Early Weather Reports Positive for SpaceX In-Flight Abort Test
By Jim Cawley
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
With the launch of SpaceX’s in-flight abort demonstration three days away, early weather reports are promising. According to Mike McAleenan, a launch weather officer with the U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing, there is a 90 percent chance of favorable weather at liftoff. The primary concern is flight through precipitation, as some shallow coastal rain showers are predicted.
NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than Saturday, Jan. 18, for the In-Flight Abort Test from Launch Complex 39A in Florida. The four-hour test window starts at 8 a.m. EST. The test will demonstrate the escape capabilities of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft — showing that the crew system can protect astronauts even in the unlikely event of an emergency during launch.
In-flight abort is the final, major test before astronauts fly aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. For this test, SpaceX will configure Crew Dragon to intentionally trigger a launch escape prior to 1 minute, 30 seconds into flight to demonstrate Crew Dragon’s capability to safely separate from the Falcon 9 rocket in the unlikely event of an in-flight emergency.
Live coverage will begin on NASA Television and the agency’s website Friday, Jan. 17, with a pretest briefing. Watch live coverage at www.nasa.gov/nasalive.
Full coverage is as follows. All times are EST:
Friday, Jan. 17
- 1 p.m. – Pre-test briefing at Kennedy, with the following representatives:
- Kathy Lueders, manager, NASA Commercial Crew Program
- Benji Reed, director, Crew Mission Management, SpaceX
- Mike McAleenan, launch weather officer, 45th Weather Squadron
Saturday, Jan. 18
- 7:45 a.m. – NASA TV test coverage begins for the 8 a.m. liftoff
- 9:30 a.m. – Post-test news conference at Kennedy, with the following representatives:
- Jim Bridenstine, administrator, NASA
- SpaceX representative
- Kathy Lueders, manager, NASA Commercial Crew Program
- Victor Glover, astronaut, NASA Commercial Crew Program
- Mike Hopkins, astronaut, NASA Commercial Crew Program
For more information on coverage, go to:
8 responses to “Early Weather Reports Positive for SpaceX In-Flight Abort Test”
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Who cares about the weather? What’s the worst that can happen? Rough seas, I guess.
Yeah, besides the capsule recovery area, the weather would have to be pretty bad to jeopardize the destruction of the rocket and destroy the creation of an emergency. Wait a minute…(scratches head)
Wind and parachutes don’t mix very well. Plus you want to have good video.
They only need two chutes to deploy, right? Oh no, wait… that was Boeing.
So close
It’s a real testament for Falcon and Dragon that these systems are flexible, and economical enough to conduct these tests. STS should have been tested as such, and after what I’ve seen with Starliner, I’d really like to see that system undergo such a real life test. While both programs look to have a ton of shortcomings, I think the Space X product line is going to mature into a far superior system.
A number of ppl here love to blast SX ( and others rip on NASA ), but I agree with you. SX has learned a great deal from NASA as well as plenty of OTJ .
Space X’s saving grace is their flight ethic. And that’s huge.