A close encounter with NASA last week revealed an agency slowly but successfully transitioning to a leaner, science- and exploration-oriented entity. NASA seems to have shaken off its vulnerability to poor decisions made for them by political manipulation, and seems more resistant to budget-devouring black hole projects of the past. How this change came about seems largely the result of budget constraints. But other factors whisper through the quiet swamps at Kennedy Space Center: a tumultuous decade of economic expansion/contraction, canceled and massaged follow-up programs to the aging shuttle, and back to back successes in unmanned programs during a window of no manned U.S. access to space.
This reporter was fortunate to witness just one example of this new direction: the SpaceX CRS-2 launch, which occurred on schedule March 1st. Destination: International Space Station (ISS), where six astronauts currently are working. The launch of this second Commercial Resupply (CRS-2) mission to the International Space Station was not by a government agency, but by SpaceX, a private company based in Hawthorne, California.
SpaceX was founded by billionaire Elon Musk in 2002. The company created an entirely new rocket, rocket engine, capsule, and software and guidance systems in less than ten years — all of which are made in the U.S. The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket that launched on March 1 is 150’ tall, man-rated, and so compact the rocket and launch tower are shipped to Kennedy Space Center from California on a flat-bed truck. The March 1 launch occurred at Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 40, a few miles down the beach from the famous launch pad 39, where the Saturn V and Space Shuttle launched for decades.
The SpaceX Falcon rocket hoisted a capsule known as “Dragon” to the Space Station. Dragon is designed to carry 4-7 astronauts, but is currently used only for cargo. SpaceX has contracted with NASA for 12 resupply missions to the ISS at a price tag around $130 million per launch. (That price will fall dramatically when — or if — NASA allows capsules to be re-used.)
Unlike the first SpaceX resupply mission to ISS in October 2012 (known as CRS-1), last week’s trip into space on the Falcon 9 rocket was flawless (an engine practically disintegrated on CRS-1, but the rocket still made it to orbit). This was the fifth of five successful launches of the Falcon 9 rocket: no easy feat in the early days of a rocket’s design.
The flawless execution of the rocket wasn’t really the climax of the launch; the problems encountered afterward with the Dragon capsule and the fast decision-making by SpaceX engineers captured headlines. A number of things ‘went wrong’ after the capsule detached from the rocket’s second stage: the solar panel covers did not eject; a number of thrusters wouldn’t fire. The amazing part is it seems everything was corrected in minutes or hours.
This trip to the ISS will deliver a few hundred kilograms of supplies and also carry some experiments. The Dragon will stay attached to ISS for three weeks, be loaded with older experiments and trash, then maneuvered to a splashdown off Baja, California. Like all Dragon capsules, this one is re-usable. It will be stored for a potential customer in the future.
The visit to Kennedy Space Center was much more revealing than just the ignition of the Falcon’s 9 engines, however. In Part 2, the Shuttle’s legacy and how it has affected the next twenty years at NASA will be examined.
