When NASA astronauts 49-year-old Bob Behnken and 53-year-old Doug Hurely launch on Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39A atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft tomorrow, 48-year-old SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk will make history. No private company in the history of human space-flight has produced its own rocket and spaceship, fulfilling Musk’s dream when he founded SpaceX May 6, 2002. While it seems like 18 long years, it’s been a brief blip in space business compared to NASA when the U.S. geared up its space program Oct. 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik 1 into space. Four years later, 27-year-old Soviet test pilot Yuri Gagarin was launched into space April 12, 1961 on Vostok 1, a distant descendant of Russia’s current Soyuz spacecraft. Tomorrow Musk etches himself in U.S. space history when Crew Dragon lifts from Cape Kennedy..
Musk’s SpaceX joins a long NASA tradition of manned space operations beginning May 5, 1961 when test pilot Alan Shepard’s Mercury Redstone 3 spacecraft lifted off at Cape Canaveral, spending 15 minutes, 27 seconds in space before splashing down off the Florida Coast with President John F. Kennedy looking on. Shepard went on to a distinguished NASA career, commanding the Jan. 31, 1971 Apollo 14 flight to the moon, a year-and-a-half after astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon for the first time July 20, 1969. What made NASA so special was its forward-thinking spacecraft designs, evolving from Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and finally the Space Shuttle program. When the Space Shuttle Atlantis landed July 21, 2011, NASA hit a brick wall, having no replacement vehicle other that concept plans for an Orion spacecraft somewhere in a murky future.
Let there be no mistake, Musk has saved the U.S. space program with $2.5 billion in grants from NASA, which, by the way, awarded Boeing Space Systems $4.5 billion to develop the Starliner CST-100 spacecraft to also ferry U.S. astronauts to the ISS. With its Dec. 20, 2019 software failure for an unmanned test flight, there’s no telling when Boeing will get back in the game. What’s known now is that Musk has pulled off the near impossible feat of developing the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule capable of ferrying seven astronauts to the ISS or to other destinations like the moon. NASA calls tomorrow’s flight Demo-2, after Musk successfully sent a dummy inside the Crew Dragon to dock with the ISS Feb. 25, 2019. Over one year later, it’s all systems go for Behnken and Hurley to go back to space aboard a U.S. spacecraft. No more national humiliation paying the Russians $86 million a seat on Soyuz.
Musk knew when he founded SpaceX that NASA had no more rabbits under its hat, no more new spaceships in the works for the foreseeable future. It took 18 years to get to this point for Musk, who, at the time, was a 31-year-old Internet entrepreneur with big ideas and a drive like no other. “Our country has been through a lot. But this is a unique moment where all of America can take a moment and look at our country to do something stunning again,” said NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine today. When Bridenstine says, “our country has been through a lot,” is he referring to the coronavirus AKA SARS CoV-2 or Covid-19 national crisis? Or is he referring to the nine long years since the U.S. returned to manned space operations? Bridenstine delivered some mixed messages today, saying how proud we should all be as Americans, watching the space program get back on its feet.
Bridenstine, as NASA chief, finds himself in an awkward position because the Demo-2 Crew Dragon flight tomorrow is all about SpaceX and Elon Musk, not NASA. “This is a unique opportunity to bring all America together in one moment in time and say, ‘Look at how bright the future is.” That ‘s what this launch is all about,” Bridenstine said, again, not sure about his message. Yes, hardcore space watchers will be glued to the TV tomorrow, since social-distancing from the coronavirus prevents the kinds of large crowds watching this momentous launch. Does Bridenstine’s statement reflect the country’s degree of polarization during an election year? Or, is Bridenstine saying we all should take great pride in America returning to manned space operations? Because if that’s the case, the credit should go to SpaceX and Elon Musk for pulling off an unprecedented feat for a private space company.
No one knows how long Demo-2 will last, not knowing when astronauts Behnken and Hurley will finish their mission on the ISIS, somewhere between six weeks and four months. Bridenstine sees Demo-2 Crew Dragon as a test flight, getting ready for the next mission Crew-1 with NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi. When that happens, assuming that Demo-2 goes smoothly, the next Crew Dragon mission will take about six-and-a-half months. Bridenstine said it was NASA’s long-term plan to contract space vehicles out to private companies like SpaceX and Boeing. Bridesntine has big plans for NASA’s Artemis Program, landing astronauts on the South side of the moon by 2024, leaving it up to Musk or Boeing to come up with the next space vehicle. Without admitting it, NASA no longer builds spaceships.
