to calibrate our instruments and make scientific discoveries.” may be possible.”
After one more deep space maneuver in February 2026, Hera will finally enter orbit around Didymos next October. The mission is expected to last approximately six months.
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