SpaceX Power Outage Disrupted Mission Control During Historic Private Spacewalk

The hour-long communication loss before the Polaris Dawn spacewalk raises concerns about safety standards and transparency in private space missions.

A power outage at SpaceX's California facility in September caused a loss of ground control for over an hour during the Polaris Dawn mission.
The mission, which included the first-ever private spacewalk, relied on limited communication via Starlink satellites during the outage.
The incident highlights gaps in U.S. regulations requiring private space companies to disclose mission mishaps, as current laws do not mandate such reporting.
Jared Isaacman, the mission commander and NASA administrator nominee, faces scrutiny over potential conflicts of interest due to his financial ties to SpaceX.
The outage also exposed operational vulnerabilities, such as the lack of paper backup procedures and difficulties transferring control to a backup facility.