Nasa Declares Spacex Rocket Safe For Upcoming Astronaut Launch

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Officials from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) have finished the final steps of reviewing the company’s rocket and spacecraft for an upcoming mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission is officially dubbed as SpaceX Crew-2 by NASA, and it will fly astronauts Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency (ESA) to the orbiting space laboratory.

Following the launch readiness review in the early morning hours today, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Manager Mr. Steve Stich and SpaceX’s senior director for Human Spaceflight Mr. Benjamin Reed joined other officials from NASA, JAXA, ESA and the United States Space Force for a press conference. During the conference, the NASA official and Mr. Reed provided more details about a small anomaly that SpaceX accidentally discovered as it was testing the mission’s rocket in its Texas facilities.

Excess Liquid Oxygen Levels In Falcon 9 Deemed Safe By NASA Analysis

The anomaly was about the excess liquid oxygen levels in SpaceX’s Falcon 9, discovered as the company aborted a rocket test in Texas due to weather concerns. SpaceX’s vice president for Build Reliability, Mr. William Gerstenmaier, outlined to the press late last week that the excess liquid oxygen was only a couple of inches higher than what SpaceX expected.  He elaborated that his company and NASA would investigate this issue and determine its impact on future missions, adding that the levels were present on all launches that SpaceX had conducted so far.

In his opening statements today, Mr. Stich shared the detail about NASA’s investigation. He outlined the Falcon 9 and its tanks are built to handle the excess liquid oxygen and that he and the agency’s associate administrator for Human Exploration Operations Missions Directorate, Ms. Kathy Leuders, have signed off.

Mr. Stich stated that:

In response to a question, later on, the official shared more details and NASA’s analysis of the situation. When asked about what volume the excess liquid Oxygen occupied on the Falcon 9, Mr. Stich outlined that:

The SpaceX Crew-2 mission is set to take off to the skies on Thursday this week (estimated time 06:11 EDT), with the astronauts set to dock with the ISS on the next day at 05:30 EDT.