‘Battle uphill’: SpaceX overcame obstacles on the way to the historic launch of the first crew

Related: How SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule works (infographic)

“It was an uphill battle,” said Reisman, a professor of astronautics practice at the University of Southern California, who spent three months aboard the ISS in 2008 and also flew on a shuttle mission in 2010.

“If I had to gamble” back then, he told Space.com, “I probably would have gambled against it.”

Reisman was in the trenches for this uphill battle. He joined SpaceX after leaving NASA, working for Elon Musk’s company from 2011 to 2018 and serving as director of crew operations for the latter part of that career. He remains a consultant to SpaceX (but emphasized that his views are his own; he does not speak for the company).

The transition to the post-relocation era began in 2010, when NASA’s Commercial Crew Program awarded its first contracts to private companies. (SpaceX did not get a contract in that first round, but did get money the following year and in the main rounds that followed.) This type of public-private partnership represented a new approach to human space flight for the nation, and not everyone was on board with it.

“There were a lot of skeptics on the day and a lot of uncertainty about whether this model was even a good idea,” said Reisman. “You had the government, the industry and the NASA administration, at different times, as if they were going to shut this down.”

For example, Congress repeatedly awarded much less money to the commercial crew than was allocated in the federal budget requests. NASA officials have identified these budget deficits as a major cause of delays for the program, which originally envisioned its first manned flight in 2015.

It was also difficult to get everyone to be on the same page, at least initially. There was a significant cultural gap between NASA and the private sector, which tended to address issues in different ways, Reisman said.

“Frankly, there was a lot of mutual suspicion and suspicion,” he said. “And I think the difficulty in closing that gap was the most difficult.”

But the gap was bridged, in what appears to be enduring fashion, Reisman said. Much of the credit for that success, and the overall progress the commercial crew has made to date, goes to NASA’s commercial cargo program, he added.

That program, which was announced in 2006, helped put two private robotic refueling vessels into operation. SpaceX’s Charging dragon and Northrop Grumman Cygnus freighter He first visited the ISS in 2010 and 2013, respectively, and both vehicles refuel the lab in orbit today.

The commercial charge “really paved the way,” Reisman said. “I think if that show weren’t successful, we wouldn’t be here preparing to put Bob and Doug in space on a SpaceX rocket.”

And that success has skyrocketed. SpaceX is not the only company preparing to fly NASA astronauts; Boeing has a similar commercial crew agreement, which the aerospace giant will honor using its Starliner CST-100 capsule.

And there is much more to the world of private human space flight. For example, both galactic virgin and the company of Jeff Bezos Blue origin they have flown multiple test missions with their suborbital vehicles carrying crew; they could both start flying by paying customers soon.

Blue Origin also has plans to launch people to orbit or beyond, and the Colorado-based company Sierra Nevada has achieved ambitions for its Dream Chaser space plane. And we may soon have commercial space stations operating in Earth orbit, managed by companies like Axiom Space.

“The time is right for private companies to take a more active role in human space flight,” said Reisman. “It really has been a team effort.”