 Everyone is excited for SpaceX's epic study into servicing Hubble, but it's a difficult job. What are the hurdles SpaceX needs to overcome? I'll try to answer that in Monday's Tomorrow Space News. Before we get on to that awesome SpaceX Hubble announcement, let's firstly head to Texas and see what they've been up to over this past week. This is ship 26's nose cone and it has been moved from outside tent 3 to inside high bay 1. Should we be expecting some stacking soon perhaps? Ship 26's older sibling, number 24, has just been removed from suborbital pad B, following its testing regime which saw numerous cryophills, spin primes and static fires. After being placed on a self-propelled modular transporter, S24 was rolled over the launch site to sit next to the orbital launch mount. The elliptical dome test tank was testing last week, but not at the launch site. It was the first test at the former Massey's gun range just down the road from Boca Chica. As you can tell, it was destroyed in this cryo test, but there has been no confirmation whether this was intentional or not. Star Factory is now moving into proper operations as there are now multiple ring sections sitting inside. I do hope that SpaceX leaves this door open quite often so we can peek inside, as just like with the tents, we want to see what they're working on. Booster 7 should be rolling out of high bay 2 this week, returning to the launch site for the final tests before the orbital flight test. That doesn't guarantee it will be smooth sailing though. The plan is for it to never return to the production site. It's not just Starbase which has seen exciting developments either, as SpaceX's facility in McGregor has been busy with some awesome firings. First up, we'll stick with the Starship theme as SpaceX has performed a rapid relight test on one of its raptors on the tripod stand. The first burn you just saw went on for about 20 seconds prior, before this swift interlude and we got another short burn. And something that has become a relative rarity nowadays, a brand new Falcon 9 booster has performed not only a cryo proof, but also a static fire test. This booster has been identified as B1076, which is currently slated to fly two missions as a Falcon 9, before being converted to a Falcon Heavy Sidecore for the Jupiter III mission next year. Speaking of new boosters, Crew 5 is awaiting launch on B1077, and she is a sparkly white booster indeed. On Sunday, SpaceX and NASA completed a full rehearsal of the launch day activities which makes this next ISS crew rotation ready for launch. There is something I do need to point out though, and you'll now never unsee it. Whoever was responsible for printing this NASA meatball, I hope you seriously consider your position. What have you done? Oh and also, this view of the Falcon mount from the Starship Tower looks pretty sweet. I think a view from up here on the webcast would be pretty epic. Nudge, nudge, Jamie. It's time for the big story you've all been waiting for. NASA and SpaceX have both signed an unfunded Space Act Agreement, starting a feasibility study on whether or not the Hubble Space Telescope could be boosted into a higher orbit by a Crew Dragon vehicle. The big win for NASA? This mission would be at zero cost to the government. SpaceX and the Polaris program proposed this study to NASA. This is not a NASA mission proposal, which I think is a big move against the idea that SpaceX is just about the money and not about the science. It's also important to know that this study is non-exclusive. Any company can propose their own similar study with different spacecraft. A boosting mission would add many years onto Hubble, and it would allow many more observations, increasing our knowledge of the universe and performing co-observations with James Webb. So, assuming a boosting mission goes ahead, how would it work? With all of the space shuttle servicing missions, Hubble was caught by the Canada arm, which is something Dragon doesn't have. NASA thought about this though, so in preparation for future non-shuttle servicing missions, the crew of servicing mission 4 installed this soft capture mechanism. This is pretty much what is used on the International Space Station for Dragon and Starliner docking, which is very useful for the Dragon Boost. The only thing is, it's very close to the main body of Hubble, and Dragon has this big fold-out nose cone. I believe it is removable for emergencies, however SpaceX would prefer to keep it on for re-entry. Dragon also has those RCS thrusters which face forwards. This would mean when releasing from Hubble, it'd get sprayed in fuel. Both of these are issues which SpaceX would need to figure out in the feasibility study. If the study results in a full-on servicing mission, which would see components being replaced, then some serious adaptations to Crew Dragon would be required. For an EVA to take place, the crew needs to be able to get out of Dragon via the docking hatch, which is how it'll happen on the upcoming Polaris Dawn mission next year. But if the crew needs to exit via the docking hatch, Dragon can't be docked to Hubble. That would mean, during EVA, Dragon couldn't be physically attached to Hubble under its current design. And also, as pointed out by Jarrod during our live show last Friday, the astronauts on EVA will probably need to be attached to the end of a robotic arm, which again is something Dragon currently doesn't have. Could Dragon be outfitted with a trunk docking port perhaps, hooking onto Hubble from behind, allowing the crew to EVA from the top hatch? This seems like a doable idea for servicing until you realise that you'll probably need to access the trunk. The point of this study is to figure out what would be required for such a mission. It is expected to take around six months, taking us to the start of April next year, so keep your eyes peeled around that time because we will most definitely be bringing you that news as soon as we have it. Fingers crossed, Hubble will be receiving yet another lease on life. A satellite which will soon no longer have a life is Space Flight Sherpa LTC, which was launched as a rideshare payload onboard Starlink Group 4 Mission 20 about a month ago with Boeing's Veruna V-band demonstration payload. According to data from Jonathan McDowell, though, it has not started raising its orbit like the majority of the Starlink satellite it was budded up with. Due to the drag experience that the orbit altitude Sherpa LTC has already lost 15km and that rate of descent will only get worse as the satellites hit the relatively thicker parts of the atmosphere. The re-entry of this satellite could be within weeks if it doesn't start raising its orbit soon. Now we have some interesting news on orbital debris, which is a bit of a problem that will only increase as more payloads are carried to space every year. At least in the United States, though, action is being taken as the Federal Communications Commission has a new rule. Any