SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said on Tuesday at the 36th Space Symposium that widespread liquid oxygen shortages due to the COVID-19 outbreak will cause less frequent rocket launches. The aerospace company’s Falcon 9 rocket utilizes a combination of kerosene and liquid oxygen as propellant to fuel its nine Merlin 1D engines. Their Starship launch system that is undergoing development in South Texas uses a different engine, the Raptor, which is fueled by methane but also uses liquid oxygen as an oxidizer. “We’re actually going to be impacted this year with the lack of liquid oxygen for launch,” Shotwell said. “We certainly are going to make sure the hospitals are going to have the oxygen that they need, but for anybody who has liquid oxygen to spare, send me an email.”
Demand for liquid oxygen has escalated because of the rise of COVID-19 patients who need to be hospitalized. Liquid oxygen is used by ventilator machines to provide oxygen to patients battling the respiratory illness. Liquid oxygen is also used to purify water across the United States. Shotwell did not provide more details on how the liquid oxygen shortage could impact its launch manifest this year. UPDATE: In response to this article, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said -"This is a risk, but not yet a limiting factor," he wrote via Twitter.
This is a risk, but not yet a limiting factor
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 26, 2021
The company has not launched a Falcon 9 rocket since June 30, which is unusual. However, Shotwell said that the delay is because they paused Starlink launches to focus on manufacturing its next-generation Starlink satellites equipped with ‘laser links.’ Read more in the previous Tesmanian.com article, linked below.
SpaceX’s next rocket launch is scheduled for August 28; A Falcon 9 rocket will liftoff at 3:37 a.m. EDT from Launch Complex-39A at the Kennedy Space Center to launch a cargo Dragon capsule to the International Space Station as part of the company’s 23rd Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. This launch is vital for the agency because Dragon will transport science research and supplies necessary at the Space Station.
SpaceX Pauses Starlink Launches To Complete Manufacturing Next-Generation Satellites With Lasershttps://t.co/lv7hTMZvur
— Tesmanian.com (@Tesmanian_com) August 25, 2021
Featured Image Source: SpaceX
About the Author
Evelyn Arevalo
Evelyn J. Arevalo joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover news as a Space Journalist and SpaceX Starbase Texas Correspondent. Evelyn is specialized in rocketry and space exploration. The main topics she covers are SpaceX and NASA.
