Waiting for Falcon 9

Test Flight: Identify problems so engineers can fix.

As I sit here awaiting the first test launch of Falcon 9, the SpaceX-created rocket that is intended to carry cargo and people into space. It might become the backbone of NASA’s crippled space program, perhaps the only way to send American astronauts into space without hitching a ride from the Russians.

I feel anticipation, but comfort at whatever the results. This is, after all, a test flight. The purpose of this flight is engineering, to identify and get out the bugs. The press and others seem to forget that; they act as if the company is riding on this one launch.

Well, the Atlas rocket blew up…and was fixed before taking John Glenn into orbit. The Saturn V shook powerfully on a test flight—which would have killed any human riders. But it was a test and there were no human riders.

So, the first manned Saturn V—fixed by engineers—successfully carried Borman, Lovell and Anders into lunar orbit on Apoll0 8.

These tests are expensive; but more than a successful flight (which I truly hope for), I hope that all the shortcomings of this impressive new vehicle are identified, so they can be fixed. And I hope that future human passengers can count on Falcon 9, as Mercury astronauts counted of Atlas, and the Apollo astronauts counted on the Saturn V.

Go, Falcon!

Falcon just before first launch attempt.