Two major events are converging on Space Coast Florida: the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch and President Barack Obama's space conference/summit in mid-April. Both appear to be linked in the national policy debate on the future of civil and commercial space, at least in short term Washington politics.
Los Angeles Times reporter W. J. "Bill" Hennigan captured the essence in writing, "A new rocket 18 stories tall and waiting to be launched from a pad in Cape Canaveral, Fla., could determine the fate of a private aerospace venture in Hawthorne -- and even possibly NASA's space program."
"The eyes of the U.S. government will be on the launch to see whether the Falcon 9 has the right stuff. NASA has invested more than $200 million in seed money to help the company, also known as SpaceX, develop and build the nine-engine rocket, and has an additional $1.6 billion on the table with a contract for 12 flights to transport cargo in the coming years", Hennigan reported earlier this week.
The first Falcon 9 launch combined with the faith being demonstrated by the President of the United States coming to visit the space coast at a time when there are thousands of space workers on edge make for interesting times. The confluence of events places significant pressure on the SpaceX launch team and commercial space leader Elon Musk.
The new and untested flight of the Falcon 9 making orbit successfully will add much needed political momentum to the commercial space policy movement. On the other hand, a launch failure of the Falcon 9 could be a serious embarrassment to Musk and the President adding fire to those in Congress seeking a rebirth of the retiring space shuttle and the Constellation program.
No comments:
Post a Comment