SpaceX targeting launch from KSC as soon as Nov. 17
SpaceX has circled Nov. 17 as a tentative date for its next launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida, on a mission that would launch International Space Station supplies from Kennedy Space Center.
The Air Force’s 45th Space Wing last week approved the date for planning purposes, Space Florida officials said Wednesday during a board meeting in Orlando.
“We’re happy to see them continue to move towards the goal of getting back into spaceflight,” said Jim Kuzma, Space Florida’s operations chief.
Don’t invite your friends and relatives to visit for the launch just yet, though.
Despite publicly saying that it hopes to launch in the “November timeframe,” SpaceX has not completed its investigation into why a Falcon 9 exploded on its Cape Canaveral Air Force Station pad during a countdown rehearsal on Sept. 1.
NASA has no official launch date for the mission, SpaceX’s 10th under an ISS resupply contract, according to a spokesman.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Tuesday, after unveiling a concept for colonizing Mars at a space conference in Mexico, that he was not distracted from the investigation.
“It would be incorrect to say that it is anything other than our absolute top priority to understand exactly what went wrong there and what we can do to prevent anything like that in the future,” he told reporters at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico.
SpaceX unveils ambitious plan to settle Mars
“We’ve eliminated all of the obvious possibilities for what occurred there,” Musk continued. “So what remains are the less probable answers.”
So far, SpaceX has said the helium system responsible for pressurizing the liquid oxygen tank in the rocket’s upper stage suffered a significant breach while the rocket was being fueled.
The same system was faulted during a failed Falcon 9 launch in June 2015, but SpaceX the two failures were not related.
SpaceX: Falcon 9 exploded after helium system breach
Musk said the Sept. 1 explosion has not resulted in any lost launch contracts, because people in the industry understand the risks.
“If something happens at SpaceX, it gets 100 times more press than if another rocket fails, maybe 1,000,” he said. “And so to the public, they may think only our rockets fail, but actually lots of rockets fail.”
The mission tentatively targeted for Nov. 17 would be SpaceX’s first from pad 39A at KSC, which SpaceX has leased from NASA and has been renovating to support Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches.
It's unknown how soon damage to SpaceX's primary Cape pad, Launch Complex 40, might be repaired after the Sept. 1 explosion.
"It's going to be down for some period of time," Kuzma said.
SpaceX has not confirmed if the next Falcon 9 will launch from Florida's Space Coast or from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
In other business on Wednesday, Space Florida’s board approved proceeding with a deal that could see a Canadian company bring 80 high-paying jobs to Titusville.
Space Florida is negotiating a package providing up to $4 million in financing for a new facility and equipment to be located at Space Coast Regional Airport.
Identified by the code name “Project Swanson,” the company based in Canada is described as a manufacturer of small solid rocket motor propellant that will bolster the local area’s supply chain.
Average wages for the 80 jobs are projected to be $83,000.
Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 orjdean@floridatoday.com.And follow on Twitter at@flatoday_jdeanand on Facebook atfacebook.com/jamesdeanspace.