By Andy Pasztor
Elon Musk's SpaceX will try again this weekend to launch NASA
astronauts into orbit, days after stormy weather forced it to scrub
a historic flight showcasing industry-government collaboration to
explore the heavens.
If Mother Nature cooperates, and preparations proceed as
smoothly as they did Wednesday, the 230-foot Falcon 9 rocket is
scheduled to lift off at 3:22 p.m. ET Saturday from Florida's
Kennedy Space Center, sending veteran astronauts Bob Behnken and
Doug Hurley toward the international space station circling 250
miles above the Earth.
Before heading to the pad, the astronauts had a final chance to
wave at family members as the two of them left a crew facility and
rode to the pad in a white, electric-powered sedan festooned with
NASA logos and built by Tesla Inc., another of Mr. Musk's
companies. Roughly three hours before liftoff, Messrs. Behnken and
Hurley entered the capsule, settled into their places, donned their
seat restraints and eventually the hatch was sealed behind
them.
Less than an hour before scheduled liftoff, SpaceX flight
controllers declared the mission was "go for launch," and fuel
started loading about 35 minutes before launch.
A successful liftoff and ascent of the Crew Dragon will propel
the crew and the country into a new era of corporate-driven space
endeavors. National Aeronautics and Space Administration chief Jim
Bridenstine has described the mission as "a herculean task by the
SpaceX team, which we are very grateful for, and also by the NASA
team that has been working hand-in-glove with them."
The NASA chief alluded to multiple technical challenges and
setbacks that have delayed the project and said SpaceX had adopted
a different, more-nimble strategy than NASA's traditional approach
of seeking to avoid test failures. "They test, they fail, they fix,
they fly," he said, adding that NASA was satisfied with the safety
of the rocket along with the spacecraft on top of it.
During a chat with the crew as they were donning spacesuits, Mr.
Bridenstine said the astronauts were joking with each other.
"They're trained. They're ready, but they're also loose."
Wednesday's countdown played out without a hitch until roughly
17 minutes before the scheduled blastoff. The launch was called off
because of rain and the potential for lightning strikes, with the
crew praising the ground staff for getting the craft ready.
President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are expected to
watch Saturday's activities at Launch Complex 39A again. Mr. Trump
exited the White House shortly after noon to head to Florida. "I
think I have an obligation to be there," he said.
Forecasts are indicating only about a 50-50 chance of acceptable
weather conditions. Sunday would be the next alternate launch date,
with early forecasts showing a likelihood of somewhat improved
conditions.
More than two hours before launch, with dark, towering clouds
starting to build near the pad and rain starting to fall, Mr.
Bridenstine said weather was still an issue, but NASA wanted to see
if the clouds and rain eventually would move enough away to allow a
launch.
With thunderstorms common in Florida in May, the NASA chief said
it wasn't likely that "in a couple of days it's going to be any
better." Still, he said, another delay is possible. "We cannot
forget this is a test flight," Mr. Bridenstine said Friday. "We
will go when everything is as safe as we can possibly make it."
Rain and high-level wind pose hazards for rockets as they leave
the ground and rumble through the atmosphere, and SpaceX crews also
monitor weather at various emergency landing sites the crew might
need to use in case the capsule's abort system kicks in to separate
it from a malfunctioning rocket.
Weeks of media buildup have included a host of interviews with
NASA brass and senior leaders of Space Exploration Technologies
Corp., the formal name of Mr. Musk's closely held space company,
based in Southern California. They have all stressed the
significance of a mission intended to end a nine-year period
without a human launch from U.S. soil.
Shortly before the mission was scrubbed Wednesday, Mr. Musk said
about the scheduled launch, "This is not something I ever thought
would actually happen."
SpaceX's founder and chief engineer recalled when the company
started 18 years ago as a tiny startup dismissed by government and
industry experts. Mr. Musk said he expected a "90% chance we'd fail
to even get to low-Earth orbit with a small rocket." It took the
company four tries to make that happen.
Mr. Musk said that if someone had described SpaceX eventually
being on the cusp of becoming the first company to launch
astronauts beyond the atmosphere, "I would have thought. 'Man, I
don't know what you're smoking.'"
SpaceX experienced a setback Friday when a prototype spaceship
using next-generation rocket technology exploded during an apparent
ground test in Texas. There were no reports of injuries, and the
hardware was different from the Falcon 9 rocket being used in
Saturday's planned launch. It is the fourth similar testing problem
and highlights the trial-and-error process in developing
sophisticated vehicles.
A successful launch Saturday would mean NASA astronauts won't
have to piggyback on Russian rockets and spacecraft, as they have
since the aging U.S. space-shuttle fleet was retired nine years
ago. Looking ahead, NASA and White House officials envision
emphasizing deep-space exploration as part of a commitment to
relying on similar corporate-government teams. Those would include
company-led endeavors, with relatively limited federal oversight,
taking astronauts to the moon as soon as 2024 and later to Mars or
beyond.
Some longtime NASA watchers see the current mission as a crucial
steppingstone, perhaps as significant in some ways as the Gemini
missions of the mid-1960s that paved the way for the Apollo moon
landings. But this time, making the government "a customer rather
than operator is as astonishing as it is bold for NASA," said Mark
Albrecht, a former White House space adviser and retired senior
industry executive. "NASA will take the blame for failure and allow
SpaceX to receive most of the glory of success."
Beyond the policy changes and revamped contracting arrangements,
the sheer promise of accelerating human space exploration excites
many government and industry officials. Nothing generates as much
pride as adding humans to the equation.
"When you put an astronaut on top of a rocket, that changes
everything," Air Force Gen. John Hyten, a longtime space expert and
vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a White House
space-policy council.
The Crew Dragon capsule, featuring automation supplemented by
touch-screen controls similar to those found on the dashboards of
electric cars, has suffered a series of setbacks, including balky
oxygen generators, malfunctioning thrusters and problematic
parachutes. After its planned launch Saturday, the capsule is
slated to stay at the international space station for around two
months. If all goes well, including the return trip that ends with
a splashdown in the Atlantic, NASA hopes for swift approval of
SpaceX's systems as space taxis that would ferry crews to and from
orbit.
"Human space flight is really, really tough," said Benji Reed,
director of crew mission management at SpaceX. As company and NASA
engineers work together to identify and alleviate risks, he said,
"we are all holding each other accountable."
Boeing Co. has developed a rival capsule, the Starliner, which
has struggled with its own technical challenges and might make a
test flight later in the year without astronauts.
NASA has invested more than $7 billion of taxpayer money so far
in SpaceX and Boeing efforts to resume astronaut liftoffs from U.S.
soil. The agency's Mr. Bridenstine sees a successful launch as
recasting the path for America, other nations and industry to reach
space.
U.S. astronauts "need to have the capability of accessing space,
not just for NASA but for all of humanity," he has said.
Write to Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 30, 2020 15:06 ET (19:06 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.