On March 3, 2024 at 10:53 p.m. the rocket Falcon 9 launched 3 astronauts and 1 cosmonaut to the International Space Station. This was the fifth time the Falcon 9 rocket has been used. The mission had been scrubbed (rescheduled to a day not long after) at least once.
The Quarantine
The Crew and anybody spending time with a person form the crew (literally everybody) has to quarantine to make sure that the space personnel does not become ill. Every day that the rocket launch was scrubbed the quarantine would get a day added to it too, so they had to quarantine for about two extra days.
Problems Strike the Rocket
When it became t-minus 15 minutes before the rocket was scheduled to launch and the access arm had folded away, a call came in from mission control in Texas. There was a crack in the seal of the door. And that’s probably the last thing you want to hear when the crew access arm has folded away, the rocket is almost free-standing, and you are fifteen minutes away from going to space. Even a single hair could compromise the seal on the hatch. Luckily, this was not a concern for going into space. The only problem was that the rocket could burn up on reentry, and a crack in the seal would be a huge issue. Mission control said they would check back in at T-10 minutes, as time ticked by and T-10 minutes rolled around, Mission Control checked back in. They had a theory that the crack in the seal would close up during reentry and that there would be nothing to worry about, but they weren’t sure. They then decided to take 5 more minutes to decide.
Results of the Problem
T-5 minutes came and Mission Control came in with the final answer: the rocket would still go to space that night. They were almost certain that the crack would seal and the astronauts and cosmonaut would be safe. The rocket took off as planned.
The rocket successfully reached orbit, but trouble may not be out of the picture. It is not back yet, so we will see if the crack poses an even bigger problem than the scientists think.
Works Cited
Flickr. www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fnasa2explore%2F51633652486&psig=AOvVaw0R1B3_6lUv9GR7QVl1sMvW&ust=1710447593796000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBEQjRxqFwoTCKCy__-H8oQDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAH.
NASA. www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasas-spacex-crew-8-launches-to-international-space-station/#:~:text=An%20international%20crew%20of%20four,Kennedy%20Space%20Center%20in%20Florida.
NASA. www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasas-spacex-crew-8-launches-to-international-space-station/.
NPR. www.npr.org/2023/08/24/1195761718/what-its-like-cooking-for-astronauts-as-they-quarantine-for-takeoff#:~:text=To%20keep%20the%20crew%20away,will%20take%20them%
