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https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/spacex-crew-dragon-launch-1.5038931?cmp=rss

SpaceX prepares for biggest test yet: The inaugural launch of its Crew Dragon capsule

It's been eight long years since astronauts launched from U.S. soil. Now, Elon Musk's SpaceX is readying for the test of a lifetime with the test launch of its new crew capsule.

Event marks first step in returning crewed launches to U.S. soil

 
nicole-mortillaro.jpg
Nicole Mortillaro · CBC News · Posted: Mar 01, 2019 1:44 PM ET | Last Updated: 18 minutes ago
 
spacex-crew-dragon-demo-1.jpg
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is seen after being raised into a vertical position on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for the Saturday launch at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

It's been eight long years since astronauts launched from U.S. soil. Now, Elon Musk's SpaceX is readying for the test of a lifetime with the test launch of its new crew capsule.

The test launch of SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule is scheduled for Saturday at 2:49 a.m. ET in Florida. If all goes well, the spacecraft — uncrewed but loaded with some experiments and supplies for the astronauts as well as a test dummy named Ripley after the protagonist in the Alien movies — will dock with the International Space Station (ISS).

 

 

It will be the first commercial crew mission to visit the ISS.

 

The launch called Demo-1 is designed to test avionics, docking, solar arrays, communications and environmental controls among other things. 

 

"There are a lot of things you can prepare for on the ground, and through analysis and tests — and we do all that on the ground — but there's nothing like flying a mission to be able to really check out all the key systems … to get ready for our next mission," Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA Commercial Crew Program, said last week during a news conference.

spacex-crew-dragon-at-pad.jpgIn this photograph, the Crew Dragon sits at the launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with the crew access arm in position. (SpaceX)

 

SpaceX has successfully launched and even reused its Dragon cargo capsule, but this will be the first flight for the Crew Dragon, and there are some differences from its predecessor.

When the Dragon cargo reaches the ISS, Canadarm 2 captures it and brings it to dock. Crew Dragon will be able to dock on its own.

The Crew Dragon also has SuperDraco thrusters, more powerful than the Draco thrusters used on the Dragon. They will have the ability to act as a launch escape system in case the crew needs to abort before or after launch.

dragon-pad-abort-test.jpgIn 2015, SpaceX conducted its pad abort test seen here. (SpaceX)

The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket, which will carry the capsule, will return to a drone ship off the coast of Florida.

The shiny white new capsule is about five-metres tall and can carry as many as seven astronauts.

After launching, the capsule will orbit Earth for just over 24 hours before heading to the ISS where it is scheduled to dock at 6:05 a.m. on Sunday. It will then dock where the current astronauts on the station — including Canadian David Saint-Jacques — will unload the cargo.

NASA said that the astronauts, who are already preparing for the Crew Dragon's arrival, will be able to explore the new capsule after it's docked. It will then head back to Earth on March 8 where it will splash down in the Atlantic Ocean a few hundred kilometres off the Florida coast.

I guarantee everything will not work exactly right and that's cool.- Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator of NASA Human Exploration and Operations

As it's the inaugural launch, NASA officials said they don't expect everything to go off without a hitch.

 

"I guarantee everything will not work exactly right and that's cool," said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator of NASA Human Exploration and Operations. "That's exactly what we want to do. We want to maximize our learning so we can get this stuff ready so when we put crew on … it'll be the right safety for our crews."

See the interior of the Crew Dragon in the video below.

 

 

Boeing, which is also providing crew transport for NASA, is scheduled to do its first uncrewed demo launch of its Starliner capsule in April. Its crew demo will take place in mid-2019.

 

The two companies will also have to do abort tests before their crewed missions.

Human spaceflight is basically the core mission of SpaceX. So we are really excited to do this. There is nothing more important for us than this endeavour.- Hans Koenigsmann, vice-president of SpaceX's build and flight reliability

 

Hans Koenigsmann, vice-president of SpaceX's build and flight reliability, said the company is happy to be playing a role in getting humans into space.

 

"Human spaceflight is basically the core mission of SpaceX," he said. "So we are really excited to do this. There is nothing more important for us than this endeavour."

 

Nicole Mortillaro

Senior Reporter, Science

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The dragon  breathing fire had a successful liftoff. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47414390

SpaceX astronaut capsule demo for Nasa lifts off

By Jonathan Amos BBC Science Correspondent

The demonstration of a new US system to get astronauts into orbit is under way.

