116-521: SpaceX Crew-8 was the eighth crewed operational NASA Commercial Crew flight and the 13th overall crewed orbital flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft. The mission launched on 4 March 2024. The Crew-8 mission transported four crew members to the International Space Station (ISS). Three NASA astronauts, Matthew Dominick , Michael Barratt , and Jeanette Epps , and one Roscosmos cosmonaut, Alexander Grebenkin , were assigned to
232-455: A Crew Dragon spacecraft. The mission launched at 3:53:38 UTC on 4 March 2024 (3 March, 10:53:38 pm EST , local time at the launch site). SpaceX sent the 50th astronaut on this Crew Dragon launch. The first launch attempt, the day prior was scrubbed at T−03:25:38 due to elevated winds in offshore areas of the flight path. Note: times are local to the launch site ( Eastern Daylight Time ). To make way for
348-481: A famous world map was produced. In 1506 Hernán Cortés took part in the conquest of Hispaniola and Cuba, receiving a large estate of land and indigenous slaves for his effort. In 1510 he accompanied Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar , an aide of the governor of Hispaniola, in his expedition to conquer Cuba. In 1518 Velázquez put him in command of an expedition to explore and secure the interior of Mexico for colonization. In 1517 Francisco Hernández de Córdoba discovered
464-582: A hypoxic dead zone that runs east–west along the Texas–Louisiana coastline. In July 2008, researchers reported that between 1985 and 2008, the area roughly doubled in size. It was 8,776 square miles (22,730 km ) in 2017, the largest ever recorded. Poor agricultural practices in the northern portion of the Gulf of Mexico have led to a tremendous increase of nitrogen and phosphorus in neighboring marine ecosystems, which has resulted in algae blooms and
580-480: A magnitude 6.0 earthquake occurred about 250 miles (400 km) west-southwest of Anna Maria, Florida . The quake was reportedly felt from Louisiana to Florida. There were no reports of damage or injuries. Items were knocked from shelves and seiches were observed in swimming pools in parts of Florida. The earthquake was described by the USGS as an intraplate earthquake , the largest and most widely felt recorded in
696-519: A Boeing Starliner as a part of the Boeing Crew Flight Test that would dock to the forward port of Harmony on 6 June 2024, the crew relocated Crew Dragon Endeavour to the zenith port of Harmony on 2 May 2024, docking to the zenith port at 13:46 UTC. Boeing Starliner Calypso successfully launched on 5 June 2024 and docked to the forward port of Harmony on 6 June. The Boeing Crew Flight Test mission docked with
812-485: A capsule can be reused up to fifteen times. Crew Dragon spacecraft can spend up to a week in free flight without being docked to the ISS. Each Crew Dragon capsule is equipped with a launch escape system consisting of eight of SpaceX's SuperDraco engines, which provide 71,000 newtons (16,000 pounds-force) of thrust each. These engines were originally intended to also perform a propulsive landing upon return to Earth, with
928-482: A contingency if Starliner is further delayed and to ensure service to the ISS until 2030. SpaceX's Crew-1 mission, the first operational flight in the program, carried Victor Glover , Mike Hopkins , Soichi Noguchi , and Shannon Walker to the ISS in November 2020 aboard Resilience . Resilience was originally planned to be used for Crew-2 , but was reassigned following a scheduling change resulting from
1044-726: A documentary about the project, short videos and video updates during the expedition. Video footage from the ROV was an integral part of this outreach and used extensively in the Mystery Mardi Gras Shipwreck documentary. On July 30, 1942, the Robert E. Lee , captained by William C. Heath, was torpedoed by the German submarine U-166 . She was sailing southeast of the entrance to the Mississippi River when
1160-492: A lack of available oxygen. Occurrences of masculinization and estrogen suppression were observed as a result. An October 2007 study of the Atlantic croaker found a disproportioned sex ratio of 61% males to 39% females in hypoxic sites. This was compared with a 52% to 48% male-female ratio found in reference sites, showing an impairment of reproductive output for fish populations inhabiting hypoxic coastal zones. According to
1276-480: A large scale from many of the bays and sounds. Other important industries along the coast include shipping, petrochemical processing and storage, military use, paper manufacture, and tourism. The gulf's warm water temperature can feed powerful Atlantic hurricanes causing extensive human death and other destruction as happened with Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In the Atlantic, a hurricane will draw up cool water from
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#17327808442301392-583: A part of the Soyuz-Dragon crew swap system, that is, keeping at least one NASA astronaut and one Roscosmos cosmonaut on each of the crew rotation missions. That would ensure both countries would have a presence on the station, and ability to maintain their separate systems, if either Soyuz or commercial crew vehicles are grounded for an extended period. On 3 December 2021, NASA made clear it would secure up to an additional three flights from SpaceX to maintain an uninterrupted U.S. capability for human access to
1508-422: A serious threat to marine life and adjacent coastal wetlands and to the livelihoods of Gulf Coast shrimpers and fishermen. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Sally Brice O'Hare stated that the U.S. government will be "employing booms, skimmers, chemical dispersants and controlled burns" to combat the oil spill. By May 1 the oil spill cleanup efforts were underway but hampered by rough seas and the "tea like" consistency of
1624-741: A splashdown, a Starliner capsule will return on land with airbags at one of four designated sites in the western United States. Development of the Commercial Crew Program began in 2011 as NASA shifted from internal development of crewed vehicles to perform ISS crew rotation to commercial industry development of transport to the ISS. A series of open competitions over the following two years saw successful bids from Boeing, Blue Origin , Sierra Nevada , and SpaceX to develop proposals for ISS crew transport vehicles. In 2014, NASA awarded separate fixed-price contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to develop their respective systems and to fly astronauts to
