The wrong thing with NASA is that its afraid of taking risks and is not moving away from the old ways of doing things along with hassle-filled bureaucracy that saw the ill-fated two fatal space shuttle disasters.

That was the main mind-set that seemed to have surfaced to welcome SpaceX’s controversial fueling plan. What the company did was, it proposed filling of the rocket with propellant after the astronauts board it and not before to that.

The issue of loading underneath NASA’s finest piece with a combustible mix of propellants created an alarm inside some of the circles inside the agency and also among safety experts, who did not find the way filled with any goodness and asserted that the way was something contrary to decades of spaceflight procedure. One watch dog group went on to call it as a sort of “potential safety risk”, as a simple spark can burst into flames the whole rocket due to the resulting explosion. The same kind of thing happened in 2016 with a SpaceX rocket blowing into flames while being fueled.

Only it was then, that NASA recently decided to announce that it would permit SpaceX’s method of fueling which can be called as “load and go”, with a condition that the company needs to prove it five times before getting formal certification to do that. The decision was a very significant one for NASA and also signals current cultural shift as the agency is looking up for partners to cater to the growing commercial space industry.

NASA evolved over many years, according to the officials who said that as much as the space agency feels comfortable in giving away more autonomy and freedom, the more hope builds up regarding more chance of innovation which in turn will encourage spaceflight to become more of a routine.

As the years passed, the agency has developed in-depth partnerships with many companies by awarding them billions of dollars’ worth contracts to carry out crucial services. During the George W. Bush administration, NASA decided to hire big contractors – SpaceX and Orbital ATK – to fly cargo and supplies to the International Space Station.

And then during President Barack Obama, the agency awarded contracts to SpaceX and Boeing to fly crews there and such flights are expected to start next year. By doing so, the space agency permitted the companies to build, design and operate their spacecraft. All the while NASA kept a list of requirements that were to be met by the companies, but it did not at all specify, how they need to meet those requirements.

To become experienced in relying on private companies about how to provide a delivery service to the International Space Station “was on of the major shifting factors,” said Eric Stallmer, who is the president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.

You May Also Read: Apple To Offer 200GB Of Free Storage On iCloud Before The Launch Of 2018 iPhone