If everything goes according to plan, this mission is not only the first time to send astronauts from the United States to the International Space Station after nearly a decade, but also the first time that a private company has sent humans to the International Space Station.
Editor’s note: This article is from Tencent Technology , author Jiao Han.
【Key points】
On May 27th, Eastern Time, SpaceX plans to send two NASA senior astronauts from the Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station. This is the company ’s biggest test since its establishment in 2002.
SpaceX and NASA both said that after years of hard work and testing, they are ready to implement the launch plan as scheduled. This mission will be the first time a private company will put humans into orbit.
At present, at least half of SpaceX ’s engineers work from home, and those who come to the factory need to maintain a social distance; NASA officials urge all but the necessary personnel to stay at home to perform tasks.
In 2008, NASA awarded SpaceX a contract worth $ 1.6 billion. Musk was very grateful and even changed the login password to “ilovenasa”.
In October last year, NASA Director Bridenstine was dissatisfied with Musk ’s excessive effort on the interstellar spacecraft. Musk then took Bridenstein to visit SpaceX headquarters, alleviating his concerns.
This company should not have succeeded. Even the founder gave odds that few gamblers would accept-one-tenth.
Elon Mskusk) The basic logic of friends and family is that private entrepreneurs without experience in aerospace should not start a rocket company. However, Muskly decided to go all out and decided to go all out, investing about 100 million US dollars to start SpaceX.
As a result, SpaceX has become one of the most incredible stories in American corporate history. The combination of disruption, failure, and victory has transformed the company from a vibrant startup into an industry giant with approximately 7,000 employees.
SpaceX is now facing its biggest test since its establishment in 2002. On May 27, California-based SpaceX plans to remove two senior astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley from NASA ’s Kennedy Space Center. The launch pad was sent to the International Space Station. That year, the astronauts on the Apollo 11 mission landed on the moon from here.
Bob Behnken, Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida Trying on spacesuits
If everything goes according to plan, this mission will undoubtedly become a milestone moment in human space exploration: the first time a private company will put humans into orbit. The two astronauts will use SpaceX rockets and manned spacecraft to the International Space Station, marking the end of the era of government-led space exploration and an important step in the privatization of the space industry. In addition, this will also be a victory for SpaceX against competitor Boeing. As another company dedicated to sending NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, the research and development of Boeing manned spacecraft is struggling.
Inside the training cabin of SpaceX ’s manned dragon spaceship
However, if SpaceXThe failure of the manned flight mission will undoubtedly also be a tragic setback. It will have a negative impact on NASA’s plan to resume manned space flight from the United States and exacerbate criticism that NASA should not outsource such sacred missions to the private sector.
This test flight will also be the result of years of hard work by SpaceX and NASA, aimed at ending the past situation in which the United States had to rely on Russia to send astronauts to the International Space Station. Since the space shuttle retired, the United States has no way to put its astronauts into orbit. NASA has to rely on Russia to send Americans into space. This fact undoubtedly embarrassed NASA. But if SpaceX succeeds, this disadvantage may soon be over.
Driven by this goal, SpaceX and NASA have become a pair of strange partners: one is a government agency that has been established for 62 years, and one is a young company that has only been established for more than ten years and often regards failure as a learning tool. Sometimes the relationship between the two institutions is also tense. In 2015, during SpaceX’s cargo mission on the International Space Station, its Falcon 9 rocket exploded; a year later, a company’s Falcon 9 rocket exploded again during engine testing on the launch pad.
Last year, the same manned dragon spacecraft that sent astronauts to the International Space Station exploded while testing the launch suspension system.
But now, when they are preparing to send the astronauts to the International Space Station for the first time, both NASA and SpaceX have stated that they have conducted a detailed investigation and actively remedied past failures. Last year, SpaceX successfully completed the test mission of the manned dragon spacecraft without carrying astronauts. Earlier this year, the company completed the test of the launch suspension system, which can send astronauts to a safe place in an emergency. This is a function that the space shuttle did not have before.
