“Inform me that I don’t have to fret in regards to the distraction at Twitter,” he mentioned to Shotwell as they walked into the storage on the awards ceremony collectively.
“I guarantee you — you don’t have something to fret about,” Nelson, in an interview with The Washington Put up, recalled Shotwell replying.
That change eased Nelson’s concern about Musk and his stewardship of SpaceX — no less than for now. However with the completion earlier this month of its Artemis I mission — a flight of NASA’s Orion capsule across the moon with out astronauts on board — the area company will more and more be seeking to SpaceX to assist it obtain its purpose of returning people to the floor of the moon.
Final 12 months, NASA made an enormous wager on Musk’s firm, awarding it a nearly $3 billion contract to make use of its next-generation Starship spacecraft to land astronauts on the lunar floor by 2025. Since then, SpaceX gained one other contract, value $1.5 billion, for a second lunar touchdown.
The corporate has been operating an intense testing program at its personal launch and manufacturing facility in South Texas, shifting rapidly to get what could be the most important and most powerful rocket ever flown up and operating. The corporate is already constructing a launch tower for it on the Kennedy House Heart, the place it launches its Falcon 9 rockets and Dragon spacecraft.
Whereas Musk has been at Twitter, SpaceX has saved up its quick tempo, finishing three launches in 34 hours final week, together with one which was the fifteenth flight of its reusable Falcon 9 booster, a document.
All of which has turned Nelson, as soon as a SpaceX skeptic, right into a believer.
“Keep in mind what everyone mentioned? SpaceX was pie within the sky,” Nelson, a former senator from Florida, mentioned within the interview. “As we are saying within the south, the proof’s within the pudding.”
Gesturing to a mannequin rocket on show in his workplace, he added: “And look what they’ve performed with that one proper there, the Falcon 9.”
Nonetheless, Musk’s foray into social media and the best way it has consumed his time has frightened Nelson, different leaders at NASA and the area group as an entire.
When pressed about what Musk’s takeover of Twitter would possibly imply for NASA, Nelson mentioned: “I’ve an excessive amount of religion in Gwynne Shotwell. And I even have religion that Elon trusts Gwynne and has turned the reins of SpaceX over to Gwynne.”
In the case of SpaceX’s day-to-day operations, that has been true for a while. However SpaceX remains to be very a lot Musk’s firm; he’s not solely the chief government, but in addition the chief engineer. He units the imaginative and prescient and the ethos for its greater than 10,000 staff. And Starship, a totally reusable spacecraft that he desires to make use of to get folks to the moon and Mars, has been the undertaking that has consumed most of his time and power at SpaceX.
Involved about its progress, Musk final 12 months wrote an e-mail to SpaceX staff lamenting how lengthy it was taking to ramp up manufacturing of the next-generation raptor engine that powers Starship. “The Raptor manufacturing disaster is way worse than it appeared a couple of weeks in the past,” he wrote. He mentioned the corporate confronted a “real threat of chapter if we can’t obtain a Starship flight charge of no less than as soon as each two weeks subsequent 12 months.”
The e-mail was largely seen as a approach for Musk to inspire his group to work sooner. However Starship nonetheless hasn’t flown this 12 months, not to mention at such a quick cadence. The corporate is now seeking to fly someday within the first a part of subsequent 12 months.
Nevertheless it’s nonetheless not clear when. This 12 months, the corporate won preliminary approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to fly the car to orbit, however that approval got here with an inventory of greater than 75 actions the corporate should full which are designed to guard the atmosphere and scale back the influence of SpaceX’s actions on a close-by public seaside and wildlife protect.
The FAA mentioned final week in an announcement to The Put up that the timeframe to finish these milestones varies. “Some measures have to be accomplished previous to launch, whereas others are designed to happen throughout post-launch actions or following a serious mishap,” the assertion mentioned. “The FAA will guarantee SpaceX complies with all required mitigations.”
It didn’t say when SpaceX would possibly launch. SpaceX declined to remark for this text.
Earlier within the growth program, SpaceX despatched Starship prototypes a number of miles into the air, the place they hovered after which descended towards their touchdown pad. A number of crashed and blew up. However after a couple of makes an attempt, the groups figured it out and landed the spacecraft safely. Since then, the corporate has been centered on constructing the launch tower, full with a pair of arms that might catch the booster because it descends, and getting the entire car prepared for an orbital launch try. In latest months, it has carried out engine checks, together with one final week.
Pam Melroy, NASA’s deputy administrator, mentioned at a latest occasion that the corporate is making progress. However she didn’t supply a timeline for when the orbital launch try would possibly come.
“They’ve obtained the design able to go. Do some critical {hardware} testing they usually’re past the we’re-going-to-probably-blow-up-the-pad section,” she mentioned.
As a former appearing deputy affiliate administrator on the FAA, she mentioned she is aware of “how onerous it’s to develop a brand new location to launch rockets from. … It’s very difficult to arrange a brand new location, and I feel they’re simply experiencing a few of these issues.”
Within the interview, Nelson mentioned he’s continuously asking for updates on the corporate’s progress. “And I’m repeatedly instructed they’re on schedule, they’re assembly each milestone, and in some instances, they’re exceeding their milestones,” he mentioned. “And, you realize, take a look at SpaceX’s historical past. They launch and typically they blow up. However ultimately, they preserve it going.”
NASA will want them to. After it efficiently flew the Artemis I mission, it’s wanting towards Artemis II, which might ship a crew of astronauts within the Orion spacecraft to orbit across the moon, maybe by 2024. Then for the lunar touchdown try, Starship would meet up with Orion in lunar orbit, ferry the astronauts to the floor and again to Orion once more, which might take them dwelling.
That’s scheduled for 2025 — an bold, maybe quixotic timeline, contemplating Starship has but to fly to Earth orbit, not to mention to the moon. The mission can also be difficult by the truth that SpaceX must refuel Starship in Earth orbit with a number of tankers earlier than it might fly to the moon.
Nelson conceded that there’s a good probability the mission might slip to 2026, particularly for the reason that area company has to get its new spacesuits prepared and pull off a profitable Artemis II mission as effectively.
“There’s loads driving on it,” he mentioned. “SpaceX needs to be prepared.”