spacecraft that has an end of life orbit, which is 2000km or lower, will have to be de-orbited within five years of the end of the mission. The previous requirement was five times longer, 25 years. This rule will apply to any spacecraft which is either licensed in the US or wants access to the US market. It also won't apply to anything launched over the next two years, but it will after that grace period is up. Hopefully, this move will encourage other nations to make similar changes or at least follow the US's rules. Some nations, though, may decide to continue how they're currently operating, because if they're prepared to dump, I dunno, spent stages on their citizens' homes, then I'm pretty confident they won't care any more about the shared space of low-Earth orbit. Staying on this topic, the UK Space Agency has announced that they've shortlisted two startups, Astroscale and Clear Space, for a new mission to de-orbit two British-licensed spacecraft, that's a bit of a tongue twister, from Leo in 2026. The UK divisions of both companies have won a combined £4 million, following on from a feasibility study which they won last year. Astroscale, in particular, has already found some British-licensed satellites which are in congested orbits and it is planning to work with North Star, another startup from Canada, to get better data on the situational awareness for suitable satellite candidates. Astroscale also has a brilliant name for their mission, Cleaning Outer Space Mission Through Innovative Capture, which abbreviates to Cosmic. The actual spacecraft Astroscale is developing will be a version of the craft they are going to use for their ELSA-M mission, which is currently scheduled for launch in 2024. This will de-orbit multiple satellites on a single mission. It plans to capture debris using magnetic docking plates, however it will need to also be equipped with robotic grappling technology, as not all satellites are designed to be de-orbited. Clear Space has also been working on the name of their mission, which they're calling the Cleaning of the Leo Environment with Active Removal Mission. That abbreviates to Clear. Their first mission is currently scheduled for 2025, which will have a spacecraft equipped with four robotic arms to de-orbit a section of one of Ariane Space's Vega rockets. Just one of these teams will win, and the final decision will be made next year by the UK Space Agency once the final designs for both Astroscale and Clear Space's missions have been submitted. If you hadn't already heard, SLS is not going to be able to make the October launch window, so the dream of being able to see the orange rocket fly on Halloween are now out of the window. NASA has confirmed after Hurricane Ian that there was no damage to flight hardware, even with an electrical fire which broke out in Highway 3 just after SLS arrived back. The teams in the VAB will work on resetting the flight termination system with November 12th as the first available launch date to the moon. This launch period, launch period 28, runs until November 27th with many 120-minute windows available. Quote, focusing efforts on the November launch period allows time for employees at Kennedy to address the needs of their families and homes after the storm, and for teams to identify additional checkouts needed before returning to the pad for launch. Hopefully now that NASA has the successful tanking test behind them, it'll be smooth sailing for the launch of Artemis-1. Let's just hope the hydrogen doesn't feel differently. It's time for some launches, starting with three YG-36 satellites which were launched on this Long March 2D and 1338 UTC on the 26th of September from LC-3 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in China. As these satellites are reconnaissance satellites, not a lot of information is shared, but it can be worked out that these were placed into a 499x486km near-circular orbit. Next up is another launch from China with Cheyenne 16A, B and Cheyenne 17, which were launched on this Long March 6th at 2350 UTC on the same day, September 26th, from Launch Complex 16 at the Tian Satellite Launch Centre. These three satellites are also classified Chinese satellites. This is space traffic, so we also cover Earth arrivals, not just the departures. Soyuz MS-21 ended its 194-day tenure at the International Space Station and 0734 UTC on September 29th, undocking from the Liderport on the Pre-Chang module. Following the de-orbit burn, Commander Oleg Artemyev, alongside engineers Denis Matyev and Sergei Korsakov, ended their mission at 1057, rallying in the Kazakh steppe. Now it's the big one, metaphorically and physically, as Firefly's Alpha is actually one of the largest small-sat dedicated rockets out there. Firefly started their second flight at 0701 UTC on the 1st of October, with all four Riva engines powering off Space Launch Complex 2 West at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. This flight was a complete success, with the payloads making it to their intended 300km 137° orbit, putting Firefly on the list of private launch companies who have made it to orbit successfully. This technically puts Firefly ahead of SpaceX, who reached orbit on their fourth attempt and on part with Rocket Lab. It is important to remember though that SpaceX was the first, Firefly is most definitely not. If you want to learn more about the payloads, I did a deep dive on them in the news episode a couple of weeks ago which you can see in the corner of your screen. It is a very busy week coming up, with eight launches scheduled over the next seven days. First up is Starlink Group 4 Mission 29, launching tonight from Vandenberg. Tuesday we'll see ULA launch on Atlas V in the 531 configuration from Slick 41. Wednesday we'll see the aforementioned Crew 5 from SpaceX. Thursday we'll see it Argos up from here on an electron from Mejia. It'll also see Galaxy 33 and 34 launch atop a Falcon 9 from Slick 40, as well as the advanced Spaceborne Solar Observatory on a long march 2D from China. Friday we'll then see Jackson launch Race 3 on an Epsilon rocket as well as the maiden flight of Smart Dragon 3, China's latest solid rocket. Thank you to all the citizens of tomorrow who all financially contribute once a month to help fund the show. In return they receive exclusive perks such as our member exclusive life hangouts after every live show and seeing space news scripts as they're being written. If you want to join the ground support suborbital orbital and escape velocity citizens as well as NeuroStream head to join.tmro.tv or the join button below and have a browse through the levels to see which one suits you the best. Make sure to stay tuned to the channel as we have a lot more coming up over the next week on tomorrow. On Wednesday Dr. TampherScope will return with the latest in space weather. On Friday we'll have our usual live show and I'll be back next Monday once again with the news. For now, thank you for watching once again and goodbye.