The stacked SpaceX launches on Wednesday are sending groundbreaking science to the moon and beyond
If the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is launched as planned from the Kennedy Passion Center on Wednesday, it will bring a lot of science.
The rocket will not carry one, not two, but three important payloads, including satellites, orbiting the moon, a privately operated lunar lander and a spacecraft that paves the way for asteroid mining. It also launched an unidentified 16U satellite managed by Exolaunch, which will park itself in geostationary Earth orbit.
Although the mission's launch window opens on February 26, and BlastOff ideally happens at 7:17 PM ET, these types of things can be rushing to delay if conditions are not optimal. NASA will launch on its website. Alternatively, you can watch it in the live stream below, courtesy of NASA SpaceFlight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi0clw7j6ic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm8wrjd3xva
After much of the neglected decades, the moon has become an object of increasing obsession, and two items on the list can provide data that helps build crew bases on the moon's surface. These include the Nova-C Lander, built by intuitive machines for NASA's Commercial Moon Payload Service (CLPS) program, called Athena.
In February 2024, the intuitive machine became the first private company to successfully land on the moon, although some snafu. The company's Odysseus eventually grabbed one of the legs, causing it to fall. Like Odysseus, Athena will land in the South Pole of the Moon, especially a region called Mons Muton. The lander is equipped with a drill bit and a mass spectrometer, and if everything goes well, it will use it to search and measure chemical components such as water, carbon, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus to support future crew members’ exploration of the moon.
Grace is Grace, a miniature Nova robot, Grace, designed to jump into the crater of permanent shadows. When inside the crater, Grace will look for water and take a few photos.
NASA's Lunar Trail Blazers are also heading to the Moon, a small satellite designed to map the distribution of water on the moon's surface. The mission is designed to solve the mystery of the moon's water cycle, while also answering questions about the form, quantity and distribution of moon water.
Another spacecraft will zoom toward the moon, but will not stop there. Founded in 2022, Astroforge is seeking to be the first company to provide asteroids for precious minerals. In 2023, it launched its first mission, which should have evaporated and sorted preloaded artificial protein oil material. The mission was underperformed as the company struggled to communicate with the spacecraft and encountered problems with deploying solar arrays. The company is absolutely ambitious for the follow-up mission that will be launched on Wednesday.
If successful, Astroforge's Odin Spacecraft will create records that are the furthest private ship in history. Odin's flight plan requires it to complete a five-day lunar journey, using its gravity to push itself to an asteroid called the 2022 OB5, which is a candidate for future mining due to its possible metal composition.
It is not clear when Odin will likely arrive at the asteroid. “This goal will take longer to achieve, so the chances of success are much lower,” CEO Matt Gialich said in a statement.
Gialich appeared to be launching expectations before the launch, saying the company “takes excellent risks in this mission, more than most companies are willing to accept.”
“If this task fails, it’s my own fault,” he added. “I’m involved in the intimate details of every trade-off we make, and we do a lot.”
If all goes well, you might think this launch is a turning point over the course of decades, admiring the watch made of asteroid rubbing platinum as you sit in the living room of the Moon Base.
