SpaceX may be allowed to fuel rockets with astronauts already on board

The US space agency NASA is considering giving the green light to a SpaceX plan to fuel the Falcon 9 rocket while the astronauts are already on board.

NASA agrees in principle with SpaceX’s plan, but to get final approval, Elon Musk’s space company must first successfully apply this fuel procedure to five unmanned launches of the latest block 5 version of the Falcon 9. Only if this is successful , NASA is likely to approve using the plan on manned flights as well.

In April 2019, astronauts with a Falcon 9 rocket will be launched into the Crew Dragon capsule for the first time. The five demonstrations can only be carried out from November, since only then the renewed so-called COMV helium tanks will be used. The six months between November and April should not be a problem to conduct the five demonstrations, given the fairly frequent launches that SpaceX has planned with the Falcon 9 during this period.

For the Falcon 9, SpaceX uses a rapid procedure in which the rocket is not fueled until half an hour before launch. This will give the extremely cold fuel less time to warm up and increase the rocket’s performance, but with such a schedule it is in principle inevitable that most of the fuel will be injected into the rocket while the astronauts are already running. be on board.

This plan has been criticized because it would be dangerous to fill the rocket with fuel while the astronauts are already inside the capsule. Elon Musk has previously said that the astronauts can also sit down after adding the rocket fuel, but that is not his preference.

If SpaceX successfully demonstrates the procedure five times, the crew will board the rocket on the first manned flight in April about two hours before launch. About 38 minutes before departure, the launch escape systems are activated, so that the astronauts are brought to safety in an emergency. The rocket will then be filled with RP-1 and liquid oxygen 35 minutes before the engines are ignited.