1740-522: Is a variant of the company's Dragon 2 class of spacecraft, which is an upgraded version of the first-generation Dragon. It measures 3.7 meters (12 feet) wide, 4.4 meters (14 feet) tall without its trunk, and 7.2 meters (24 feet) with its trunk. While trunks are discarded prior to capsule reentry, crew cabins are designed to be reusable. After earlier plans of SpaceX to use new capsules for every crewed flight for NASA both agreed to reuse Crew Dragon capsules for NASA flights. In 2022, SpaceX stated that
1856-504: Is also equipped to perform a splashdown return. Boeing's CCtCap contract values each seat on a CST-100 flight to be between US$ 91–99 million, while the face value of each seat has been estimated by NASA's OIG to be around US$ 90 million. NASA missions to the ISS launch on an average every six months. As part of the original contracts Boeing and SpaceX each were initially contracted for up to six operational flights. NASA later contracted with SpaceX for up to an additional eight flights as
1972-631: Is an excellent example of a passive margin . The continental shelf is quite wide at most points along the coast, most notably at the Florida and Yucatán Peninsulas. The shelf is exploited for its oil by means of offshore drilling rigs, most of which are situated in the western gulf and in the Bay of Campeche. Another important commercial activity is fishing; major catches include red snapper , amberjack , tilefish , swordfish , and various grouper , as well as shrimp and crabs. Oysters are also harvested on
2088-723: Is connected to part of the Atlantic Ocean through the Straits of Florida between the U.S. and Cuba, and with the Caribbean Sea via the Yucatán Channel between Mexico and Cuba. Because of its narrow connection to the Atlantic Ocean, the gulf experiences very small tidal ranges . The size of the gulf basin is approximately 1.6 million km (620,000 sq mi). Almost half of the basin consists of shallow continental shelf waters. The volume of water in
2204-404: Is four to five times saltier than the rest of the water. The first exploration of the site was unmanned, using Hercules and in 2015 a team of three used the deep-submergence vehicle Alvin . The site cannot sustain any kind of life other than bacteria , mussels with a symbiotic relationship , tube worms and certain kinds of shrimp . It has been called the "Jacuzzi of Despair". Because it
2320-531: Is warmer than the surrounding water (65 °F or 18 °C compared to 39 °F or 4 °C), animals are attracted to it but cannot survive once they enter it. The Gulf of Mexico is 41 percent continental slope , 32 percent continental shelf , and 24 percent abyssal plain with the greatest depth of 12,467 feet in the Sigsbee Deep . Seven main areas are given as: As early as the Maya civilization ,
2436-591: The Deepwater Horizon oil platform, located in the Mississippi Canyon about 40 miles (64 km) off the Louisiana coast, suffered a catastrophic explosion ; it sank a day and a half later. It was in the process of being sealed with concrete for temporary abandonment, to avoid environmental problems. Although initial reports indicated that relatively little oil had leaked, by April 24 it
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#17327808442302552-746: The Aldridge Commission – established by President George W. Bush following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster – called for crewed flights to the Moon with a Crew Exploration Vehicle in its final report. Following the NASA Authorization Act of 2005 , the Constellation program was established, which envisioned a revised Crew Exploration Vehicle named Orion conducting crew rotation flights to
2668-632: The Boeing Pad Abort Test in November 2019. NASA accepted the test as successful even though one of three parachutes failed to deploy, since the system landed as designed under two parachutes. Boeing conducted the Orbital Flight Test in December 2019 and encountered major malfunctions of Starliner's software which precluded an intended docking with the ISS and prompted a truncation of the mission. The Orbital Flight Test
2784-518: The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement ) to help predict the potential impacts of future oil/gas explorations. Since 1979, the specimens have been deposited in the national collections of the National Museum of Natural History. The major environmental threats to the gulf are agricultural runoff and oil drilling . There are 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells beneath
2900-468: The CST-100 Starliner . SpaceX had previously been contracted by NASA to operate ISS resupply flights with their Dragon spacecraft, as part of NASA's Commercial Resupply Services . The program's third round, Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap), aimed to financially support the development of winning proposals over 21 months through to May 2014, in preparation for crewed missions to
3016-577: The International Docking System Standard (IDSS). The NASA Docking System implementation is used by Starliner and ISS, while Crew Dragon uses a compatible IDSS implementation developed by SpaceX. The IDSS docks are used instead of the Common Berthing Mechanism used by previous Commercial Orbital Transportation Services spacecraft such as the first-generation Dragon . SpaceX's Crew Dragon
3132-634: The International Space Station (ISS) in addition to its lunar exploration goals. Orion superseded the Orbital Space Plane , which was specifically designed for ISS crew rotation. In 2009, the Augustine Commission appointed by President Barack Obama found that the program's funding and resources were insufficient to execute its goals without significant delays to its schedule and an increase of US$ 3 billion in funding, which prompted NASA to start considering alternatives to
3248-624: The International Space Station (ISS) under contract to NASA , conducting crew rotations between the expeditions of the International Space Station program . American space manufacturer SpaceX began providing service in 2020, using the Crew Dragon spacecraft, and NASA plans to add Boeing when its Boeing Starliner spacecraft becomes operational no earlier than 2025. NASA has contracted for six operational missions from Boeing and fourteen from SpaceX, ensuring sufficient support for ISS through 2030. The spacecraft are owned and operated by
3364-697: The Marathon Uplift in west Texas and the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma , and to Alabama where it linked directly to the Appalachian Mountains . It was created by the collision of continental plates that formed Pangaea. As interpreted by Roy Van Arsdale and Randel T. Cox, this mountain range was breached in the late Cretaceous by the formation of the Mississippi Embayment . The rifting that created