The SpaceX company has launched a capsule designed to carry people from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The mission is uncrewed for this flight, but if it goes well, the American space agency is likely to approve the system for regular astronaut use from later this year.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said this could be the first step towards opening space travel to commercial customers.

Not since the retirement of the shuttles in 2011 has the US been able to put humans in orbit.

 

It has been paying to use Russian Soyuz vehicles instead.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon crew capsule lifted off from Kennedy's historic Pad 39A at the precise planned time of 02:49 EST (07:49 GMT).

The 11-minute ascent put the Dragon on a path to rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday.

Dragon capsule Presentational white space

Who is this character Ripley?

Because this is just a demonstration, there are no astronauts aboard - but there is a "test dummy".

Dressed in a spacesuit and sitting next to a window, this anthropomorphic simulator is fitted with sensors around the head, neck, and spine.It will gather data on the type of forces that humans will experience when they get to ride in the spacecraft.

SpaceX has nicknamed the dummy "Ripley" - after the Sigourney Weaver character in the Alien movies.

Ripley in Dragon capsuleImage copyright SPACEX Image caption Ripley has a microphone next to "her" ear to record the sounds astronauts would hear

For the California company, this mission is a key milestone in its short history. Mr Musk, a technology entrepreneur and engineer, set up the organisation with the specific intention of taking people into space.

"It's been 17 years to get to this point, from 2002 to now. To be frank, I'm a little emotionally exhausted because it was super stressful," he told reporters immediately after the launch.

"Our focus has been on serving Nasa's needs but once Dragon is in regular operation, I think we will seek commercial customers of which the Nasa administrator, and Nasa in general, has been very supportive."

Elon MuskImage copyright Reuters Image caption Elon Musk's vision from the outset was to build vehicles that could take people into space

Mr Musk said those customers could include private citizens going to the ISS, just as they have done on Soyuz vehicles in the past.

Separately, the entrepreneur is developing a much bigger system - which he calls the Starship and Super Heavy rocket - to transport people to the Moon and Mars.

Launch viewed from coastImage copyright SPACEX Image caption Spectators turned out in the early hours in Florida to watch the launch

The Dragon crew capsule is a variant on the ISS cargo freighter flown by SpaceX.

Upgrades include life-support systems, obviously; and more powerful thrusters to push the vessel to safety if something goes wrong with a rocket during an ascent to orbit.

It also has four parachutes instead of the freighter's three to control the return to Earth.

Dragon crew capsules will splashdown in the Atlantic not far from Kennedy.

Artwork: Crew Dragon approaches ISSImage copyright NASA Image caption Artwork: The crew ship will approach the station from the front and dock automatically

How has Nasa changed since the shuttle?

Nasa is essentially now contracting out crew transport to SpaceX.

Whereas in the past, Nasa engineers would have top-down control of all aspects of vehicle design and the agency would own and operate the hardware - the relationship with industry has been put on a completely new footing.

Today, Nasa sets broad requirements and industry is given plenty of latitude in how it meets those demands.

Agency officials still check off every step, but the approach is regarded as more efficient and less costly.

Nasa chief, Jim Bridenstine, stressed on Saturday that the re-introduction of American crew transport did not mean an end to cooperation with Russia.

"We want to make sure that we keep our partnership with Russia which has been very strong for a long period of time, going all the way back to the Apollo-Soyuz era," he said.

"But we also want to make sure we have our own capability to get back and forth to the International Space Station, so that we can have this strong partnership where they can launch on our rockets and we can launch on their rockets."

Mission profile Presentational white space

How should this mission play out?

After being taken to orbit, the Dragon makes its own way to the station using onboard thrusters.

One of the big differences between this mission and standard cargo flights is the mode of approach and attachment to the ISS. Freighters come up under the orbiting lab and are grappled by a robotic arm and pulled into a berthing position.

On this occasion, we will see the crew version of Dragon approach the station at the bow and dock automatically, using a new design of connection ring. Arrival is set for 11:00 GMT on Sunday.

ISS astronauts will be watching closely to see that the capsule behaves as it should.

The Dragon is expected to stay at the station until Friday. The current plan has it undocking, firing its thrusters to come out of orbit, and splashing down at roughly 13:45 GMT.

