Some locals are calling the unusually long streak of launch scrubs “Scrubtoberfest” but to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk it’s not a joke.
After SpaceX’s GPS satellite mission for the Space Force scrubbed Friday night, Musk tweeted “We will need to make a lot of improvements to have a chance of completing 48 launches next year!”
Musk is referencing the 45th Space Wing’s “Drive to 48” campaign to be able to support nearly weekly launches in Cape Canaveral. The ultimate goal is for the Cape to run as efficiently as an airport with rockets being able to take off within hours of each other on multiple launch pads, News 6 partner Florida Today said.
Right now it seems like we have a long way to go. Over the past month, United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy launch of a top secret military satellite has scrubbed five times due to weather, hardware and technical issues causing two SpaceX launches to reschedule multiple times. And then SpaceX has had its own trouble.
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“I’d be lying if I were to tell you that it isn’t sometimes stressful,” Michael Ellis, SpaceX’s director of national security missions told FLORIDA TODAY during a conference call with reporters.
“But up to this point, we have two pads, we have teams dedicated to support simultaneous operations, and we’re able to with our partnership work hand-in-hand with the Space Force.”
SpaceX missions have scrubbed multiple times over the last few weeks due to weather and hardware. Musk attributed the Friday night abort to an “Unexpected pressure rise in the turbomachinery gas generator.”
Musk tweeted that his team will be problem-solving all weekend.
“We’re doing a broad review of launch site, propulsion, structures, avionics, range & regulatory constraints this weekend.”
Musk wrote that he would be coming to the Cape next week to review hardware in person.