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What time is the SpaceX Crew-8 astronaut launch for NASA on March 2? – Space.com

Posted: March 2, 2024 at 2:40 am

SpaceX is counting down to launch its first NASA astronaut flight of 2024 and you'll be able to see it lift off live online, but you'll need to know where and when to watch.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA on the Crew-8 mission. Liftoff is currently now scheduled for Saturday (March 2) at 11:16 p.m. EST (0416 March 3 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but exactly when the mission launches will depend on weather and the launch vehicle's readiness.

Read more:SpaceX Crew-8 astronaut mission: Live updates

Crew-8 will launch NASA astronauts NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barrett, Jeannette Epps and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin on a six-month mission to the ISS. The space quartet will relieve their colleagues of SpaceX's Crew-7 mission. Here's when they'll launch and how long the flight will be.

Currently, SpaceX is targeting Saturday, March 2, for the launch of its Crew-8 astronaut mission for NASA. Liftoff is set for an instantaneous launch window at 11:16 p.m. EST (0416 GMT).

An "instantaneous window" means SpaceX only must launch at its exact target time in order to reach the ISS on time, unlike some NASA shuttle missions that had a few minutes of hold time to work with.

Earlier, SpaceX was targeting a Crew-8 launch just after midnight on March 1, with the U.S. Space Force's 45th Weather Squadron forecasting an 85% chance of good weather at launch time. High winds at liftoff and the potential of flying through precipitation or rain are the only concern, according to the forecast.

But NASA and SpaceX delayed the launch to late Saturday due to unfavorable offshore weather.

"Joint teams selected the updated launch opportunity due to unfavorable weather conditions forecast for Friday, March 1, in offshore areas along the flight track of the Dragon spacecraft," NASA wrote in an update early Feb. 29. "High wind and waves along the eastern seaboard have been observed and are forecast to continue through Saturday morning. In the unlikely case of an abort during launch or the flight of Dragon, the wind and wave conditions must be within acceptable conditions for the safe recovery of the crew and spacecraft."

NASA and SpaceX initially aimed to launch the Crew-8 mission on Feb. 22, but delayed it to Feb. 28 (and ultimately March 1) to allow extra time following SpaceX's successful Feb. 18 launch of a private Intuitive Machines moon lander from the same pad.

Related: 'It's white-knuckle time:' NASA chief stresses safety for Crew-8 launch

Yes, you can watch SpaceX's Crew-8 launch live online, and you've got a few options.

NASA will offer a free livestream online via its NASA TV YouTube channel and NASA+ streaming service, as well as its NASA TV broadcast service. The webcast will actually begin late on March 2 at 7:15 p.m. EST (0015 March 3 GMT) and run through spacecraft separation.

About 2 hours after launch, NASA is expected to hold a post-launch press conference to discuss the results of the launch. That briefing will also be livestreamed via NASA TV and NASA+.

SpaceX will offer its own live webcast of the Crew-8 launch on its @SpaceX account on X (formerly Twitter), starting one hour before liftoff, which is March 2 at 10:16 p.m. EST (0316 GMT).

Space.com will simulcast NASA's Crew-8 launch livestream on our VideoFromSpace YouTube channel, beginning March 2 at 7:15 p.m. EST. You can also see that livestream at the top of this page.

If SpaceX successfully launches the Crew-8 astronauts on March 2, less than 24 hours to reach the ISS and you'll be able to watch that live, too.

NASA will provide a livestream of SpaceX's Crew-8 docking operations starting Sunday, March 3, at 11:30 a.m. EST (1630 GMT), according to a NASA schedule.

If all goes well, the Crew-8 Dragon space capsule Endeavour will dock itself at the ISS at 2:10 p.m. EST (1910 GMT) on March 2, parking at a forward-facing berth on the station's U.S.-built Harmony module.