3480-650: The Mardi Gras sank around the early 19th century about 35 mi (56 km) off the coast of Louisiana in 4,000 feet (1,200 m) of water. She is believed to have been a privateer or trader. The shipwreck, whose real identity remains a mystery, lay forgotten at the bottom of the sea until it was discovered in 2002 by an oilfield inspection crew working for the Okeanos Gas Gathering Company (OGGC). In 2007 an expedition led by Texas A&M University and funded by OGGC under an agreement with
3596-572: The Mesozoic and all of the Cenozoic further depressed the underlying crust to its current position about 10–20 km (6.2–12.4 mi) below sea level. Particularly during the Cenozoic, a time of relative stability for the coastal zones, thick clastic wedges built out the continental shelf along the northwestern and northern margins of the basin. To the east, the stable Florida Platform
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3712-557: The National Response Center , the oil industry has thousands of minor accidents in the Gulf of Mexico every year. In June 1979, the Ixtoc I oil platform in the Bay of Campeche suffered a blowout leading to a catastrophic explosion, which resulted in a massive oil spill that continued for nine months before the well was finally capped. This was the largest oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to date. On April 20, 2010,
3828-473: The Atlantic Ocean was established that the deposition of Louann Salt ceased. Seafloor spreading stopped at the end of the Jurassic, about 145–150 million years ago. During the late Jurassic through early Cretaceous, the basin experienced a period of cooling and subsidence of the crust underlying it. The subsidence was the result of a combination of crustal stretching, cooling, and loading. Initially,
3944-422: The Atlantic Ocean. This flooded the opening basin to create an enclosed marginal sea. The subsiding transitional crust was blanketed by the widespread deposition of Louann Salt and associated anhydrite evaporites . During the late Jurassic, continued rifting widened the basin and progressed to the point that seafloor spreading and formation of oceanic crust occurred. At this point, sufficient circulation with
4060-551: The CFT situation, and extended again to provide the lifeboat function while Boeing worked to reconfigure Starliner to perform the uncrewed return. The NASA maximum mission time for Crew Dragon is ordinarily 210 days, but NASA extended it to 240 days for this mission. The overlap after Crew-9 arrived was slightly longer than usual to allow time to reconfigure Crew-8 and Crew-9 as the Starliner astronauts moved to Crew-9. The return of Crew-8
4176-596: The Crew-8 mission. Problems with the Boeing spacecraft caused NASA to extend its mission and ultimately to bring the spacecraft back to Earth without crew. The Crew-8 mission was extended and its Dragon was fitted with two additional makeshift crew seats to allow it to serve as a "lifeboat" for the CFT crew if evacuation had been needed before Crew-9 arrived. The Crew-9 launch was delayed and Crew-9 modified to launch with only two crew and two empty seats. When Crew-9 arrived at ISS,
4292-523: The Earth's atmosphere and splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico , near Pensacola, Florida on 25 October 2024 at 07:29:02 UTC (3:29:02 am EDT , local time at the landing site). The capsule taken aboard the recovery ship MV Megan . After the crew exited the spacecraft, they were taken into the ship's onboard medical treatment facility for evaluations. After that check-up, NASA flew all of
4408-652: The Gulf of Mexico was used as a trade route off the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula and present-day Veracruz . Although the Spanish voyage of Christopher Columbus was credited with the discovery of the Americas by Europeans, the ships in his four voyages did not reach the Gulf of Mexico. Instead, the Spanish sailed into the Caribbean around Cuba and Hispaniola . The first alleged European exploration of
4524-491: The Gulf of Mexico was by Amerigo Vespucci in 1497. Vespucci is purported to have followed the coastal land mass of Central America before returning to the Atlantic Ocean via the Straits of Florida between Florida and Cuba. However, this first voyage of 1497 is widely disputed, and many historians doubt that it took place as described. In his letters, Vespucci described this trip, and once Juan de la Cosa returned to Spain,
4640-475: The ISS and made a successful uncrewed return to Earth in September 2024. This was necessary because the ISS has only two IDSS ports shared between Dragon and Starliner. However, each ISS crewmember needs a contingency "lifeboat" in the event of an ISS emergency, and uncrewed undocking of the Starliner would leave its crew without a lifeboat. Therefore, NASA directed the crews to install two extra crew positions in
4756-409: The ISS as planned until 2 May 2021. SpaceX Crew-2 launched on 23 April 2021 and it landed on 9 November 2021, two days before the launch of SpaceX Crew-3 . When Boeing OFT-2 was on the pad preparing for launch on 3 August 2021, problems were encountered with 13 valves in the capsule's propulsion system. The launch was scrubbed, and the capsule eventually returned to the factory. Analysis of the problem
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4872-564: The ISS on June 6, 2024 after experiencing anomalies with its thrusters. Its crew of two remained on the ISS for an unplanned extended stay, while NASA and Boeing evaluated the problems. NASA decided that the uncertainties were too high to have the crew return to Earth on Starliner, so NASA sent the Crew-9 mission to the ISS with a crew of two, and the Starliner crew will then return to Earth with Crew-9 in February 2025, while Starliner undocked from
4988-717: The ISS within five years. Despite winning awards in CCDev 1 and CCDev 2, Blue Origin decided against competing in CCiCap, opting instead to rely on private investment from their owner, Jeff Bezos , to continue development on crewed spaceflight. The competition for CCiCap funding ended in August 2012, with US$ 212.5 million allocated to Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser, US$ 440 million allocated to SpaceX's Crew Dragon, and US$ 460 million allocated to Boeing's Starliner. While Alliant Techsystems 's integrated Liberty launch vehicle and spacecraft
5104-492: The ISS, and Crew-4 launched Kjell Lindgren , Bob Hines , Samantha Cristoforetti and Jessica Watkins in April 2022. US astronauts Josh Cassada , Nicole Aunapu Mann and JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata initially assigned to Starliner crewed flights were reassigned to Crew-5 mission after delays in the Starliner program. The fourth astronaut on Crew-5 is filled by a Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina and thus becoming to be
