Nevertheless, in Musk’s absence, he has succesful lieutenants similar to Mark Juncosa main the way in which. SpaceX has lengthy had a hard-charging tradition instilled by Musk because the founding of the corporate. Musk’s modus operandi is to push his groups to achieve some formidable objective, and once they do, he units a brand new, much more audacious goal. It could be not a lot Musk’s absence that’s inflicting these points however relatively the corporate’s relentless tradition.
It appears doable that, not less than for now, SpaceX has reached the pace restrict for business spaceflight. Once you’re launching 150 instances a yr and constructing two second levels per week, it is arduous to flee the chance that some particulars are slipping via the cracks. And it isn’t simply the launches. SpaceX is working a constellation of greater than 7,000 satellites, flying people into area often, and creating an unprecedented rocket like Starship.
The current failures could also be indicators of cracks within the basis.
What are the implications
To this point, the implications of those failures haven’t been deadly. However area stays a tough, hazardous recreation. Reentering particles from a Falcon 9 higher stage might have struck somebody in Poland. God forbid, a second stage might fail early in a crewed mission.
The dangers of great issues with Starlink shouldn’t be understated, both. There have been unconfirmed rumors in current months of close to misses between Starlink satellites and objects in low-Earth orbit. Further particles on this more and more cluttered area could be disastrous.
To this point, the Falcon 9 rocket program has not been slowed down by these points. It is maybe not absolutely appreciated how totally reliant NASA’s human spaceflight actions are on the Falcon 9. It at the moment launches the one crew-capable car in Dragon. Nevertheless, a Cargo model of Dragon additionally flies on the Falcon 9, and that is NASA’s solely option to get scientific experiments again to Earth. And for not less than the subsequent yr, the one different US cargo car, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus, additionally should launch on the Falcon 9.
