SpaceX astronaut mission looking 'increasingly difficult' in 2019
As Elon Musk’s SpaceX closes in on the
possible cause of a fiery explosion in April that destroyed one of its
astronaut capsules, a company executive said on Monday its plan to launch
humans into space this year looked “increasingly difficult.” One of the space company’s Crew Dragon capsules exploded
on a test stand at a Florida Air Force station moments before firing eight
emergency abort thrusters designed to propel an on-board crew to safety in the
event of a failure.
Crew Dragon was slated earlier this year to
carry U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station in a first manned test
mission in July, although that date slipped until November following the
explosion and some other hitches in the vehicle’s design.
Monday’s comments were a fresh sign that the
schedule could slip into 2020.
“I’m pretty optimistic at this point in time
because we have a good path forward,” Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX’s vice president
of Build & Flight Reliability told reporters on a conference call as the
company provided fresh details from the investigation.
“But like I said, still not quite done. My
emphasis is really on making sure this is safe ... By the end of this year, I
don’t think it’s impossible, but it’s getting increasingly difficult.”
SpaceX said its accident investigation was
pointing to a leaky valve as the likely cause of the April explosion.
NASA is paying SpaceX $2.6 billion and Boeing
Co $4.2 billion to build rocket and capsule launch systems to return astronauts
to the International Space Station from U.S. soil for the first time since
America’s Space Shuttle program went dark in 2011.
Koenigsmann, who sits on an investigative
board convened by SpaceX just after the April explosion, said the probe is
nearing completion and that the space company will need to make some changes to
Crew Dragon’s design before it can be trusted to send humans to space.
SpaceX said evidence shows that a leaking
check valve allowed nitrogen tetroxide (NTO) to enter high-pressure helium
tubes during the April test. “The failure of the titanium component in a
high-pressure NTO environment was sufficient to cause ignition of the check
valve and led to an explosion,” SpaceX said on its website.
Steps were being taken to reduce such risks
within the launch escape system, the company said. This includes replacing
check valves, which typically allow liquid to flow in only one direction, with
so-called burst disks that seal completely until opened by high pressure, it
said.