While SpaceX originally designed its Dragon crew capsule to carry up to seven astronauts, the company has only flown a maximum of four people at a time its crewed vehicles. The Crew-8 mission follows that pattern. You can see detailed biographies of the Crew-8 astronauts in our Meet the Crew-8 Astronauts guide, but here is a brief synopsis.

Crew-8 is commanded by NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick, 42, a U.S. Navy test pilot who joined NASA's astronaut corps in 2017. This will be his first career spaceflight.

Veteran NASA astronaut Michael Barratt, 64, is a physician-turned-astronaut who serves as Crew-8 pilot and began his astronaut work in 2000 after serving as flight surgeon since 1992. Unlike his crewmates, Barrett has two spaceflights under his belt: a six-month expedition on the ISS in 2009 and the 13-day STS-133 shuttle flight in 2011, which marked the final voyage of NASA's space shuttle Discovery.

NASA astronaut Jeannette Epps, 53, is a Crew-8 mission specialist who making her first spaceflight. Epps is a physicist and aerospace engineer who joined NASA's astronaut corps in 2009 after working for the Ford Motor Co. and the Central Intelligence Agency.

Rounding out the crew is Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, 41, of the Roscosmos space agency. Grebenkin joined Roscosmos' cosmonaut corps in 2018 after flying as a pilot for the Russian Air Force. He has degrees in engineering, maintenance and repair of aircraft radio navigation systems, and in radio communications, broadcasting, and television.

Related:SpaceX Crew-8 astronauts eager for launch to ISS on March 1: 'Things surprise you, but we're ready'

While SpaceX's full Crew-8 mission for NASA will last six months (from launch to landing), the actual launch will be over in about 13 minutes.

Crew-8 will mark the fifth flight of SpaceX's Dragon crew capsule Endeavour, which the company used to launch its first-ever crewed flight for NASA - Demo-2, in May 2020. It has been used to fly three NASA crews (Crew-2 and Crew-6 are the others) and the private Ax-1 mission for Axiom Space.

SpaceX has not listed any previous flights for the Falcon 9 first-stage booster for Crew-8. The rocket is expected to return to Earth and land at SpaceX's Landing Zone 1 at the nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for later reuse.

While the weather looked promising for SpaceX's Crew-8 launch in the wee hours of March 1, SpaceX did have to burn through its initial backup dates available for the mission.

"Of course, we have two backup opportunities," Steve Stitch, NASA's Commercial Crew program manager, said in a Feb. 25 briefing. "Another one in the evening on March 1 at 11:41 p.m. Eastern and then another a day later, March 2, at 11:16 p.m. Eastern."

The weather outlook worsened slightly for a potential launch on March 1 at 11:41 p.m. EST (0441 GMT), dropping to a 65% chance of good weather (down from 85%) for that attempt, according to the 45th Weather Squadron.

The weather forecast worsens for a 48-hour delay, dropping to a 40% chance of good weather.

If SpaceX is unable to launch on March 2, it does have at least one more backup opportunities on March 3.

The company could attempt to launch Crew-8 on Sunday, March 3, at 10:53 p.m. EST (0352 on March 4 GMT), SpaceX wrote in a mission overview.

Editor's note: You can watch SpaceX's Crew-8 launch to the ISS on this page beginning Feb. 29 at 8 p.m. EST (0100 on March 1 GMT). This story was updated at 1 a.m. EST to reflect the new launch day for the SpaceX Crew-8 mission.

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What time is the SpaceX Crew-8 astronaut launch for NASA on March 2? - Space.com

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NASA’s SpaceX 30th Resupply Mission to Launch Experiments to Station – NASA

Posted: March 2, 2024 at 2:40 am

NASA and the agencys international partners are sending scientific investigations to the International Space Station on the 30th SpaceX commercial resupply services mission, including tests of technologies to monitor sea ice, automate 3D mapping, and create nanoparticle solar cells. The companys Dragon cargo spacecraft is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in early March.

