It has been 60 years since Russia’s Sputnik satellite kick-started the space race and much has changed since then, with private companies now ruling the rocket building business. However US space agency NASA has now aired safety concerns over SpaceX and Boeing designs, according to a new US government report.
NASA is paying SpaceX £2billion ($2.6billion) and Boeing £3.2billion ($4.2billion) to build rocket and capsule launch systems to return astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) from US soil for the first time since America’s Space Shuttle program went dark in 2011.
There are serious challenges to the current launch schedules for both SpaceX and Boeing
NASA report
But NASA’s safety advisory panel has just listed four “key risk items” in its annual report.
This comes only weeks ahead of NASA’s first scheduled un-manned test flight under NASA’s multibillion-dollar Commercial Crew Program.
For the Elon Musk-owned SpaceX, the report mentioned the redesign of a SpaceX rocket canister following a 2016 explosion and its “load and go” process of fuelling the rocket with the crew already inside the capsule.
For Boeing, they include the NASA capsule’s structural vulnerability when the heat shield is deployed.
And “parachute performance” reportedly remains an issue for both SpaceX and Boeing.
READ MORE: Scientists ‘REWRITE astronomy textbooks’ with black hole discovery
NASA: SpaceX and Boeing missions to the International Space Station have concerned NASA (Image: Getty)
SpaceX: Elon Musk's company recently blasted a Tesla into orbit with a Falcon Heavy demo (Image: SpaceX)
“There are serious challenges to the current launch schedules for both SpaceX and Boeing,” the NASA report said.
And two industry insiders have revealed to Reuters how NASA’s concerns actually exceed the four items listed.
These are said to include a risk ledger that reportedly contained 30 to 35 lingering technical concerns each for SpaceX and Boeing.
Reuters have been unable to confirm what all these items are.
But the sources familiar with the matter said the companies must address “most” of those concerns before flying astronauts and, eventually, tourists to space.
READ MORE: Hunt for aliens ‘only just BEGINNING’ says top scientist
The NASA risk database is updated routinely during the course of NASA’s stringent certification process, which includes data collection, tests and collaboration with SpaceX and Boeing, the sources confirmed.
The Boeing and SpaceX systems have faced multiple delays in recent years, a common problem given the complexity of building multibillion-dollar spacecraft capable of over-powering earth’s gravity.
Joshua Finch, a
