Stupidity: The X-Men depart for space on a vehicle not designed for space, for an incredibly dangerous mission they know nothing about (and none of them can survive in space at that point), but don't suit up for it in the slightest - and with Nightcrawler and Quicksilver's powers as they are shown later, it'd be easy to do it without wasting time. Not only that, but Xavier communicates with NASA to get the briefing only after the X-Men have already departed.