5220-553: The ISS. The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 allocated US$ 1.3 billion for an expansion of the existing Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program over three years. While the program's first round of competition in 2010 focused on funding development of various human spaceflight technologies in the private sector as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act , its second round, CCDev 2, focused on proposals for spacecraft capable of shuttling astronauts to and from
5336-580: The ISS. The competition for CCDev 2 funding concluded in April 2011, with Blue Origin receiving US$ 22 million to develop its biconic nose cone capsule concept, SpaceX receiving US$ 75 million to develop a crewed version of their Dragon spacecraft and a human-rated Falcon 9 launch vehicle, the Sierra Nevada Corporation receiving US$ 80 million to develop the Dream Chaser , and Boeing receiving US$ 92.3 million to develop
5452-543: The ISS. Each contract required four successful demonstrations to achieve human rating for the system: pad abort, uncrewed orbital test, launch abort, and crewed orbital test. Operational missions were initially planned to begin in 2017, with missions alternating between the two providers. Delays required NASA to purchase additional seats on Soyuz spacecraft up to Soyuz MS-17 until Crew Dragon missions commenced in 2020. Crew Dragon continues to handle all missions until Starliner becomes operational no earlier than 2025. In 2004,
5568-679: The Light on Cape San Antonio in Cuba, through this island to the meridian of 83°W and to the Northward along this meridian to the latitude of the South point of the Dry Tortugas (24°35'N), along this parallel Eastward to Rebecca Shoal (82°35'W) thence through the shoals and Florida Keys to the mainland at the eastern end of Florida Bay and all the narrow waters between the Dry Tortugas and
5684-704: The Minerals Management Service (now BOEM ) was launched to undertake the deepest scientific archaeological excavation ever attempted at that time to study the site on the seafloor and recover artifacts for eventual public display in the Louisiana State Museum . As part of the project educational outreach Nautilus Productions in partnership with BOEM, Texas A&M University, the Florida Public Archaeology Network and Veolia Environmental produced
5800-649: The North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States ; on the southwest and south by the Mexican states of Tamaulipas , Veracruz , Tabasco , Campeche , Yucatán , and Quintana Roo ; and on the southeast by Cuba . The Southern U.S. states of Texas , Louisiana , Mississippi , Alabama , and Florida , which border the gulf on
5916-620: The Space Shuttle program in which the US Orbital Segment of the ISS was completely staffed with four crew. Crew-2 launched in April 2021, using a previously-flown Falcon 9 first-stage booster and a refurbished Crew Dragon for the first time. The mission carried Shane Kimbrough , Megan McArthur , Akihiko Hoshide and Thomas Pesquet aboard Endeavour . Crew-3 launched in November 2021, carrying Thomas Marshburn , Raja Chari , Matthias Maurer and Kayla Barron to
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#17327808442306032-605: The Starliner-2 flight. The CCP spacecraft missions usually overlap with brief intervals during which two are docked at the same time. Crew-2 did not overlap with Crew-3 because of an unexpected delay of the Crew-3 launch. Sources Citations Notes Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( Spanish : Golfo de México ) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean , mostly surrounded by
6148-603: The United States of America and the Republic of Cuba, of December 16, 1977. Mexico and United States: Treaty to resolve pending boundary differences and maintain the Rio Grande and Colorado River as the international boundary, of November 23, 1970; Treaty on maritime boundaries between the United States of America and the United Mexican States (Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean), of May 4, 1978, and treaty on
6264-612: The United States, in accordance with Mexico's domestic legislation. On March 13, 2009, the CLCS accepted Mexico's arguments for extending its continental shelf up to 350 nautical miles (650 km; 400 mi) into the Western Polygon. Since this would extend Mexico's continental shelf well into territory claimed by the United States, however, Mexico and the U.S. would need to enter a bilateral agreement based on international law that delimits their respective claims. A ship now called
6380-602: The Yucatán Peninsula. This was the first European encounter with an advanced civilization in the Americas , with solidly built buildings and a complex social organization which they recognized as being comparable to those of the Old World ; they also had reason to expect that this new land would have gold . All of this encouraged two further expeditions, the first in 1518 under the command of Juan de Grijalva , and
6496-413: The accidental destruction of C204 during testing. While NASA astronauts were given assignments to either Crew Dragon or Starliner flights, Noguchi – a JAXA astronaut – was open for assignment to whichever spacecraft would launch the first operational mission. With Chris Cassidy having arrived at the ISS during Soyuz MS-16 , the arrival of the astronauts aboard Resilience marked the first time since
6612-399: The astronauts chosen to pilot the Crew Dragon and Starliner vehicles in August 2018, and two months later penned the launch of demonstration missions for the Crew Dragon and Starliner for dates in 2019. The uncrewed SpaceX Demo-1 mission was launched on 2 March 2019, in which a Crew Dragon successfully docked with the ISS and returned to Earth six days after launch. The capsule used in
6728-717: The attack. One officer, nine crewmen and 15 passengers were lost. The passengers aboard Robert E. Lee were primarily survivors of previous torpedo attacks by German U-boats. The wreck's location was discovered during the C & C Marine survey that located the U-166 . In 2001 the wreck of U-166 was found in 5,000 feet (1,500 m) of water, less than two miles (3.2 km) from where it had attacked Robert E. Lee . Various biota include chemosynthetic communities near cold seeps and non chemosynthetic communities such as bacteria and other micro- benthos , meiofauna , macrofauna , and megafauna (larger organisms such as crabs , sea pens , crinoids , demersal fish , cetaceans , and
