'BLAME ME'
Elon Musk says ‘it’s his fault’ if anything goes wrong with historic SpaceX launch because he is ‘chief engineer’
by Nicole DarrahELON Musk says to blame him if anything goes wrong with the historic SpaceX launch on Wednesday that will send two American astronauts into space.
Two US astronauts — Doug Hurley, 53, and Bob Behnken, 49 — will be launching to the International Space Station (ISS) on a US rocket from US soil for the first time since 2011.
If successful, the flight will mark the first time astronauts have flown into orbit using a spacecraft built by a private company.
The Falcon 9 rocket will blast into space from Launch Complex 39A — the same launchpad used during the historic Apollo 11 Moon landings.
The launch is scheduled to take place at 4.33pm ET on Wednesday.
Musk said of the launch: “This is the culmination of a dream. This is a dream come true. In fact, it feels surreal.”
“If you asked me when starting SpaceX if this would happen, I'd be like, ‘one percent, .1 percent chance.’”
He told CBS “not one thing” has been “keeping him up at night” about the launch, but noted: “There's thousands of things that can go wrong and only thing that can go right.”
On Monday, ISS Commander Chris Cassidy described the "gigantic" SpaceX launch as "step toward the future" of American space travel.
"Now the future is here," Cassidy told CBS, adding: “It’s a gigantic deal. I mean, we retired the shuttle for very sound reasons when that decision was made with aims to move towards the future.”
When asked how he feels about the safety of the launch and its arrival in space, Cassidy said: "Oh, I’m very confident.”
"They’re smart engineers at Nasa. They’re smart engineers at SpaceX, all with motivation to do the same thing, and that’s fly missions effectively and safely."
Nasa has depended on Russia's space agency Roscosmos for its manned launches since their Space Shuttle program was shut down in 2011.
A successful mission will go a long way towards restoring America's dominance in space, say experts.
"I think it's an outstanding flying machine," Hurley recently said of the capsule. "It is definitely not the space shuttle.”
"It's much smaller, but it's a capsule. It's state of the art from a technology standpoint."
Hurley and Behnken have reportedly been training in simulators at SpaceX's headquarters for months.
Among the new features of the spacecraft are a touchscreen control panel, rather than a traditional hand controller like the shuttles had.
Musk told CBS that the safety of Hurley and Behnken in getting to the ISS is “the absolute priority. In fact, I've told the SpaceX team is not — it is not simply the top priority. It is the only priority.”
He said the responsibility of getting the American astronauts to the space station is weighing heavily on him, and it’s “all I can think about right now.”
Musk added that hours before he spoke to CBS, he asked the astronauts how they were doing, and they were “cool as a cucumber” with “nerves of steel.”
The mission — dubbed Demo-2 — will lay the groundwork for future manned flights to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
The Air Force's 45th Weather Squadron will analyze the forecast on Wednesday and give either a red or green light roughly four hours and 30 minutes before liftoff.
A backup date for the launch has been scheduled for May 30.