SpaceX‘s Polaris Dawn mission suffered an hour-long loss of ground control before two private astronauts exited the Dragon crew capsule for the first-ever commercial spacewalk, Reuters reports.
The Polaris Dawn mission launched on September 10 with a four-person crew led by tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacson. The billionaire-funded mission, aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, reached a maximum orbital altitude of 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) above Earth, also setting a new record for Earth orbit apogee (the farthest point reached from the planet) for a manned mission. On September 12, Polaris Dawn became the first private mission to enter space: two astronauts, including Isaacson, stepped out of the SpaceX capsule, a historic moment that opened up new horizons for commercial spaceflight.
In the SpaceX mission control room, things may not have gone so smoothly. An anonymous source told Reuters that a power outage at SpaceX’s facility in California led to a loss of ground control, meaning that the flight control team was briefly unable to operate the spacecraft. The crew members of Polaris Dawn were trained before the launch, but they are not professional astronauts.
“The lack of command and control is a big problem,” an anonymous source told Reuters. “The whole point of having mission operators on the ground is to be able to react quickly if something happens.”
Since SpaceX is a private company, this issue has not been publicly reported. Commercial space operators who want to launch or re-enter space within U.S. borders need a license from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ensure the safety of bystanders or property on the ground, but the FAA is not responsible for the safety of people aboard a private spacecraft. That’s because a moratorium approved by Congress in 2004 temporarily prohibited the FAA from issuing rules to protect the safety of people aboard space launches so as not to overburden the burgeoning space industry.
NASA hires SpaceX to transport its astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Dragon spacecraft – essentially the same ship used to launch the Polaris Dawn mission. According to another anonymous Reuters source, SpaceX notified NASA of the loss of ground control during the private mission. SpaceX has been a reliable commercial partner of NASA for many years, having launched nine crews to the orbiting space station. However, in November, NASA’s safety commission warned SpaceX to focus on crew safety during commercial flights to the ISS as the company increases its spaceflight operations.
President-elect Donald Trump has appointed billionaire space enthusiast Isaacson as the new head of NASA, which could have serious implications for private sector involvement in the national space program. Hopefully, by then, crew safety will be regulated at a more formal level to prevent similar incidents. We are not holding our breath.