6844-474: The basin is roughly 2.4 × 10 cubic kilometers (5.8 × 10 cubic miles). The gulf is one of the most important offshore petroleum production regions in the world, making up one-sixth of the United States' total production. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the southeast limit of the Gulf of Mexico as: A line joining Cape Catoche Light ( 21°37′N 87°04′W / 21.617°N 87.067°W / 21.617; -87.067 ) with
6960-403: The basin was associated with zones of weakness within Pangaea, including sutures where the Laurentia , South American , and African plates collided to create it. First, there was a late Triassic–early Jurassic phase of rifting during which rift valleys formed and filled with continental red beds . Second, as rifting progressed through early and middle Jurassic times, the continental crust
7076-543: The captain of the next expedition to Yucatán. In 1523, a treasure ship was wrecked en route at Padre Island , Texas. When word of the disaster reached Mexico City, the viceroy requested a rescue fleet and sent Ángel de Villafañe from Mexico City, marching overland to find the treasure-laden vessels. Villafañe traveled to Pánuco and hired a ship to transport him to the site, which had already been visited from that community. He arrived in time to greet García de Escalante Alvarado (a nephew of Pedro de Alvarado ), commander of
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#17327808442307192-440: The cargo area of the Crew-8 capsule to provide the lifeboat function after Starliner undocks and before Crew-9 docked. Until Crew-9 arrived, they moved to SpaceX Crew-8, their temporary emergency evacuation spacecraft, and subsequently to Crew-9. Crew-8 was originally planned to return to Earth in early August after a nominal 180-day mission, but the mission was extended several times. It was extended initially as NASA investigated
7308-439: The coast. On April 7, 1528, they spotted land north of what is now Tampa Bay . They turned south and traveled for two days looking for a great harbor the master pilot Miruelo knew of. Sometime during these two days, one of the five remaining ships was lost on the rugged coast, but nothing else is known of it. In 1697 French sailor Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville was chosen by the Minister of Marine to lead an expedition to rediscover
7424-497: The coastline spans 1,680 miles (2,700 km), receiving water from 33 major rivers that drain 31 states and 2 Canadian provinces. The southwestern and southern shores lie along the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, and the northernmost tip of Quintana Roo. The Mexican coastline spans 1,743 miles (2,805 km). On its southeast quadrant, the gulf is bordered by Cuba. It supports major American, Mexican and Cuban fishing industries. The outer margins of
7540-407: The combination of crustal stretching and cooling caused about 5–7 km (3.1–4.3 mi) of tectonic subsidence of the central thin transitional and oceanic crust. Because subsidence occurred faster than sediment could fill it, the basin expanded and deepened. Later, loading of the crust within the basin and adjacent coastal plain by the accumulation of kilometers of sediments during the rest of
7656-568: The crew members to the Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola by helicopter for additional evaluation. One astronaut was hospitalized, but NASA declined to provide the individual's condition or identity. NASA said that the entry and splashdown was normal and the recovery of the crew and the spacecraft was without incident. The astronaut was released from the hospital the following day and was said to be in "good health". Commercial Crew Program The Commercial Crew Program ( CCP ) provides commercially operated crew transportation service to and from
7772-409: The crew of CFT became members of the Crew-9 crew and will return on Crew-9 at the end of its mission. As of October 2024 , the first operational flight has not been scheduled. It depends on successful completion of a Crewed Flight Test . NASA hopes to extend the seat-swapping arrangement with Roscosmos to include Starliner flights after Starliner has enough flights, which will be no earlier than
7888-482: The delimitation of the continental shelf in the western Gulf of Mexico beyond 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi), of June 9, 2000. On December 13, 2007, Mexico submitted information to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) regarding the extension of Mexico's continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles. Mexico sought an extension of its continental shelf in the Western Polygon based on international law, UNCLOS, and bilateral treaties with
8004-401: The depths and making it less likely that further hurricanes will follow in its wake (warm water being one of the preconditions necessary for their formation). However, the gulf is shallower; when a hurricane passes over the water temperature may drop but it soon rebounds and becomes capable of supporting another tropical storm. From 1970 to 2020, surface temperatures warmed at approximately twice
8120-521: The event that operational missions in the program are further delayed, with the purchase of additional Soyuz seats beyond MS-17 being described as a possibility. The SpaceX In-Flight Abort Test was successfully conducted in January 2020, setting the stage for the final, crewed test flight of Crew Dragon – SpaceX Demo-2 – which launched astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the ISS in May 2020. SpaceX launched its first operational flight, SpaceX Crew-1 , on 16 November 2020. It stayed docked to
8236-472: The explosion destroyed the #3 hold, vented through the B and C decks and damaged the engines, the radio compartment and the steering gear. After the attack she was under escort by USS PC-566 , captained by Lieutenant Commander Herbert G. Claudius, en route to New Orleans . PC-566 began dropping depth charges on a sonar contact, sinking U-166 . The badly damaged Robert E. Lee first listed to port then to starboard and finally sank within about 15 minutes of
8352-542: The extinct Caribbean monk seal ) are living in the Gulf of Mexico. Recently, resident Bryde's whales within the gulf were classified as an endemic, unique subspecies and making them as one of the most endangered whales in the world. The Gulf of Mexico yields more fish, shrimp, and shellfish annually than the south and mid-Atlantic , Chesapeake , and New England areas combined. The Smithsonian Institution Gulf of Mexico holdings are expected to provide an important baseline of understanding for future scientific studies on
8468-531: The final phase of the CCDev program, where NASA would certify an operator to run crewed flights to the ISS through an open competition. The window for proposal submissions was closed on 22 January 2014. Sierra Nevada announced a week later that a privately funded orbital test flight of a Dream Chaser spacecraft, using an Atlas V launch vehicle intended to be purchased by Sierra Nevada, was planned to occur on 1 November 2016. On 16 September 2014, CCtCap concluded with SpaceX's Crew Dragon and Boeing's Starliner being
8584-443: The first contract extension (missions 7, 8, and 9) is $ 258.7 million ($ 64.6 million/seat), and per-mission cost for the second contract extension (missions 10 through 14) is $ 288 million ($ 72 million/seat). Boeing's CST-100 Starliner – "CST" an acronym for "Crew Space Transportation" – measures 4.6 meters (15 feet) in diameter and 5.1 meters (17 feet) in height. The crew module of Starliner can be reused for up to ten flights, while
8700-558: The first operational CCP mission in 2020, NASA relied on the Soyuz program to transport its astronauts to the ISS. A Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched to space atop a Falcon 9 Block 5 launch vehicle and the capsule returns to Earth via splashdown in the ocean near Florida. The program's first operational mission, SpaceX Crew-1 , launched on 16 November 2020. Boeing Starliner spacecraft will participate after its final test flight , launched atop an Atlas V N22 launch vehicle. Instead of
8816-504: The first test vehicle having been equipped for such capabilities, but these plans were ultimately abandoned in favor of a traditional splashdown return near Florida in either the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico . SpaceX's CCtCap contract values each seat on a Crew Dragon flight to be between US$ 60–67 million on the first six missions, while the face value of each seat has been estimated by NASA's Office of Inspector General (OIG) to be around US$ 55 million. Per-mission cost for
8932-499: The gulf's first such study estimated concentrations that rival the highest globally reported. There are frequent " red tide " algae blooms that kill fish and marine mammals and cause respiratory problems in humans and some domestic animals when the blooms reach close to shore. This has especially been plaguing the southwest and southern Florida coast, from the Florida Keys to north of Pasco County, Florida . The gulf contains
9048-505: The gulf's shoreline is fringed by numerous bays and smaller inlets. Stream that empty into the gulf include the Mississippi River and the Rio Grande in the northern gulf, and the Grijalva and Usumacinta rivers in the southern gulf. The land that forms the gulf's coast, including many long, narrow barrier islands, is almost uniformly low-lying and is characterized by marshes and swamps as well as stretches of sandy beach. The Gulf of Mexico
9164-523: The gulf. These have generally not been checked for potential environmental problems. In 1973 the United States Environmental Protection Agency prohibited the dumping of undiluted chemical waste by manufacturing interests into the gulf, and the military confessed to similar behavior in waters off Horn Island . Microplastics within semi-enclosed seas like the gulf have been reported in high concentrations, and
9280-486: The impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill . In Congressional testimony, Dr. Jonathan Coddington, associate director of Research and Collections at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History , provides a detailed overview of the Gulf collections and their sources which Museum staff have made available on an online map. The samples were collected for years by the former Minerals Management Service (renamed
9396-655: The loss of AMOS-6 in an accidental launch pad explosion of a Falcon 9 , the Crew Dragon's launch vehicle. With no further flights in the Soyuz program for American astronauts past 2018, the GAO expressed concerns and recommended in February 2017 that NASA develop a plan for crew rotation in the event of further delays. Following the settlement of a lawsuit against Russian space manufacturer Energia over Sea Launch , Boeing received options for up to five seats on Soyuz flights, which NASA purchased from Boeing. NASA announced
9512-495: The mainland being considered to be within the Gulf. The consensus among geologists is that before the late Triassic , the Gulf of Mexico did not exist. Before the Late Triassic, the area consisted of dry land, which included continental crust that now underlies Yucatán , within the middle of the supercontinent Pangaea . This land lay south of a continuous mountain range that extended from north-central Mexico, through
9628-568: The mainland, Biloxi , with his brother Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville . On May 1 he completed Fort Maurepas on the northeast side of the Bay of Biloxi. On May 4 d'Iberville sailed for France leaving his teenage brother, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne , as second in command to the French commandant. The Gulf of Mexico's eastern, northern, and northwestern shores lie along the US states of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. The US portion of
9744-434: The mission, however, was accidentally destroyed in a static fire test of its SuperDraco engines in April 2019, causing further delays to launch of future Crew Dragon flights. The Boeing Orbital Flight Test and Boeing Crew Flight Test , which had both been delayed due to a failed test of Starliner's abort system, were further pushed without explanation from dates in early-to-mid 2019 to late 2019. Boeing conducted
9860-485: The mission. The Crew-8 mission was extended to accommodate problems encountered by the Boeing Crew Flight Test during its mission. The crew outfitted the Crew-8 capsule to accommodate two extra astronauts if an emergency occurred prior to Crew-9 docking on 29 September 2024. Crew-8 was the eighth SpaceX operational mission in the Commercial Crew Program and the 13th overall crewed orbital flight of
9976-613: The mouth of the Mississippi River and to colonize Louisiana which the English coveted. D'Iberville's fleet sailed from Brest on October 24, 1698. On January 25, 1699, d'Iberville reached Santa Rosa Island near Pensacola founded by the Spanish; he sailed from there to Mobile Bay and explored Massacre Island, later renamed Dauphin Island . He cast anchor between Cat Island and Ship Island ; and on February 13 he went to
10092-428: The north, are often referred to as the " Third Coast " of the United States (in addition to its Atlantic and Pacific coasts). The Gulf of Mexico took shape approximately 300 million years ago as a result of plate tectonics . The Gulf of Mexico basin is roughly oval in shape and is approximately 810 nautical miles (1,500 km; 930 mi) wide. Its floor consists of sedimentary rocks and recent sediments. It
10208-462: The oil. Cleanup operations were resumed after conditions became favorable. On May 27 the USGS had revised the estimate of the leak from 5,000 barrels per day (790 m /d) to 12,000–19,000 barrels per day (3,000 m /d) an increase from earlier estimates. On July 15 BP announced that the leak had stopped for the first time in 88 days. In July BP reached an $ 18.7bn settlement with the U.S. government,
10324-993: The orbital insertion burn, following separation from the Centaur upper stage during launch. Once in space, Starliner spacecraft can survive up to 60 hours in free flight. Unlike Crew Dragon, Starliner is designed to return to Earth on land instead of ocean, using airbags to cushion the vehicle's impact with the ground. Four sites in the western contiguous United States – the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah , Edwards Air Force Base in California , White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico , and Willcox Playa in Arizona – will serve as landing ranges for returning Starliner spacecraft, though in an emergency scenario, it
10440-403: The other type of spacecraft is grounded. On 31 August 2022, NASA awarded SpaceX with an additional 5 flights bringing the total number of contracted Crew Dragon flights to 14. The additional flights will run through 2030. The Crew-8 and Crew-9 missions were both modified in response to the unexpected need to support the crew of the Boeing Crew Flight Test (CFT), which visited ISS during
10556-555: The past three decades in the region. According to the September 11, 2006 issue of The Tampa Tribune , earthquake tremors were last felt in Florida in 1952, recorded in Quincy , 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Tallahassee . Cuba and Mexico: Exchange of notes constituting an agreement on the delimitation of the exclusive economic zone of Mexico in the sector adjacent to Cuban maritime areas (with map), of July 26, 1976. Cuba and United States: Maritime boundary agreement between
10672-496: The program. The Constellation program was officially cancelled in 2010, with NASA repurposing Orion for exploration beyond Earth, and collaborating with commercial partners for ISS crew rotation and other crewed activities in low Earth orbit following the retirement of the Space Shuttle program in 2011. This arrangement would additionally end NASA's dependency on Roscosmos ' Soyuz program to deliver its astronauts to
10788-416: The program; an extension to occupy a fifth seat is available to NASA. Both spacecraft are certified to last up to 210 days docked to the ISS. In addition, the spacecraft were designed to meet NASA's per-mission safety standard of a 1-in-270 chance of catastrophic failure , which is less risky than the 1-in-90 chance of the Space Shuttle. The spacecraft and the ISS have docking mechanisms that implement
10904-588: The protest, citing concerns for crewed operations of the ISS in the event of a delay to the Commercial Crew Program. The GAO declined Sierra Nevada's protest in January 2015, stating that evidence gathered by the GAO discredited Sierra Nevada's claims against NASA; Sierra Nevada accepted the decision. The company laid off 90 staff members working on the Dream Chaser following the CCtCap result, and repurposed
11020-474: The rate observed for the global ocean surface. The gulf is considered aseismic ; however, mild tremors have been recorded throughout history (usually 5.0 or less on the Richter magnitude scale ). Earthquakes may be caused by interactions between sediment loading on the sea floor and adjustment by the crust. On September 10, 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center reported that
11136-474: The salvage operation, when Alvarado arrived by sea on July 22, 1554. The team labored until September 12 to salvage the Padre Island treasure. This loss, in combination with other ship disasters around the Gulf of Mexico, gave rise to a plan for establishing a settlement on the northern Gulf Coast to protect shipping and more quickly rescue castaways. As a result, the expedition of Tristán de Luna y Arellano
11252-525: The second in 1519 under the command of Hernán Cortés , which led to the Spanish exploration, military invasion, and ultimately settlement and colonization known as the Conquest of Mexico . Hernández did not live to see the continuation of his work: he died in 1517, the year of his expedition, as the result of the injuries and the extreme thirst suffered during the voyage, and disappointed in the knowledge that Diego Velázquez had given precedence to Grijalva as
11368-458: The service module is expended during each flight. Various engines manufactured by Aerojet Rocketdyne for orbital maneuvering , attitude control , reaction control, and launch escape, are utilized by Starliner. Eight reaction control engines on the spacecraft's crew module and 28 reaction control engines on the spacecraft's service module provide 380 newtons (85 pounds-force) and 445 newtons (100 pounds-force) each, respectively. Also located on
11484-414: The service module, 20 custom-made Orbital Maneuvering and Attitude Control (OMAC) engines provide 6,700 newtons (1,500 pounds-force) of thrust each, while four RS-88 engines provide 178,000 newtons (40,000 pounds-force) of thrust each in a launch abort scenario. During a nominal flight without a launch abort, Starliner can use unspent fuel reserved for its RS-88 engines to help its OMAC engines perform
11600-499: The sole winners, with SpaceX receiving US$ 2.6 billion contract and Boeing a US$ 4.2 billion contract. Sierra Nevada filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in response, citing "serious questions and inconsistencies in the source selection process." The United States Court of Federal Claims upheld a decision to allow development of the Crew Dragon and Starliner to proceed during
11716-596: The space station. The background to this was that SpaceX was likely to launch its sixth flight in early 2023 potentially before Boeing's first operational flight, and NASA concluded that only SpaceX had the capability needed. NASA and Roscosmos have agreed to an annual seat-swapping agreement for three flights each. In 2022, 2023, and 2024, a Russian cosmonaut will fly on one Crew Dragon flight per year while an American astronaut will fly on one Soyuz flight per year. This arrangement ensures that ISS will have at least one crew member to operate essential services even if one or
