With SpaceX gearing up for its first scheduled unmanned test flight of the Crew Dragon capsule on March 2, NASA’s safety advisory panel cited four “key risk items” in its 2018 annual report earlier this month.
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SpaceX is being paid $2.6 billion and Boeing $4.2 billion to build a rocket and capsule launch system for NASA to return astronauts to space from American soil for the first time since the U.S. Space Shuttle program ended in 2011.
The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), an advisory committee that reports to NASA and Congress, issued its 2018 annual report Friday, February 8. “There are serious challenges to the current launch schedules for both SpaceX and Boeing,” the report said.
For Boeing, one of the risks cited is their capsule’s structural vulnerability when the heat shield is deployed. For SpaceX, the explosion of the Falcon 9 rocket on the launch pad in 2016 was again cited — with concerns over the redesign of the rocket canister and its “load and go” process of fueling the rocket with the crew already inside the capsule.
Parachute performance issues were mentioned for both companies as being a risk. While the concerns mentioned would be serious enough, two people with direct knowledge of the program told Reuters that the space agency’s concerns go beyond the four items listed.
There is apparently a “risk ledger” that as of early February, contained about 30 to 35 notes on technical concerns that still are raising questions. Reuters could not verify what all the listed items are, but the sources said that SpaceX and Boeing must address most of the problems before flying astronauts into space.
The risk database or “risk ledger” is routinely used by NASA as part of its certification process, which includes data collection, tests, and collaboration with SpaceX and Boeing, the sources said.
NASA spokesman Joshua Finch deferred all technical questions on Boeing and SpaceX systems to the companies – citing confidentiality. He did say, “Flying safely always takes precedence over schedule,” according to CNBC.
Boeing spokesman Josh Barrett said, “Our numbers show we are exceeding NASA’s safety requirements.” In turn, SpaceX spokesman James Gleeson said the company – while working with NASA has developed “one of the safest, most-advanced human spaceflight systems ever built.”
“There is nothing more important to SpaceX than safely flying crew,” said Gleeson, calling it “core to our company’s long-term goal of enabling access for people who dream of flying to space.”
