WASHINGTON (REUTERS) – A power outage in September at the California offices of SpaceX, billionaire Elon Musk’s space company, caused a loss of ground control for at least an hour during a mission that included the first private spacewalk in history, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The spacewalk, part of SpaceX’s five-day Polaris Dawn mission, was carried out by private astronauts, including Jared Isaacman, another billionaire and longtime partner of Musk who has been nominated by future President Donald Trump to serve as administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
The outage, which had not been previously reported, meant that SpaceX’s mission control was briefly unable to command its Dragon spacecraft into orbit, these people said. The craft, which carried Mr. Isaacman and three other SpaceX astronauts, remained safe during the outage and maintained some communication with the ground through the company’s network of Starlink satellites.
“The lack of command and control is a major problem,” one of the people familiar with the problem told Reuters. “The whole point of having mission operators on the ground is to be able to respond quickly if something happens.”
SpaceX and Musk did not respond to Reuters’ questions about the incident.
The outage raises questions about disclosure of mishaps by private space companies and whether conflicts of interest could taint the ability of NASA and regulators to weigh their importance, at a time when key industry figures including Musk and Isaacman, are poised to take on important positions in the next Trump administration. In the roles offered to them – Isaacman as head of NASA, Musk as head of a commission on government effectiveness – both men could have significant influence on the agencies that regulate and deal with SpaceX and d other private space operators.
Reuters could not determine whether SpaceX informed the Federal Aviation Administration, which issues licenses for space launches, of the outage. A second person with knowledge of the incident said SpaceX informed NASA, in part because the same type of spacecraft was to be used a few weeks later on a mission involving NASA astronauts. SpaceX told the agency that the problem was quickly resolved and would not arise again on future missions.
NASA officials said they remain in close contact with SpaceX about its missions because the agency frequently works with the company. Spokespeople for NASA and the FAA did not respond to questions from Reuters for this story
Currently, safety standards for private space missions are not regulated by U.S. law, and private operators are not required to disclose accidents in orbit due to a moratorium approved by Congress in 2004. This moratorium, designed to protect business interests in this highly competitive sector and renewed periodically by Congress, is criticized by some experts because it limits the ability of regulators to investigate problems that could impact safety and security. operability of the entire sector.
Disclosure is necessary “so companies across the industry can know what’s happening and mitigate or prevent a similar incident,” said Douglas Ligor, a senior social scientist at the RAND Corporation, a think tank based in California and charged by Congress last year with studying the moratorium. Congress is expected to renew the moratorium before its current extension expires in January.
People familiar with the problem told Reuters that the September outage occurred when a leak in a cooling system atop a SpaceX facility in Hawthorne, California, triggered a power surge. The power surge knocked out mission headquarters, preventing operators from sending commands or performing controls that would normally be standard during a spacecraft’s mission.
The outage also affected servers that host procedures intended to overcome such an outage and hampered SpaceX’s ability to transfer mission control to a backup facility in Florida, the people said. Company officials did not have paper copies of the backup procedures, one of the people added, which prevented them from responding until power was restored.
Reuters could not determine the useful time or duration of the outage. Two of the people familiar with the problem said it occurred some time before the Sept. 12 spacewalk and that it was at least an hour before power was restored. If the mission control center had remained disconnected, the astronauts were sufficiently trained to control the spacecraft themselves.
A month before Polaris Dawn launched, Mr. Musk responded to a message from Mr. Isaacman about the mission on X, Mr. Musk’s social media platform. “This is a historic mission,” Musk wrote. “Every effort must be made to ensure the safety of the astronauts. Following the spacewalk, the first performed by astronauts not part of a national space program, the feat was widely hailed as a milestone in commercial space exploration.
Since then, Mr. Musk has been increasingly critical of government interference in the private sector and touted his plans, as head of Mr. Trump’s planned efficiency commission , to reduce federal regulations. Reuters reported earlier this week that Mr. Trump’s transition team wanted to eliminate reporting requirements for car accidents, which Mr. Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla opposed. The commission’s decisions on efficiency could impact NASA and the FAA, a regulatory body frequently criticized by Musk and SpaceX, who view it as an obstacle.
For his part, Mr. Isaacman, as NASA administrator, would lead an agency that has awarded more than $15 billion in contracts to SpaceX, a company with which he has had numerous business dealings. In addition to funding two missions he participated in as a SpaceX astronaut, Mr. Isaacman is the CEO and majority shareholder of Shift4 Payments, a technology company he founded and which in turn owns shares from SpaceX, according to regulatory documents.
The size of Shift4 Payments’ stake in SpaceX is unclear at this time, as Musk’s company is private and does not disclose financial or ownership details. In its 2021 annual report, Shift4 Payments said it invested more than $27 million in SpaceX. Shift4 Payments also said SpaceX was a customer.
Shift4 Payments and Isaacman did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
In a public statement after Trump announced his NASA nomination earlier this month, Isaacman said he would step down as chief executive of Shift4 Payments if his nomination, which must be confirmed by the Senate, goes through. He said he would retain most of his company’s stock, “subject to ethical obligations,” but would reduce his voting power as a shareholder, according to a copy of the statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. and Exchange Commission.
Even if he is confirmed in his position at NASA, Mr. Isaacman’s close ties to SpaceX could remain a source of concern for some. If he maintains these ties, it “could pose conflicts of interest, particularly in security matters,” said Cary Coglianese, an expert in public administration and law at the University of Pennsylvania.
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