Inside SpaceX: Elon Musk's project to reshape the space age

On the outskirts of Cape Canaveral, the Florida promontory, where the Americans had been launching rockets for more than half a century, is an abandoned platform where three astronauts died in a fire in 1967, when they repeated a planned launch on the Moon. It is a peaceful place, where butterflies and crickets rustle through the concrete, and visitors can pay homage to the three men who died in a memorial with marble benches bearing their names.

It's also a reminder that the space has big stakes. Since the United States launched their first human astronaut, Alan Shepard, in 1961 (several monkeys had preceded him), more than 20 people were killed during missions or during launch preparations.

The United States is approaching a new era of manned spaceflight. Astronauts are expected to be launched by Elon Musk's SpaceX as part of a US $ 2.6 billion contract to transport them to the International Space Station. Musk, best known for its electric car manufacturer, Tesla, is part of a new generation of wealthy entrepreneurs who are redefining the space industry.

But this second space age means that Silicon Valley must work closely with NASA and the US military, with the government seeking to ensure the security of their missions. There have been rumors of cultural conflict – and as the pilot missions get closer, NASA is closely monitoring its trading partners.

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Space travel has traditionally been dominated by the military and government agencies, in part because they are expensive and unpredictable. A journalist visit to Cape Canaveral was organized prior to the planned launch of the Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon capsule to the International Space Station, with scientific experiments and equipment. The takeoff is delayed several times before finally taking place early Saturday morning, which allowed to launch its cargo in orbit.

At the Cape Canaveral plant, where SpaceX is renting launch pad 40, staff are wearing military uniforms and security is enhanced. One would expect that there is plenty of room for cultural confrontation. SpaceX did things cheaper and faster than many thought possible. How does this happen with those accustomed to doing things the old way?

Military teams will not admit any sale, at least in public. Six days before the launch of Dragon, Brigadier General Douglas Schiess, commander of the air force at the head of the unit, only declares that he loves the youth of private firms . "We have a lot of really interesting young people who are back in the business."

He says that the armed forces are closely monitoring the preparations for the launch, especially for missions with national security capabilities, such as satellites, and have the ultimate power to intervene if they do not think the procedure is followed.

"We have enlisted officers who know what is supposed to happen when they prepare the rocket and the satellite, and they monitor that. [the] operation and say: 'Wait a second, I believe you were supposed to do it. Let's talk about it before continuing. "

In a hangar elsewhere on the Cape, the Human Spaceflight Division of the Department of Defense is ready to rescue commercial astronauts.

The commander, Colonel Michael Thompson, said that the air force would not play that role forever. Instead, they want to set an example, because business enterprises are not yet able to do it themselves. "NASA's job is to make sure that commercial vendors find people to make the most of it, so that when they start sending tourists into space, there is an infrastructure, some knowledge , an experience in this mission: civil side. "

Working with private companies is a challenge to get used to different designs of their capsules. The SpaceX Dragon is bigger and less stable than the Boeing Starliner.

In April, anxiety broke out when one of the SpaceX crew's Dragon pods, ships that will transport astronauts into space, exploded during tests on a ramp. launch in Florida. At a press conference held last Thursday, Hans Koenigsmann, head of mission for the company, said the capsule had been completely destroyed, while hoping that the first manned flight would still take place this year, as planned .

He always tries to know exactly what happened.

Experts are optimistic about the incident, pointing out that such challenges are not unusual, as engineers are pushing the boundaries of space exploration.

"That's why we're doing tests," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said after the blast. SpaceX is generally well regarded and its engineering and testing procedures are considered robust. He hired extremely talented engineers and his success rate this year is five out of five, with the exception of a car lost last month. In such situations, Musk's unusual communication habits, such as sending updates and details about launches from his own Twitter account, so controversial at Tesla, have been helpful, said Jennifer Lopez, expert in space technologies who collaborates with NASA to encourage groups represented in data science. "I think it's one of the things that we appreciate, it's transparency on her part," she says.

NASA had to stand on one thing: drugs. Last year, he launched a cultural review of Boeing and SpaceX after Musk smoked cannabis on a podcast. His use of the pot may have caused some "disbelief", says Lopez, but it did not have a significant impact on the company. Indeed, the US government has awarded the company a new $ 297 million contract for the launch of satellites for the air force in February.

There is a good reason for that: the technology works. Watch SpaceX's reusable Falcon boosters land gracefully on Earth after launching a satellite in space or delivering a capsule to the International Space Station, as was the case on Saturday, challenges all logic.

Your brain insists that it should not be possible to put a rocket at its end, precisely in the right place, on a launch pad at sea. But it is.

Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, of which SpaceX is a member, also has a political impetus. The current Trump administration "really understands," he says. "Space is an exciting field, but also very nationalistic.It is a great pride for our country to be the world leader in space technology and exploration."

All of this has helped make SpaceX a $ 30 billion company, with $ 2.4 billion in private funding and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts.

The shuttle program has been canceled in part for security reasons. Could this new space revolution come to an end from the beginning, should a tragedy occur?

Stallmer thinks it would be less catastrophic. "I think government programs are riskier," he says.

Boeing and SpaceX have both signed a contract with NASA to send US astronauts into space for the first time since 2011. After that, both companies, as well as Virgin Galactic by Richard Branson, Blue Origin Jeff Bezos and a handful of others start offering seats to tourists. "We will go to Mars, we will go back to the moon and I absolutely see ourselves doing that," said Lt. Col. Dave Mahan, a member of the Thompson Astronaut Rescue Unit.

"I do not stop telling my kids: you're at the age when you're going to do it, so I'm going to make sure it's safe and that you can do something cool. "