SpaceX has faced some bumps in the road recently. A NASA safety panel reminded the company to focus on safety for crewed flights. Former astronaut Kent Rominger pointed out issues with SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft. He mentioned problems like the July launch failure and engine anomalies during the Crew-9 mission. Rominger said these issues show that safety needs extra attention as hardware ages and missions increase. Both NASA and SpaceX need to keep their eyes on the ball and not assume everything is fine just because it's been working well.
Rominger also talked about changes to Dragon splashdowns. Moving them from Florida to California is a good move for safety and recovery. SpaceX has been very busy this year, which has its pros and cons. Another panel member said the high pace of operations gives them more data to understand the systems better.
The panel also discussed the recent Starliner crewed test flight. NASA decided to leave the astronauts on the International Space Station and bring back the spacecraft uncrewed. Rominger praised NASA's analysis and decision-making process. The panel's chair, Susan Helms, agreed, saying NASA showed a healthy safety culture.
