SpaceX Completes Crew Dragon In-flight Abort Test in Florida
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (NASA PR) — NASA and SpaceX completed a launch escape demonstration of the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket Sunday. This was the final major flight test of the spacecraft before it begins carrying astronauts to the International Space Station under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
The launch escape test began at 10:30 a.m. EST with liftoff from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a mission to show the spacecraft’s capability to safely separate from the rocket in the unlikely event of an inflight emergency.
“This critical flight test puts us on the cusp of returning the capability to launch astronauts in American spacecraft on American rockets from American soil,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “We are thrilled with the progress NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is making and look forward to the next milestone for Crew Dragon.”
As part of the test, SpaceX configured Crew Dragon to trigger a launch escape about 1.5 minutes after liftoff. All major functions were executed, including separation, engine firings, parachute deployment and landing. Crew Dragon splashed down at 10:38 a.m. just off the Florida coast in the Atlantic Ocean.
“As far as we can tell thus far, it’s a picture perfect mission. It went as well as one can possibly expect,” said Elon Musk, Chief Engineer at SpaceX. “This is a reflection of the dedication and hard work of the SpaceX and NASA teams to achieve this goal. Obviously, I’m super fired up. This is great.”
Teams of personnel from SpaceX and the U.S. Air Force 45th Operations Group’s Detachment-3 out of Patrick Air Force Base will recover the spacecraft for return to SpaceX facilities in Florida and begin the recovery effort of the Falcon 9, which broke apart as planned.
“The past few days have been an incredible experience for us,” said astronaut Doug Hurley. “We started with a full dress rehearsal of what Bob and I will do for our mission. Today, we watched the demonstration of a system that we hope to never use, but can save lives if we ever do. It took a lot of work between NASA and SpaceX to get to this point, and we can’t wait to take a ride to the space station soon.”
Prior to the flight test, teams completed launch day procedures for the first crewed flight test, from suit-up to launch pad operations. The joint teams now will begin the full data reviews that need to be completed prior to NASA astronauts flying the system during SpaceX’s Demo-2 mission.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is working with the American aerospace industry as companies develop and operate a new generation of spacecraft and launch systems capable of carrying crews to low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station. Commercial human space transportation to and from the station will provide expanded utility, additional research time and broader opportunities for discovery on the orbiting laboratory. The program also has the benefit of facilitating and promoting for America a vibrant economy in low-Earth orbit.
19 responses to “SpaceX Completes Crew Dragon In-flight Abort Test in Florida”
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SpaceX missed golden opportunity. Could have sold advertising to Rolex. Painted on side of Dragon next to Rolex logo
“We always know what time it is.”
“This critical flight test puts us on the cusp of returning the
capability to launch astronauts in American spacecraft on American
rockets from American soil,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.With this system yes. CST-100 no. Atlas has Russian engines. It is an American-Russian rocket. As is Antares. He is making false or misleading statements again. I do hope they remove him soon and get someone that is truthful. I got it on copy. I think I will go to the speaker.com and paste there what he said.
Atlas V is absolutely an American built launch vehicle that has one liquid fueled rocket engine that is made in Russia (the RD-180). The other engines and the SRBs are all made in the US.
I’m inclined to side with Bridenstine on that one too in light of it now seeming all but certain the first such all-American return to manned ISS flight will be on the F9-Crew Dragon 2 combo. Given Starliner’s underwhelming performance on its unmanned outing it is unlikely to fly again – manned or unmanned – until 3Q 2020 at the earliest. It’s by no means impossible that it may not fly at all this year. Meanwhile, Vulcan is supposed to debut in 1H 2021. Starliner will do the vast majority of its manned missions atop Vulcan, especially if ISS stays in commission until 2030.
Finally 😀
Hopefully the post-flight analysis shows all went smoothly.
On to the final two parachute tests, the writing and submitting of the reports and then the NASA review process – and then finally the Big Day 😀
I figure that’ll be April sometime if the mission stays at a 2-week duration. If the mission is extended, departure may be delayed into May or June so Bob and Doug can do some more training for their longer stay.
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Full good video
Paging Gary Church…paging Gary Church.
Hobby spacecraft!
Trampoline rocket
Is he still around? He was fun.
Not sure, his last big hangout ended when Spudis ended. He always ragged on D2 but especially liquid based escape systems. He never could understand the value in adjusting the acceleration to the particular abort regime. I think he will have an aneurism if SpaceX is first to return crew.
Only if, like me, you sometimes indulged a low taste for tormenting dumb animals.
Gary made some good rhetorical points before reality proved him to be on the wrong side of history. He is over the top for sure, but people who go overboard can have interesting points of view.
Gary is a sort of fundamentalist O’Neillian in the same way Oral Roberts was a fundamentalist Christian or Bernie Sanders is a fundamentalist Marxist. Instead of the King James Bible or the Communist Manifesto, Gary’s sacred text is The High Frontier. Like all fundamentalists, he is viciously intolerant of anything which departs from scripture. His is a type of mindset too lamentably common to be really interesting – except perhaps to the psychiatric profession. I suspect whatever modest affection you feel for him is entirely due to you both being thoroughgoing statists.
If you are correct he should be a big fan of the BF(x) concept. Creating artificial demand for that beast, should it ever work, will drive one in O’Nellian directions.
As for my ‘affections’ for Gary …. I like him in much a similar way I like you. You bring up points of view that have merit that I would not consider on my own.
Thanks for that last – I think.
Whether or not Gary should like what SHS eventually allows to be done is kind of beside the point. His worldview is that only big, government-run, FDR-like public works efforts can actually accomplish anything in space. If those things get accomplished by private enterprise that is obviously the work of the Devil. Gary is, in practice, even more committed to a very particular process than he is to any particular result.
I would agree with your assessment. And you come across as much the same in the structure of that paragraph only substitute private enterprise and libertarian ideas in the places reserved for political and economic models. That said, I don’t consider you nearly as dogmatic as Mr Church.
Any casual space historian can see that the private sector CAN have staying power. So CAN a government. But there are no guarantees. For the 21st cen both the US government and the private sector has shown long term commitment and carry through on their programs and the ability to persist. Both good and very very flawed programs have demonstrated this. I’d like to think the managers of those programs have taken some lessons from the past 60 years of history.
The booster came apart at the forward LOX bulkhead after LES triggered engine shutdown and stage was overwhelmed by asymmetric loads. So much for the crowd who thought the booster could be saved. The second stage came down in a real hurry generating both a sonic boom and large thud when it exploded on impact, very impressive, the S2, Interstage and bits of S1 tank all stayed together until impact.