Deadly tourism: how SpaceX risked when launching the first civilian crew

On the night of September 19, the first ever all-civilian crew of the Crew Dragon spacecraft safely

returned to Earth.He splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. But the flight might not have gone so smoothly, since the ship had not been tested in zero-gravity conditions before, there was not a single professional pilot in the crew, and the spacesuits only looked beautiful, but in fact they were heavy and even dangerous.

Space flights have become fully automated. This is true?

Not really. It is believed that the spacecraft is fully automated and knows exactly what height to rise to and how to land perfectly. But reality often distorts calculations on paper.

For example, in the USA in 1966, a short circuit occurred during a flight into orbit, so the Gemini VIII apparatus began to spin around its own axis: because of this, the crew could have died.

The ship could be controlled manually, soCaptain Neil Armstrong was able to cope with the situation. Errors also occur during the landing of the ship or when it flies to orbit. All these situations confirm that today there is no ideal automatic mechanism that would not require manual control. Even outside space, man has not yet invented the ideal autopilot for a car.

During the last civilian flight on the SpaceX ship, there was not a single professional who could, if something happened, prevent a technical error.

Heavy and dangerous spacesuits. What is the threat?

Usually in spacesuits that are used,for example, for work on the ISS, there is a whole power system. It prevents the suit from expanding under pressure. The spacesuits from SpaceX only have a power shell, so it grows in size and possibly causes pain during flight.

Also, the design has almost no hinges, only onfingers. This means that if the capsule depressurizes, the astronaut will not be able to move. The spacesuits of NASA and Rososmos astronauts have a large number of joints to ensure greater mobility.

A helmet in a spacesuit was developed according to the typemotorcycle, it is organized so that it is possible to breathe in and out comfortably while driving at high speed. But in the case of SpaceX, there is no speed or incoming air, so there are problems with ventilation and cooling.

Experts note that this was done for the sake of design: the spacesuits look beautiful and modern, but this hides a number of inconveniences that may not be worth it.

Launch of a new ship-it's always dangerous. How to avoid this?

The most obvious risk that plagues any space mission is the ship itself, which cannot be made perfectly.

In the case of Inspiration 4, this is the newest versionspaceship. It has not previously been tested in space, and the same goes for unmanned flights. Before the flight, SpaceX installed a non-docking unit on the ship, but a quick-detachable one, to make it easier to change the configuration of the ship for future flights. In addition, this version of Inspiration 4 has not previously been tested in zero gravity. Therefore, the results of the flight could be anything.

It is impossible to get rid of all the risks before going into space, but early testing and preparation helps to minimize them.

SpaceX's risks in the future. What can happen on next launches?

Elon Musk's company is spending most of its resources on sending humans to Mars.

Now building rockets for Marsflights are carried out by NASA with the SLS rocket and SpaceX with the Starship rocket. If the agency invested more than $10 billion on construction, but has never launched or tested a rocket, then Starship began conducting test flights after more than a year of work and did not even spend one billion on all this.

SpaceX works faster, spends less money andtime for a similar project, but it is still difficult to judge the quality of the final product. Therefore, no one guarantees that SpaceX’s Mars colonizers will be able to return to Earth alive.

That's why SpaceX's latest launch may have gone wrongsuccessfully and these are not just fears, but real threats that need to be eliminated before the next launch with people on board. In order to stay ahead of competitors, a company sometimes sacrifices some safety rules.

So far, all of SpaceX’s risks have been justified, but no one can guarantee that subsequent launches will take place in the same normal manner.

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