OCTOBER 28, 2024 – Three NASA astronauts and one Roscosmos cosmonaut of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission successfully splashed down near the coast of Florida, Oct. 25. Crew-8 launched to the International Space Station March 4, to conduct new scientific research to prepare for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit and benefit humanity.
This the last scheduled space station crew change for 2024.
U.S. Space Forces – Space supports NASA human space flight by planning, integrating, executing, and assessing space operations, providing continuous space situational awareness monitoring for the International Space Station and visiting spacecraft.
The ability to detect, track and identify space objects in near real-time provides unique space domain awareness that ensures safety of humans in space and understanding for the U.S. Space Command area of operations. Additionally, S4S provides conjunction analysis and potential collision notifications to NASA and other satellite owner-operators.
Throughout 2024, S4S supported six space station mission crew changes, the visiting Axiom Mission-3, the Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test, and numerous commercial resupply missions to the station.
The groundbreaking Polaris Dawn fully commercial spaceflight mission was also closely monitored by S4S for safety of flight purposes.
S4S’s potential collision notifications are vital when debris causing events occur in low Earth orbit that have the potential to impact the safety of the humans aboard the station.
When these types of events occur, NASA is quickly notified of the elevated risk and can take precautionary measures such as instructing crews aboard the space station to shelter in their respective spacecraft until normal operations can be safely resumed operations.
S4S coordinates closely with NASA, commercial partners, and other service component commands to support goals of human spaceflight safety and freedom of navigation in space.
The S4S mission is part of U.S. Space Command’s task as the Defense Department’s Human Space Flight Support manager. USSPACECOM is also responsible for the terrestrial rescue and recovery of NASA-sponsored astronauts and spacecraft.
This specialized support is provided by Air Forces Space, and includes pre-positioning rescue forces, ensuring unique communication abilities, and orchestrating the recovery of crewed space flight assets.
Space Forces-Space Public Affairs