Microsoft denies espionage accusations regarding Windows 11 service

Although the glasses to observe the eclipse have run out in several locations, Ciência Viva announced that it will provide more free units so that the public can follow the astronomical event.

NASA and SpaceX are maintaining the schedule for the Crew-13 mission, which will carry four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) in mid-September. The launch is scheduled to take place starting September 12, using Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA.

The crew will consist of Jessica Watkins, commander, and Luke Delaney, pilot, both belonging to NASA. They will be accompanied by Josh Kutryk, mission specialist from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and Sergey Teteryatnikov, cosmonaut from the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

The crew members will travel aboard SpaceX's Dragon Grace capsule, which will execute its second crewed mission. They are expected to arrive at the space station the day after launch, beginning a stay of about seven months, as part of ISS expeditions 75 and 76.

The mission will include maintenance, spacewalks, and scientific research

Jessica Watkins detailed that Crew-13 will have a very busy schedule on the station. She mentioned that there will be a lot of maintenance, both internal and external, in addition to extravehicular activities (spacewalks), capture and storage operations of visiting vehicles, and various scientific and outreach initiatives.

During the mission, the astronauts will conduct research focused on combating diseases such as Parkinson's and heart disease, investigating tissues obtained from human stem cells. Other experiments include studies on food production for long space missions and analyses of changes in blood flow observed in astronauts after prolonged periods in space.

Josh Kutryk, the Canadian astronaut, will be the fourth Canadian member on a permanent ISS crew and discussed the inherent complexity of space missions of this magnitude. He also shared a personal challenge: his third child is due to be born while he is in orbit, something that, according to him, has happened to other astronauts, and his family is prepared for this atypical situation.

Before the launch, the four astronauts will conduct a rehearsal in the Dragon Grace capsule itself. This week, they will use the new SpaceX Rev. 3 spacesuits for the first time, which have been enhanced to facilitate the donning and removal of the equipment, in addition to containing adjustments to compensate for bodily changes during long stays in space. This training aims to familiarize the crew with the spacecraft and its procedures.

An innovation of the mission is the use of Tesla Cybertruck vehicles to remove the crew from the launch area in emergency situations before takeoff. NASA confirmed that these vehicles have undergone specific tests to ensure that the astronauts can operate them while wearing space gloves and enter or exit them dressed in the bulky flight suits, aiming to simplify safety protocols.

The rocket has participated in a previous mission

NASA announced that the final integration of the Dragon capsule has been completed and preparations are proceeding as planned. The Falcon 9 rocket, responsible for launching Crew-13, was already used in the Crew-12 mission and will undergo final maintenance phases in the coming weeks. Program officials have not identified any significant issues that could affect the mission schedule.

A SpaceX rocket fragment that has been in space since last year is preparing for a significant collision with the Moon on Wednesday. According to American time, this will occur early in the morning.

This object, which is approximately the size of a school bus and weighs 4,000 kilograms, belongs to the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This rocket was used to launch the Firefly Aerospace lunar lander in January 2025.

The collision is expected around 06:35 GMT (ET), when this piece of rocket will reach the lunar surface at a speed of 8,690 kilometers per hour. Upon impact, a cloud of lunar dust will be raised, which may glow under sunlight, but it will be difficult to see with the naked eye from Earth.

SpaceX states that this collision is unintentional. The fragment may strike the Einstein crater on the Moon's western side, which is often difficult to observe from Earth.

Typically, after delivering its payload into orbit, rocket stages burn up in Earth's atmosphere or fall into the ocean. However, for the lunar lander mission in January, more thrust was required compared to missions closer to Earth, causing the second stage to remain in space. It has been drifting aimlessly among thousands of other pieces of space debris that active satellites must avoid.

Earlier this year, experts discovered that the rocket was on an orbital path leading toward the Moon. By that time, it had already expended its remaining fuel, making it uncontrollable.

According to Reuters, Juliana Shaiman, Director of NASA Science and Dragon Program at SpaceX, stated that a combination of solar activity and gravitational forces directed the rocket toward the Moon. She said this does not pose a danger. Nevertheless, it demonstrates some negligence in disposing of leftover space equipment.

Collisions between space debris and the Moon happen rarely. For instance, in March 2022, a Chinese rocket stage collided with the Moon after completing a lunar test mission. In 2009, NASA intentionally landed part of a rocket on the Moon to study the dust and debris raised by the impact.

Shaiman noted that NASA and SpaceX are discussing ways to prevent such collisions in the future. The American space agency plans to establish a base on the Moon and regularly send astronauts there later this decade as part of its Artemis program. They do not want wandering pieces of space debris to collide with these assets.