After review, NASA, SpaceX a ‘go’ for launch
NASA and SpaceX are a “go” for launch, following two days of a Flight Readiness Review that analyzed each system and subsystem that will propel astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on Wednesday.
“There were conversations that were had that were very important to be had,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said during a news conference Friday. “At the end we got to a ‘go.’ We are now preparing for a launch in five short days.”
And while the Flight Readiness Review (which began
Thursday and ended Friday) was a major step toward liftoff, NASA and SpaceX still have work to do before the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft are scheduled for liftoff at 3:33 p.m. on May 27.
SpaceX on Friday needs to complete its static fire test. It will secure the Falcon 9 rocket, with the Crew Dragon spacecraft on top, to the launch pad and then fire the rocket engines, just to make sure everything is working properly. On Saturday, Hurley and Behnken will participate in a dry run of their pre-launch sequence. There’s another launch readi
ness review on Monday to scrutinize data from these two tests.
“There’s more to do,” said Benji Reed, the SpaceX director of crew mission management. “Today we got a ‘go,’ and it was a monumental and incredible journey to get to today’s review.”
There was also an unexpected resignation just days before the review. Douglas Loverro, NASA’s head of human spaceflight, resigned Monday. Loverro was supposed to chair Thursday and Friday’s Flight Readiness Review, but it was instead led by NASA Associate Administrator Stephen Jurczyk.
Jurczyk said he was knowledgeable and ready to chair this review as he’d been conducting agency-level reviews of the Commercial Crew Program for the past two years.
“Those reviews prepared me really well to step in and chair the Flight Readiness Review,” Jurczyk said.
The Commercial Crew Program, which is partnering with SpaceX and Boeing to develop vehicles to carry its astronauts to the International Space Station, was formally established as its own standalone program on April 5, 2011. SpaceX is poised to become the first American company to own a vehicle that takes astronauts to the space station.