James Dean

FLORIDA TODAY

It could be the most critical position during a launch: the military officer ready to push a button to blow up a rocket if it veers off course and endangers the public.

But when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off Feb. 19, the seat at the Mission Flight Control Officer’s console at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station was empty — on purpose.

For the first time in decades of launches from the Cape, responsibility for commanding the rocket to self-destruct, if necessary, lay with computers on board the Falcon, not a “human in the loop.”

Brig. Gen. Wayne Monteith, commander of the Air Force’s 45th Space Wing, said the successful launch with an Automated Flight Safety System, or AFSS, was a historic “game-changer,” demonstrating technology that will improve safety, lower costs and enable more launches from the Eastern Range.

“It was tested extensively, and is actually safer than having an individual in the loop,” Monteith said in a recent interview. “It fundamentally changes the way we are doing business.”

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SpaceX is the first and only U.S. launch company approved to fly such a system, after it was tested on 13 previous flights in “shadow mode.”

The company’s next launch, targeted for 1:34 a.m. Tuesday, is expected to be the last time a Falcon rocket relies on an officer ready at the console as part of a traditional flight termination system.

“It’s just a much more streamlined way to launch, relying on newer technology for sure,” SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said of the automated system.

SpaceX’s system builds upon two decades of work by government teams.

It starts with a core software package developed by NASA, the Air Force and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. To that SpaceX adds a “wrapper” — software customized for its own rockets.

During flight, GPS and other sensors on the Falcon continuously record the rocket’s position and trajectory. If the rocket crosses pre-programmed boundary lines, triggering repeated violations of flight rules, onboard computers would command explosive devices to detonate, just as if the signals were sent from the ground.

Only faster.

The Air Force has calculated that human intervention takes three-and-a-half seconds longer. With computers providing that small extra margin before taking action, a rocket might be able to correct its course in time and save a mission.

With traditional destruct systems, telemetry has to reach the ground and be processed. The Mission Flight Control Officer must recognize a problem and react. The rocket then must receive commands before cutting a flight short.

“That takes time,” said Monteith. “There’s always a chance, although extremely remote, that an individual is going to make a mistake. Software’s not going to.”

On-board systems also don’t need to stay within sight of ground tracking systems, so rockets can fly farther over the horizon before a problem would trigger action.

“It protects the public longer, because we have positive control of the vehicle much farther down range,” said Howard Schindzielorz, chief engineer for the 45th Space Wing’s Range Safety Office.

SpaceX is upgrading its automated safety system for flights of astronauts to the International Space Station that are expected to start next year.

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is reviewing the system and has not yet accepted it.

“If done correctly, an automated system is actually safer, more reliable than having a human in the loop,” said Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana. “We’ve still got some work to do before Commercial Crew is going to certify that this is the way to go, but this is the future.”

Cabana, a four-time shuttle astronaut, remembered how shuttle crews before launches would meet with the Range safety personnel who could decide their fate.

“We used to go visit the guys that sat on console that would push the button and show them pictures of our kids and get to know them,” he said.

Unlike shuttle crews, astronauts flying on SpaceX Dragons and Boeing Starliners will have the chance to jettison their capsules away from a failing rocket.

Fortunately, it’s extremely rare for the Range to destroy an errant rocket. The last time it happened was in 1998, not counting the commands sent in June 2015 to a Falcon rocket that had already broken apart on its own.

Monteith said it is a “business case decision” for each launch company whether to invest in an automated system. SpaceX’s recent flight helps explain how it might pay off.

The company did not need to buy the services of four Eastern Range systems normally used to track a rocket’s flight and enable its destruction, including radars and telemetry.

As a result, nearly 150 fewer Range personnel than usual staffed the launch and flyback of the Falcon booster — a 60 percent drop. SpaceX will cut its Range-related expenses in half, Monteith said. (Those costs are considered proprietary.)

Reduced reliance on aging Range infrastructure also opens up more launch opportunities.

A problem with Range tracking equipment won’t scrub a SpaceX countdown; it’s no longer needed.

Automated systems should enable faster turnarounds from one launch to another. Monteith said SpaceX could, in theory, launch twice within hours when both of its Cape pads are available.

“For them I don’t think it’s really just about cost, I really believe it’s flexibility,” he said. “They launch on readiness.”

Another business driver for SpaceX’s was the debut of its Falcon Heavy rocket, expected this year. The rocket’s first stage features three Falcon 9 boosters strapped together.

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SpaceX wants to land the two side boosters back at Cape Canaveral, while the middle booster flies on to a ship at sea, so all that three can be recovered and potentially reused. But current Range systems can’t track more than one returning booster.

“If you want to fly multiple boosters back, they have got to be autonomous,” said Monteith. “Otherwise, they’ve got to put them in the ocean.”

Range operations won’t truly transform until every rocket adopts Autonomous Flight Safety Systems, and there’s no certain timetable for that to occur.

United Launch Alliance, the Range’s other most frequent user, will continue to fly traditional termination systems on Atlas and Delta rockets, while designing an automated system into its new Vulcan rocket, which could fly by 2019.

The Navy has no plans to change how it performs test launches of Trident nuclear ballistic missiles from submarines.

The Range’s goal is to be able support 48 launches a year by 2020 — potentially more than 70 launch attempts — as newcomers like Blue Origin enter the scene. Automated safety systems make that more feasible.

Monteith acknowledged losing some sleep in the week prior to SpaceX’s Feb. 19 launch due to nervous excitement about the new system.

Schindzielorz had no such trouble.

“I’ve been working on this for 17 years,” he said. “It felt wonderful."

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 orjdean@floridatoday.com. Follow on Twitter at @flatoday_jdean.