Bernken and Hurley said in an interview with the media in January that NASA and SpaceX perfectly tested the launch suspension System
SpaceX and NASA both said that after years of hard work and testing, they are almost completely ready to implement the launch plan as scheduled. The teams from both sides started the launch preparation review last Thursday, and announced on Friday that they will implement the launch at 4:33 PM EST on May 27th. Of course, problems such as bad weather, last-minute mechanical failure, etc. may still postpone the issueShooting plan.
Ready
SpaceX and NASA are “working hard to get equipment and facilities ready,” Kathy Lueders, head of NASA’s commercial manned programs, said at a recent press conference. She said that these teams “are reviewing all the elements to ensure that we are ready to complete this important task safely”. “This is a meticulous job. I think we can do it.”
Even under ideal circumstances, manned space missions are a dangerous and risky attempt, but doing this work during the SpaceX and NASA outbreaks adds even more difficulty to missions that cannot be mistaken. Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, said that at least half of the company’s engineers work from home. She said that those who come to the factory are maintaining a certain social distance. NASA officials urged everyone except the necessary personnel to stay at home to perform tasks.
For a successful rocket launch, “a million things must be done,” Shortville likes to say so. “As long as something goes wrong, it will be a particularly bad day.”
She said at a recent press conference that everyone at SpaceX is aware of the stakes.
In June 2018, Bainken trained at the Kennedy Space Center
“As far as my team is concerned, they don’t need to be reminded of the importance of everyone’s work in this task,” she said.
As for herself, she gestured her hand under her chin and said, “My heart is here. I think it will stay in my throat until we safely return Bob and Doug to the earth.”
NASA lost 14 crew members in the tragedy of the “Challenger” and “Columbia” space shuttle crashes. At that time, it was completely unimaginable that NASA would entrust the astronauts ’lives to a private space company like SpaceX that saved money.
impossible success
SpaceX almost died in the early days of its establishment. After three consecutive rocket launch failuresAs Musk’s pockets were hollowed out, the company went bankrupt. Fortunately, in 2008, the company’s fourth rocket launch was successful, putting a simulated satellite into orbit, and was rescued from the cliff by NASA. A few months later, NASA awarded SpaceX a $ 1.6 billion contract to deliver equipment and materials for the International Space Station. After overcoming financial difficulties, Musk was very grateful for this, and even changed the login password to “ilovenasa”.
Previously, Boeing and Lockheed Martin monopolized the Pentagon launch contract for ten years. But Musk changed all that. SpaceX sued the US Air Force, and finally the two parties reached a settlement agreement that allowed SpaceX to compete in a launch contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Reusable rockets have long been dreams of spaceflight, and SpaceX has finally turned them into reality. This success also validates the company’s struggle: set an almost impossible goal, experience a series of failures, and then usher in almost impossible success.
SpaceX also benefited greatly from the era.
Musk rekindled people ’s interest in space exploration, leading the continuous growth of the commercial space industry
In 2010, the then US President Barack Obama canceled the “Constellation program” to achieve another manned moon landing. The “constellation plan” has far exceeded the budget and is several years behind the original plan. The space shuttle program at that time was nearing completion. Therefore, NASA can only hope that private organizations provide manned space services for astronauts. However, many people are not optimistic about this decision.
“Someday, it will be like commercial air travel, but it won’t work right now,” Mike Griffin, the former NASA director, said at the time. “It’s like 1920. Lindbergh hadn’t flown across the Atlantic and wanted to sell Boeing 747 to Pan American Airlines.”
Garrett Reisman, a former NASA astronaut, entered SpaceX during this period. He found that people had a very wrong view of the company.
He recalled in a recent interview: “People generally believe that this isA group of guys who don’t know what they are doing. “In fact, this is not a group of playboys living in the basement of their parents and fantasizing about making rockets.” This is a truly large-scale operation and is impressive. “
Since its establishment, SpaceX has rekindled people’s interest in space exploration, leading the continuous growth of the commercial space industry. Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin) and Richard Branson (Richard Branson) ‘s Virgin Galactic (Virgin Galactic) are also participants.
At the end of 2018, Virgin Galactic sent two test pilots to bring their aircraft to an altitude of just over 50 miles from the ground, exceeding the space start point defined by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This was a straight journey without orbit, but it was the first manned space flight in the United States since the end of the space shuttle era.