Kirk Shireman, the manager of Nasa's ISS programme, said: "You'll hear us talk about this being a flight test; it absolutely is, although we view it also as a real mission, a very critical mission.

"The ISS still has three people onboard so this mission coming up to the ISS for the first time has to work; it has to work."

Nasa is also working with Boeing on crew transport. The company has developed a capsule of its own called the Starliner. This will have its equivalent demo flight in the next couple of months.

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The Dragon has docked.

Updated

SpaceX's new crew capsule aces space station docking

SpaceX's new crew capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, acing its second milestone in just over a day.

Docked autonomously under astronauts' watchful eyes, instead of relying on station's robot arm

The Associated Press · Posted: Mar 03, 2019 7:28 AM ET | Last Updated: 15 minutes ago
 
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SpaceX's capsule approaches just before docking at the International Space Station on Sunday. (NASA TV via AP)
 

SpaceX's sleek, new crew capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, acing its second milestone in just over a day.

No one was aboard the Dragon capsule launched Saturday on its first test flight, only an instrumented dummy. But that quickly changed once the hatch swung open and the space station astronauts floated inside.

"A new generation of space flight starts now with the arrival of SpaceX's Crew Dragon to the space station," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted. "Congratulations to all for this historic achievement getting us closer to flying American Astronauts on American rockets."

This beefed-up, redesigned Dragon is the first American-made, designed-for-crew spacecraft to pull up to the station in eight years. The next one coming up will have its own two-man crew.

The space station's three astronauts had front-row seats as the white eight-metre-long capsule neatly docked, a little early no less. TV cameras on Dragon as well as the station provided stunning views of one another throughout the rendezvous.

Air samples taken

Just two hours after the Dragon's grand entrance, the station crew entered to take air samples. The astronauts wore oxygen masks and hoods until getting the all-clear.

If the six-day demo goes well, SpaceX could launch two astronauts this summer under NASA's commercial crew program. Both astronauts — Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken — were at SpaceX Mission Control in Southern California, observing all the action. They rushed there from Florida after watching the Dragon rocket into orbit early Saturday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

"Just super excited to see it," Behnken said minutes after the link-up. "Just one more milestone that gets us ready for our flight coming up here."

While SpaceX has sent plenty of cargo Dragons to the space station, crew Dragon is a different beast. It docked autonomously under the station astronauts' watchful eyes, instead of relying on the station's robot arm for berthing. The capsule's nose cap was wide open like a dragon's mouth, to expose the docking mechanism.

Behnken said that's the way it should work when he and Hurley are on board; they may push a button or two and will have the ability to intervene, if necessary.

spacex-crew-capsule.jpgThe SpaceX team in Hawthorne, Calif., watches as the SpaceX Crew Dragon docks with the International Space Station's Harmony module. (NASA via AP)

As part of Sunday's shakedown, the station astronauts sent commands for the Dragon to retreat and then move forward again, before the capsule closed in for good.

SpaceX employees at company headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., cheered and applauded as crew Dragon pulled up and docked at the orbiting lab, nearly 400 kilometres above the Pacific, north of New Zealand. They burst into applause again, several minutes later, when the Dragon's latches were tightly secured.

The capsule's lone passenger for launch — a mannequin wearing a white SpaceX spacesuit — remained strapped into its seat as the station's U.S., Canadian and Russian crew removed supplies and photographed the spotless white interior. The test dummy — or Smarty as SpaceX likes to call it, given all the instrumentation — is named Ripley after the lead character in the science-fiction Alien films.

Capsule's return scheduled Friday

Dragon will remain at the space station until Friday, when it undocks and aims for a splashdown in the Atlantic, a couple hundred kilometres off the Florida coast.

Like Ripley, the capsule is rigged with sensors to measure noise, vibration and stresses, and to monitor the life-support, propulsion and other critical systems throughout the flight.

SpaceX aims to launch Behnken and Hurley as early as July.

Next up, though, should be Boeing, NASA's other commercial crew provider. Boeing is looking to launch its Starliner capsule without a crew as early as April and with a crew possibly in August.

NASA is paying the two private companies $8 billion to build and operate the capsules for ferrying astronauts to and from the space station. Astronauts have been stuck riding Russian rockets ever since NASA's space shuttle program ended in 2011. Russian Soyuz seats go for up to $82 million apiece.

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