Read more about some of the research making the journey to the orbiting laboratory:

Plants can be used in regenerative life support systems, to provide food, and to contribute to the well-being of astronauts on future deep space exploration missions. C4 Photosynthesis in Space (APEX-09) examines how microgravity affects the mechanisms by which two types of grasses, known as C3 and C4, capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Plants respond to stressful conditions based on their genetic makeup and the environment, said Pubudu Handakumbura, principal investigator with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. We aim to uncover the molecular changes involved in plants exposed to spaceflight stressors and develop an understanding of the mechanisms of photosynthesis in space. Results could clarify plant responses to stressful environments and inform the design of bio-regenerative support systems on future missions, as well as systems for plant growth on Earth.

The ocean significantly affects the global climate. A technique called Global Navigation Satellite System reflectometry (GNSS-R), which receives satellite signals reflected from the surface of Earth, shows promise as a way to monitor ocean phenomena and improve climate models. Killick-1: A GNSS Reflectometry CubeSat for Measuring Sea Ice Thickness and Extent (Nanoracks KILLICK-1) tests using this technique to measure sea ice. The project supports development of space and science capabilities in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, by providing hands-on experience with space systems and Earth observation. More than 100 undergraduate and graduate engineering students participated in the project.

The most exciting aspect of this project is that students have the opportunity to launch a mission into space, said Desmond Power, a co-investigator with C-CORE of Canada. It is also exciting to build a tiny satellite that does different things, including contributing to our knowledge of climate change.

GNSS-R technology is low-cost, light, and energy efficient. Its potential applications on Earth include providing data for weather and climate models and improving the understanding of ocean phenomena such as surface winds and storm surge.

The Multi-resolution Scanner (MRS) Payload for Astrobee (Multi-Resolution Scanning) tests technology to automate 3D sensing, mapping, and situational awareness systems.

Our MRS on an Astrobee free-flying robot will create 3D maps inside the space station, said Marc Elmouttie, project lead with Australias national science agency, CSIRO, which developed the technology with The Boeing Company. The scanner integrates technologies developed by our mining and robotics teams. By combining data from multiple sensors, we compensate for weaknesses in any one system. This provides very high-resolution 3D data and more accurate trajectory data to help us understand how the robot moves around in space.

The technology could be used to autonomously operate spacecraft with minimal or no human occupancy where robots must sense the environment and precisely maneuver, including the lunar Gateway space station, said Principal Investigator Connie Miller of Boeing. Other uses could be to inspect and maintain spacecraft and for autonomous vehicle operations on other celestial bodies. Results also support improvements in robotic technologies for harsh and dangerous environments on Earth.

The Nano Particle Haloing Suspension investigation examines how nanoparticles and microparticles interact within an electrical field. A process called nanoparticle haloing uses charged nanoparticles to enable precise particle arrangements that improve the efficiency of quantum-dot synthesized solar cells, according to Stuart J. Williams, principal investigator with the University of Louisville Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Quantum dots are tiny spheres of semiconductor material with the potential to convert sunlight into energy much more efficiently. Conducting these processes in microgravity provides insight into the relationship between shape, charge, concentration, and interaction of particles.

The investigation is supported by NASAs Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), which partners with government, higher education, and industry on projects to improve a research infrastructure and research and development capacity and competitiveness.

Download high-resolution photos and videos of the research mentioned in this article.

Melissa Gaskill International Space Station Program Research Office Johnson Space Center

Search this database of scientific experiments to learn more about those mentioned above.

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NASA's SpaceX 30th Resupply Mission to Launch Experiments to Station - NASA

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FAA closes investigation into explosive 2nd flight of SpaceX’s Starship megarocket – Space.com

Posted: March 2, 2024 at 2:40 am

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has closed the investigation into the second flight of SpaceX's huge Starship vehicle, the agency announced this afternoon (Feb. 26).

That test mission, which launched from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas on Nov. 18, ended with a bang. Two bangs, actually: Both of Starship's stages exploded high above Earth, around 3.5 minutes and eight minutes after liftoff, respectively.

