The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved a single SpaceX Falcon 9 mission for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera mission, a follow-up to NASA’s DART asteroid impact test. This approval comes after an investigation into the recent Crew-9 mission, where the second stage failed to hit its planned target on reentry. The Hera mission aims to further our understanding of planetary defense techniques, with the probe set to rendezvous with the binary asteroid system visited by DART. This blog post explores the details of the FAA’s approval, the Hera mission, and the implications for future SpaceX launches. Asteroid impact avoidance Hera spacecraft
Falcon 9 approved for Hera asteroid mission
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a letter of provisionally allowing one launch of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera mission atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster. The verdict follows an investigation into last month’s Crew-9 mission, from which the second stage missed its intended reentry point.
The FAA found that the lack of a reentry of the Hera mission’s second stage, in similar circumstances represents sufficient mitigation to protect the public from the primary risk in any similar accident. The Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch on Monday, Oct. 16 from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station between 10:47-11:27 a.m until Eastern.
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The Hera mission is a companion to NASA’sDART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test), which struck the smaller Dimorphos asteroid in 2021, and aims at proving planetary defense strategies. The aim of the Hera probe is to return to the same binary asteroid system DART visited, to conduct a thorough post-impact survey of the Didymos satellite, Dimorphos.
The ESA mission website says, “Hera will demonstrate the technique on a grander scale than ever before and show it can be used in practice to deflect an asteroid from impacting Earth.” The asteroid probe will showcase a new tech, most notably autonomous navigation around an asteroid and low-gravity proximity ops, and represents the continent’s flagship planetary defense mission.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Under FAA Scrutiny and Watchful Eye
The FAA clearance for the Hera mission follows a series of mishaps that grounded the Falcon 9 rocket earlier this year. The most recent incident happened during the Crew-9 mission, in which the second stage missed its target reentry point.
There were no reports of public injuries or property damage, but the FAA now wants a deep understanding. Consequently, SpaceX complied its accident investigation report and return-to-flight proposal on October 4th. The FAA said that safety will determine when the agency will complete its review of the report, and allow the Falcon 9 to return to operational status.
The Falcon 9 has now been grounded by the FAA three times in response to failures this year, both involving problems with the rocket’s second stage. The FAA in stressing that on this day no one was injured, is so far underscoring why it requires the safe investigation of all would-be space tourists, as more operations become reality and with greater frequency.
