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SpaceX Plan To Fuel Rockets With People Aboard Raises Alarm Bells (fortune.com)

Posted by msmash on from the space-hurdles dept.

Several space industry experts that advise NASA have told the US space agency there are safety risks in a proposal by Elon Musk's SpaceX to fuel its rockets while astronauts are on board. From a report on Fortune: "This is a hazardous operation," Space Station Advisory Committee Chairman Thomas Stafford, a former NASA astronaut and retired Air Force general, said during a conference call on Monday. Stafford said the group's concerns were heightened after an explosion of an unmanned SpaceX rocket while it was being fueled on Sept. 1. The causes of that explosion are still under investigation. Members of the eight-member group, which includes veterans of NASA's Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programs noted that all previous rockets that have flown people into space were fueled before astronauts got to the launch pad. "It was unanimous ... Everybody there, and particularly the people who had experience over the years, said nobody is ever near the pad when they fuel a booster," Stafford said, referring to an earlier briefing the group had about SpaceX's proposed fueling procedure.

1 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. How else instead? by joh · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The only other way than to fuel the rocket with the crew on board would be to fuel it first and then let the crew board it. The latter would mean that the astronauts as well as pad crews would be near or on a fueled rocket with no way to escape if something goes wrong during boarding the capsule.

    If the astronauts board the capsule on top of the empty rocket and the rocket is fueled only when they're safe and strapped in there, there is no point at which they couldn't fire the escape system and get away when something goes wrong. Look at the fueling accident they had: The payload sat up there for several seconds after the rocket was already falling down in flaming pieces. The Dragon 2 LES is within less than 1/10 second at full thrust, pulling the capsule away.

    So yes, fueling the rocket with people aboard is dangerous but boarding an already fueled rocket would be even more dangerous.