Ever since, SpaceX has been prepping for Starship flight number 3, in keeping with the company's fast-paced "build, fly and iterate" philosophy. But today's news does not constitute clearance to launch, the FAA stressed.

"Prior to the next launch, SpaceX must implement all corrective actions and receive alicensemodification from the FAA that addresses all safety, environmental and other applicable regulatory requirements," agency officials wrote in an emailed statement today.

"The FAA is evaluating SpaceXs license modification request and expects SpaceX to submit additional required information before a final determination can be made," they added.

Related:See stunning photos and video of Starship's 2nd launch

The mishap investigation, which SpaceX led, identified 17 corrective actions, which the FAA accepted. Seven of them concerned Starship's huge first-stage booster, known as Super Heavy, "including vehicle hardware redesigns, updated control system modeling, reevaluation of engine analyses based on OTF-2 [Orbital Flight Test-2] flight data and updated engine control algorithms," the FAA's emailed statement reads.

The other 10 corrective actions deal with the vehicle's 165-foot-tall (50 meters) upper stage, which is called Starship. Among these modifications are "vehicle hardware redesigns, operational changes, flammability analysis updates, installation of additional fire protection and guidance and modeling updates," FAA officials wrote.

The stainless-steel Starship is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built. When stacked, it stands about 400 feet (122 meters) tall and future versions will likely be even taller, according to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk.

The company is developing the fully reusable vehicle to help humanity settle the moon and Mars and perform a variety of other ambitious exploration feats. NASA is invested in the vehicle's success; the agency picked Starship to be the first crewed lunar lander for its Artemis moon program.

Starship first flew in April 2023. The vehicle suffered a number of issues on that mission, including the failure of its two stages to separate as planned, and SpaceX detonated the tumbling craft about four minutes after liftoff.

Things went much better on flight two this past November. The two stages separated on time, for example, and the upper stage likely would have reached orbit if it had been carrying a payload, Musk said last month. (The upper stage's detonation was caused by a venting of liquid oxygen, and there wouldn't have been any liquid oxygen left to vent if Starship had been carrying a satellite, he said.)

The FAA closed the investigation of Starship's first flight on Sept. 8 of last year, and the vehicle got off the ground again on Nov. 18. But you shouldn't expect such a lengthy wait this time around, considering how much progress SpaceX made on flight number two. That first-flight investigation, for example, identified 63 corrective actions for SpaceX to make, compared to 17 after the November launch.

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FAA closes investigation into explosive 2nd flight of SpaceX's Starship megarocket - Space.com

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SpaceX, NASA ‘go’ to launch Crew-8 astronaut mission to ISS on March 2 – Space.com

Posted: March 2, 2024 at 2:40 am

SpaceX and NASA are officially go to launch their next astronaut mission to International Space Station (ISS) this week, with its four-person crew arriving at their Florida launch site on Sunday (Feb. 25).

Called Crew-8, the upcoming SpaceX mission will launch four astronauts into orbit on the Dragon capsule Endeavour and Falcon 9 rocket from Pad 39A of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. Liftoff is scheduled for March 2 at 11:16 p.m. EST (0416 GMT on March 3).

Related: 8 ways SpaceX has transformed spaceflight

"Even though we all go today, we're constantly paying attention to what the rocket and spacecraft are telling us so that we'll make sure that we launch when the crew and the spacecraft are ready to go, and we're ready to have a good flight to the station and a good return," Ken Bowersox, NASA's associate administrator for space operations and a former astronaut, told reporters in a Sunday night teleconference.

SpaceX's Crew-8 mission for NASA will launch NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barrett, Jeannette Epps and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin on a six-month expedition to the ISS. They will relieve their Crew-7 predecessors, another four-astronaut team, who will return to Earth on a SpaceX Dragon a week after Crew-8 reaches the ISS.

