SpaceX, NASA, and Load and Go

Eric Berger, for Ars Technica:

The ASAP panel urged NASA to weigh the benefits of load and go with the “large” uncertainties and additional risk it entails. There is some evidence NASA’s commercial crew program managers are doing just that. One official familiar with deliberations at Johnson Space Center told Ars, “Prelaunch is a phase of flight that is scrutinized as much as any other with safety being our top priority. Load and go has had a great deal of interest within NASA a long time before last September’s accident and any ASAP discussions.”

Another Houston source directly involved in the review said load and go operations for crewed Dragon flights were not yet entirely off the table, but the concept had a “steep hill to climb” to get NASA's acceptance.

Exactly one month ago, I pulled this little bit from an article by Jeff Foust, of SpaceNews:

SpaceX said that it has worked with NASA to perform “a detailed safety analysis of all potential hazards” involved in this fueling process, with a report approved by NASA’s Safety Technical Review Board in July. That report, the company said, identified various controls it will implement to address those hazards. “As needed, any additional controls will be put in place to ensure crew safety,” the company said.

There’s clearly a split over this topic within NASA and their advisory groups. My guess is that load and go is going to win out in the end. If SpaceX can put together a strong, reliable 2017, with the above report from NASA’s Safety Technical Review Board in hand, this issue could be put to bed once and for all.

As big as the technical challenges are that SpaceX faces, the political ones are even bigger.