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A NASA safety panel warned SpaceX to focus on crew safety for its commercial trips to the International Space Station (ISS) after four astronauts were recently hospitalized.
During a meeting of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel on Thursday, Kent Rominger, a former astronaut and member of the committee, highlighted a series of recent anomalies with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and its Dragon crew capsule, SpaceNews reported. SpaceX has been NASA’s trusted partner for years, launching nine crews to the ISS on largely reliable hardware. The recent anomalies, however, might be the result of the company’s commitment to launching missions at an increasingly faster pace and to maintain its lead in the industry.
“When you look at these recent incidents over the last handful of weeks, it does lead one say that it’s apparent that operating safely requires significant attention to detail as hardware ages and the pace of operations increases,” Rominger is quoted as saying. “Both NASA and SpaceX need to maintain focus on safe Crew Dragon operations and not take any ‘normal’ operations for granted.”
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 recently returned from the ISS, riding on board a Dragon spacecraft. Following the spacecraft’s splashdown off the coast of Florida on Friday, all four astronauts were transported to a hospital and one crew member was kept for an overnight stay. NASA did not release any further information about why the crew was hospitalized or whether it was related to the Dragon splashdown.
SpaceX’s trusty Falcon 9 rocket has also suffered a few missteps this year. The Falcon 9 rocket launched the Crew-9 mission on September 28, transporting NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to the ISS aboard the Dragon crew capsule. On its way down to land in the ocean, the rocket’s upper stage experienced an off-nominal deorbit burn that caused it to miss its targeted splashdown zone.
The incident prompted SpaceX to ground its rocket for the third time in less than three months. In July, the rocket was unable to deliver its payload of satellites to orbit due to an upper stage malfunction. The incident grounded the rocket until an investigation into the failed flight concluded around two weeks later, pinpointing an oxygen leak as the reason behind the engine malfunction. A month later, the rocket’s booster returned to Earth to perform a landing on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean after delivering 21 Starlink satellites to orbit when it toppled over once it reached the droneship and broke apart, igniting a large fire. The incident prompted the FAA to ground the rocket but Falcon 9 was back to launching Starlink satellites three days later.
It’s rather unusual for Falcon 9, an industry favorite, to suffer anomalies. Falcon 9 has had a nearly flawless run since its debut in 2010, but SpaceX may be working its rocket a little too hard. SpaceX is aiming for a record-breaking 148 launches of its Falcon 9 rocket this year, topping the 98 missions of 2023.
During the safety panel discussion, former astronaut Rominger urged both NASA and SpaceX to “guard against letting the high pace of operations [cloud] their judgment” and to ensure that “the appropriate level of attention to detail and appropriate time and resources are dedicated” to thoroughly understanding root causes and implementing corrective actions, according to SpaceNews.
As the industry favorite, SpaceX faces significant pressure to keep up with the accelerating pace of commercial spaceflight, especially given founder and CEO Elon Musk’s sometimes overly ambitious goals and timelines. The company may need to slow down to assess recent malfunctions and prioritize safety moving forward.
