Buzz Aldrin: Falcon 9's Failure a Blip in Growing Space Business

The failed commercial SpaceX Falcon 9 flight shows the importance of "getting down to business" when it comes to the future of the United States' space program, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin says.

"However disappointing is the loss of the SpaceX booster and destruction of the Dragon-carrying cargo ship headed for the International Space Station (ISS), it is a teachable moment," Aldrin, who is best known for his walk on the moon, wrote this week in an opinion piece for Time.

"I think it punctuates the need for providing more appropriate budgetary funding for commercial space activities."

The bigger picture, Aldrin said, will be one that could determine how Americans will return to the moon and even go on to Mars.

Some of the groundwork for future space travel has already been laid, he said, through the Obama administration and its push for commercial space operators that provide services for reaching low-orbit targets. This support opens the way for the next administration to commit to other, and more far-reaching, commercial space activities.

And despite the recent launch failed, Aldrin said, Space X as a company has a record of achievement with the Falcon 9, including 18 consecutive successful flights.

"I have every confidence that it will learn from this failure and emerge as an even more reliable launch provider," said Aldrin.

He pointed out that in the years before his friend John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962, the Atlas booster he used had a high failure rate, but has since become the world's most reliable launch vehicle.

"If the recent SpaceX rocket trouble had been a failure of a government launch, we would dramatically increase funding to find the problem, fix the issue, and get back to flying," said Aldrin. "NASA’s commercial crew and cargo program is our only U.S. option to get astronauts and supplies to the ISS. It must be treated the same way."

Cutting NASA's budget is not an option, Aldrin said, if the United States hopes to have a human space program, adding that the commercial services in use are a "dramatic cost-savings" to taxpayers.

Aldrin foresees low Earth orbit increasingly as an incubator for commercial activities, including private space stations and space tourism "that can stretch all the way to my old stomping grounds, the Moon." He commended NASA for its push in nurturing competitive services.

"The SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule are to be modified to ferry crews to the International Space Station," said Aldrin. "Likewise, NASA is working with Boeing on that company’s CST-100 crew capsule. One or both companies are expected to fly astronauts to and from the space station by the end of 2017."

He said he does not doubt that SpaceX founder Elon Musk has his own "sky-high business plan" when it comes to his rocket program, and his is among the commercial trends "worth watching" for years to come.

Orbital Sciences' Cygnus is another supply spacecraft that he credits with making a difference. Both Dragon and Cygnus have docked with the space station, and Aldrin said the service helps fill a void left by the retirement of the Space Shuttle.

Another payload, the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, is slated for the next ISS cargo flight on a Falcon 9  booster, and Aldrin said he thinks there will be a "ballooning business" for the space station to test technology that could further expand the nation's space program.

"True, the ripple effects from SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster going boom in the Florida skies are many," said Aldrin. "But the take-home message given the NASA-private sector bond is one of striving for reliability, safety, but also affordability."

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