Dominick will command the Crew-8 flight to the ISS with Barrett as pilot. Epps and Grekenkin are mission specialists. The mission is the first career spaceflight for all but Barrett on the Crew-8 team. NASA and SpaceX initially aimed to launch Crew-8 to the ISS on Feb. 22, but delayed it to March 1 to clear a path for a private moon launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from their same launch pad on Feb. 15.Bad weather pushed the liftoff back again, to March 2.

The Crew-8 astronauts arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday afternoon as they spend their final days on Earth ahead of launch. The quartet will perform a dress rehearsal for their launch overnight on Monday and Tuesday, with SpaceX expected to perform a so-called "hot-fire" test of the Falcon 9's first stage engines a day later.

Steve Stich, NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager, told reporters Sunday that NASA and SpaceX are working through some final issues to clear ahead of the Crew-8 launch. Those include reviews of composite material fasteners on the Dragon/Falcon 9 launch vehicle for Crew-8 that are expected to be resolved before flight. Engineers are also reviewing some paint discoloration on Crew-7's Dragon capsule currently docked at the ISS, apparently due to residue tape on the capsule, to ensure it's not an issue for reentry and landing.

Crew-8 will mark the fifth flight of the Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour, which first flew astronauts to the ISS in May 2020 on SpaceX's first-ever human spaceflight, Demo-2. SpaceX and NASA are currently working to certify the reusable Dragon capsules for up to 15 spaceflights, NASA officials said.

SpaceX is one of two commercial companies with multi-billion-dollar contracts to fly astronauts to and from the ISS for NASA. The other company, Boeing, aims to launch the first crewed flight on its Starliner spacecraft no earlier than April 22.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 1:20 a.m. ET on Feb. 29 with news of the launch delay to March 2.

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SpaceX, NASA 'go' to launch Crew-8 astronaut mission to ISS on March 2 - Space.com

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FAA closes investigation into second Starship test flight – SpaceNews

Posted: March 2, 2024 at 2:40 am

WASHINGTON The Federal Aviation Administration has closed its investigation into the second Starship/Super Heavy launch in November, bringing SpaceX a step closer to launching its third test flight as soon as mid-March.

The FAA announced Feb. 26 that it closed the investigation into the Nov. 18 launch, designated Orbital Flight Test (OFT) 2, by accepting the root causes into the failure identified by SpaceX. That includes 7 corrective actions for the Super Heavy booster and 10 for the Starship upper stage.

On that launch, the vehicle appeared to perform as expected through stage separation. However, the Super Heavy booster broke apart shortly after separation as it was attempting to perform a controlled reentry and splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The Starship upper stage continued its ascent until the final minute of its burn, when it broke apart. SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said in January that liquid oxygen venting triggered a fire and explosion of Starship.

The letter noted that Starships ascent was going normally until seven minutes and five seconds after liftoff, when the vehicle started a pre-planned dump of excess liquid oxygen. Over the next minute, several explosions and sustained fires were observed in onboard camera aft video streams, ultimately resulting in a loss of communication between the forward and aft flight computers, the letter stated. That led to a shutdown of all six engines and a triggering of the vehicles autonomous flight safety system a minute after the vent started.

SpaceX, in its own statement about the investigation, said the fires in Starship came from a leak in the aft section of the vehicle when the liquid oxygen vent started. The vehicle was carrying the excess oxidizer to gather data representative of future payload deploy missions and needed to be disposed of prior to reentry to meet required propellant mass targets at splashdown.

The SpaceX statement also discussed the loss of the Super Heavy booster. Thirteen of its 33 Raptor engines were firing in a boostback maneuver after stage separation when several engines shut down, including one that failed energetically. That led to the booster breaking apart at an altitude of 90 kilometers over the Gulf of Mexico.

The company said the most likely explanation for the failure is a filter blockage in a liquid oxygen line that reduced inlet pressure in engine turbopumps that eventually resulted in one engine failing in a way that resulted in loss of the vehicle.

The Super Heavy corrective actions, the FAA stated in its letter to SpaceX, include redesigns of vehicle hardware to increase tank filtration and reduce slosh, updated thrust vector control system modelling, reevaluation of engine analyses based on OFT-2 data, and updated engine control algorithms.

