Experts concerned by SpaceX plan to fuel
rockets with people aboard
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[November 02, 2016]
By Irene Klotz
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A proposal
by Elon Musk's SpaceX to fuel its rockets while astronauts are aboard
poses safety risks, a group of space industry experts that advises NASA
has told the U.S. space agency.
"This is a hazardous operation," Space Station Advisory Committee
Chairman Thomas Stafford, a former NASA astronaut and retired Air Force
general, said during a conference call on Monday.
Stafford said the group's concerns were heightened after an explosion of
an unmanned SpaceX rocket while it was being fueled on Sept. 1.
Causes of that explosion remain under investigation.
Members of the eight-member group, including veterans of NASA's Gemini,
Apollo and space shuttle programs, noted that all previous rockets
carrying people into space were fueled before astronauts got to the
launch pad.
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"Everybody there, and particularly the people who had experience over
the years, said nobody is ever near the pad when they fuel a booster,"
Stafford said, referring to an earlier briefing the group had about
SpaceX's proposed fueling procedure.
SpaceX needs NASA approval of its launch system before it can put
astronauts into space.
NASA said on Tuesday it was "continuing its evaluation of the SpaceX
concept for fueling the Falcon 9 for commercial crew launches. The
results of the company's Sept. 1 mishap investigation will be
incorporated into NASA's evaluation."
SpaceX said it is developing its human launch operations "hand-in-hand"
with NASA and has spent 18 months identifying potential hazards and how
to handle them.
SpaceX, owned and run by technology entrepreneur and Tesla Motors Inc
CEO Musk, said it would re-evaluate its fueling system and launch
processes depending on results of the accident investigation.
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![](../images/110216PICS/news_m19.jpg)
The recovered first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is transported
to the SpaceX hangar at launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center
in Cape Canaveral, Florida May 14, 2016. REUTERS/Joe Skipper
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On Friday, SpaceX said it believes a fueling system issue caused a
pressurized container of helium inside the rocket’s upper stage to burst
on Sept. 1, triggering a fireball that destroyed the booster and a $200
million Israeli communications satellite it was to carry.
SpaceX uses extremely cold liquid propellants loaded just prior to
blastoff to increase the rocket's power so it can fly back to Earth and
be reused.
SpaceX's passenger spaceships, expected to begin flying in 2018, will be
outfitted with an emergency escape system that can fly the capsule away
from a failing rocket before or during launch.
NASA, which retired its shuttles in 2011, hired SpaceX and Boeing Co to
fly crews to the space station. Until then, astronauts have been flying
on Russian Soyuz capsules, at a cost exceeding $70 million per person.
(Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by David Gregorio)
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