Virgin Galactic, founded by Branson, wants tourists to travel to and from space on a regular basis, and he knows how difficult this adventure is. In order to achieve this goal, Virgin Galactic must overcome a failure that occurred during the test flight of the SpaceShipTwo in 2014, which resulted in the death of a test pilot.
“I have great respect for Musk and the SpaceX team’s achievements in such a short period of time,” Branson said in a recent statement. “My tribute seems a bit exaggerated, but I know the huge challenges facing subversion of manned spaceflight in the 21st century, and the great satisfaction brought about by achieving each successful goal. Although there are many setbacks and pains, these breakthroughs are already in Change our relationship with the universe. “
Mark Cuban, the host of the reality show “Shark Tank”, expressed great expectations for Musk. He said, “Dream is simple and difficult to achieve, but Musk has done it.”
Growth troubles
Sometimes the relationship between SpaceX and NASA becomes tense. In 2018, Musk publicly smoked marijuana on a live webcast. This behavior angered NASA executives and ordered a safety review of the company.
U.S. President Trump appointed former Republican Congressman Jim Bridenstine from Oklahoma as NASA director in 2017. Last October, Bridensting was very dissatisfied with Musk, thinking that Musk did not fully focus on how to get NASA astronauts into space, but put too much energy into his own new generation of interstellar spacecraft. Bridenstine publicly condemned Musk on Twitter, writing that NASA “hopes to see the same in American taxpayer investmentsPassion. It’s time to make a mess. “
In 2018, the Falcon 9 rocket will go to the International Space Station to perform supply missions
After that, Musk took Bridenstein to visit SpaceX headquarters and eased his concerns. Bridenstine said at the time: “I think we had not reached a consensus a few weeks ago.” But now we have reached 100% consensus. “
SpaceX always looks aggressive. Traditional people in the industry often laugh at the company’s public failure as a reckless performance. However, SpaceX sees this failure as a growth annoyance that needs to be overcome.
“If there is a test project, but nothing happens during the test, I would say it is not strict enough,” Musk said last year. “If there really isn’t an explosion on the test bench, I think you haven’t tested enough. You have to push the limits.”
One of Musk ’s goals is to improve the economy of space flight by changing the way rockets operate. Usually the first stage propeller of the rocket will be abandoned after being launched. Musk believes that this is a waste, making the cost of space flight unattainable. If an industry throws away the most expensive part of the rocket after just one use, how is it possible to achieve sustainable development?
So he started trying to recover the rocket booster. This process prompted SpaceX to invent a new rocket component-not only expanding its technical capabilities, but also adding space vocabulary.
SpaceX ’s Falcon 9 rocket is equipped with a “grid wing”, a heat-resistant wing that helps guide a 70-meter-high booster through the atmosphere. It also has four landing brackets that will automatically deploy before landing on a 90-meter long and 50-meter wide unmanned boat.
When the rocket crashed, Musk joked that the fireball was not an explosion, but a “fast accidental disintegration.”
At first there were a considerable number of fireballs, lined up one by one and fell into the sea.
In 2014, a rocket booster hovered over the ocean, then tipped over, and debris was scattered on the water. At the beginning of 2015, the rocket booster collided with the unmanned boat, and Musk wrote on Twitter at the time: “We have failed.” A few months later, another booster crashed and blazed.
SpaceX also posted about the failure of rocket booster recoveryIn the video, one of the accident notes was: “Well, technically it did land … but it was not intact.”
For some people in the aerospace industry, accepting failure is also exciting. When NASA veterans came to SpaceX to visit Riceman, he said they would often tell themselves: “This place reminds me of NASA during the Apollo moon landing. So it’s a bit like bringing NASA back to its roots.”
In December 2015, the booster of another Falcon 9 rocket landed, and an unknown thunder threw down over Cape Canaveral.
Musk thought, another explosion.
This time, there was no flame when the smoke dissipated. Only one rocket stood firmly on the unmanned boat at the cape. Musk heard a sonic boom, not an explosion.
“You must learn those painful lessons,” Shortwell said. “I think that sometimes the aviation industry will deliberately avoid failures in the development stage. But frankly, this is the best way to learn-push your people, your processes and the entire system to the limit, understand the weaknesses, Make things better. “