The Starship corrective actions, according to the FAA letter, include hardware redesigns to increase robustness and reduce complexity, hardware changes to reduce leaks, operational changes eliminating pre-second engine cutoff propellant dumps, flammability analysis updates, installation of additional fire protection, creation of analytical guidance, performance of transient load analysis, and modeling updates.

Neither the FAA nor the SpaceX statements offered a schedule for completing the corrective actions and launching a third test flight. Musk, in a conversation on his social media platform X Feb. 19, said he was looking to the second week of March to launch the vehicle. Nominally its, like, March 8. Were trying to get it to be sooner than March 8, he said. My guess is that it happens at some point in the first half of next month. A fourth launch, he added, could take place shortly thereafter.

Other company officials have repeated Musks timeline for the mission. During a panel discussion at the FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference Feb. 21, Nick Cummings, senior director of program development at SpaceX, said the upcoming launch will also conduct a propellant transfer test within Starship, something NASA officials previous said might be included as part of an agency Tipping Point award.

The company is also working to accelerate its rate of test flights. Im very excited about the fact that weve got four sets of Starships and Super Heavies basically already built at Starbase, ready to go for the next flights, Cummings said.

The next flight, though, still requires the FAA to update SpaceXs Starship launch license. The FAA said SpaceX must first demonstrate to the FAA that it has implemented those corrective actions. The FAA is evaluating SpaceXs license modification request and expects SpaceX to submit additional required information before a final determination can be made, the agency stated.

In a briefing with reporters during the FAA conference Feb. 21, Kelvin Coleman, FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation, since it appeared feasible to have a license ready in time for a launch by mid-March. Thats where Im hearing things are headed right now, he said.

The timing of subsequent launches, he said, will depend on the outcome of the third launch. Theyre looking at a pretty aggressive launch schedule this year, he said, with at least nine launches proposed for 2024. Well work with them to get them back going as soon as they can.

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‘Good night, moon lander’: SpaceX lunar craft carrying 125 Jeff Koons sculptures expected to lose power – Art Newspaper

Posted: March 2, 2024 at 2:39 am

Nova-C (Odysseus), the lunar lander that is currently carrying more than 100 Jeff Koons sculptures into space, is expected to lose power and communication with flight control engineers after a botched landing. According to Intuitive Machines, the company that designed it, the craft came down on its side on 22 February, severely impacting its intergalactic performance. This is the first time a nongovernmental space apparatus has accomplished a landing on the moon, despite the obstacles.

Two rangefinder lasers were unable to guide the touchdown due to a variety of glitches and trajectory calculation inaccuracies, including engagement of the landers safety switches, which can only be manually disabled. The vessels tipped-over position re-oriented Odysseuss solar panels and antennas, limiting power and preventing contact with engineers on the ground.

In a briefing , the Intuitive Machines chief executive officer Steve Altemus said that the cargo occupying Odysseuss compromised side is Koonss Moon Phases, a collection consisting of 125 one-inch miniature sculptures. Each sculpture represents a phase of the moon and is dedicated to a different historical figure (Mozart and Leonardo da Vinci feature in the suite). The sculptures are tethered to a collection of Koons NFTs available through Pace Verso, the gallerys Web3 platform.

The Moon Phases Project" was initially destined for take-off in July of 2022, and were launched spacewards on a Falcon 9 rocket designed by SpaceX, controversial billionaire Elon Musks company, on 14 February, 2024. Koons work is officially the first example of fine art on the moon.

I grew up listening to President Kennedy speak about going to the moon, Koons told the New York Times before the rockets takeoff. It gave our society a vision and drive that we could believe in ourselves and accomplish things.

Intuitive Machines will attempt to "wake up" Odysseus in two to three weeks.

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'Good night, moon lander': SpaceX lunar craft carrying 125 Jeff Koons sculptures expected to lose power - Art Newspaper

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