The Federal Aviation Administration has approved the launch of the Falcon 9 as part of the European Space Agency’s Hera asteroid mission, but has kept the vehicle grounded for other missions for now. The FAA said Oct. 6 it had cleared the Falcon 9 to return to flight exclusively for the Hera mission, which is scheduled to launch Oct. 7 at the earliest from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The vehicle was aborted during the Crew-9 launch on September 28 due to an anomaly that occurred during the second stage deorbit.

“The FAA has determined that no reentry for this mission sufficiently reduces the baseline risk to the public in the event of a repeat of the accident that occurred during the Crew-9 mission,” the agency said. The second stage will place Hera in an orbit far from Earth, so it will not be able to re-enter.

However, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) does not allow other Falcon 9 missions in which the second stage descends from orbit, he added. “Safety determines the timeline for when the FAA will complete its review of the SpaceX Crew-9 accident investigation report and when the agency will allow the Falcon 9 to return to normal operations,” the statement said.

SpaceX completed this accident report and submitted it to the FAA on October 4. The FAA said the Falcon 9 was approved for “only one mission,” the same-day launch of Hera.

ESA officials said at the Oct. 2 briefing that preparations for the launch of Hera were continuing even as the Falcon 9 was grounded to ensure the mission was ready for launch as soon as possible after the FAA approved the launch. The €363 million ($401 million) mission will head to asteroid Didymos and its moon Dimorphos, which were the target of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirect Mission two years ago.

The FAA’s announcement came shortly after a briefing by Hera project officials, including project manager Ian Carnelli, confirming that the FAA had cleared SpaceX to proceed with the launch. SpaceX was completing integration of the vehicle and the rocket was scheduled to be brought to the pad for a launch readiness inspection later in the evening.

The launch is scheduled for October 7 at 10:52 a.m. ET. “The final hurdle is weather conditions,” he said. The Space Force’s 45th Airborne Squadron’s forecast calls for just 15% of acceptable weather conditions for the immediate launch window on October 7th. “That’s the one thing I really can’t control.”

Further complicating these plans is Hurricane Milton, which formed in the Gulf of Mexico and quickly reached hurricane status. The storm is moving east toward Florida and is expected to become a major hurricane when it makes landfall on October 9.

The hurricane will almost certainly delay another major launch, NASA’s Europa Clipper aboard the SpaceX Falcon Heavy at Kennedy Space Center, currently scheduled for October 10. Although the nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station had begun preparations for the hurricane, NASA had not announced any changes to launch plans as of noon on October 7.

Hera’s launch date is October 27, while Europa Clipper may be released as late as November 6. If Hera remains in the first launch pipeline, NASA has asked it to do so no later than 48 hours before the planned Europa Clipper launch to allow time to review the data.

Hurricane Milton is also delaying the crew’s return from the International Space Station. NASA had planned to launch the Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-8 mission from the station on October 7 for a landing off the coast of Florida, but delayed that to October 8 and then to October 10. NASA said it would next check the Crew Plans for landing at -8. 8 October. Three astronauts from the Crew-8 mission have been on the station since early March.