SpaceX’s silence
The shroud of secrecy following an explosion that destroyed an astronaut capsule being tested by SpaceX was a disappointing reminder that government contractors might try to ignore the public’s right to answers even when taxpayer dollars are spent.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has promised the space agency will make sure there is no repeat of the 10 days of silence that occurred after the unoccupied Crew Dragon capsule burst into flames April 20 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
NASA needs to keep that promise. It shouldn’t have sat on its hands when SpaceX, which was contracted to build the capsule, kept mum about the explosion. That yet-unexplained setback occurred just two months after the capsule completed an unmanned flight to the International Space Station and safely parachuted into the Atlantic Ocean.
A subcontractor working on the Crew Dragon project threatened its employees with reprisals after a grainy video of the explosion turned up on Twitter. The email from Jacobs Engineering Group, an aerospace company said: “It is up to NASA and other companies on site to make the determination about what information related to their activities is released to the public.”
No one is disputing the authority of NASA and SpaceX to speak for their project, but it is their responsibility to do that in a timely manner that prevents unnecessary speculation that can erode the trust taxpayers want to have in them.
Bridenstine told Aviation Week in a recent interview that NASA wouldn’t repeat that mistake. “We’re going to be sharing information immediately because this is an American taxpayer investment,” he said. “We’re going to make sure that type of communication challenge doesn’t happen again.”
SpaceX is still investigating the explosion. If a design flaw is to blame, that could further delay the first manned flight of a U.S. space vehicle since the shuttles were grounded in 2011.
Both SpaceX and Boeing were given contracts totaling $6.8 billion in 2014 to develop astronaut transportation systems. Boeing has had its own problems. A year ago, it discovered a propellant leak in its crew capsule called Starliner. Unlike SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, Starliner has yet to reach space.
Elon Musk, who owns SpaceX, had set a goal of sending a U.S. spacecraft with astronauts aboard to the space station this year. That goal now appears to be in jeopardy, which means any Americans headed to the ISS will have to fly aboard a Russian spacecraft, at a cost of more than $75 million per seat.
Bridenstine said he remains “confident” astronauts will fly to the ISS aboard a U.S.-made spacecraft this year. His priority should be making sure the mission is safe, not adhering to any arbitrary deadline. Rushing a mission has led to tragedy before. A presidential commission investigating the Challenger accident reported in 1986 that a major reason NASA didn’t heed warnings was pressure to meet an “over-ambitious” schedule of yearly flights by 1990.
The Trump administration has put pressure on NASA to return to the moon, which hasn’t had a human visitor since 1969. NASA had estimated it could land a man on the moon in 2028, but that displeased Vice President Mike Pence, who told the National Space Council the goal should be 2024.
What’s the hurry? Expediency isn’t worth disaster. An important question to be answered in the capsule explosion investigation is whether the rush to use the Crew Dragon to take U.S. astronauts to the ISS this year played a role. The public wants to know, and SpaceX and NASA have a responsibility to tell the truth.