11832-675: The spacecraft as a for-hire vehicle for commercial spaceflight. A cargo variant of the Dream Chaser would later be developed and selected by NASA to fly uncrewed resupply missions to the ISS under a Commercial Resupply Services 2 contract. While the first flights of Commercial Crew Program were originally intended to be launched by the end of 2017, Boeing announced in May 2016 that their first crewed flight would be delayed to 2018 due to problems integrating with Starliner's Atlas V N22 launch vehicle. In December 2016, SpaceX announced their first crewed flights would also be delayed to 2018, following
11948-409: The states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, as well as 400 local authorities. As of 2015 BP's cost for the clean-up, environmental and economic damages and penalties has reached $ 54bn. On May 12, 2016, a release of oil from subsea infrastructure on Shell's Brutus oil rig released 2,100 barrels of oil. This leak created a visible 2 by 13 miles (3.2 by 20.9 km) oil slick in
12064-560: The strongest ocean currents known, originates in the gulf as a continuation of the Caribbean Current –Yucatán Current– Loop Current system. Other circulation features include a permanent cyclonic gyre in the Bay of Campeche, as well as anticyclonic gyres which are shed by the Loop Current and travel westward where they eventually dissipate. The Bay of Campeche constitutes a major arm of the Gulf of Mexico. Additionally,
12180-705: The total to fourteen and the total contract value to $ 4.93 billion. The Commercial Crew Program uses the SpaceX Crew Dragon to shuttle astronauts to and from the ISS. The Boeing CST-100 Starliner will join it in this role after it is human-rated. Both spacecraft are automated but can be remotely controlled from the ground or manually controlled by their crew via touch screens in case of an emergency. The crew cabins of both spacecraft feature 11 cubic meters (390 cubic feet) of pressurized volume, and can be configured to carry up to seven crew each, though NASA will only send up to four crew on each mission in
12296-418: The vendor, and crew transportation is provided to NASA as a commercial service. Each mission sends up to four astronauts to the ISS. Operational flights occur approximately once every six months for missions that last for approximately six months. A spacecraft remains docked to the ISS during its mission, and missions usually overlap by at least a few days. Between the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011 and
12412-414: The wide continental shelves of Yucatán and Florida receive cooler, nutrient-enriched waters from the deep by a process known as upwelling , which stimulates plankton growth in the euphotic zone . This attracts fish, shrimp, and squid. River drainage and atmospheric fallout from industrial coastal cities also provide nutrients to the coastal zone. The Gulf Stream , a warm Atlantic Ocean current and one of
12528-574: Was a finalist, it was rejected due to concerns about the lack of detail in Alliant Techsystems's proposal. In December 2012, the three CCiCap winners were each given an additional USD$ 10 million in funding as the first of two series of "certification products contracts" (CPC) to allow for further testing, engineering standards, and design analysis to meet NASA's safety requirements for crewed spaceflight. The second CPC series manifested as Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap),
12644-462: Was claimed by BP that approximately 1,000 barrels (160 m ) of oil per day were issuing from the wellhead , about 1-mile (1.6 km) below the surface on the ocean floor. On April 29, the U.S. government revealed that approximately 5,000 barrels (790 m ) per day, five times the original estimate, were pouring into the gulf from the wellhead. The resulting oil slick quickly expanded to cover hundreds of square miles of ocean surface, posing
12760-537: Was declared a "high-visibility close call" by NASA following an independent review, and a second Orbital Flight Test (Boeing OFT-2) was scheduled for July 2021, with Boeing covering the cost of the flight in lieu of additional CCDev funding. Amid further uncertainties about the Commercial Crew Program's progress, NASA purchased a seat on the Soyuz MS-17 mission to ensure participation in Expedition 64 in
12876-460: Was delayed for several additional weeks due to poor weather conditions in the splashdown zones surrounding Florida caused by Hurricane Milton and several other storms. The cumulative delays caused Crew-8 to become the longest Dragon mission. Crew-8 undocked from the ISS on 23 October 2024 at 21:05 UTC. After a completing 3,760 orbits and traveling nearly 100 million miles (160 million kilometers), Endeavour began its entry back into
12992-555: Was involved during the latest Cretaceous and early Paleogene periods in a compressive deformation episode, the Laramide Orogeny , which created the Sierra Madre Oriental of eastern Mexico. In 2014, Erik Cordes of Temple University and others discovered a brine pool 3,300 feet (1,000 m) below the gulf's surface, with a circumference of 100 feet (30 m) and 12 feet (3.7 m) feet deep, which
13108-402: Was not covered by the sea until the latest Jurassic or the beginning of Cretaceous time. The Yucatán Platform was emergent until the mid-Cretaceous. After both platforms were submerged, the formation of carbonates and evaporites has characterized the geologic history of these two stable areas. Most of the basin was rimmed during the early Cretaceous by carbonate platforms, and its western flank
13224-514: Was sent and landed at Pensacola Bay on August 15, 1559. On December 11, 1526, Charles V granted Pánfilo de Narváez a license to claim what is now the Gulf Coast of the United States, known as the Narváez expedition . The contract gave him one year to gather an army, leave Spain, be large enough to found at least two towns of 100 people each, and garrison two more fortresses anywhere along
13340-483: Was still underway in September 2021 and launch was postponed indefinitely. This uncrewed test, Boeing Orbital Flight Test 2 , launched on 19 May 2022, and landed successfully on 25 May. On February 28, 2022, NASA announced that it had awarded three additional crew missions to SpaceX bringing the total crew missions for SpaceX to nine and the total contract value to $ 3,490,872,904. In September 2022, NASA announced yet another addition, this time of five missions, bringing
13456-482: Was stretched and thinned. This thinning created a broad zone of transitional crust, which displays modest and uneven thinning with block faulting and a broad zone of uniformly thinned transitional crust, which is half the typical 40- kilometer (25 mi ) thickness of continental crust. It was at this time that rifting first created a connection to the Pacific Ocean across central Mexico and later eastward to
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