If SpaceX’s Starship Goes Boom on the Launch Pad, NASA Has a Backup Plan

SpaceX is shifting forward with plans to improve a launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is able to function a backup to the Kennedy Space Center pad the corporate presently makes use of to launch cargo and crews to house.

During a press briefing final week, Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceX’s vp for construct and flight reliability, stated that the corporate is making ready for the upgrades wanted for Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) to arrange it for upcoming cargo and crew launches, Space News reported. SpaceX is presently beneath a industrial crew contract with NASA to shuttle crew and cargo to the International Space Station with its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft.

“We’ve already started the work to begin the preparations for pad 40. We’ve ordered some hardware, put some contracts into place,” Gerstenmaier stated in the course of the briefing. At first, the corporate will solely launch cargo missions from SLC-40, however it plans so as to add crew missions later. “It gives us some flexibility to move some things off 39A, which helps us balance launches off both pads,” Gerstenmaier added.

SLC-40 has been beneath lease to SpaceX from the United States Air Force since 2007; the Air Force beforehand used the launch pad at Cape Canaveral to launch its Titan III and IV rockets, which it did from 1965 to 2005. SpaceX is leasing Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, and it makes use of the power to launch crew and cargo missions to the ISS. The personal house firm can also be working in direction of the inaugural launch of its tremendous heavy-lift Starship rocket from its launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas, with firm CEO Elon Musk just lately claiming that it might fly as early as November. 

The firm ultimately plans to launch the megarocket from Kennedy Space Center. NASA chosen Starship to land people on the Moon by late 2025 as a part of the house company’s Artemis 3 mission. To that finish, SpaceX is constructing an enormous Starship launch tower just a few hundred ft away from pad 39A’s launch tower. The large 1,000-foot-tall (300-meter) launch tower is nearing completion, with its sixth and seventh sections added this summer time. But the considered having Starship anyplace close to pad 39A is outwardly making NASA a bit nervous, notably with regards to SpaceX’s ongoing industrial crew obligations.

For you see, SpaceX has a historical past of its prototype rockets exploding on the pad. In 2016, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket exploded on its Cape Canaveral launch pad, leading to vital harm that took greater than a yr to restore. Other shenanigans on the launch pad embrace an eight second static fireplace take a look at of a Starship prototype that resulted in a brush fireplace, in an incident from final month.

As Reuters reported in June, NASA officers informed SpaceX {that a} Starship explosion close to LC-39A might lower off the house company’s solely technique of launching astronauts to the ISS, hence its need for a backup launch pad. Accordingly, SpaceX will improve the pad at Cape Canaveral, however Gerstenmaier says the corporate received’t carry Starship to Kennedy till it’s prepared for prime time. Starship is presently present process exams in Boca Chica prematurely of the megarocket’s first orbital take a look at. “Our intent is to bring Starship to 39A after we have a reliable vehicle. We’ll do a series of tests in Boca [Chica] to makes sure the vehicle is ready to go. When we think we have a good and reliable vehicle, we’ll bring it to 39A,” Gerstenmaier stated in the course of the briefing.

Starship is a completely reusable, tremendous heavy-lift launch automobile designed to hold provides and passengers to Earth orbit, the Moon, and probably even additional locations like Mars. That’s all effective and nicely, however NASA might be proper to be a bit cautious about having this rocket on its property.

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