FAA clears Falcon 9 launch of Hera mission

COCOA BEACH, Fla. — The Federal Aviation Administration has granted approval for the Falcon 9 launch of the European Space Agency’s Hera asteroid mission, but is keeping the vehicle grounded for now for other missions.

In an Oct. 6 statement, the FAA stated it authorized a return to flight for the Falcon 9 solely for the Hera mission, scheduled to lift off no earlier than Oct. 7 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The vehicle has been grounded since an anomaly during a deorbit burn of the second stage on the Crew-9 launch Sept. 28.

“The FAA has determined that the absence of a second stage reentry for this mission adequately mitigates the primary risk to the public in the event of a reoccurrence of the mishap experienced with the Crew-9 mission,” the agency stated. The second stage will propel Hera on an Earth-escape trajectory and thus will not reenter.

The FAA added, though, that it is not clearing other Falcon 9 missions where the second stage does a deorbit burn. “Safety will drive the timeline for the FAA to complete its review of SpaceX’s Crew-9 mishap investigation report and when the agency will authorize Falcon 9 to return to regular operations,” it stated.

SpaceX has completed that mishap report and delivered it to the FAA on Oct. 4. The FAA stated it approved the Falcon 9 for “one mission only,” the Hera launch, the same day.

Preparations for the Hera launch continued even while the Falcon 9 was grounded, ESA officials said at an Oct. 2 briefing, to ensure the mission would be ready to launch as soon as possible after the FAA allowed launched to resume. The 363-million-euro ($401 million) mission will go the asteroid Didymos and its moon Dimorphos, the target of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission two years ago.

The FAA statement came shortly after a briefing here by Hera project officials, including project manager Ian Carnelli, who confirmed that the FAA allowed SpaceX to proceed with the launch. SpaceX was completing vehicle integration work, with the rocket scheduled to be rolled out to the pad pending a launch readiness review scheduled for late afternoon.

Liftoff is scheduled for 10:52 a.m. Eastern Oct. 7. “The last hurdle is the weather,” he said. A forecast by the Space Force’s 45^th Weather Squadron predicts only a 15% chance of acceptable weather for that instantaneous launch window Oct. 7. “It’s the only thing I really cannot control.”

Further complicating those plans is Hurricane Milton, which formed in the Gulf of Mexico and rapidly strengthened to hurricane status. The storm is on an eastward track towards Florida and expected to become a major hurricane by landfall Oct. 9.

The hurricane is almost certain to delay another key launch, NASA’s Europa Clipper, on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from the Kennedy Space Center currently scheduled for Oct. 10. NASA has not announced any change to launch plans as of the afternoon of Oct. 7, although neighboring Cape Canaveral Space Force Station has already begun hurricane preparations.

Hera’s launch period runs through Oct. 27, while Europa Clipper can launch as late as Nov. 6. If Hera remains in line to launch first, NASA has requested it do so no more than 48 hours before a scheduled Europa Clipper launch to provide time for data reviews.

Hurricane Milton is also delaying the return of a crew from the International Space Station. NASA has planned to undock the Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-8 mission from the station on Oct. 7 for a splashdown off the Florida coast, but delayed it to Oct. 8 and then Oct. 10. NASA said it will next review Crew-8 splashdown plans Oct. 8. The three NASA astronauts and one Roscosmos cosmonaut on the Crew-8 mission have been on the station since early March.

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