The changing face of America’s next space race is a problem for Houston, American astronauts and the United States’ legacy as a space leader.

As a Houston native, I was privileged to work on every Apollo mission. Along with my neighbors, our community dedicated itself to sending men and women into space and bringing them home safely. While Houston recently lost Al Bean, one of the last surviving men to walk on the moon, our city is still filled with dozens of flight engineers and mission control officers whose work on the space program was equally as important.

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Today that legacy of safety, innovation and success could be in jeopardy, at the hands of a few billionaires who see space as their next playground. Taxpayer money that took humans to the moon, developed the International Space Station, built the only true reusable space vehicle and helped put our current constellation of satellites in orbit is instead being siphoned off by the privately wealthy — to the tune of at least $4.9 billion.

Now, reports indicate that SpaceX intends to use some of that money on faulty fueling technology that already caused to explode on the launch pad. This technique, referred to as “load and go,” involves fueling the rocket immediately before launch to maximize fuel storage in lieu of increasing fuel capacity, a method no space program incorporates into a launch due to the risk. As Gemini and Apollo astronaut Tom Stafford noted in a 2016 letter to NASA, “There is a unanimous and strong feeling by the committee that scheduling the crew to be on board the Dragon spacecraft prior to loading oxidizer into the rocket is contrary to booster safety criteria that has been in place for over 50 years, both in this country and internationally.”

This is one thing if SpaceX intends to continue launching uncrewed rockets, but owner Elon Musk indicates this is the same dangerously risky technique SpaceX will use on future crewed missions with NASA astronauts’ lives on the line. This behavior cuts corners to save time and money at the risk of human lives. Space travel is far less dangerous than it once was, but even in the early days of the space race, we would never accept such an unnecessary hazard.

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Houston’s role in launching astronauts past Earth’s gravity, landing on the moon and getting our astronauts home safely is unquestioned. This next generation space race presents an opportunity to continue that legacy of safety and innovation by sending NASA astronauts to deep space aboard America’s exploration rocket, the Space Launch System. Its crewed missions to the moon and beyond will be run from Houston at Johnson Space Center’s historic mission control, ensuring that Houston remains the epicenter of exploration and American leadership.

SLS will be the most powerful rocket in the world, with the horsepower of 160,000 Corvette engines in its final configuration. That power will be able to deliver more than 50 metric tons of humans, cargo and science missions to the moon and, eventually, deep space.

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We have a remarkable opportunity to change the trajectory of human history with new space initiatives in the next few years, just as the space race did in the 1960s. Moving forward, it is critical that we focus on the things Houston got right the first time — safety, innovation and the return trip.

Phelps retired as chief engineer in Boeing’s space division after a career spent with the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs.