Polskie Forum Astronautyczne
Artykuły o tematyce astronautycznej => Artykuły astronautyczne => Wątek zaczęty przez: Orionid w Styczeń 23, 2019, 17:20
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NASA reveals crews for first flights of commercial spaceships (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=399.msg120982#msg120982)
August 3, 2018 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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NASA introduces the astronauts assigned to the first flights of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now
https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/08/03/nasa-reveals-crews-for-first-flights-of-commercial-spaceships/
No commercial crew test flights expected this year
October 6, 2018 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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Artist’s concept of the CST-100 Starliner and Crew Dragon (lower left and upper right). Credit: NASA
BREMEN, Germany — NASA has released new target dates for test flights of commercial crew capsules in development by SpaceX and Boeing, with unpiloted demo missions by SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spaceships now scheduled for January and March, followed by crewed orbital missions in mid-2019.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/10/06/no-commercial-crew-test-flights-expected-this-year/
NASA delays SpaceX commercial crew test flight to February
by Jeff Foust — January 10, 2019
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 with a Crew Dragon spacecraft stands on Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center Jan. 3 for testing ahead of a launch now scheduled for no sooner than February. Credit: SpaceX
SEATTLE — NASA confirmed Jan. 10 that an uncrewed test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft will now take place no sooner than February, due at least in part to the ongoing government shutdown.
In a statement, NASA said it was “targeting no earlier than February” for the mission, known as Demo-1 or DM-1. The agency had previously announced a Jan. 17 date for the mission, launching from the Kennedy Space Center.
SpaceX had already indicated that the mission would be delayed. “About a month away from the first orbital test flight of crew Dragon,” Elon Musk, founder and chief executive of the company, tweeted Jan. 5 (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1081459477100941313). He later cautioned (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1081988321608458241) that the upcoming test and other early flights of the system will be “especially dangerous, as there’s a lot of new hardware.”
NASA, in its statement, said that the rescheduled launch provides additional time “to complete hardware testing and joint reviews” but did not elaborate. While not explicitly stated, the ongoing partial government shutdown, which has furloughed about 95 percent of NASA’s civil servant workforce since Dec. 22, likely also played a role because personnel needed for reviews and other mission support are not working.
SpaceX rolled out the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft for DM-1 to Launch Complex 39A on Jan. 3, moving the rocket to the vertical for testing there. The company hasn’t updated the status of that testing or stated if the vehicle would have been ready to support a Jan. 17 launch if the government was operating normally.
DM-1 is the first of two commercial crew test flights planned by SpaceX. On DM-1, the spacecraft, with no astronauts on board, will test out its systems in orbit and visit the International Space Station before returning to Earth. That will be followed by DM-2, which will carry NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on a mission to the ISS. DM-2 is scheduled for launch in June according to schedules most recently updated in November, prior to the latest delays in DM-1.
Boeing, the other company developing commercial crew vehicles, has an uncrewed test flight of its CST-100 Starliner vehicle scheduled for March on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5. That will be followed by a flight carrying NASA astronauts Eric Boe and Nicole Aunapu Mann, and Boeing test pilot Chris Ferguson, in August 2019.
Source: https://spacenews.com/nasa-delays-spacex-commercial-crew-test-flight-to-february/
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NASA Clears SpaceX to Launch Crew Dragon 'Demo-1' on March 2
By Mike Killian, on February 22nd, 2019 [AmericaSpace]
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The SpaceX ‘Crew Dragon’ atop its Falcon 9 rocket on pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo Credit: SpaceX
It has been nearly a month since SpaceX conducted a test fire of the Falcon 9 rocket which will launch the first Crew Dragon, and today’s NASA Flight Readiness Review at Kennedy Space Center in Florida concluded with a GO to proceed with a launch attempt as soon as 2:48am EST on Saturday, March 2.
Last month’s test fire marked the first time a crewed vehicle and ground systems were integrated together on pad 39A since space shuttle Atlantis last soared on the STS-135 mission almost 8 years ago.
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SpaceX Falcon 9 test fire for Crew Dragon debut on ‘Demo-1’, currently targeting NET late February 2019 launch from KSC pad 39A in Florida. Photo: SpaceX
The upcoming launch, Demo-1, will send the spacecraft on an uncrewed orbital shakedown & validation flight test to and from the International Space Station.
And if the weather and schedule holds, the launch will make for a spectacular sight visible not only across much of Florida, but up a good portion of the East Coast too.
“The board had a good discussion with the SpaceX, commercial crew and station engineering communities regarding the flight plan and redundancies built into the spacecraft systems and procedures,” says NASA. “They additionally discussed how the data from this flight test will be important for the next flight of Crew Dragon with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley aboard.”
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Falcon 9 on launch pad 39A with the first Crew Dragon & the company’s new astronaut walkway. Photo: SpaceX
“While the review was ongoing, crew members on station utilized a computer-based trainer and reviewed procedures to refresh themselves with the Crew Dragon spacecraft systems, rendezvous and docking, ingress operations, changes to emergency responses, and vehicle departure,” added NASA.
The stakes are high. The agency’s need to end America’s reliance on Russia and have a homegrown crewed capability again is already years behind, and SpaceX and Boeing are competing for truly historic bragging rights to be the first to do it.
If all goes well for SpaceX on DM-1, it will clear the way to launching another critical (and mandatory) flight test this spring, the Crew Dragon Ascent Abort Test.
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The SpaceX Crew Dragon mock-up test article lifts off on a Pad Abort Test (PAT) from Cape Canaveral SLC-40 earlier this year, marking a big testing milestone for SpaceX as they work towards crew flight. Photo Credit: Mike Killian / AmericaSpace
When astronauts begin launching to space aboard Crew Dragons and Falcon 9s, they will need an abort capability, not only to quickly escape an incident on the launch pad, but to escape an exploding rocket mid-air during launch and ascent too.
Such a need isn’t just critical, it is required by NASA, and was proven why in a scary incident a few months ago when the crew of Soyuz MS-10 experienced a failure with their rocket, forcing them into a dangerous high-G ballistic descent back to Earth.
The same capsule for DM-1 will fly the abort test, from the same pad, atop the rocket (https://www.americaspace.com/2019/02/22/last-nights-falcon-9-will-fly-one-more-time-exploding-mid-air-in-crew-dragon-abort-test/) which just launched SpaceIL’s moonlander (the rocket’s third flight (https://www.americaspace.com/2019/02/21/spacex-lofts-indonesian-satellite-sends-first-private-spacecraft-to-land-on-the-moon/)).
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Crew Dragon andbits rocket undergoing testing atop pad 39A, ahead of a March 2 launch attempt on the Demo-1 mission. Photo: SpaceX
DM-1 will provide key data on the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon’s performance, the supporting ground systems, as well as on-orbit, docking and landing operations, ahead of the first Crew Dragon flight test on DM-2.
About 10 minutes after launch, Crew Dragon will reach its preliminary orbit, and is scheduled to dock to the ISS on Sunday, March 3 at 5:55 a.m. EST with about 400 pounds of crew supplies and equipment
It will spend about five days attached to the ISS and remain until March 8, when it will then return to Earth with critical research samples. About five hours after Dragon leaves the station, it will conduct its deorbit burn, which lasts up to 10 minutes. It takes about 30 minutes for Dragon to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and splash down in the Atlantic Ocean.
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SpaceX@SpaceX
Meet the first four @NASA astronauts who will fly aboard Crew Dragon to the @Space_Station! http://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcrew/
4:35 PM - Aug 3, 2018
Twitter (https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1025404880586924032)
A suited-up ‘dummy’ will also be onboard the Demo-1 mission, which will be instrumented and monitored for data on how the flight would have affected a crew physically.
Roll out to the pad scheduled for Feb 28.
The rocket will also land offshore on a SpaceX Autonomous Spaceport Droneship (ASDS), not on the Cape at ‘Landing Zone-1’, because SpaceX wants to reserve the rockets full margin on the test flight.
Dragon will splashdown about 200 miles offshore from the launch site, where a SpaceX recovery ship will be waiting.
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X marks the spot on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon recovery ship, where SpaceX will land a helicopter at sea in the unlikely event they need to airlift astronauts to a hospital after Crew Dragon splashes down: Photo Credit: NASA
Only after completing both DM-1 and the Ascent Abort Test, will NASA give SpaceX the GO to fly America’s first astronauts from U.S soil since Atlantis, later this year on Demo-2 (DM-2) mission.
SpaceX has since 2012 launched cargo for NASA to and from the ISS under contract for the agency’s Commercial Resupply Services. In September 2014 NASA awarded a $2.6 billion Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract to SpaceX to demonstrate delivery of crew to and from ISS.
Both commercial resupply and crew are part of NASA’s efforts beginning in the early 2000’s to stimulate development of privately built and operated American-made space vehicles for transporting astronauts to and from the ISS.
Source: https://www.americaspace.com/2019/02/22/nasa-clears-spacex-to-launch-crew-dragon-demo-1-on-march-2/
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Decade-Long Crew Dragon Program Stands Ready for Maiden Mission (Part 1)
By Ben Evans, on February 27th, 2019 [AmericaSpace]
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Crew Dragon atop its Falcon 9 rocket on pad 39A, undergoing testing for the ‘Demo-1’ mission currently scheduled to launch NET March 2, 2019. Photo: SpaceX
If all goes well, later this year America will jointly celebrate not only 50 years since humanity’s first manned landing on the Moon (https://www.americaspace.com/2014/07/20/for-one-priceless-moment-45-years-since-apollo-11-changed-the-world-part-4/), but also the return to U.S. soil of human spaceflight launch capability, for the first time since the end of the Space Shuttle era (https://www.americaspace.com/2015/10/03/a-proud-legacy-remembering-atlantis-on-30th-anniversary-of-maiden-flight-part-1/). Current plans call for the first piloted Crew Dragon—carrying veteran shuttle flyers Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken—to launch from historic Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, as soon as this summer, on a two-week test-flight to the International Space Station (ISS).
But before the first ‘Dragon Riders’ can fly, the spacecraft needs to conduct an uncrewed flight test to and from the ISS on the “Demo-1” mission.
It’s the culmination of a decade-long effort to provide U.S. crew access to the ISS via commercial entities, and both NASA and SpaceX now stand primed for that inaugural unpiloted test of Crew Dragon, which recently sailed through its Flight Readiness Review (FRR) with flying colors and is currently targeted to launch no sooner than 2:48 a.m. EST on Saturday, 2 March.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYElkFv9r5I
Mounted atop a first-time-flown Block 5 core (designated “B1051”), Demo-1 underwent a Static Fire Test at Pad 39A on 24 January (https://www.americaspace.com/2019/01/25/good-test-fire-for-first-crew-dragon-mission-paves-way-to-launch-net-late-february/), which cleared a significant hurdle in preparation for this ambitious mission. As noted by AmericaSpace’s Mike Killian, it represented the first occasion that a crew-capable vehicle and associated ground-support infrastructure had been integrated on the veteran launch pad since shuttle Atlantis began her swansong STS-135 flight back in July 2011 (https://www.americaspace.com/2015/10/08/this-true-american-icon-remembering-atlantis-on-30th-anniversary-of-maiden-flight-part-5/).
According to NASA, an on-time launch Saturday will achieve a rendezvous and arrival at the space station—docking at International Docking Adapter (IDA)-2, situated on the forward end of the Harmony node—at 6:05 a.m. EST Sunday, 3 March. Hatches will be opened shortly thereafter and Expedition 58 crew members Oleg Konenenko, David Saint-Jacques and Anne McClain (https://www.americaspace.com/2019/01/09/a-look-ahead-at-america-in-space-in-2019/) will unload around 400 pounds (180 kg) of equipment and supplies from the spacecraft.
Five days later, Demo-1 will undock from the ISS and perform a deorbit “burn” to commence a 30-minute hypersonic descent back through Earth’s atmosphere, parachuting to a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhCB561dhBs
ABOVE: Watch the full Post-Flight Readiness Review briefing for the Demo-1 mission
The U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing’s launch weather forecast calls for an 80% chance of favorable conditions for the March 2 attempt, with a 20% chance of some cloud cover violating launch commit criteria.
Another launch attempt is scheduled for Tuesday, March 5 at 1:30am EST, if needed. USAF notes a less favorable 60% GO for launch that night, as a cold front is expected to hover over Florida early next week.
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To put it mildly, it has been a long, tortured and convoluted journey for NASA and SpaceX to reach this point. Following then-President Barack Obama’s April 2010 space policy directive (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rNn_cUrlmE)—which called for the fabrication of a super-heavylift booster for Beyond Low-Earth Orbit (BLEO) missions and the courting of commercial players to build ISS crew vehicles—a cadre of organizations were awarded Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) funding, as part of an ongoing drive to stimulate the U.S. aerospace industry to develop and demonstrate human spaceflight capabilities. In April 2011, SpaceX won $75 million in funding for a crewed variant of its Dragon cargo ship through the second round of CCDev solicitations (https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/apr/HQ_11-102_CCDev2.html).
By the summer of the following year, joint NASA-SpaceX teams had thoroughly evaluated the Crew Dragon’s proposed capabilities (https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/may/HQ_12-150_SpaceX_Crew_Accommodations.html), including its environmental control and life-support systems, its conceptual displays and controls, its cargo racks and interior systems, as well as its seating and lighting provisions. “Human-factors” evaluations were conducted by veteran shuttle astronauts Rex Walheim, Tony Antonelli, Eric Boe and Tim Kopra, who practiced entering and exiting the Dragon mockup under nominal and contingency situations, as well as reaching and handling spacecraft controls.
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President Barack Obama discusses his plans and ambitions for NASA during an address at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida in April 2010. Photo Credit: NASA/Jim Grossman
SpaceX was one of three finalists—alongside Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC)—to win coveted Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) funding in August 2012 (https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/aug/HQ_12-263_CCiCAP_Awards.html). The Hawthorne, Calif.-headquartered launch services organization was awarded a contract worth $440 million, as part of an effort which should have seen U.S. astronauts returned to space from U.S. soil by 2017.
As NASA commended SpaceX’s “diligence” and the SpaceX founder Elon Musk expressed personal conviction that piloted Crew Dragon flights would be underway by the middle of the decade, the Congressional funding reality for the Commercial Crew Program was far less optimistic and it became clear that such schedules were unachievable. In both 2010 and 2011, NASA contracted extensively (and expensively) with Russia for seats aboard its Soyuz spacecraft to assure U.S. access to the space station in the 2013-2016 timeframe, and was obliged to do so again in April 2013 to cover the 2016-2017 period.
More recently, in August 2015, as the Commercial Crew effort continued to receive ever-lower levels of funding, a clearly irritated NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden was forced to purchase additional Soyuz seats to cover the timeframe through 2019.
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Commercial Crew astronaut Bob Behnken (center in beige shirt) watches monitors during an evaluation visit for the Crew Dragon spacecraft at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. Photo Credit: SpaceX
Nevertheless, the CCiCap finalists pressed on with the maturation of their spacecraft designs. SpaceX completed its first three milestones—a technical baseline review of the Crew Dragon and its Falcon 9 booster, an overall CCiCap milestone achievability review and an integrated systems requirements review to demonstrate its processes and procedures for designing, building and testing the spacecraft—by November 2012 (https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/nov/HQ_12-378_SpaceX_Commercial_Crew_Milestones.html).
By the end of the year, the first phase of a multi-phase campaign to certify the spacecraft against NASA’s flight safety and cost-effectiveness requirements began in earnest. This process included reviews of the ground systems, ascent, on-orbit and entry phases of a Crew Dragon mission and in November 2013 (https://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/november/nasa-commercial-crew-partner-spacex-achieves-milestone-in-safety-review/#.XHFnLfZ2uUk) NASA and SpaceX engineers and safety specialists turned their attention to the integrated Falcon 9 booster. Early the following year, SpaceX signed (https://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/april/nasa-signs-agreement-with-spacex-for-use-of-historic-launch-pad/) a 20-year lease for historic Pad 39A (https://www.americaspace.com/2017/11/12/pad-39a-americas-moonport-celebrates-over-100-launches-in-50-years-of-service/) to launch Crew Dragon and other commercial missions.
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Falcon 9 launching its first mission from pad 39A in Feb 2017, sending the CRS-10 Cargo Dragon to the ISS for NASA. Photo Credit: Mike Killian / AmericaSpace
Finally, on 16 September 2014, SpaceX and Boeing were formally selected by NASA to progress towards actually building the spacecraft (https://www.americaspace.com/2014/09/16/boeing-and-spacex-awarded-contracts-to-fill-the-void-left-by-nasas-retired-space-shuttles/). “Today, we are one step closer to launching our astronauts from U.S. soil on American spacecraft and ending the nation’s sole reliance on Russia by 2017,” said Bolden. “Turning over low-Earth orbit transportation to private industry will also allow NASA to focus on an even more ambitious mission: sending humans to Mars.”
All told, the Commercial Crew transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts totaled $6.8 billion, of which $2.6 billion went to SpaceX to complete the development of Crew Dragon. Under the terms of the contract, both partners—with Boeing fabricating its CST-100 Starliner vehicle for Commercial Crew operations—would be required to conduct at least one piloted test-flight, with NASA astronauts aboard, to verify their ability to launch aboard a fully integrated rocket and spacecraft system, maneuver in orbit, rendezvous and dock with the ISS and return safely to Earth.
When this certification was complete, Boeing and SpaceX could anticipate at least two (and as many as six) dedicated crew-rotation missions to the space station, supporting ISS residents as a lifeboat for up to seven months at a time.
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Falcon 9 on Pad 39A with the first Crew Dragon & the company’s new astronaut walkway. Photo: SpaceX
By December 2014 (https://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/december/spacex-completes-first-milestone-for-commercial-crew-transportation-system/), SpaceX had satisfactorily completed a certification baseline review of its Crew Dragon hardware, outlining its spacecraft fabrication methodologies and—in the words of NASA Commercial Crew Program manager Kathy Lueders—setting “pace for the rigorous work ahead”. The company also described its approach to securing NASA certification for flying astronauts and the newly-leased Pad 39A was formally identified as the launch site for the first Crew Dragon missions.
First utilized for the maiden voyage of the Saturn V lunar rocket, back in November 1967, the 39A complex had seen off all but one of the Moon-bound crews of Apollo astronauts, together with the Skylab space station and dozens of shuttle flights, including the last one, STS-135.
For the Commercial Crew Program, 2014 had proven a hugely successful year, with no fewer than 23 milestones and thousands of hours of technical reviews accomplished. Yet in spite of the conviction of NASA and the partners that the first flights were achievable by 2017, reality would conspire against Commercial Crew and a far longer road to launch still lay ahead.
Source: https://www.americaspace.com/2019/02/27/decade-long-crew-dragon-program-stands-ready-for-maiden-mission-part-1/#more-107420
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Decade-Long Crew Dragon Program Stands Ready for Maiden Mission (Part 2)
By Ben Evans, on February 28th, 2019 [AmericaSpace]
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Falcon 9 on Pad 39A with the first Crew Dragon & the company’s new astronaut walkway. Photo Credit: SpaceX
In the small hours of Saturday morning (2 March), a decade-long effort to restore U.S. human spaceflight launch capability to American soil for the first time since the end of the Space Shuttle era will take a significant step forward, as SpaceX and NASA deliver the first Crew Dragon on an unpiloted test-flight to the International Space Station (ISS). Liftoff of the 230-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 booster is targeted for 2:49 a.m. EST, promising to turn night into day, figuratively and literally, on America’s human spaceflight aspirations.
Assuming an on-time launch, the Demo-1 spacecraft will autonomously dock onto International Docking Adapter (IDA)-2, at the forward end of the space station’s Harmony node (https://www.americaspace.com/2016/08/20/space-station-open-for-commercial-crew-as-eva-36-team-installs-ida-2/), at 6:05 a.m. EST Sunday, 3 March. It will remain attached to the ISS for a few days, with undocking, deorbit and parachute-aided splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean on the 8th.
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching NASA’s CRS-16 mission to the ISS from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., in December 2018. Photo Credit: Mike Killian/AmericaSpace
Although SpaceX has much heritage with the cargo variant of its Dragon spacecraft—having successfully launched 16 missions to the ISS between May 2012 and last December (https://www.americaspace.com/2018/12/05/spacex-flies-dragon-crs-16-to-iss-lands-falcon-offshore-after-grid-fin-anomaly/)—the Crew Dragon has proven a far different concept to bring to maturity. As outlined in yesterday’s AmericaSpace article (https://www.americaspace.com/2019/02/27/decade-long-crew-dragon-program-stands-ready-for-maiden-mission-part-1/), SpaceX initially won funding to develop its spacecraft in April 2011, when it received $75 million from NASA through the Commercial Crew Development solicitation process (CCDev). The Hawthorne, Calif.-headquartered launch services organization was then selected as a Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) finalist in August 2012, before being picked alongside Boeing for the coveted Commercial Crew transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts in September 2014.
Under the terms of those contracts, SpaceX and Boeing would each fly a piloted test-flight and at least two long-duration crew-rotation flights to the ISS, known as “Post-Certification Missions” (PCM). At that time, it was hoped that the first flights of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner might occur as soon as late 2017, but a multitude of technical and funding problems conspired against the Commercial Crew Program.
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NASA astronauts Doug Hurley, center, and Sunita “Suni” Williams sit inside a Crew Dragon mockup during an evaluation visit for the Crew Dragon spacecraft at SpaceX’s Hawthorne, Calif., headquarters. Photo Credit: SpaceX
Only months after the CCtCap decision, in May 2015 (https://www.americaspace.com/2015/05/06/spacex-successfully-completes-rapid-pad-abort-test-from-cape-canaveral/) SpaceX triumphantly completed a rapid Pad Abort Test (PAT) of a mockup Crew Dragon from Space Launch Complex (SLC)-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. As detailed by AmericaSpace at the time—through a two-part history/review article and portfolio of imagery (https://www.americaspace.com/2015/05/05/spacex-prepares-for-latest-in-long-history-of-critical-pad-abort-tests-part-2/)—the 102-second test saw Crew Dragon boost itself away from a ground-level platform and achieve a peak altitude of 3,561 feet (1,187 meters), under the 120,000 pounds (54,400 kg) of thrust afforded by the eight SuperDraco thrusters mounted in its sidewalls. As planned, Crew Dragon’s pressurized capsule (inhabited by a heavily-instrumented crash-test dummy) separated from the unpressurized trunk at altitude, before descending to a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean under three red-and-white parachutes.
The sheer speed of the PAT, and the power of the SuperDracos—which can provide emergency crew-escape capability whilst on the pad during Falcon 9 engine ramp-up and at all phases of ascent, through second-stage flight, thereby ensuring no “black zones” in terms of survivability—was not lost on AmericaSpace’s Mike Killian and John Studwell, who observed, photographed and documented the May 2015 exercise. “I was forced to frame the remote cameras ‘wider’ than usual, just to give myself more chance of actually capturing a shot or two of Dragon getting off the pad,” Mr. Killian told me at the time. Added Mr. Studwell: “With a rocket, those first five seconds or so is a slow ascent, but Crew Dragon…will jump off and be at altitude and near engine cutoff in the same amount of time. Since there is a delay between the sound-trigger and the camera’s first shot, and considering the one second Dragon will be in frame of the remotes, I’m hoping just to get anything!” AmericaSpace’s PAT imagery portfolio can be found here (https://www.americaspace.com/2015/05/06/spacex-successfully-completes-rapid-pad-abort-test-from-cape-canaveral/).
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The SpaceX Crew Dragon engineering test article taking flight for its Pad Abort Test (PAT) on May 6, 2015. The PAT demonstration was a critical milestone in the company’s aim to begin transporting astronauts to and from the ISS safely. Photo Credit: Alan Walters / AmericaSpace
However, Congressional underfunding of the Commercial Crew Program, which led to thinly-veiled disgust from then-NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden (https://www.americaspace.com/2015/08/06/frustrated-bolden-urges-congress-to-fund-commercial-crew-announces-490-million-contract-modification-with-russia/), forced continued reliance upon Russia to provide seats aboard its Soyuz vehicles to transport U.S. astronauts to the space station during the gap in U.S. launch capability. By April 2017, the very year that Commercial Crew should have begun flying its inaugural missions, as much time had elapsed since the last shuttle mission as had previously passed between the return of Apollo-Soyuz in July 1975 and the first flight of the shuttle program in April 1981 (https://www.americaspace.com/2015/07/11/partners-in-space-the-first-u-s-russian-manned-space-mission-part-1/).
Waiting for Commercial Crew to come online, in other words, would yield a far longer “gap” than ever before in U.S. human spaceflight history. Assuming that veteran NASA flyers Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken launch this coming July, a full eight years will have elapsed since America last launched humans to space from its native soil.
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The Crew Dragon mockup parachutes into the Atlantic Ocean, after a smooth Pad Abort Test (PAT) in May 2015. Photo Credit: Mike Killian/AmericaSpace
A month after the completion of the PAT, in June 2015, SpaceX was awarded a $30 million milestone payment from NASA as part of its CCtCap certification. And only weeks after that, in July, NASA formally identified veteran astronauts Suni Williams, Doug Hurley, Eric Boe and Bob Behnken as the first members of a Commercial Crew “cadre” (https://www.americaspace.com/2015/07/10/cassidy-appointed-next-chief-of-astronaut-office-others-move-to-management-ahead-of-commercial-crew-decisions/) to support the continuing development and testing of both Crew Dragon and the CST-100 Starliner being built by the other CCtCap contract finalist, Boeing. In November 2015 (https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-orders-spacex-crew-mission-to-international-space-station/), NASA awarded SpaceX the first of its guaranteed PCMs, followed by a second in July 2016 (https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-orders-second-spacex-crew-mission-to-international-space-station/).
However, the targeted maiden launch in late 2017 had fallen increasingly into doubt. “If NASA does not receive the full requested funding for CCtCap contracts in fiscal year 2016 and beyond,” it was cautioned, “the agency will be forced to delay future milestones for both U.S. companies and continue its sole reliance on Russia to transport American astronauts to the space station.” Nevertheless, progress continued and in August 2016 Expedition 48 spacewalkers Jeff Williams and Kate Rubins installed the Boeing-built IDA-2 onto the forward end of the station’s Harmony node, ready to receive its Commercial Crew visitors in due course.
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During an August 2016 spacewalk, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins positions herself for work at the nadir face of PMA-2, with the white-shrouded mass of IDA-2 visible at center. Photo Credit: NASA TV
Last August, with significant fanfare, Vice-President Mike Pence—who also chairs the revitalized National Space Council—announced the names of nine veteran and first-time astronauts to fly the Crew Dragon and CST-100 Starliner piloted test flights and the first PCMs for both organizations (https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-assigns-crews-to-first-test-flights-missions-on-commercial-spacecraft). Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, both of whom have logged two previous spaceflights during the shuttle era, would ride the first piloted Crew Dragon, whilst former shuttle commander and Boeing test pilot Chris Ferguson and NASA flyers Eric Boe and Nicole Mann would crew the first piloted Starliner.
Rounding out the group, astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover would fly the first SpaceX PCM and Suni Williams and Josh Cassada would do likewise for the first Boeing PCM. Assignments were updated last month, however, when Boe was removed from his slot, due to a medical issue, and replaced by seasoned shuttle and ISS veteran Mike Fincke (https://www.americaspace.com/2019/01/23/fincke-joins-cst-100-test-flight-commercial-crew-stands-ready-for-2019-debut/), who was until recently assistant to the chief of the Astronaut Office for Commercial Crew. Fincke’s former role has been taken up by Boe.
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View inside a Crew Dragon mockup. Photo Credits: Robert Fisher / AmericaSpace / SpaceX
In the dying weeks of 2018, for the first time, a definitive target date was set for Demo-1, although hopes of launching in January 2019 ultimately came to nought. Yet the program was close to fruition and the 230-foot-tall (70-meter) Upgraded Falcon 9 booster was transported to Pad 39A and its nine Merlin 1D+ first-stage engines were successfully test-fired on 24 January (https://www.americaspace.com/2019/01/25/good-test-fire-for-first-crew-dragon-mission-paves-way-to-launch-net-late-february/).
Launch was provisionally rescheduled for late in February, with fears of a slight slippage into early March. At last week’s Flight Readiness Review (FRR), NASA and SpaceX officials expressed their satisfaction that, at long last, all systems were ready to go. Speaking at the post-FRR media conference (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhCB561dhBs&t=894s), NASA Commercial Crew Program manager Kathy Lueders recalled a recent walk out to the pad and the spacecraft with Hurley and Behnken and a dawning realization that years of effort—and more than a fair share of frustration, no doubt—were about to pay off.
Source: https://www.americaspace.com/2019/02/28/decade-long-crew-dragon-program-stands-ready-for-maiden-mission-part-2/
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SpaceX’s Crew Dragon ready for first test flight
February 28, 2019 Stephen Clark [Spaceflight Now]
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 7 p.m. EST (0000 GMT) with additional photos, after the Falcon 9 rocket was raised vertical at pad 39A.
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The Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft roll to pad 39A on Thursday morning. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
SpaceX’s first Crew Dragon spacecraft, fixed to the forward end of a Falcon 9 rocket, emerged Thursday from the company’s hangar at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the quarter-mile journey to its launch mount at pad 39A, where liftoff is scheduled early Saturday on a critical test flight before astronauts strap into the ship later this year.
The launcher was visible heading up the ramp to pad 39A shortly after 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT) Thursday, once low-level fog began lifting at the Florida spaceport. The strongback transporter lifted the 215-foot-tall (65-meter) rocket vertical around 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) for final cargo loading and checkouts.
Liftoff is scheduled for 2:49 a.m. EST (0749 GMT) Saturday from Florida’s Space Coast, when Earth’s rotation brings pad 39A under the space station’s orbital plane, allowing the Crew Dragon to reach the research outpost in a little more than a day.
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The Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft stand vertical at launch pad 39A on Thursday night. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now
NASA and SpaceX officials met Wednesday for a launch readiness review, the last in a series of formal discussions on the status of the Crew Dragon, the Falcon 9 rocket, and the International Space Station, the mission’s destination. Mission managers decided to proceed with launch preparations, after a previous flight readiness review Feb. 22 gave a preliminary “go” for the flight.
The Crew Dragon is not carrying any astronauts on the upcoming mission, known as Demo-1 or DM-1, but engineers will assess the performance of the new human-rated capsule on a planned six-day flight. Docking with the International Space Station is scheduled Sunday around 6 a.m. EST (1100 GMT), assuming an on-time launch Saturday, followed by departure and splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean off of east coast of Florida on March 8 around 8:45 a.m. EST (1345 GMT).
“The task ahead of us is really historic,” said Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX’s vice president of build and flight reliability.
The Crew Dragon will become the first human-rated spacecraft to launch from the Cape Canaveral spaceport since the last space shuttle mission lifted off in 2011. SpaceX uses the same Apollo- and shuttle-era launch facility — pad 39A — and gave the launch complex a facelift over the last few years, and began launching cargo and satellite missions there in 2017, giving the company a second launch pad in Florida.
SpaceX constructed a hangar, where Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets can be assembled, and stripped the launch pad of much of its shuttle-era equipment, including a rotating service structure no longer needed at the site. In August, ground teams installed a crew access arm, a boarding gate for astronauts. Finally, SpaceX painted the fixed tower black and added cladding, giving the historic pad a new look and providing additional protection from the seaside environment.
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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon at pad 39A. Credit: SpaceX
“Everything is in top condition,” Koenigsmann said. “Everything is freshly painted, it looks great. I’m really amazed by what this team in the past couple of weeks. I’m pretty sure we’re going to see a great launch and a great mission.”
NASA, SpaceX and Boeing — the agency’s other commercial crew partner — are on the precipice of launching astronauts. Boeing plans an unpiloted test flight — similar to the mission set for launch by SpaceX this weekend — later this spring, followed by crewed test flights by both companies later this year.
“It brings an excitement back to KSC that we haven’t seen in a while,” said Joel Montalbano, NASA’s deputy space station program manager. “You can just tell, by this last month, when people are just (excited). We’re ready, they’re looking forward to the launch this weekend.”
The long-delayed Crew Dragon test flight will wring out the capsule’s systems, ranging from life support to propulsion, power, navigation, and safety technology. While it shares some design history with SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule, which has launched 18 times — including on a failed mission and two test flights — the Crew Dragon is essentially a new spacecraft.
For the first time, SpaceX will fly a spacecraft with crew displays, seats, and the air revitalization system necessary to sustain crews during the trip from Earth to the space station and back. The Crew Dragon also carries a new docking system, a redesigned power generation system with body-mounted solar panels, an upgraded cooling system with a radiator, and new SuperDraco thrusters designed to propel the capsule away from an exploding rocket.
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A diagram of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX also added a crew hatch, and the Crew Dragon has a different outer mold line, giving it a different aerodynamic shape.
Filled with hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants, the Crew Dragon will be the heaviest payload ever launched by SpaceX. Here are some statistics on the Demo-1 mission and the Crew Dragon spacecraft, provided by NASA:
Crew Dragon Mass at ISS Docking: 26,577 pounds (12,055 kilograms)
Crew Dragon Total Height: 26.7 feet (8.1 meters)
Falcon 9/Crew Dragon Total Height: 215 feet (65 meters)
Crew Dragon Capacity: 7 astronauts (4 astronauts plus cargo for NASA missions)
Crew Dragon Design Life: At least 210 days (when docked to ISS)
Cargo on Demo-1: 449.7 pounds (204 kilograms)
Demo-1’s Planned Mission Duration: 6 days, 5 hours, 55 minutes
“From a NASA perspective, we’re really wanting to see the on-orbit performance, how the systems are going to be working together, the key avionics and docking, making sure communications and telemetry with the International Space Station is working properly,” said Kathy Lueders, NASA’s commercial crew program manager. “We’re going to be learning from the ECLSS (environmental control and life support) systems and the power systems.”
A spacesuit-clad anthropomorphic test device — which SpaceX officials prefer to call a “smarty” and not a “dummy” — is sitting in one of the four seats inside the Crew Dragon.
SpaceX has named the mannequin “Ripley,” after Sigourney Weaver’s character in the “Alien” films.
According to SpaceX, Ripley is fitted with sensors around its head, neck and spine to gather data on the environments astronauts will experience when they ride the Crew Dragon, beginning later this year on the capsule’s second test flight.
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“Ripley” inside Crew Dragon. Credit: SpaceX
“The goal is to get an idea of how humans would feel in her place, basically,” said Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX’s vice president of build and flight reliability. “I don’t expect, actually a lot of surprises there. But it’s better to verify, make sure that it’s safe and everything is comfortable for our astronauts going on the next flight of our capsule.”
Musk tweeted that cameras inside the spacecraft will provide views during the Crew Dragon’s trip to the International Space Station, including views from Ripley’s perspective, with cockpit display panels within reach.
The start of regular crew rotation service by SpaceX and Boeing will allow NASA to stop buying seats for U.S. and partner astronauts on Russian Soyuz spacecraft, the only vehicle currently capable of carrying humans to space station. After completing their test flights, the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft will ferry astronauts to and from the station for six-month stays, and remain docked at the research complex to serve as emergency lifeboats.
NASA started paying companies to develop commercial crew vehicles in 2010. After several funding rounds, the space agency selected Boeing and SpaceX in 2014 to complete their human-rated Starliner and Crew Dragon capsules.
At that time, SpaceX said the Crew Dragon’s unpiloted demonstration flight could be ready to take off by the end of 2016. After more than two years of delays, during which SpaceX redesigned the craft to return to Earth in the ocean rather than on land, the Crew Dragon is ready for blastoff Saturday.
Through several funding agreements and contracts, NASA has paid SpaceX more than $3.14 billion over the last decade to work on the Crew Dragon spacecraft, human-rate the Falcon 9 launcher, and ready the company’s launch pad and control center for astronaut missions.
Boeing has received $4.82 billion in that time to design, develop and test the Starliner spacecraft, which will lift off on United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rockets and return to Earth with a airbag-cushioned landings in the Western United States, likely in New Mexico for the first test flights. The Starliner has also encountered delays, stemming from issues with the capsule’s aerodynamics, abort thrusters, and other issues.
Once the Crew Dragon splashes down in the Atlantic — around 240 miles (390 kilometers) east of Cape Canaveral — a SpaceX recovery ship will retrieve the capsule from the sea and return it to port. SpaceX aims to reuse the capsule for an in-flight abort test, tentatively scheduled for June, to verify the performance of the ship’s escape engines.
The in-flight abort test will verify the Crew Dragon’s SuperDraco escape thrusters can push the capsule away from a failing rocket, a safety feature designed to ensure astronauts survive a launch accident.
Eight SuperDraco rocket engines mounted in pods around the circumference of the Crew Dragon are programmed to quickly fire if computers detect an emergency during launch. NASA and SpaceX want to ensure the escape system is up to the job before putting astronauts on the spacecraft.
SpaceX tested the abort system during an on-pad test in 2015, demonstrating the SuperDracos have the power to drive the spacecraft off its rocket sitting on the ground in the event of an accident during the countdown.
For the Demo-1 mission, the escape system is operating with reduced functionality to gather data.
The second Crew Dragon test flight, with two NASA astronauts on-board, is planned as soon as July. But that’s a best-case scenario, and sources familiar with the program suggest the mission is likely to be pushed back until later in the year.
SpaceX plans to retire its first-generation Dragon cargo capsule next year, and move all of its space station flights — carrying crew and supplies — to the new-generation Crew Dragon design.
“It’ll be more exciting when we come back for DM-2, when we put Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on top of that rocket for their test mission,” said Pat Forrester, a three-time space shuttle flier and chief of NASA’s astronaut corps. “But even though a lot of progress has been made, there’s still a lot of work that we need to do. We’re looking forward to working as a team with SpaceX to get that done.”
Under the terms of its contract with NASA, SpaceX also designed new sleek-looking spacesuit for astronauts riding on Crew Dragon.
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Pat Forrester, chief of NASA’s astronaut office. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
There’s still work to complete on qualifying the Crew Dragon’s four landing parachutes for crewed flights, and engineers are modifying part of the capsule’s propulsion system to address a vibration concern with the ship’s Draco thrusters.
“The launch early in the morning on Saturday is definitely a milestone,” Forrester said. “There’s another milestone … and that’s on Sunday when this thing docks to the International Space Station. Because although we don’t have any astronauts on DM-1, we do have them on the space station.”
The station astronauts will have the ability to send the Crew Dragon away if it runs into problems during the rendezvous. The capsule will attempt SpaceX’s first docking with another object in space, targeting arrival at a new docking port delivered to the station by a SpaceX cargo capsule in 2016.
One safety concern about the docking voiced by Russian officials at a readiness review last week as closed out Wednesday, according to Montalbano. Russian engineers were concerned that the Crew Dragon does not have an independent command chain to safely fly away from the station if it suffers a total computer failure during the final approach for docking.
Montalbano said NASA assuaged Russian worries by instructing the space station crew to close hatches inside the complex during Crew Dragon’s rendezvous, allowing the astronauts to quickly seal off any air leak in the event of a collision. The station crew will also have a clear path to their Soyuz return craft to evacuate if necessary.
“Despite the fact that there’s no one launching, there is always human life at risk,” Forrester said. “So we want to stay focused, we want to stay vigilant, and we want to continue to move down this path that we’ve started.”
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/02/28/spacexs-crew-dragon-rolls-out-for-test-flight/
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Astronauts eager to see results of Crew Dragon test flight
March 1, 2019 Stephen Clark [SFN]
EDITOR’S NOTE: SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully launched March 2, and docked with the International Space Station on March 3.
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NASA astronaut Doug Hurley, backdropped by astronauts Bob Behnken, Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover (left to right), speaks to reporters Friday ahead of the Crew Dragon spacecraft’s first orbital test flight. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
The astronauts assigned to fly SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft beginning later this year said Friday they are excited for the capsule’s first orbital mission set for launch Saturday, but significant work remains before the ship is cleared to carry people.
“There’s something really exciting about being first, getting to fly a crewed mission coming out of this,” said Bob Behnken, a veteran astronaut assigned to join NASA crewmate Doug Hurley on the Crew Dragon’s first trip to space with humans on-board later this year.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/03/01/astronauts-eager-to-see-results-of-crew-dragon-test-flight/
Falcon 9 launches Crew Dragon on key test flight
by Jeff Foust — March 2, 2019, Updated 5:30 a.m. Eastern with press conference details. [SpaceNews]
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A Falcon 9 lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center March 2, placing the Crew Dragon spacecraft into orbit on a critical test flight. Credit: Craig Vander Galien
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — A SpaceX Falcon 9 successfully launched the first Crew Dragon spacecraft March 2, starting a critical mission to test the spacecraft before it is ready to carry astronauts.
The Falcon 9 lifted off on the Demo-1 mission from Launch Complex 39A at 2:49 a.m. Eastern after a problem-free countdown. The Crew Dragon spacecraft separated from the rocket’s upper stage 11 minutes after liftoff.
The spacecraft is en route to the International Space Station, with a docking expected about 27 hours after liftoff. The spacecraft will remain docked at the station until early March 8, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast several hours after undocking.
At a post-launch press conference here, SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk confirmed that the spacceraft was working as expected in orbit. That included opening the nose cone of the spacecraft to expose its docking port and firing several of its Draco thrusters. “So far everything looks good,” he said.
NASA concurred. “The flight’s going great so far,” said Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew deputy program manager.
The Crew Dragon is not carrying astronauts, but does have on board an instrumented mannequin named “Ripley” wearing a SpaceX pressure suit. Elon Musk tweeted late March 1 that there was also a “super high tech zero-g indicator” onboard: a plush toy resembling the Earth, sitting on one of the seats inside the capsule.
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Elon Musk@elonmusk
Super high tech zero-g indicator added just before launch!
5:31 AM - Mar 2, 2019
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1101701552153219072
Demo-1 is the first of two test flights of Crew Dragon as part of SpaceX’s commercial crew contract with NASA. The flight is intended to test key subsystems on the spacecraft and identify problems that will need to be corrected before NASA approves flying its astronauts on the spacecraft.
Those milestones include testing Crew Dragon as it approaches and docks with the station and, later, its reentry and splashdown. This mission will mark the first time a Dragon spacecraft has docked with the station, as previous cargo Dragon spacecraft were berthed by the station’s robotic arm.
Musk said the biggest risk may be reentry, given the asymmetric shape of the capsule’s backshell, unlike the cargo Dragon. “That could potentially cause a roll instability on reentry,” Musk said, but added it felt it was unlikely given the simulations. “I would say hypersonic reentry is probably the biggest concern.”
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The Falcon 9 Demo-1 launch seen from the Kennedy Space Center press site. Credit: SpaceNews/Jeff Foust
Planning for Demo-2
The second test flight, Demo-2, will carry NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. That mission is scheduled for no earlier than July, although agency leaders emphasized before the Demo-1 launch that they will not rush the launch of Demo-2 to meet a certain schedule.
“This test flight is going to be huge in giving us confidence” that the spacecraft is ready to carry people, said Mark Geyer, director of the Johnson Space Center, during a meeting with reporters here March 1. “What we don’t want is the teams to feel pressured that we have got to fly these things when we may not be ready.”
That’s one reason, he said, that NASA is moving ahead with a proposal to buy two Soyuz seats from the Russian state space corporation Roscosmos to ensure a U.S. presence on the station well into 2020. NASA stated its intent to buy those seats from Roscosmos in a Feb. 13 procurement filing.
“We have great confidence in our Russian partners. They have capacity,” he said. “Buying these extra couple of seats allows us to make sure that we’re going to have Americans on board the space station and not have pressure to get up there when we’re not ready.”
Geyer praised NASA and SpaceX for the progress they have made on Crew Dragon, while acknowledging that there is more work ahead. “I think it’s really incredible how far this team has come in the timeframe they’ve got,” he said. “We’re going to launch when we’re ready, and it could be a bit.”
Both Geyer and Bob Cabana, director of the Kennedy Space Center, said they were still confident that either Boeing or SpaceX, or both, would be ready to fly crews before the end of this year, when NASA’s access to Soyuz seats other than the two it seeks to purchase runs out.
“There’s a lot that we have to do before we can certify both these vehicles to fly humans to space, but I think it’s a definite possibility, and I’m confident we’ll get one of them up there with crew before the end of the year,” said Cabana, adding he felt there was a “better than 50 percent chance” of doing so.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is even more optimistic. “I’m very confident,” he said when asked at a briefing with reporters here late March 1 how confident he was that commercial crew vehicles would fly astronauts. “In fact, you can write in your article I’m 100 percent confident.”
“Unless something goes wrong” on Demo-1, Musk said, “I think that we will be flying, hopefully, this year. I mean this summer, hopefully.”
Behnken and Hurley were here for the launch and came away pleased. “Seeing a success like this definitely gives us a lot of confidence in the future,” Behnken said.
Source: https://spacenews.com/falcon-9-launches-crew-dragon-on-key-test-flight/
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Crew Dragon Kicks Off Demo-1 Mission to Return Human Spaceflight to American Shores
By Ben Evans, on March 2nd, 2019 [AmericaSpace]
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Crew Dragon ‘Demo-1’ soaring on its maiden voyage to the International Space Station March 2, 2019 from historic pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. Photo: Mike Killian / AmericaSpace.com
America’s decade-long effort to develop commercial vehicles to restore U.S. crew access to the International Space Station (ISS) following the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet drew one step closer to fruition earlier this morning (Saturday, 2 March), when a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster roared aloft from historic Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.
Laden with “Demo-1”, an unpiloted test-flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft which will henceforth ferry U.S. astronauts and international partners to the ISS, the mission took flight at 2:49 a.m. EST and is presently targeted to dock autonomously at International Docking Adapter (IDA)-2, on the forward end of the station’s Harmony node, on Sunday morning.
“Today’s successful launch marks a new chapter in American excellence, getting us closer to once again flying American astronauts on American rockets from American soil,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “I proudly congratulate the SpaceX and NASA teams for this major milestone in our nation’s space history. This first launch of a space system designed for humans, and built and operated by a commercial company through a public-private partnership, is a revolutionary step on our path to get humans to the Moon, Mars and beyond.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZL0tbOZYhE
“I’d also like to express great appreciation for NASA,” said Elon Musk, CEO and lead designer at SpaceX. “SpaceX would not be here without NASA, without the incredible work that was done before SpaceX even started and without the support after SpaceX did start.”
As detailed in AmericaSpace’s two-part Crew Dragon preview/history feature it has been a long and tortured journey to bring SpaceX from an initial Round 2 winner of funding under the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) initiative, way back in April 2011, to becoming a contract recipient of the Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) in August 2012 and eventually, alongside Boeing, beginning the actual effort to develop, build and certify its spacecraft under the Commercial Crew transportation Capability (CCtCap) agreements in September 2014.
Efforts to get SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner airborne, originally by late 2017, ultimately proved impossible, due to technical issues and Congressional underfunding. This required NASA to continue contracting with Russia for seats aboard its venerable Soyuz spacecraft, to ensure continued U.S. crew access to the ISS during the longest “gap” in American human spaceflight capability in history. By the time the first piloted Crew Dragon launches, possibly as soon as July 2019, a full eight years will have elapsed since the final shuttle flight back in July 2011. The previous longest gap was five years and nine months, before Apollo-Soyuz in July 1975 and the first flight of the shuttle program in April 1981.
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Crew Dragon atop pad 39A and its Falcon 9 rocket, preparing for launch on Demo-1. Photo: Jeff Seibert / AmericaSpace
Notwithstanding these many delays, in early January 2019 the 230-foot-tall (70-meter) Upgraded Falcon 9 was transported from its Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) to historic Pad 39A, which to date has seen more than a hundred launches, comprising all but one of the Apollo lunar voyages, seen off dozens of shuttle crews—including the first in April 1981 and the last in July 2011—and a raft of SpaceX commercial missions, notably last year’s inaugural flight of the Falcon Heavy.
On 24 January, the Upgraded Falcon 9’s nine Merlin 1D+ first-stage engines ignited in a customary Static Fire Test, lasting just a handful of seconds, to complete a significant hurdle ahead of launch. The booster was then returned to a horizontal configuration and transported back to the integration facility. At that time, liftoff of Demo-1 was provisionally targeted for no sooner than 23 February, although a subsequent NASA update confirmed 2 March as the projected launch date. This was confirmed last week at the conclusion of the NASA-SpaceX Flight Readiness Review (FRR).
A final Launch Readiness Review (LRR) on Wednesday, 27 February produced a definitive “Go for Launch” (https://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcrew/2019/02/27/spacex-demo-1-reviews-provide-go-for-launch/) and on Thursday the Falcon 9—with the Demo-1 Crew Dragon spacecraft sitting, bullet-like, at its tip—was returned to Pad 39A for final pre-flight preparations.
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Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon bathed in xenon lights atop launch pad 39A awaiting launch on the Demo-1 mission. Photo: Mike Killian / AmericaSpace
For the opening launch attempt in the wee hours of Saturday, the USAF 45th Space Wing at Patrick Air Force Base identified an 80-percent likelihood of acceptable conditions, so both SpaceX and NASA teams aimed confidently for Saturday morning’s opening attempt.
Liftoff occurred on time at 2:49 a.m. EST, piercing the middle-of-the-night stillness at KSC. SpaceX controlled the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy’s Launch Control Center Firing Room 4, the former space shuttle control room, which SpaceX has leased as its primary launch control center. As Crew Dragon ascended into space, SpaceX commanded the Crew Dragon spacecraft from its mission control center in Hawthorne, California. NASA teams will monitor space station operations throughout the flight from Mission Control Center at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Two minutes into the flight, the rocket’sfirst-stage core separated from the rapidly-ascending stack and commenced its descent to a smooth touchdown on the Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS), nicknamed “Of Course I Still Love You”, situated offshore in the Atlantic Ocean. It was SpaceX’s 23rd successful droneship landing in 25 attempts since April 2016.
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Crew Dragon soaring on Demo-1 from KSC pad 39A on March 2, 2019. Photo: John Studwell / AmericaSpace
Having shed its first stage, the Upgraded Falcon 9’s second stage—powered by a single Merlin 1D+ Vacuum engine—continued uphill, delivering the Demo-1 spacecraft directly into low-Earth and onto a single-day, 18-orbit approach and rendezvous profile. Twelve minutes into the flight, Crew Dragon’s protective nosecone was opened, revealing its docking mechanism.
As outlined by NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations William Gerstenmaier at the post-FRR media conference on 22 February, the single-day rendezvous has been designed to best accommodate in-flight thermal constraints on the Crew Dragon. However, NASA’s Dan Huot told AmericaSpace that rendezvous profiles for both Crew Dragon and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner on subsequent missions are “expected to be shorter” and certainly “faster than 24 hours”.
Rendezvous will carry some similarities and some differences from previous unpiloted cargo Dragon missions. Those flights typically approached the station from “below”, along the so-called “R-Bar” (“Earth Radius Vector”), which allowed them to utilize natural gravitational forces and braking and reduced the need for excessive thruster firings.
(http://www.americaspace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screenshot-2019-03-02-at-07.01.39.png)
Ripley onboard the Crew Dragon for Demo-1. Photo via @ElonMusk on Twitter
Crew Dragon will also approach from below, but will then move “ahead” of the space station, moving onto the “V-Bar” (“Velocity Vector”) to achieve a final approach and docking at IDA-2. “This will initially approach to a spot on the R-Bar and then swing around to the V-Bar,” Mr. Huot told AmericaSpace. “You minimize risk and maximize abort chances when you’re doing minimal maneuvering while close to the station.”
All told, NASA anticipates nine thruster “burns” from orbit insertion through to the final approach initiation-midcourse burn, which will occur at a point 1.5 miles (2.5 km) “below” and 4.3 miles (7 km) “behind” the ISS. “Final major rendezvous burn is the approach initiation burn,” Mr. Huot explained, “which occurs while still outside the approach ellipsoid.”
Sunday’s autonomous docking will represent the first time that the PMA-2 interface at the forward end of the Harmony node has been used to receive a visiting vehicle since STS-135, the final mission of the Space Shuttle Program, way back in July 2011. Crew involvement in preparing PMA-2 for its impending visitor has been relatively limited. “Crew hasn’t done much, besides pre-position any equipment or procedures needed for vestibule pressurization,” Mr. Huot explained. “We’re doing a [ground-commanded] robotic survey using the arm outside…to do a final look at the IDA before the mission.”
(http://www.americaspace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/53216953_10216829499023266_1421277396337688576_o.jpg)
Crew Dragon soaring on Demo-1 from KSC pad 39A on March 2, 2019. Photo: Alan Walters / AmericaSpace
During its five days linked to the space station, Crew Dragon will be subjected to external photo-documentation, via Canadarm2, and internal inspections by the Expedition 58 team, who will focus specifically upon its habitability and the condition of its windows. Some 400 pounds (180 kg) of supplies and equipment are aboard, packed behind the Crew Dragon’s seats in a designated cargo area. This comprises a set of radiation monitors, together with cold bags for returning science specimens and assorted crew supplies, which include clothes, hygiene items and food for Kononenko, Saint-Jacques and McClain.
Assuming an on-time docking, hatch closure will occur around midday EST on Thursday, 7 March, after which the spacecraft will undock from the ISS at about 2:30 a.m. EST on Friday 8th. It will perform a deorbit burn several hours later, with a targeted splashdown point in the Atlantic Ocean, a couple hundred miles off Florida, at around 8:45 a.m. EST. As described by Mr. Gerstenmaier, the early-hours landing is dictated in part by the requirement for adequate lighting conditions at the splashdown point, to enable satisfactorily observation of parachute deployment and Crew Dragon recovery operations.
Mr. Huot also added that the Demo-1 mission is shorter than originally planned, as all of its required objectives can be accommodated within a shorter timespan. “The primary objectives around this flight,” he told AmericaSpace, “center on launch/re-entry and landing, followed by rendezvous and docking/undocking departure.”
Source: https://www.americaspace.com/2019/03/02/crew-dragon-kicks-off-demo-1-mission-to-return-human-spaceflight-to-american-shores/#more-107433
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'Little Earth' on SpaceX Crew Dragon gives boost to Celestial Buddies [collectSpace]
(http://www.collectspace.com//images/news-030419a.jpg)(http://www.collectspace.com//images/news-030219d.jpg)
Expedition 58 flight engineer Anne McClain Video frame of SpaceX's anthropomorphic
of NASA looks on as a Celestial Buddies' test device "Ripley" and Celestial Buddies
Planetary Pal Earth plush toy floats in zero-g Earth prior to the Crew Dragon
on board SpaceX's first Crew Dragon spacecraft launch. (SpaceX)
to dock to the International Space Station on
Sunday, March 3, 2019. (NASA TV)
March 4, 2019 — The launch of SpaceX's first Crew Dragon space capsule to the International Space Station did more than just advance the day when astronauts will again fly into space from U.S. soil. It also resulted in a rush for plush blue and green toy orbs.
Jon Silbert was unaware of that connection, though, when on Friday (March 1) orders suddenly started pouring in for Planetary Pal Earth (https://www.celestialbuddies.com/earth.html). The vice president of sales for Celestial Buddies (and the father of the product line's creator, Jessie Silbert), he had yet to see the tweet from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk revealing that Celestial Buddies' anthropomorphized planet Earth toy was flying on board the Crew Dragon (http://www.collectspace.com//news/news-030219a-spacex-crew-dragon-dm1-launch.html) for the spacecraft's uncrewed test flight to the orbiting laboratory.
"Super high tech zero-g indicator added just before launch!" wrote Musk on Twitter (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1101701552153219072), sharing a photo of the plush Earth doll just four hours before a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off on the Crew Dragon Demo-1 mission from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2:49 a.m. EST (0749 GMT) on Saturday.
Borrowing a tradition from Russia's space program (http://www.collectspace.com//news/news-101816a-soyuz-ms02-federation-zerog-indicator.html), SpaceX flew the Celestial Buddies' Earth on the Crew Dragon so that when the vehicle entered orbit, live video from inside the capsule would show the personified planet toy floating in microgravity.
"I think for members of the public, the real fun thing will be seeing the little Celestial Buddy, little tiny Earth, humanoid Earth thing, floating around in zero-g. I think the public will be most excited about that," said Musk at a post-launch press conference on Saturday morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa_m4p3TbN8
Celestial Buddies Earth floats on Crew Dragon. (NASA TV)
And he was right. The public was excited; enough so for hundreds to want a 'little Earth' of their own.
Silbert had yet to hear Musk's comments when he started putting "two and two together," noticing that a number of the orders were coming in from Florida and California, two places that were associated with the SpaceX launch (the company's mission control is located at its headquarters in Hawthorne, California).
(http://www.collectspace.com//images/news-030419b.jpg)(http://www.collectspace.com//images/news-030419c.jpg)
Celestial Buddies' Planetary Pal Earth plush toy floats in Celestial Buddies' Planetary Pal Earth plush
zero-g on toy.
board SpaceX's first Crew Dragon spacecraft to dock to the (Celestial Buddies)
International Space Station on Sunday, March 3, 2019.
(NASA TV)
Confirmation soon came by way of a Celestial Buddies' patron who reached out to Silbert to pass along the news.
"By that time I was exhausted and I went to sleep," Silbert told collectSPACE in an interview on Saturday afternoon. "When I woke up, I discovered a couple hundred more emails."
The number of orders — "at least a couple hundred," said Silbert — exceeded the available stock of Earth that Celestial Buddies had on hand.
"We thought that we had enough to get us through to our next shipment from the factory, but we didn't expect anything like this," Silbert said. "So we're actually on back order right now."
And that is a first for the eight-year-old company. Started as a hobby by a high end fashion designer who sought to bring the wonder of the planets, moons and other celestial bodies "down to Earth," Celestial Buddies' largest sale driver up until now had been the museum and science center gift shops it supplies.
In an effort not to disappoint Celestial Buddies' new SpaceX-inspired fans, Silbert began emailing those with back orders with the option of waiting, receiving a full refund or having their Planetary Pal Earth order upgraded (at no additional cost) to the company's new "Our Precious Planet," a larger, more detailed version of Earth that also serves as a "gentle introduction" to global warming and climate change.
The original Planetary Pal Earth dolls will not be back in stock until late April.
In the meantime, SpaceX's Crew Dragon arrived at the space station (http://www.collectspace.com//news/news-030319a-spacex-crew-dragon-dm1-dock.html) on Sunday, resulting in more views of the Celestial Buddies Earth floating in the spacecraft. Soon after opening the hatch leading into the capsule, NASA astronaut and Expedition 58 flight engineer Anne McClain positioned herself between the toy and a spacesuited anthropomorphic test device (named for a sci-fi heroine) during a televised welcome ceremony for the commercial capsule.
"On behalf of 'Ripley,' little Earth, myself and our crew, welcome to the Crew Dragon," McClain said from on board the spacecraft. "Welcome to the new era in spaceflight."
Silbert said that he is grateful to SpaceX for the exposure ("Musk gave us a great boost") and he is proud to see his daughter's creation in space.
"This is its 15 minutes of fame, I guess," he said. "I am now not only a father, but now I have a 'grandson' in space."
Source: http://www.collectspace.com//news/news-030419a-celestial-buddies-earth-spacex-crew-dragon.html
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Crew Dragon departs ISS and returns to Earth
by Jeff Foust — March 8, 2019, Updated 8:50 a.m. Eastern after splashdown. [SpaceNews]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/demo1-splashdown-879x485.jpg)
The Crew Dragon spacecraft descends under its four main parachutes moments before splashing down in the Atlantic off the Florida coast. Credit: NASA TV
WASHINGTON — SpaceX’s Crew Dragon departed from the International Space Station early March 8, splashing down to mark the end of a successful test flight for the commercial crew program.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft, flying a mission designated Demo-1, undocked from the station’s Harmony module at 2:32 a.m. Eastern. It quickly moved away from the station as in preparation for its return to Earth.
The spacecraft fired its thrusters at 7:53 a.m. Eastern for a 15-minute reentry burn. That reentry appeared to go as planned, with the spacecraft first deploying two drogue parachutes followed by its four main ones. The spacecraft splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean at 8:45 a.m. Eastern within sight of SpaceX recovery ships.
The spacecraft launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida March 2, docking with the station 27 hours later after a problem-free approach. The station’s crew spent several days monitoring the spacecraft while docked to the station before closing hatches between the station and spacecraft March 7.
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/demo1-undock.jpg)
The Crew Dragon spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station at 2:32 a.m. Eastern March 8, about six hours before its splashdown in the Atlantic. Credit: NASA TV
“Fifty years after humans landed on the moon for the first time, America has driven a golden spike on the trail to new space exploration feats,” NASA astronaut Anne McClain said from the station shortly after Crew Dragon departed. “It won’t be long before our astronaut colleagues are aboard Crew Dragon and Boeing’s Starliner vehicles, and we can’t wait.”
NASA’s current schedule calls for an in-flight abort test of Crew Dragon, using the same capsule as flown on Demo-1, in June. That will be followed as soon as July as Demo-2, carrying NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley.
Even before the launch, though, NASA officials cautioned that there was still some work to do on Crew Dragon before it would be ready to carry astronauts. They still hoped that a crewed test flight could take place before the end of the year but did not commit to a specific schedule.
“There’s a lot of forward work to complete” on both Crew Dragon and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner vehicles, said Sandy Magnus, a former astronaut who serves on the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, during a March 7 meeting of the panel at KSC. “We’re not quite ready to put humans on either vehicle yet.”
She added that she and the rest of the panel were pleased that NASA was taking steps, such as buying two additional Soyuz seats from Roscosmos, to alleviate any perceived schedule pressure on the commercial crew program.
“We think both providers, and NASA, are doing the right things in a very deliberate fashion to get to the point where we can say, ‘yea, verily, let’s launch some people,’ which we are all eagerly awaiting,” she said.
Source: https://spacenews.com/crew-dragon-departs-iss/
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SpaceX crew capsule returns to Earth, paving the way for human launches
March 8, 2019 Stephen Clark [Spaceflight Now]
(https://mk0spaceflightnoa02a.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/dm1-splash1.jpg)
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft returned to Earth on Friday with an on-target splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft closed out a six-day test flight in low Earth orbit Friday with an on-target splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean, and officials hailed the ship’s performance before it flies with astronauts for the first time later this year.
Slowed by four orange and white parachutes, the gumdrop-shaped spaceship splashed down in the Atlantic east of Florida at 8:45 a.m. EST (1345 GMT) Friday, and SpaceX and NASA teams stationed nearby sped toward the capsule, removed a parachute that fell onto the craft after the ocean landing, and readied the Crew Dragon for retrieval.
Around an hour after splashdown, ground crews hoisted the spacecraft onto SpaceX’s “Go Searcher” recovery vessel, where the Crew Dragon was expected to be moved into a hangar for the trip back to the Florida coast.
The textbook splashdown Friday punctuated a seemingly picture-perfect mission, a precursor to NASA’s plans to resume astronaut launches on U.S. spacecraft to the International Space Station later this year. Since the last space shuttle landed in 2011, NASA astronauts have rode to space and back aboard Russian Soyuz ferry ships.
“I can’t believe how well the whole mission has gone,” said Benji Reed, director of commercial crew mission management at SpaceX. “Pretty much, I think, at every point, everything has been nailed all the way along, particularly this last piece we were all very excited to see. As we (went) through re-entry, and parachute, drogue deploy, main deploy, splashdown, everything happened just perfectly, right on time, the way that we expected it to.”
Officials from NASA, which has paid SpaceX more than $3 billion since 2010 to develop the Crew Dragon spacecraft, agreed with Reed’s preliminary assessment.
“I don’t think we saw really anything on the (Crew Dragon test flight) mission so far — and we’ve got to do the data reviews — that would preclude us having the crewed mission later this year,” said Steve Stich, deputy manager of NASA’s commercial crew program.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cy68OoNHF0
Here’s a replay of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft coming back to Earth with an on-target splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean east of Florida. Credit: NASA https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/03/01/falcon-9-crew-dragon-demo-1-mission-status-center/ …
The six-day test flight — known as Demo-1, or DM-1 — was a crucial forerunner before a second orbital test flight — Demo-2, or DM-2 — blasts off with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on the next Crew Dragon spacecraft later this year.
The Crew Dragon capsule for the Demo-1 mission launched March 2 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and reached the space station March 3 with a successful automated docking, the first fully automated link-up with the space station by a U.S. spacecraft.
There were no astronauts on-board, but the Crew Dragon carried an instrumented test dummy named “Ripley,” a nod to the protagonist from the “Alien” film franchise. Ripley rode in one of the Crew Dragon’s four seats, and sensors in the mannequin’s head, neck and spine collected measurements on the g-forces and other conditions astronauts on the ship will experience.
A plush Earth toy also launched inside the Crew Dragon and earned adoration from the space station’s crew, who kept the “Little Earth” inside the orbiting science lab after the SpaceX capsule departed Friday. Behnken and Hurley will bring “Little Earth” back home on their test flight.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D01QONxXQAAPAnw.jpg)
Anne McClain@AstroAnnimal
Yes buddy, that’s your Mother Earth. Isn’t she beautiful?
Twitter (https://twitter.com/AstroAnnimal/status/1102625748521762816)
The Crew Dragon ferried nearly 450 pounds (204 kilograms) of equipment to the space station — mainly crew supplies — and astronauts planned to pack around 328 pounds (148 kilograms) of hardware and scientific specimens into the capsule’s pressurized cabin for the trip back to Earth.
Canadian flight engineer David Saint-Jacques and NASA astronaut Anne McClain closed hatches leading to the Crew Dragon spacecraft Thursday, setting up for the ship’s undocking from the forward port of the station’s Harmony module at 2:31 a.m. EST (0731 GMT) Friday. The craft fired its Draco thrusters to back away from the space station, then accomplished several additional departure burns to fly a safe distance from the complex in preparation for landing.
The capsule jettisoned its rear trunk at 7:48 a.m. EST (1248 GMT), leaving the power module behind in orbit as the crew return craft ignited its Draco thrusters again at 7:52 a.m. EST (1252 GMT) for a 15-minute, 25-second braking burn. The impulse from the deorbit burn slowed the capsule’s velocity enough to drop its orbit into the atmosphere, allowing friction from air particles to bring the Crew Dragon back to Earth.
(https://mk0spaceflightnoa02a.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/crewdragon_depart1.jpg)
The Crew Dragon spacecraft backs away from the International Space Station after undocking Friday. Credit: SpaceX
After closing a protective nose cone over its docking port and hatch, the capsule encountered the first traces of the atmosphere at 8:33 a.m. EST (1333 GMT) as it flew on a northwest-to-southeast track over the United States, and temperatures outside the Crew Dragon built up to thousands of degrees.
A NASA WB-57 research airplane flying over the Atlantic captured live infrared video of the Crew Dragon spacecraft emerging from the re-entry plasma sheath, then showed the spaceship deploying a pair of drogue stabilization parachutes, followed by the unfurling of four orange and white main chutes.
The parachute deployment was closely watched by SpaceX and NASA engineers. The older cargo-carrying Dragon spacecraft comes down under three chutes, while the heavier Crew Dragon requires four, and parachute anomalies during testing — and on the return of a Dragon supply ship — have put the system under greater scrutiny from engineers and safety managers.
The chutes appeared to work normally Friday, and live video beamed from the splashdown zone showed the capsule — its heat shield blackened from the fiery re-entry — descending under a morning sun before splashing down more than 250 miles ( 400 kilometers) northeast of Cape Canaveral, roughly due east from the Florida/Georgia border.
(https://mk0spaceflightnoa02a.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/46598131484_52f62375b8_k.jpg)
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft descends under its four main parachutes Friday. Credit: NASA/Cory Huston
“All of these gazillions of tests that we’ve been doing on parachutes, all of the analysis and work that we’ve done on understanding the aerodynamics of re-entry and coming home, everything was just wonderful,” Reed said after the splashdown.
Stich, a former space shuttle flight director, sounded a repeating refrain after the Crew Dragon’s Demo-1 flight: It was “phenomenal.”
“It was a great dress rehearsal for Demo-2 (the crew test flight),” Stich said. “We learned a phenomenal amount in the pre-launch timeframe, about how to load the vehicle, and thinking forward to how we’ll put the crews in the vehicle. The ascent profile for this flight, we practiced the exact profile that (astronauts) will fly very soon. We had the abort system, the crew escape system in Dragon, actually enabled for this flight, and we were able to see how that worked, and we’ll get the data back and look at those triggers and how it performed.
“On orbit, we got a lot of great data on the vehicle in terms of the thermal performance, power performance,” Stich said. “The vehicle really did better than we expected, and then the rendezvous was phenomenal as we came in (and) checked out those sensors. The link to space station worked, the command link… And then having a real precise docking and seeing how the docking system performed, that was phenomenal.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8PVtJgDOIY
Ground crews have retrieved the Crew Dragon spacecraft from the Atlantic Ocean, ready to begin the journey back to Port Canaveral. https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/03/01/falcon-9-crew-dragon-demo-1-mission-status-center/ …
The return trip from the space station went just as well, Stich said.
“Today, the undocking, watching how those systems performed, that went flawlessly,” he said. “It’s a very tight sequence between undocking and the deorbit burn, how the nose cone performed, how the deorbit was executed, and then the entry was phenomenal.”
Weeks of data reviews lie ahead for NASA and SpaceX engineers to analyze the results of the Crew Dragon test flight in more detail.
“This mission was only six days long, ” Stich said. “It was a sprint from start to finish.”
SpaceX will refurbish the Crew Dragon capsule that returned to Earth on Friday for an in-flight abort test scheduled for June. The abort system trial will verify the Crew Dragon’s eight SuperDraco thrusters can safely push the capsule away from an exploding launcher in flight, using a modified Falcon 9 booster to reach supersonic speed in the stratosphere before triggering the escape maneuver.
Meanwhile, workers at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, continue assembling the Crew Dragon spacecraft for the test flight with astronauts.
(https://mk0spaceflightnoa02a.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/IMG-9084.jpg)
SpaceX’s first Crew Dragon spacecraft slated to fly with astronauts on the Demo-2 mission is being assembled and tested at the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California. This image of the capsule was taken in August 2018. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now
Assuming the data reviews, the high-altitude abort test, and unresolved technical issues are completed in the coming months, Behnken and Hurley could strap into the next Crew Dragon spacecraft as soon as July, according to the most recent schedule officially published by NASA.
In their comments this week during the Crew Dragon’s test flight, NASA and SpaceX officials did not commit to the July timetable for the demonstration launch with astronauts. But top managers, including NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, said they were confident a commercial capsules developed by SpaceX or Boeing will be ready for a human spaceflight before the end of this year.
“One of the things that we’re very excited about from this DM-1 mission, is that for the first time we’ve gotten to see an end-to-end test,” said Mike Hopkins, an astronaut assigned to the Crew Dragon’s third space mission, the second with astronauts on-board. “So now we’ve brought together the people, the hardware, and all the processes and procedures, and gotten to see how they all work together, and that’s very important as we move toward putting people on-board the vehicle.”
“We’re very interested in seeing the data,” Hopkins said Friday. “I suspect there’s going to be be some lessons learned, some improvements, some changes that we’re going to have to make from this. That’s all part of the testing process.”
NASA says SpaceX still must complete further testing of the Crew Dragon’s parachutes before astronauts can ride the spacecraft. Engineers may need to install heaters in propellant lines leading to the capsule’s Draco thrusters to address a concern that cold fuel could cause a shock and damage the control jets.
SpaceX kept the hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants warm on the unpiloted test flight my pointing certain parts of the spacecraft toward the sun. NASA will likely desire a more permanent solution before astronauts get the green light to fly.
Engineers are also still studying the safety of carbon overwrapped pressure vessels inside the Falcon 9 rocket and the Crew Dragon spacecraft, officials said before last week’s launch.
The vessels on the Falcon 9 rocket contain helium to pressurize the launcher’s propellant tanks. SpaceX began flying a redesigned helium reservoir last year with fixes to avoid a problem that led to friction in the fibers on the outside of one of the vessels, causing a spark inside an oxygen tank that destroyed a Falcon 9 rocket and a commercial communications satellite during a pre-launch test in 2016.
“We’re very interested in seeing the data,” Hopkins said Friday. “I suspect there’s going to be be some lessons learned, some improvements, some changes that we’re going to have to make from this. That’s all part of the testing process.”
(https://mk0spaceflightnoa02a.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/46598130704_79101df261_k.jpg)
The Crew Dragon spacecraft aboard the Go Searcher recovery ship after Friday’s splashdown. Credit: NASA/Cory Huston
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner crew capsule, which is also primarily funded through a multibillion-dollar NASA contract, is scheduled to lift off on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket later this year for an unpiloted test flight to the space station, similar to the mission just concluded by SpaceX.
The most recent schedule released by NASA indicates the first Starliner test flight could launch as soon as April. However, that is widely expected to be delayed until some time this summer, at the earliest, as Boeing engineers contend with their own technical issues.
Once the Crew Dragon and Starliner spaceships complete their test flights, NASA plans to use the capsules to transport astronauts to and from the space station in six-month increments, ending the agency’s sole reliance on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft.
Bridenstine, the NASA administrator, lauded government leaders for keeping the agency committed to commercializing human spaceflight operations in low Earth orbit, an initiative begun under the George W. Bush administration for cargo services, then expanded by President Barack Obama in 2010 for crews.
“This really is an American achievement that spans many generations of NASA administrators, and in fact, over a decade of work by the NASA team,” Bridenstine said.
Some in Congress pushed back against NASA’s efforts to turn over crew transportation to the commercial sector, preferring to maintain government control and slashing the program’s budget below what the agency said it needed. The funding shortfall, coupled with engineering redesigns and development issues, led the first commercial crew test flights to be delayed from 2015 until this year.
The delays have forced NASA to continue purchasing Soyuz seats from the Russian government for years longer than officials hoped. NASA is considering an option to buy two more Soyuz seats, covering launches and landings through September 2020, to hedge against further delays in the SpaceX and Boeing crew programs.
“It seems like we lurch from one administration to the next, and changing visions and changing budgets,” Bridenstine said Friday. “How do we keep constancy? Well, this is a perfect example of a program. When we talk about these things that NASA does, it takes, in many cases, decades to achieve this kind of capability, and the constancy of purpose here for all of these years is important.
“Now, NASA can be a customer,” Bridenstine said. “We can one customer of many customers for human spaceflight in what we believe will be a very robust commercial marketplace for space operations, and we’re going to have numerous providers that are going to compete on cost and innovation.”
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/03/08/spacex-crew-capsule-returns-to-earth-paving-the-way-for-human-launches/
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Crew Dragon Returns to Earth, Exceeds NASA's Expectations on Demo-1
By Mike Killian, on March 8th, 2019 [AmericaSpace]
(https://www.americaspace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screenshot_20190308-091142_Video-Player.jpg)
The first SpaceX Crew Dragon splashes down 200 miles off the coast of Florida at 8:45am EST March 8, 2019, closing out a successful uncrewed Demo-1 mission to the International Space Station for NASA.
This morning, SpaceX’s first Crew Dragon closed out an incredibly successful maiden voyage to and from the International Space Station (ISS), splashing down gently 230 miles off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida at 8:45am EST and wrapping up a week-long uncrewed flight test demonstration mission (Demo-1).
“We were all very excited to see re-entry, parachute and drogue deploy, main deploy, splashdown – everything happened just perfectly. It was right on time, the way that we expected it to be. It was beautiful,” said Benji Reed, director of crew mission management at SpaceX.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jac2Rm5JJSY
Launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket on March 2 at 2:49am EST, the spacecraft and mission teams from SpaceX and NASA were put through the paces to prove out the capsule’s ability to launch a crew, autonomously dock and deliver to the ISS, undock, and make a nominal atmospheric re-entry and splashdown; showing they can safely return a crew to Earth.
Following launch, the spacecraft made 18 orbits of the Earth before docking to the ISS, marking not only the first time an American spacecraft has ever autonomously docked there, but also the first time a spacecraft has used the station’s new international docking adapter, which was delivered on a Cargo Dragon via mission CRS-9 and installed by spacewalkers in August 2016 (read all about that HERE (https://www.americaspace.com/2016/08/20/space-station-open-for-commercial-crew-as-eva-36-team-installs-ida-2/)).
Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques was actually the first person to ever enter a Crew Dragon in space, and was followed immediately after by Russian cosmonaut and current ISS Commander Oleg Kononenko, both of whom started work taking atmospheric readings and unloading some payload, while wearing protective gear to avoid breathing particulate matter that may have shaken loose during launch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clldDUGJ-V8
Joined after by NASA astronaut Anne McClain, the 3 crew members then held a ceremony to celebrate the achievement, each saying a few words, before McClain floated in and became the first American inside a Crew Dragon in space.
During its five days linked to the space station, Crew Dragon was subjected to external photo-documentation, via Canadarm2, and internal inspections by the Expedition 58 team, who focused specifically upon its habitability and the condition of its windows.
Some 400 pounds (180 kg) of supplies and equipment were delivered too, packed behind the Crew Dragon’s seats in a designated cargo area and comprising a set of radiation monitors, together with cold bags for returning science specimens and assorted crew supplies, which include clothes, hygiene items and food for the crew currently on station.
(https://www.americaspace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/IMG_9886-3.jpg)
Crew Dragon ‘Demo-1’ soaring on its maiden voyage to the International Space Station March 2, 2019 from historic pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. Photo: Mike Killian / AmericaSpace.com
The crew also loaded about 300 pounds of hardware and science aboard Crew Dragon for the trip home, before closing the hatch between it and the ISS mid-day EST on Thursday, 7 March, followed by undocking at 2:30am EST on Friday, March 8th.
It then performed a series of short departure burns to increase the distance between the vehicle and orbiting laboratory, before dumping its trunk, closing its nose cone and firing a 15-minute deorbit burn for the plunge to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere.
Streaking over the southeastern United States and under the eyes of a NASA jet and tracking camera, the spacecraft appeared right where it was supposed to and deployed its drogue parachutes just fine, before deploying the four main parachutes and splashing down on time and on target.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0qtI_tQZlQ
The early-hours landing was dictated in part by the requirement for adequate lighting conditions at the splashdown point, to enable satisfactorily observation of parachute deployment and recovery operations.
SpaceX had two ships waiting to recover Dragon, and before the capsule even touched a wave crews were already speeding to the LZ to get started. They then safed the Dragon and towed it to SpaceX’s recovery ship, Go Searcher, before hoisting it via crane out of the water and onto the main deck of the ship.
A suited-up ‘test dummy’ named Ripley was onboard for the mission too, outfitted with sensors to provide data about potential effects on humans traveling in the spacecraft.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8OqimtMdgs
After SpaceX processes all the data, teams will begin refurbishing Crew Dragon for its next mission, an in-flight abort test targeted to take place this summer (read about that HERE (https://www.americaspace.com/2019/02/22/last-nights-falcon-9-will-fly-one-more-time-exploding-mid-air-in-crew-dragon-abort-test/)).
Demo-2, the first crewed test flight, will then follow, carrying NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on the spacecraft’s final flight to certify Crew Dragon for routine operational missions.
“For the first time, we’ve gotten to see an end-to-end test, and so now we’ve brought together the people, the hardware and all the processes and procedures, and we’ve gotten to see how they all work together, and that’s very important as we move toward putting people onboard,” said NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, who will crew SpaceX’s first operational mission to the space station following Demo-2. “I’m, personally, very anxious to hear how Ripley is feeling after they pull her out of the capsule and get her onto the recovery vehicle.”
Crew Dragon and Ripley are currently expected to arrive in Port Canaveral Saturday evening.
Source: https://www.americaspace.com/2019/03/08/crew-dragon-returns-to-earth-exceeds-nasas-expectations-on-demo-1/
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Almost Ready: SpaceX has work to do before Dragon is ready to carry crew
by Jeff Foust — March 21, 2019
This article originally appeared in the March 11, 2019 issue of SpaceNews magazine.
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Crew-Dragon-free-space-879x485.jpg)
The Demo-1 mission ended March 8 with a successful undocking from the ISS followed, six hours later, by a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast, in view of SpaceX recovery ships. Credit: NASA
Among the thousands of spectators who watched the Falcon 9 launch of the first Crew Dragon spacecraft from the Kennedy Space Center in the early morning hours of March 2, few had greater interest in the mission than Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. The two veteran NASA astronauts, with four shuttle flights between them, have for the last few years been part of the commercial crew program, working with Boeing and SpaceX on the design and operations of their vehicles.
The two were particularly interested in this Demo-1 launch since they will be the crew of the next Crew Dragon mission, Demo-2, scheduled to take place as soon as July. The two followed the launch from a refurbished Apollo-era launch control center at KSC and then, 24 hours later, were at SpaceX’s mission control at its Hawthorne, California, headquarters to watch as the spacecraft approached, and docked with, the International Space Station.
The two had to like what they saw. The Crew Dragon made it to orbit after a problem-free launch from KSC’s historic Launch Complex 39A. The spacecraft approached the station a day later, docking without incident with the station’s Harmony module about 15 minutes ahead of schedule.
“We’ve been following the process for a few years at this point,” Behnken said at a post-launch news conference at KSC. “Seeing a success like this definitely gives us a lot of confidence in the future.”
“It seemed like everything went smoothly,” Hurley added. “From our standpoint, this is what you want to see. You want to see the team hitting its stride.”
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Hurley-Behnken-watch-launch.jpg)
NASA astronauts Doug Hurley, left, and Bob Behnken, right, who are assigned to fly on the crewed Demo-2 mission, watch the March 2 launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft on the Demo-1 mission from the Launch Control Center at the Kennedy Space Center. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
The Demo-1 mission ended March 8 with a successful undocking from the ISS followed, six hours later, by a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast, in view of SpaceX recovery ships. The final phases of the mission appeared to go as smoothly as the rest of the flight.
“I can’t believe how well the whole mission has gone,” said Benji Reed, director of commercial crew mission management at SpaceX, in an interview on NASA TV shortly after splashdown.
More work to do
Even if the recovery and post-flight inspections go as smoothly as the launch and docking that doesn’t mean that Crew Dragon is ready for Behnken and Hurley to get on board. Even before the launch, NASA officials said there was already work identified before the Demo-1 flight that needed to get done before the agency would consider flying astronauts on board.
“There are two drivers” for that additional work, Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, said at a pre-launch briefing. One part of that work involves systems not needed for the Demo-1 mission because there isn’t a crew on board. The spacecraft, for example, didn’t have a full-scale life support system onboard but rather a scaled-down version intended to collect test data.
Another system not needed for Demo-1 is the displays and interfaces astronauts flying the spacecraft would use. “You don’t need, obviously, crew interfaces unless Ripley is going to start flying the vehicle,” she said, referring to the mannequin on board the spacecraft equipped with instruments to measure the environment astronauts would experience on the spacecraft.
Other work involves problems found during testing of the Demo-1 spacecraft that, while not enough to delay the launch, need to be corrected before Demo-2. “The second piece is the stuff that we found in the last six to nine months that, with the capsule basically done, we’re applying that learning to the Demo-2 vehicle,” she said.
One such issue is with the Draco thrusters on Crew Dragon. During thermal vacuum testing of the spacecraft, engineers found that, in some circumstances, temperatures could get low enough to freeze propellant lines. “For the full environment that we were expecting this mission to be operating within, the Dracos didn’t like that environment. They weren’t operating that well in that environment,” Lueders said.
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Crew-Dragon-Demo-1-liftoff-SpaceX.jpg)
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying Crew Dragon lifts off March 2 from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 2:49 a.m. Eastern. Credit: SpaceX
The fix for Demo-1 was to constrain the mission design to make it unlikely the spacecraft could get cold enough for long enough for the lines to freeze. That required launching only on days when Crew Dragon could get to the station within a day of the launch. Had the March 2 launch been scrubbed for weather or technical reasons, the next launch window wasn’t until March 5. The permanent solution, to be implemented on Demo-2 and later Crew Dragon spacecraft, will be to install heaters on the propellant lines.
More fixes may be needed to Crew Dragon depending on the analysis of data collected during the flight. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens,” said Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of build and flight reliability at SpaceX. “This is a test flight, so we will learn things and gather experience with our subsystems.”
Balancing schedule versus safety
NASA’s latest public schedule for the commercial crew program calls for Demo-2 to take place no earlier than July, a month after an in-flight test of the Crew Dragon’s abort system, using the same capsule that flew on Demo-1. Koenigsmann said that, even if there changes that need to be made to the spacecraft, it may still be possible to fly the mission this summer.
“There’s really a lot of ingenuity in both teams here,” he said of NASA and SpaceX, citing the change in the mission profile for Demo-1 as one example. “If it’s something similar like that, I would expect us to find a similar operational solution.”
NASA officials, though, weren’t nearly as optimistic. While not giving any specific dates, they suggested that it could be later in the year before they’re willing to put NASA astronauts on Crew Dragon.
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Musk-Bridenstine-Astronauts.jpg)
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, left, NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Doug Hurley, Bob Behnken, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, and NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins are seen inside the crew access arm with the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft visible behind them during a tour of Launch Complex 39A before the early Saturday morning launch of the Demo-1 mission. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
Being at the Demo-1 launch was exciting, said Pat Forrester, chief of NASA’s astronaut corps, “but it will be more exciting when we come back for Demo-2,” he said. “Even though a lot of progress has been made, there’s still a lot of work that we need to do, and we’re looking forward to working as a team with SpaceX to get that done.”
“There are a few issues that we’re working through” on Crew Dragon, said Mark Geyer, director of the Johnson Space Center. “We’re going to launch when we’re ready, and it could be a bit, but none of those are insurmountable.”
When NASA awarded commercial crew contracts in September 2014, the agency set a goal of having both Crew Dragon and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner certified to carry people by the end of 2017, a date that had already slipped by two years from the original schedule NASA laid out for the program in 2010. Even with the success of Demo-1, there are lingering doubts that either company — Boeing’s test flights are a month behind SpaceX’s in NASA’s public schedule — will be certified by the end of 2019.
Such delays are endemic to big NASA programs, from the James Webb Space Telescope to the Space Launch System and Orion. A complicating factor, though, is that NASA’s access to Soyuz seats runs out at the end of this year, jeopardizing its ability to maintain an American presence on the station.
On Feb. 13, NASA issued a procurement notice that announced its intent to purchase two Soyuz seats from the Russian state space corporation Roscosmos. One seat would be on a mission in the fall of this year and the other in the spring of 2020, ensuring a presence on the station through next September regardless of the status of the commercial crew program. The seats became available, agency sources said, because Roscosmos wasn’t planning to fill out its complement of three station crewmembers given ongoing delays with the launch of new Russian modules.
The seats give NASA, and Boeing and SpaceX, some breathing room. “What we don’t want is the teams to feel pressured that we have got to fly these things when we may not be ready,” Geyer said. “Buying these extra couple of seats allows us to really make sure we’re going to have Americans on board the space station.”
Another option that NASA announced it was studying last year is to turn the Starliner test flight into a long-duration mission of up to six months. (There are no plans to do with the Demo-2 mission, which will be docked to the station for no more than a month.) The three-person crew for that mission, which includes former NASA astronaut Chris Ferguson, who now works for Boeing, has been undergoing training for a long-term stay.
However, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said before the Demo-1 launch that NASA hasn’t yet decided on the duration of that Boeing mission. “As it gets closer, we’re going to be able to assess what the needs are, and we’ll make determinations based on what those needs are,” he said. “I don’t have a timeline at this time.”
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Crew-Dragon-in-Hangar-Jan_SpaceX.jpg)
SpaceX plans to re-use the Demo-1 Crew Dragon capsule, shown above in January, for an in-flight test of the vehicle’s crew abort system before flying the crewed Demo-2 mission no sooner than July. Credit: SpaceX
That decision to buy Soyuz seats is a relief to the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel. It warned of schedule pressure in its latest annual report, released Feb. 8, and called on NASA and Congress to develop “a mitigation plan to ensure continuing U.S. presence on the ISS until the commercial crew providers are available.”
“There’s a lot of forward work to complete” by both commercial crew providers, said Sandy Magnus, a former astronaut and member of the panel, at its latest public meeting March 7 at KSC. “We’re not quite ready to put humans on either vehicle yet. We’re pleased to see that NASA has taken steps to ensure the continuation of the U.S. presence on the ISS, and that continues to mitigate any perceived schedule pressure.”
The Demo-2 crew is willing to wait and fly only when the spacecraft is ready. “I think they would acknowledge that they have more work going forward in preparation of the Demo-2 flight that we’ll be on,” Behnken said of SpaceX before the launch of Demo-1. “I think that, as a team, we would all agree that we probably aren’t ready for the Demo-2 mission.”
But, with the Demo-1 mission now in the books, they’re almost ready.
Source: https://spacenews.com/crew-dragon-finally-makes-it-to-space-but-theres-work-to-do-before-its-ready-to-carry-crew/
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(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D4oMNJmXsAAv_7B.jpg)
Z powazaniem
Adam Przybyla
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SpaceX confirms anomaly during Crew Dragon abort engine test
April 20, 2019 Stephen Clark [SFN]
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 7:30 p.m. EDT (2330 GMT) with additional details. Updated at 7:55 p.m. EDT (2355 GMT) with new photo. Updated at 8:20 p.m. EDT (0020 GMT) with Bridenstine statement.
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An orange plume rises from Landing Zone 1, where SpaceX typically lands its rocket boosters, in this image taken by a passenger on a Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex tour bus Saturday. Credit: Francisco Sedano (@fsedano)
An accident Saturday during an abort engine test on a Crew Dragon test vehicle at Cape Canaveral sent a reddish-orange plume into the sky visible for miles around, a setback for SpaceX and NASA as teams prepare the capsule for its first mission with astronauts.
SpaceX is testing the Crew Dragon ahead of the capsule’s first test flight with astronauts later this year, following a successful Crew Dragon demonstration mission to the International Space Station in early March.
SpaceX confirmed the accident, first reported by Florida Today, in a statement Saturday evening. No injuries were reported.
“Earlier today, SpaceX conducted a series of engine tests on a Crew Dragon test vehicle on our test stand at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida,” a company spokesperson said. “The initial tests completed successfully but the final test resulted in an anomaly on the test stand.”
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted that the space agency was notified of the accident.
“The NASA and SpaceX teams are assessing the anomaly that occurred today during a part of the Dragon Super Draco Static Fire Test at SpaceX Landing Zone 1 in Florida,” Bridenstine said in a written statement. “This is why we test. We will learn, make the necessary adjustments and safely move forward with our Commercial Crew Program.”
A photo captured by a Florida Today photographer (https://amp.floridatoday.com/amp/3531086002?__twitter_impression=true) from a local beach showed an orange plume visible on the horizon in the direction of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Such plumes are usually associated with burning or leaking toxic hypergolic propellants.
Florida Today reported that unconfirmed reports suggested the Crew Dragon test vehicle was nearly destroyed, and workers in the area said they heard explosions.
The Crew Dragon’s thrusters consume hygergolic hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants, which chemically ignite when mixed together. The Crew Dragon’s Draco thrusters are used for in-orbit maneuvers and pointing, while eight larger SuperDraco thrusters — packaged in pairs into four propulsion modules — are used for aborts during a launch emergency.
(https://mk0spaceflightnoa02a.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/13096354_10157374125640131_4596613280549138563_n.jpg)
SuperDraco thrusters fire on a prototype of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft at the company’s test site in Central Texas. Credit: SpaceX
“Ensuring that our systems meet rigorous safety standards and detecting anomalies like this prior to flight are the main reasons why we test,” a SpaceX spokesperson said. “Our teams are investigating and working closely with our NASA partners.”
A dispatcher at the Brevard County Emergency Operations Center said local officials were aware of the SpaceX accident at Cape Canaveral, but were not aware of any risk to the public.
The SuperDraco thrusters are designed to push the Crew Dragon spacecraft away from a failing rocket during launch. Each engine has a 3D-printed chamber and can produce up to 16,000 pounds of thrust, with the ability to restart multiple times.
SpaceX did not specify which Crew Dragon vehicle was involved in Saturday’s accident on the test stand, but people familiar with the company’s test plans said it was likely the same spacecraft that successfully flew to the space station last month. Ground teams returned the Crew Dragon spaceship to Cape Canaveral following its March 8 splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean.
Engineers planned to refurbish the capsule for an in-flight abort test as soon as June, in which the Crew Dragon would activate its SuperDraco engines at high altitude about a minute after launching from the Kennedy Space Center on a Falcon 9 rocket. Hotfire tests of the Crew Dragon’s abort propulsion system, like the SuperDraco test conducted Saturday, were planned by SpaceX before the in-flight abort test.
The high-altitude abort test is intended to prove the Crew Dragon capsule can save astronauts from a catastrophic explosion under the most extreme aerodynamic forces during launch. The test is one of the final tests for the Crew Dragon program before NASA signs off on putting astronauts on the spacecraft.
SpaceX’s first Crew Dragon mission with astronauts, known as Demo-2, was scheduled no earlier than July 25. NASA said earlier this month that it would reevaluate the target launch date for the Demo-2 mission in the next few weeks, and sources recently suggested — before Saturday’s accident — that the Demo-2 launch was likely to be rescheduled for late September or early October.
Veteran shuttle astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are assigned to the Demo-2 mission, which was planned to use a new spacecraft.
(https://mk0spaceflightnoa02a.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/32426111807_cdc27c202f_k.jpg)
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is offloaded from a recovery ship March 9 after returning to Port Canaveral following a six-day test flight to the International Space Station. Credit: NASA/Isaac Watson
NASA awarded SpaceX and Boeing multibillion-dollar contracts in 2014 to develop the Crew Dragon and CST-100 Starliner spaceships to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
The first unpiloted flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft to the space station is scheduled for August, followed by a a test flight with astronauts in November. Boeing delayed the Starliner test flights after a fuel leak during an abort engine test on a test article last year forced engineers to redesign part of the craft’s propulsion system.
Once the commercial crew spacecraft complete their test programs, NASA plans to rotate four-person crew to and from the space station, ending the agency’s sole reliance on Russian Soyuz crew ferry ships. Soyuz capsules have carried all NASA astronauts into orbit since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.
SpaceX has won a series of NASA contracts totaling more than $3.1 billion since 2010 to develop the human-rated Crew Dragon spacecraft. A similar set of contracts were awarded to Boeing, worth more than $4.8 billion.
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/04/20/spacex-confirms-anomaly-during-crew-dragon-engine-test/
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https://twitter.com/Astronut099/status/1119825093742530560
Obstawiam 2 lata obsuwy ... Z powazaniem
Adam Przybyla
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SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft suffers anomaly during ground tests
by Jeff Foust — April 20, 2019. Updated 8:15 p.m. Eastern.[SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/superdraco-test.jpg)
A mosaic of images of a test of a SuperDraco thruster. An anomly took place during a test of those thrusters on a Crew Dragon spacecraft April 20 at Cape Canaveral, a potential setback to the company's commercial crew efforts. Credit: SpaceX
WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft suffered what the company said was an “anomaly” during static fire tests of its abort engines April 20, dealing a setback to the company’s plans to fly a crewed test flight later this year.
In a statement, a SpaceX spokesperson confirmed there was a problem of some kind during tests of the spacecraft at Landing Zone 1, the former Launch Complex 13 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, but provided few details about the what happened.
“Earlier today, SpaceX conducted a series of engine tests on a Crew Dragon test vehicle on our test stand at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida,” the spokesperson said in a statement to SpaceNews. “The initial tests completed successfully but the final test resulted in an anomaly on the test stand.”
“Ensuring that our systems meet rigorous safety standards and detecting anomalies like this prior to flight are the main reasons why we test,” the spokesperson added. “Our teams are investigating and working closely with our NASA partners.”
“The NASA and SpaceX teams are assessing the anomaly that occurred today during a part of the Dragon Super Draco Static Fire Test at SpaceX Landing Zone 1 in Florida,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement posted to Twitter (https://twitter.com/JimBridenstine/status/1119754804258062337). “This is why we test. We will learn, make the necessary adjustments and safely move forward with our Commercial Crew Program.”
Eyewitnesses on beaches near Cape Canaveral reported seeing a dark cloud mid-afternoon from somewhere in the vicinity of the Air Force facility. The U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing, which operates Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, confirmed there was an incident during a Crew Dragon test, which resulted in no injuries.
The anomaly apparently took place during testing of the SuperDraco thrusters used as part of the launch abort system for the Crew Dragon spacecraft. Those thrusters use nitrogen tetroxide and hydrazine propellants, a hypergolic combination that ignites on contact. Each SuperDraco thruster is capable of producing about 16,000 pounds-force of thrust.
SpaceX did not disclose what Crew Dragon vehicle was being used for this test. Sources, though, say it was mostly likely the spacecraft that flew the successful Demo-1 mission in March, docking with the International Space Station and staying there for five days before undocking and splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast.
SpaceX planned to fly that spacecraft again in an in-flight abort test, where the spacecraft ignites its SuperDraco thrusters around the time of peak aerodynamic pressure after launch, pulling it away from its Falcon 9 booster. That test was expected to take place some time this summer prior to this anomaly.
Any delay in that test would push back the Demo-2 flight, a test of another Crew Dragon spacecraft with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on board. That mission was scheduled for as soon as July, but not expected to take place before this fall.
Source: https://spacenews.com/spacex-crew-dragon-spacecraft-suffers-anomaly-during-ground-tests/
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Safety panel urges patience in SpaceX Crew Dragon investigation
by Jeff Foust — April 25, 2019 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/crewdragon-superdracotest-879x485.jpg)
A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft testing its SuperDraco thrusters. A NASA safety panel said it will take some time to get to the root cause of an anomaly during an April 20 test of the thrusters. Credit: SpaceX
WASHINGTON — Members of an independent safety panel said April 25 it will take time to determine what happened during a SpaceX Crew Dragon testing incident several days ago, and that its impact to the overall commercial crew program remains uncertain.
At a meeting of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, members offered few new details about the anomaly during an April 20 test of the SuperDraco thrusters on the Crew Dragon spacecraft at a test site at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. That incident enveloped the vehicle in a fireball and created a smoke plume visible far from the site.
Patricia Sanders, chair of the panel, confirmed that the anomaly took place during a static-fire test of the SuperDraco thrusters used in the spacecraft’s launch abort system. Those thrusters were being tested prior to an in-flight abort test that had been planned for this summer.
The April 20 test, she said, was intended to demonstrate the integrated systems performance of the SuperDraco system, after testing of 12 smaller Draco thrusters were successfully completed. “Firing of eight SuperDracos resulted in an anomaly,” she said.
Both NASA and SpaceX started carrying out mishap plans after the incident, and she noted the anomaly did not cause any injuries. SpaceX is leading the investigation with what she termed as “active NASA participation.” The initial work is focused on collecting all the evidence from the test site and creating a timeline of the incident.
“The investigation will take time before the root cause analysis is completed, and will determine the impact to Demo-2 and the in-flight abort test,” she said. Demo-2 is a crewed test flight, with two NASA astronauts on board, that had been scheduled for no sooner than July.
Panel members offered few other details about the incident and its effect on the overall commercial crew program. “We know that there’s a lot of interest regarding the recent SpaceX mishap. We are patient, and allow the teams to investigate,” said Sandra Magnus, an ASAP member.
The test took place about six weeks after the Demo-1 capsule returned from a successful uncrewed test flight to the International Space Station. While that test flight went well, Magnus said it was clear that even before the flight that SpaceX had a lot of work to do before it could move ahead with Demo-2, which she linked to an iterative or “spiral” development approach the company had adopted.
“Prior to the Demo-1 launch, because of this spiral development approach undertaken by the company, NASA and SpaceX identified configuration changes and subsequent qualification work that would be required to be completed before Demo-2 was possible,” she said.
“Notwithstanding the recent incident, there is a large body of work yet to be completed between Demo-1 and a crewed flight,” she continued. “It’s still too early to speculate on how that body of work will alter based on recent events.”
Boeing has taken a different, more traditional development approach that works to get the design of its CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle more mature prior to any test flights. An uncrewed test flight of the spacecraft is now scheduled for early August and a crewed test flight before the end of the year.
The company, she said, has made progress on a number of technical issues, but there is still work to complete. “Both NASA and the Boeing team are facing the submission and analysis of the required data from the final certification and verification processes,” she said.
Magnus warned about schedule pressure on the program, and said that NASA had acted appropriately by securing alternative plans to maintain access to the ISS through late 2020. The panel, she said, supported the position of NASA’s commercial crew program “that crewed missions will not happen until the program has received the data that they require” to ensure the vehicles operate with adequate safety margins. “We will continue to emphasize that as the work goes forward on both programs.”
Source: https://spacenews.com/safety-panel-urges-patience-in-spacex-crew-dragon-investigation/
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SpaceX offers new details on Crew Dragon test anomaly
by Jeff Foust — May 2, 2019 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/crewdragon-superdracotest-879x485.jpg)
A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft testing its SuperDraco thrusters. A SpaceX executive said May 3 said it was too early to identify a cause of an anomaly that destroyed a Crew Dragon spacecraft during an April 20 test. Credit: SpaceX
WASHINGTON — A SpaceX executive May 2 provided new details about, but no cause of, an incident that destroyed a Crew Dragon spacecraft during a ground test last month.
Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of build and flight reliability at SpaceX, said at a NASA briefing about the upcoming launch of a cargo Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station that the anomaly took place just before the ignition of the SuperDraco thrusters on the spacecraft during an April 20 test at the company’s Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Koenigsmann said that the spacecraft had, earlier in the day, completed other tests on the stand, including of its smaller Draco thrusters. “Just before we wanted to fire the SuperDracos, there was an anomaly and the vehicle was destroyed,” he said.
He declined to speculate on the cause of the accident. “It is too early to confirm any cause, whether probable or root,” he said. “The initial data indicates that the anomaly occurred during the activation of the SuperDraco system.” The activation of the thrusters takes place about a half a second before ignition. He added, though, that he didn’t think the problem was with the SuperDraco thrusters themselves, citing “about 600 tests” of the thrusters over the course of its development.
He later said it was unlikely that the incident had anything to do with composite-overwrapped pressure vessels, or COPVs, that are part of the propulsion system. The design of a COPV used on the Falcon 9’s second stage was blamed for an explosion during preparations for a static-fire test of the rocket in September 2016, leading to a redesign of that pressure vessel.
“The COPVs are different from Falcon 9. These are different in material, they have a different form,” he said. “I’m fairly confident that the COPVs are going to be fine.”
Koenigsmann said the company is currently focused on the investigation into the mishap, and declined to estimate how much of an impact it will have on the schedule of upcoming test flights. SpaceX had planned to perform an in-flight abort test using the Crew Dragon spacecraft destroyed in the anomaly as soon as June, followed by a crewed test flight no earlier than July.
“Finishing the investigation and resolving this anomaly is actually our prime focus, certainly for me, right now,” he said. “I hope this is a relatively swift investigation at the end of the day, and I don’t want to completely preclude the current schedule.”
He didn’t say how the capsule lost in the test mishap, which flew on the Demo-1 mission to the station, would be replaced for the in-flight abort test. He noted SpaceX has “multiple spacecraft” in various stages of production, which he said should mitigate any effect the loss of this capsule will have on the test flight schedule.
Koenigsmann spoke at a briefing NASA held prior to the scheduled May 3 launch of a cargo Dragon spacecraft on a mission to the International Space Station. The launch was previously scheduled for May 1 but postponed because of a problem with a switching unit that routes power on the station (https://spacenews.com/iss-power-glitch-delays-dragon-launch/). Kenny Todd, NASA’s space station operations and integration manager, said the faulty unit was swapped out by controllers using the station’s robotic arm, clearing the way for the launch to proceed.
Todd also said that NASA worked closely with SpaceX to confirm that there was no commonality between the systems involved in the Crew Dragon anomaly and those on the cargo Dragon. “We were able to get our arms around the common areas that we had to look at, that they had to look at,” he said. “At the end of the day, we didn’t see any change in our overall measurable risk in going into the mission.”
This cargo Dragon, flying a mission designed CRS-17, previously flew to the station on the CRS-12 mission in August 2017. The spacecraft will carry 2,482 kilograms of cargo, of which about 1,700 kilograms is in the form of science payloads, including those to be mounted on the station’s exterior.
Liftoff of the CRS-17 mission is scheduled for 3:11 a.m. Eastern May 3, but forecasts predict only a 40 percent change of acceptable weather because of an approaching system. Forecasts improve to 70 percent for a backup launch date May 4 at 2:48 a.m. Eastern. Todd said that, should the launch not take place in either instantaneous launch window, NASA and SpaceX would have to wait a week before the next attempt because of scheduled downtime on the Eastern Range.
Source: https://spacenews.com/spacex-offers-new-details-on-crew-dragon-test-anomaly/
SpaceX clears cargo mission for launch, confirms destruction of crew capsule
May 2, 2019 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX’s vice president of build and flight reliability. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
While recovery teams continue combing through the test site at Cape Canaveral where SpaceX’s first space-worthy Crew Dragon capsule was destroyed in an explosive accident last month, engineers a few miles away are pressing ahead with the company’s 17th resupply mission to the International Space Station set for launch early Friday.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/05/02/spacex-clears-cargo-mission-for-launch-confirms-destruction-of-crew-capsule/
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Commercial crew capsules still beset by parachute problems
May 9, 2019 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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SpaceX performs a parachute test for their Dragon capsule over the Delamar Dry Lake in this file photo from 2016. Credit: SpaceX
A malfunction during a drop test over Nevada last month for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon program has engineers re-examining the crew capsule’s parachutes, and Boeing has also encountered parachute failures during testing for its commercial crew capsule, a senior NASA official confirmed Wednesday.
The SpaceX parachute test failure occurred the same month as the explosion of a Crew Dragon spacecraft (https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/05/02/spacex-clears-cargo-mission-for-launch-confirms-destruction-of-crew-capsule/) during a ground test at Cape Canaveral. The parachute drop test over Delamar Dry Lake in Nevada last month did not involve a Crew Dragon capsule, but used a simple metal test sled.
“It failed,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator of NASA’s human exploration and operations directorate. “The parachutes did not work as designed.”
The parachutes did not fully open, sources said, and the test sled impacted the ground at a higher-than-expected velocity. Gerstenmaier said the sled was damaged upon impact. The advanced development test was intended to measure loads within each parachute canopy, according to an industry source.
No one was hurt in the test accident.
“It was one single-out test for this parachute,” Gerstenmaier said Wednesday in a hearing before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology’s subcommittee on space and aeronautics. “So typically, that test would involve four parachutes, one was proactively failed ahead of time and the three remaining chutes did not operate properly.”
Gerstenmaier was asked about the outcome of the SpaceX parachute test by Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Alabama, whose district includes Huntsville and Decatur, home of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the rocket factory for United Launch Alliance, a 50-50 joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, and a chief rival of SpaceX.
The parachute test failure was not publicized by NASA or SpaceX before Wednesday’s congressional hearing.
“The good thing on the test was we had instrumented lines going up to the parachutes, so we know exactly what the loads were in the system,” Gerstenmaier said. “But we still need to understand whether it was a test set up configuration coming out of the aircraft or if there was something associated with the packing of the parachutes, the rigging, all of that. This is part of the learning process. By these failures, we’re going to learn the data and information to end up with a safe design for our crews. So I don’t see this as a negative, this is why we test, this is why we want to push things.”
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SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft descends under its four main parachutes March 8 after a test flight to the International Space Station. Credit: NASA/Cory Huston
Engineers are investigating whether the parachute malfunction was caused by a problem with the chutes themselves, or as a consequence from the way the test was conducted.
“The test was not satisfactory, we did not get the results we wanted,” Gerstenmaier said. “But we learned some information that’s going to affect potentially future parachute designs. The other thing we need to understand (are the) test-unique circumstances. Was it driven by an actual design problem in the hardware, or was it driven by the set-up of the test or the particular equipment that was used during the test?”
SpaceX has completed 19 tests of the Crew Dragon’s parachute system to date, with a number of additional tests planned before astronauts fly on the spaceship. SpaceX had successfully performed five “parachute-out” tests, in which one of the chutes was deliberately disabled, before last month’s test accident, according to an industry source.
NASA officials have long identified parachutes as a concern for SpaceX and Boeing crew capsules, which are in the final stages of development before they carry astronauts into orbit for the first time. After completing their test programs, the SpaceX and Boeing capsules will begin ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station, ending NASA’s sole reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecraft for crew transportation.
A SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule suffered a parachute anomaly during a return from the International Space Station last year, but recovery crews retrieved the supply ship from the Pacific Ocean as intended.
SpaceX’s Dragon cargo ship uses the same main parachutes as the Crew Dragon, also known as Dragon 2. But the heavier Crew Dragon, which is a significantly different spacecraft than the cargo Dragon variant, requires four main parachutes for to slow down for splashdown in the ocean, not the three main chutes used on the currently-flying cargo freighter, sometimes known as Dragon 1.
The Crew Dragon’s first test flight in space in early March was successful, and the capsule’s parachutes functioned as designed after a six-day unpiloted mission to the space station. The spacecraft that flew to the station in March was destroyed April 20 during an accident at Cape Canaveral, which occurred as the capsule’s SuperDraco abort engines were activated for a hold-down firing on a test stand.
Before the April 20 accident, SpaceX aimed to re-fly the Crew Dragon spacecraft on an in-flight abort test in July. Officials hoped to launch a two-man team of NASA astronauts — Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley — on the next Crew Dragon spacecraft to the space station in late September or early October.
SpaceX and NASA officials have not indicated how last month’s hotfire test mishap, or the parachute failure, might impact the schedule for the Crew Dragon’s first flight with astronauts on-board.
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner crew capsule, which will parachute to ground landings in the Western United States, is set for its first unpiloted test flight to the space station in August, followed by a demonstration mission with three astronauts on-board as soon as November. The Starliner missions will launch on ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket, while SpaceX uses its own Falcon 9 launcher for Crew Dragon missions.
Patricia Sanders, chair of NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, told members of Congress on Wednesday that parachutes are one of the largest risks faced by SpaceX and Boeing engineers working on NASA’s commercial crew program.
“There have been a number of very positive tests, results confirming what we would expect, or desire, in terms of re-entry performance of the parachutes,” Sanders said. “There have been a few less satisfactory results, and some tests that are indicating there may need to be some redesign or some adjustments made to the design.
“Those are important to get right before you launch humans,” she said.
Lawmakers did not ask Gerstenmaier about Boeing’s recent parachute test results. But in response to a question from Spaceflight Now after the hearing, he confirmed that Starliner parachute drop tests have also encountered anomalies.
“We’ve gotten data that is unique, that will help us understand if this is something that needs to be fixed or if it’s something that’s just a nuance of the test and the configuration,” Gerstenmaier said of last month’s SpaceX parachute test failure.
“Boeing and SpaceX are making tremendous progress for their respective parachute design and test campaigns,” a NASA spokesperson said in a statement Friday. “Each company is extremely engaged, and we learn new things with each test that informs how we move forward in the design of the parachutes and execute each test series.
“Although Boeing and SpaceX have faced obstacles, each company’s testing is unique, and each has experienced different challenges and results during their test campaigns.”
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/05/09/commercial-crew-capsules-still-beset-by-parachute-problems/
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Investigation into Crew Dragon incident continues
by Jeff Foust — May 28, 2019 [SN]
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The Demo-1 Crew Dragon spacecraft on a test stand shortly before the April 20 anomaly that destroyed it. Credit: NASA
WASHINGTON — More than a month after a Crew Dragon spacecraft was destroyed in a test of its propulsion system, NASA and SpaceX investigators are still working to determine the cause of the accident and its implications for upcoming test flights.
In a May 28 presentation to the NASA Advisory Council’s human exploration and operations committee, Kathy Lueders, manager of the commercial crew program at NASA, offered few updates on the progress of the investigation into the April 20 incident at a SpaceX pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
In that incident, SpaceX was testing both the Draco thrusters and larger SuperDraco abort thrusters in preparation for an in-flight abort test of the capsule that, at the time, was scheduled for the end of June. “An anomaly occurred during activation of the SuperDraco system,” she said, but offered no details on what caused that anomaly.
Lueders did praise SpaceX for how it dealt with the accident and the ongoing investigation. “I will tell you that the team did a great job,” she said of the response. “The team followed the mishap plan beautifully. All the notifications were made. The SpaceX folks did a tremendous job.”
She also indicated that NASA has been kept in the loop about the accident and investigation, including NASA personnel who were at the SpaceX control room at the time the accident took place. A NASA team, she added, is embedded within SpaceX to help with the investigation, such as collecting all the data from the incident. SpaceX, though, is leading the investigation.
The capsule destroyed in the test was the one that flew to the International Space Station on the Demo-1 test flight in March. SpaceX planned to use that capsule on the in-flight abort test this summer.
With that capsule destroyed, Lueders said that SpaceX will use the Crew Dragon spacecraft originally intended for the Demo-2 crewed flight test for the in-flight abort test. The Demo-2 mission will instead use the spacecraft SpaceX was building for the first operational mission, dubbed Crew-1.
With the investigation ongoing, Lueders said the dates of both the in-flight abort test and the Demo-2 mission are under review. Assembly of the Demo-2 capsule continues, she said, although she said workers are keeping open the vehicle’s propulsion system in case they need to make modifications as a result of the investigation. “They’re making progress in a lot of the other areas while trying to keep, most particularly in the prop area, access to the systems that may need to be modified,” she said.
She didn’t give an indication of when that investigation will be completed. “You don’t push your anomaly investigation team too quick,” she said, stressing the importance for them to be “methodical” while working through all parts of the fault tree of potential causes.
Later in the meeting, a committee member asked Lueders if Demo-2 could still fly this year. “They’re getting their vehicle ready by the end of year,” she said of SpaceX. “We need to close out the anomaly investigation. That’s the big thing.”
The accident, she said, was something of a “gift” to the program, since it took place on a test stand, giving them an opportunity to understand what may need to be modified. “We’re learning a lot. Sometimes you learn more from a failure like this,” she said.
“It’s pretty sad not to have that vehicle,” she added. “I was hoping that vehicle would be in a museum one day. But, I think this is a vehicle that continues to serve her purpose to make human spaceflight safer and safer. We will learn from this test, and that learning will be applied to the next vehicle.”
Source: https://spacenews.com/investigation-into-crew-dragon-incident-continues/
NASA says SpaceX readying Crew Dragon capsule for possible piloted test flight by end of year
May 28, 2019 William Harwood STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION [SFN]
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File photo of Kathy Lueders, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager. Credit: NASA/Robert Markowitz
In parallel with an on-going failure investigation, SpaceX is readying downstream Crew Dragon spacecraft for flight in hopes that corrective actions can be implemented in time to launch two astronauts to the International Space Station before the end of the year, a senior NASA manager said Tuesday.
SpaceX successfully launched an unpiloted Crew Dragon to the station in March on a mission known as Demo 1 and was gearing up to launch that same vehicle on another unpiloted mission in June to test its emergency abort system. That test was intended to clear the way for an initial test flight — Demo 2 — with astronauts on board later this summer.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/05/28/nasa-says-spacex-readying-crew-dragon-capsule-for-possible-piloted-test-flight-by-end-of-year/
SpaceX points to leaky valve as culprit in Crew Dragon test accident
July 15, 2019 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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A prototype of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule completed a pad abort test at Cape Canaveral in May 2015. Credit: SpaceX
Investigators believe a leak of propellant inside the Crew Dragon spacecraft’s propulsion system led to the capsule’s explosion April 20 during a ground test at Cape Canaveral, and a senior SpaceX official said Monday that delays are making it “increasingly difficult” to fly astronauts on the commercial spaceship before the end of the year.
Engineers are replacing valves inside the Crew Dragon’s launch abort propulsion system to prevent similar leaks from happening in the future, according to Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX’s Vice President of build and flight reliability.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/07/15/spacex-points-to-leaky-valve-as-culprit-in-crew-dragon-test-accident/
Boeing, SpaceX aim for more commercial crew test flights this fall
August 26, 2019 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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Technicians at Boeing’s satellite production facility in El Segundo, California, position a CST-100 Starliner inside an environmental test chamber for testing earlier this year. This specific Starliner vehicle will fly on Boeing’s Crew Flight Test, the first Starliner mission with astronauts on-board. Credit: Boeing
Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule could take off in October on its first unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station, a company official said recently, while SpaceX finishes up the investigation into the explosion of its Crew Dragon spacecraft during a ground test earlier this year.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/08/26/boeing-spacex-aim-for-more-commercial-crew-test-flights-this-fall/
SpaceX’s first rocket built for humans test-fired in Texas
September 5, 2019 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was test-fired Aug. 29 at the company’s test site in McGregor, Texas. The booster will launch NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on the Crew Dragon spacecraft. Credit: SpaceX
The Falcon 9 booster assigned to launch two NASA astronauts on an orbital test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule has been test-fired in Texas, but the schedule for the long-awaited mission remains unclear.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/09/05/spacexs-first-rocket-built-for-humans-test-fired-in-texas/
NASA may ask SpaceX to extend duration of Crew Dragon test flight
October 7, 2019 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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NASA astronaut Bob Behnken is pictured during a formal verification of SpaceX’s emergency escape system Sept. 18 at launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Behnken is wearing a SpaceX spacesuit in this image. Credit: SpaceX
NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley may spend more time on the International Space Station than originally planned when they ride SpaceX’s new human-rated Dragon spacecraft into orbit on its first crewed test flight, a space agency official said Friday.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/10/07/nasa-may-ask-spacex-to-extend-duration-of-crew-dragon-test-flight/
NASA chief says SpaceX properly focused on Crew Dragon
October 10, 2019 William Harwood [SFN]
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NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, center, speaks to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, right, while viewing an “OctaWeb” for one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets. Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine visited SpaceX’s California rocket factory Thursday, toured the sprawling facility with founder Elon Musk and told reporters he is optimistic the company will be ready to launch the first piloted test flight of its Crew Dragon spaceship in the first quarter of next year.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/10/10/nasa-chief-says-spacex-properly-focused-on-crew-dragon/
Bridenstine says NASA not holding up commercial crew schedule
October 25, 2019 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine (left) visited SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, on Oct. 10. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk and NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken (left to right) joined Bridenstine for a media availability in Hawthorne. Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said this week the space agency is not unduly delaying the debut of new SpaceX and Boeing commercial crew capsules as engineers gear up for a challenging rapid-fire sequence of test flights in the next few months, all against the backdrop of in-depth safety reviews before clearing the privately-owned ships to carry astronauts.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/10/25/bridenstine-ccp-safety-reviews/
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SpaceX fires up Crew Dragon thrusters in key test after April explosion
November 13, 2019 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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Eight SuperDraco thrusters fired during a ground test Wednesday at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX test-fired the Crew Dragon spacecraft’s eight SuperDraco abort engines Wednesday at Cape Canaveral, paving the way for a high-altitude rocket escape test and demonstrating engineers have apparently fixed the problem that triggered an explosion during a similar ground firing in April.
The ground test Wednesday was a significant achievement for SpaceX as the company steps closer toward launching astronauts, a goal set back by months after an April 20 explosion destroyed a Crew Dragon spacecraft that had recently returned from an unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station.
“Full duration static fire test of Crew Dragon’s launch escape system complete,” SpaceX tweeted Wednesday. “SpaceX and NASA teams are now reviewing test data and working toward an in-flight demonstration of Crew Dragon’s launch escape capabilities.”
The in-flight abort test, scheduled for mid-December, show the Crew Dragon spacecraft can escape from a Falcon 9 rocket at high altitude. The SuperDraco abort thrusters would be used to push the capsule off the top of the Falcon 9 booster in the event of a catastrophic failure.
“SpaceX and NASA will now review the data from today’s test, perform detailed hardware inspections, and establish a target launch date for the In-Flight Abort Test,” NASA said in a statement Wednesday.
The test-firing occurred at approximately 3:08 p.m. EST (2008 GMT) Wednesday on a test stand at Landing Zone 1, the site where SpaceX lands Falcon 9 rocket boosters for reuse.
NASA has awarded more than $3.1 billion in funding to SpaceX to develop the Crew Dragon spacecraft since the commercial crew program began in 2010. The space agency has awarded Boeing a similar series of contracts valued at more than $4.8 billion.
The Crew Dragon’s first flight with astronauts is scheduled in the first half of 2020. NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are assigned to the Crew Dragon’s first piloted mission, designated Demo-2, before NASA clears the SpaceX-built craft for regular crew rotation flights to the space station.
The Crew Dragon’s eight SuperDraco engines, clustered in four pods around the circumference of the capsule, are designed to rapidly ignite and ramp to to full power. The eight engines consume hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants. The two chemicals ignite when mixed together.
The SuperDracos cumulatively generate 128,000 pounds of thrust at full power to push the Crew Dragon spacecraft away from its launcher.
SpaceX and NASA did not publicize the schedule for Wednesday’s static fire test in advance.
In an update posted after the Wednesday’s test, NASA said that the testing began with one-second burns of two of the Crew Dragon’s 16 Draco thrusters, smaller control jets used for in-orbit maneuvers. The Dracos would also be used to re-orient the spacecraft during in-flight aborts.
“Following these initial Draco thruster burns, the team completed a full-duration firing for approximately nine seconds of Crew Dragon’s eight SuperDraco engines,” NASA said. “The SuperDraco engines are designed to accelerate Dragon away from the F9 launch vehicle in the event of an emergency after liftoff.
“In quick succession, immediately after the SuperDracos shut down, two Dracos thrusters fired and all eight SuperDraco flaps closed, mimicking the sequence required to re-orient the spacecraft in flight to a parachute deploy attitude, and close the flaps prior to re-entry,” NASA said. “The full sequence, from SuperDraco startup to flap closure, spanned approximately 70 seconds.”
Investigators determined a leaky valve inside the Crew Dragon’s abort propulsion system led to the explosion in April, which spread toxic debris across the test site at Landing Zone 1.
“That was a very dear vehicle for us,” said Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, last month. “We were on a high coming off Demo-1 (the unpiloted test flight), then to lose that vehicle. That vehicle was going in a museum somewhere. I’m really proud of the way the team over the summer has carefully worked through the anomaly investigation, worked through the changes in the system.”
A faulty check valve inside the propulsion system allowed nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer to enter high-pressure helium tubes during ground processing before the attempted static fire test in April.
The helium system is used to quickly pressurize the propulsion system, allowing the SuperDraco thrusters to fire up during a launch emergency.
When the abort system began pressurizing on the April test, nitrogen tetroxide that had leaked into the helium pressurization system was driven back into the check valve, which is made of titanium.
“Imagine a lot of pressure driving back a slug of liquid (that) has significant force, and that basically destroyed the check valve and caused an explosion,” said Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX’s vice president of build and flight reliability, in a July press briefing.
“We found out that … when the pressure is high, and you drive a slug with a lot of energy into a titanium component, that you can have this rather violent reaction,” Koenigsmann said.
The violent result was surprising. Engineers did not expect titanium, a material commonly used for decades on space vehicles around the world, could react so explosively in such an environment.
SpaceX added a burst disk to prevent propellant from leaking into the high-pressure lines before ignition.
On rockets and spacecraft, burst disks are designed for a single use. The burst disks block the pathway between the propellant and pressurization systems until they rupture during the engine startup sequence, allowing fluids to mix.
SpaceX engineers will replace the ruptured burst disk on the capsule tested Wednesday, then complete a series of data reviews and hardware inspections before readying the same vehicle for the in-flight abort test next month.
A full-scale Falcon 9 rocket — with all its parts other than a second stage engine — will loft the Crew Dragon capsule into the stratosphere for the high-altitude abort demonstration.
The in-flight abort test plan calls for the rocket to take off from launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center and arc over the Atlantic Ocean, firing its nine main engines for nearly a minute-and-a-half, as it would during a typical launch. SpaceX will pre-program the Falcon 9’s nine Merlin booster engines to switch off after surpassing the speed of sound.
A computer on the Crew Dragon spacecraft will detect the loss of thrust and trigger an abort approximately 88 seconds after liftoff, Lueders said last month, and the capsule will parachute into the Atlantic, where recovery teams will be on standby to retrieve it.
SpaceX does not expect the Falcon 9 booster to survive the harrowing abort test.
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/11/13/spacex-fires-up-crew-dragon-thrusters-in-key-test-after-april-explosion/
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SpaceX test-fires rocket ahead of Crew Dragon in-flight abort test
January 11, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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Credit: Steven Young / Spaceflight Now
SpaceX fired up nine Merlin main engines at the bottom of a previously-flown Falcon 9 booster Saturday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, running the rocket through a practice countdown before a scheduled liftoff Jan. 18 with a Crew Dragon capsule to test the human-rated ship’s high-altitude abort capability.
The Falcon 9 rocket’s nine Merlin 1D engines ignited at 10:10 a.m. EST (1510 GMT) Saturday as hold-down clamps kept the rocket firmly grounded at launch pad 39A.
The test-firing lasted for several seconds as the Merlin engines powered up to full throttle to produce 1.7 million pounds of thrust. The engines shut down and SpaceX began preparations to drain the Falcon 9 rocket of its super-chilled kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants.
SpaceX will lower the Falcon 9 at pad 39A and return it to a hangar at the southern perimeter of the seaside launch complex for attachment of a Crew Dragon spacecraft next week.
The Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon will roll back out to pad 39A, where teams will run through final launch preparations ahead of a planned liftoff next Saturday, Jan. 18, during a four-hour window opening at 8 a.m. EST (1300 GMT).
The high-altitude abort demonstration will be the final major test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft before it is cleared to fly astronauts. A two-man team of veteran NASA shuttle astronauts is assigned to the Crew Dragon’s first piloted flight, designated Demo-2, later this year.
NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, who are assigned to the Demo-2 mission, are expected to participate in a countdown practice run at pad 39A next week with the Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon spacecraft.
The in-flight abort test itself next Saturday will be performed with no astronauts on-board the Crew Dragon.
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SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft is pictured being prepared for an in-flight abort test inside of a SpaceX processing facility at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Credit: SpaceX Credit: SpaceX
The in-flight abort test will involve a full-up Crew Dragon spacecraft, with all its engines, computers and other key systems, launched atop a full-size Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
SpaceX will launch the Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A to simulate a crewed flight to the International Space Station, but the launcher’s first stage engines will be programmed to shut down about 88 seconds after liftoff as the launcher arcs toward the east from Florida’s Space Coast.
The premature engine cutoff will be followed by an automated abort command on the Crew Dragon spacecraft, triggering ignition of the ship’s eight SuperDraco escape thrusters.
The SuperDraco engines will rapidly power up to full throttle, producing up to 130,000 pounds of thrust for less than 10 seconds to push the Crew Dragon capsule away from the top of the Falcon 9 rocket.
The in-flight abort test is timed to demonstrate the capsule’s escape system under the most extreme aerodynamic forces during launch.
Smaller thrusters will orient the crew capsule for separation of its unpressurized trunk, then deployment of parachutes before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean east of Cape Canaveral.
The Falcon 9 booster is expected to break up due to extreme aerodynamic loads during the abort sequence. According to previously-released environmental review documents, the Falcon 9 will fly without a second stage engine on the in-flight abort test because the escape maneuver will occur during the first stage burn.
SpaceX performed a test of the Crew Dragon abort system in 2015 to simulate an escape maneuver from the launch pad, and then company completed a test-firing of the SuperDraco engines in November on the Crew Dragon vehicle set to fly on the high-altitude escape test.
The SuperDraco hotfire test verified the effectiveness of SpaceX’s design changes in the Crew Dragon propulsion system after a previous capsule exploded during a similar ground firing earlier last year.
Read more (https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/11/13/spacex-fires-up-crew-dragon-thrusters-in-key-test-after-april-explosion/) about the SuperDraco hotfire test.
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/01/11/spacex-test-fires-rocket-ahead-of-crew-dragon-in-flight-abort-test/
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Pending test outcomes, NASA says SpaceX could launch astronauts in early March
January 17, 2020 Stephen Clark EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 6 a.m. EST (1100 GMT) Saturday with abort test launch delay. [SFN]
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NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley inside SpaceX’s crew access arm early Friday at launch pad 39A, where they participated in a dry run of their suit-up activities and movements before their launch on a Crew Dragon spacecraft later this year. Credit: NASA
A NASA official said Friday that SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft could be ready to ferry astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station as soon as early March, pending the results from a major demonstration of the ship’s launch abort system this weekend, a pair of parachute drop tests, and space station crew schedules.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/01/17/pending-test-outcomes-nasa-says-spacex-could-launch-astronauts-in-early-march/
SpaceX performs in-flight abort test of Crew Dragon spacecraft
by Jeff Foust — January 19, 2020 [SN]
Updated 1:30 p.m. Eastern after post-test briefing.
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The Falcon 9 that launched a Crew Dragon spacecraft explodes shortly after the spacecraft fired its SuperDraco thrusters to escape the rocket, as planned, during a Jan. 19 test. Credit: NASA TV
WASHINGTON — SpaceX successfully tested the abort system of its Crew Dragon spacecraft Jan. 19, one of the final milestones before a crewed test flight that could take place as soon as this spring.
A Falcon 9 carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 10:30 a.m. Eastern, one day after poor weather postponed the previous launch attempt.
About 84 seconds after liftoff, the Crew Dragon ignited its eight SuperDraco thrusters, pulling the vehicle away from the Falcon 9. The spacecraft later jettisoned its trunk section and deployed parachutes, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean about 32 kilometers offshore nearly nine minutes after liftoff.
While a detailed review of the data from the test will likely take weeks, both NASA and SpaceX leadership said the test appeared to go as expected. “Overall, as far as we can tell thus far, it is a picture-perfect mission. It went as well as one could possibly expect,” said Elon Musk, chief executive of SpaceX, at a post-test briefing. He added he was “super fired-up” about the test.
“Another amazing milestone is complete for our very-soon-to-be project, which is launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine at the briefing. “By all accounts this was a very successful test.”
Bridenstine said that while this test was the “final major flight milestone” in the development of Crew Dragon, more work was still ahead, such as testing of the parachutes. Kathy Lueders, manager of the commercial crew program at NASA, said later that this flight served as the second “system-level” test of the spacecraft’s upgraded parachutes, with two more such tests planned in the coming weeks.
At the briefing, Musk said that the Crew Dragon spacecraft that will fly the Demo-2 test flight, with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on board, should be ready by the end of February. However, various reviews for the system, as well as ISS schedules, mean it will take some time even after the spacecraft is ready before the mission can launch.
“The collective wisdom at this point is that we’re highly confident the hardware will be ready in [quarter] 1,” Musk said. “It appears probable that the first crewed launch will occur in the second quarter.”
The Falcon 9 rocket used for the test broke up and exploded several seconds after the Crew Dragon escape. That breakup and subsequent fireball was expected, as SpaceX officials said prior to the test that the first stage booster, making its fourth flight, would not survive the test.
“Fairly quickly, Falcon will be going through a lot of aerodynamic issues,” said Benji Reed, director of crew mission management at SpaceX, during a pre-flight press conference Jan. 17. With the capsule no longer on top of the rocket, the top of the upper stage became “a big air scoop,” he said. “At some point we expect the Falcon will start to break up” with some of the remaining fuel and oxidizer igniting.
Among those watching the test were NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Mike Hopkins, who will fly the first post-certification, or operational, Crew Dragon mission along with two international astronauts yet to be assigned.
“So far, what we’ve seen is what we expected,” Glover said at the post-test briefing. This test, he and Hopkins noted, was particularly important for their families ahead of their flight on the spacecraft as soon as late this year.
“I did receive a text from my wife right afterwards,” Hopkins said. “Everything looked good from her perspective.”
Source: https://spacenews.com/spacex-performs-in-flight-abort-test-of-crew-dragon-spacecraft/
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NASA considering extended Crew Dragon test flight to ISS
by Jeff Foust — January 19, 2020 [SN]
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NASA astronauts Bob Behnken (left) and Doug Hurley during a dress rehearsal Jan. 17 for their upcoming test flight to the ISS. NASA will decide in the coming weeks whether to extend that mission to provide additional manpower on the station. Credit: SpaceX
WASHINGTON — NASA will decide in the coming weeks whether to extend a crewed SpaceX test flight to the International Space Station, a move that could help alleviate a crew time crunch on the station.
A successful in-flight abort test of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft Jan. 19 makes it increasingly likely that that the spacecraft will be ready for a crewed test flight, known as Demo-2, this spring. At a post-test news conference, SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said it was “probable” that the flight will take place in the second quarter of this year.
On the Demo-2 flight, NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will fly on the Crew Dragon to the ISS. That was originally designed as a short-term mission, on the order of a couple weeks, but NASA is leaving the door open to extending that mission by an unspecified amount.
“Do we want that first crew to be a short duration or do we want it to be a longer duration?” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said at the briefing immediately after Musk offered his estimate of when the mission would be ready to fly. If NASA decided to extend the Demo-2 mission, he said, the astronauts would need additional training for ISS operations, which would push back the launch.
The current plan, he said later, is to keep Demo-2 a short-duration mission. But extending the mission, he said, would ensure NASA can get “the maximum amount of capability” out of the station. “We’ll be able to maintain a larger presence of astronauts on the space station for longer periods of time.”
There are currently six people on the station, but with scheduled crew rotations and a previously planned reduction in Soyuz flights, there will only be three people (https://spacenews.com/astronaut-preparing-for-iss-mission-with-reduced-crew/) — NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Nikolai Tikhonov and Andrei Babkin — on the station starting in April. That will limit the time available for research and also restrict any spacewalks to urgent repairs.
Bridenstine specifically mentioned spacewalks in his comments at the press conference. “It’s always better to have more crew on board for those activities than less,” he said. “We want to make sure we give us the best chance of success.”
A decision on extending Demo-2, Bridenstine said, would come in the near future. “Those are decisions we’re going to be making in the coming weeks,” he said.
NASA previously exercised an option to extend the crewed flight test for the other commercial crew vehicle in development, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner. The agency said last April that Crew Flight Test mission, with NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Nicole Mann and Boeing commercial astronaut Chris Ferguson on board, would be extended for up to six months (https://spacenews.com/nasa-approves-extension-of-boeing-commercial-crew-test-flight/). The exact flight duration, NASA said then, would be decided at a later date, but all three astronauts have been performing training for ISS operations alongside that for the Starliner test flight itself.
NASA didn’t originally consider an extension of SpaceX’s Demo-2 mission for technical reasons. “When we made this agreement with Boeing at that time, the vehicle that SpaceX was going to fly for Demo-2 was not really capable of doing it,” Kirk Shireman, NASA ISS program manager, said at an October briefing.
However, the destruction of the Crew Dragon spacecraft that flew the Demo-1 uncrewed mission in March 2019 during preparations for the in-flight abort test forced SpaceX to instead use the Crew Dragon being built for Demo-2 for the abort test. The Demo-2 mission, in turn, will use a Crew Dragon spacecraft originally constructed for the first post-certification, or operational, ISS mission.
“That changed the game,” Shireman said then about extending Demo-2. “That’s why it’s much more in the discussion than it was before.”
Kathy Lueders, NASA commercial crew program manager, said at the post-test briefing that the agency had been working with SpaceX over the last six to seven months so that the Demo-2 spacecraft could support an extended mission. “You always need to have options when you’re dealing with these types of missions,” she said.
Musk said the company would be ready if NASA decided to extend Demo-2. “From a SpaceX standpoint, we will make sure we’re ready to serve whatever needs NASA may have, so that whatever decision is made, we can support either,” he said.
Source: https://spacenews.com/nasa-considering-extended-crew-dragon-test-flight-to-iss/
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SpaceX abort test serves as practice run for astronauts, rescue teams
January 16, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 11 p.m. EST Jan. 16 (0400 GMT Jan. 17) after Falcon 9 was raised vertical.
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NASA astronaut Doug Hurley participates in a 2019 training event to rehearse pre-launch crew operations for a Crew Dragon mission. Credit: SpaceX
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule were raised vertical at launch pad 39A in Florida late Thursday, setting the stage for a launch day dress rehearsal Friday with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken — the veteran space fliers assigned to the Crew Dragon’s first piloted mission later this year — before a critical in-flight test of the ship’s emergency escape system Saturday.
NASA and SpaceX officials convened a launch readiness review Thursday and gave approval for SpaceX to proceed with final preparations for the Crew Dragon In-Flight Abort Test Saturday.
The test flight is set for liftoff from pad 39A during a four-hour window Saturday opening at 8 a.m. EST (1300 GMT). There is a 90 percent chance of favorable weather for the test flight Saturday, according to the official launch weather forecast.
The launch escape demonstration will verify the SuperDraco abort engines on the Crew Dragon capsule can safely push the spacecraft away from a Falcon 9 rocket in flight. If the test goes well, the abort demonstration will be the final planned test flight for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon program — managed under contract with NASA’s commercial crew program — before astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are cleared to fly the next Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station.
Hurley and Behnken, both veterans of multiple space shuttle missions, are expected to put on their SpaceX-designed spacesuits early Friday to go through the procedures they will execute on launch day.
The two veteran NASA astronauts will not actually board the Crew Dragon spacecraft, but will practice their suit-up activities inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the Kennedy Space Center, the same facility where Apollo and space shuttle crews prepared for launch.
SpaceX’s spacesuits are fabricated in the company’s factory in Hawthorne, California. Made of a single garment, with built-in gloves and boots, the pressure suits have a black and white motif, matching the colors of the Falcon 9 rocket and the launch tower and crew access arm at pad 39A.
Once in their launch and entry space suits, Behnken and Hurley are expected to travel to pad 39A from Kennedy’s Operations and Checkout Building. The crew will take the same 8-mile (13-kilometer) trip by road on launch day.
Ground teams will also perform final inspections on the Crew Dragon capsule and close the ship’s side hatch as they will before a crewed mission, according to NASA.
“Additionally, SpaceX and NASA flight controllers along with support teams will be staged as they will for future Crew Dragon missions, helping the integrated launch team gain additional experience beyond existing simulations and training events,” NASA said in a statement.
The crew access arm will back away from the Crew Dragon spacecraft in the final hour of the countdown, and the spaceship’s abort engines will be armed for flight.
The modified Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon vehicle rolled out of SpaceX’s hangar and up the ramp to pad 39A Thursday. After completing the quarter-mile trip on SpaceX’s transporter-erector, the rocket was raised vertical at the launch pad shortly before 11 p.m. EST Thursday (0400 GMT Friday).
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The 215-foot-tall (65-meter) Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft were raised vertical at pad 39A late Thursday in preparation for the In-Flight Abort Test. Credit: Spaceflight Now
The Falcon 9 rocket will fire off pad 39A Saturday with 1.7 million pounds of thrust from its nine Merlin 1D engines, following a standard launch trajectory to mimic a crew flight to the space station.
Arcing toward the east over the Atlantic Ocean, the Falcon 9 will accelerate the Crew Dragon faster than the speed of sound before reaching a predetermined supersonic velocity threshold. Once the Falcon 9 hits that velocity — expected around 84 seconds after liftoff — the rocket will shut down its nine main engines to simulate a launch failure.
Then eight SuperDraco thrusters fixed to the circumference of the Crew Dragon spacecraft will ignite to quickly propel the spaceship away from the top of the Falcon 9 at an altitude of more than 60,000 (about 19 kilometers).
The SuperDraco engines, burning a high-pressure mix of hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants, will fire for less than 10 seconds to push the capsule away from its crippled booster.
Engineers expect the Falcon 9 itself, which is powered by a reused first stage booster, to break apart from aerodynamic forces after the Crew Dragon’s escape maneuver, either immediately after the abort command or during its uncontrolled descent back through the atmosphere.
The SuperDraco engines would be used on a piloted flight to save astronauts from a catastrophic launch failure.
Launch abort systems have been used during emergencies on other rockets, most recently in October 2018, when a Russian Soyuz booster failed two minutes after liftoff. The Soyuz abort rockets fired to safely carry Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and NASA flight engineer Nick Hague away from the Soyuz booster as it tumbled out of control.
After shutting down the SuperDraco engines, smaller Draco thrusters on the Crew Dragon will re-orient the craft for descent. The capsule will coast to an apogee of about 138,000 feet (42 kilometers), then jettison its no-longer-needed trunk section. The capsule will deploy parachutes to slow for splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean around 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of the Florida coast, where teams from SpaceX and the U.S. Air Force will practice search-and-rescue techniques before retrieving the Crew Dragon for return to port.
Personnel with the Air Force’s Detachment 3, part of the 45th Space Wing at Patrick Air Force Base, will work with SpaceX’s recovery team downrange in the Atlantic Ocean to observe the Crew Dragon’s splashdown. The military rescue team, working in coordination with SpaceX recovery vessels, will practice their approach to the spacecraft in the ocean, rehearsing a real-life astronaut rescue operation.
SpaceX teams will eventually pull the capsule from the sea and return it to port for inspections.
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NASA astronaut Bob Behnken is pictured during a formal verification of SpaceX’s emergency escape system Sept. 18, 2019, at launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Behnken is wearing a SpaceX spacesuit in this image. Credit: SpaceX
The Detachment 3 teams from Patrick Air Force Base include an HC-130 transport and refueling plane, and two HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters with search and rescue teams on-board, according to NASA officials.
The military pararescue specialists will parachute from the aircraft into the Atlantic with inflatable boats.
SpaceX and Boeing, NASA’s other commercial crew contractor, are responsible for recovering their spacecraft after a normal landing. The Crew Dragon splashes down at sea, with a primary zone in the Atlantic Ocean east of Florida and a backup zone in the Gulf of Mexico, and Boeng’s Starliner capsule returns to a touchdown on land at one of several possible sites in the Western United States.
But like SpaceX’s vehicle, the Boeing Starliner is designed for a water landing in case of a launch abort.
“We requested from (the military), if something goes awry, such as a pad abort or an ascent abort — which is what we’re talking about with this In-Flight Abort Test — then they typically would go out and deploy their teams and provide for rescuing the crew, picking them up,” said Ted Mosteller, NASA’s commercial crew launch and landing lead, in an interview with CBS News.
“SpaceX, they’re really specifically for the nominal landing site and nominal landing in most cases,” he told CBS News. “And then the DoD, specifically Detachment Three down at Patrick, coordinates with the Air Force the assets that we use for rescue.”
For a crewed mission, the search and rescue team at Patrick Air Force Base will have primary responsibility for retrieving the astronauts from the Crew Dragon spacecraft after a pad abort or launch emergency in the first few minutes of the flight, a scenario that would lead to a splashdown within about a 230-mile (370-kilometer) radius from Cape Canaveral.
Launch trajectories toward the space station head to the northeast from the Kennedy Space Center, following a path roughly parallel to the U.S. East Coast. NASA required SpaceX and Boeing, which launches its Starliner capsule on United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rockets, to design their crew capsules to avoid splashing down in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean in the event of an in-flight abort late in the ascent sequence.
If required, thrusters on the Crew Dragon or Starliner spacecraft would fire after an abort to ensure the capsule lands within about 300 miles of eastern Canada or Ireland, NASA officials told CBS News.
“Once you detach from a failing rocket, you will either have enough propellant to slow down and land before you get there, or to boost you to the other side of that zone,” said Steve Payne, NASA’s launch integration manager for the commercial crew program.
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Defense Department rescue teams practice with a mock-up of a commercial crew capsule. Credit: NASA
NASA and contractor teams will also assess sea states in the Atlantic Ocean before giving final approval for a crew launch.
On future commercial crew flights with astronauts on-board, a C-17 cargo plane from Charleston Air Force Base in South Carolina will be on standby to respond for a sea rescue farther away from the launch site in Florida. A C-17 aircraft with a similar search and rescue team would deploy from Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, for an emergency landing in the Pacific Ocean or neighboring seas.
During a crew launch, the rescue teams at Patrick Air Force Base could be airborne in 10 or 15 minutes, Mosteller told CBS News, and will aim to retrieve the astronauts and transport them to a local hospital within six hours. The C-17s are on a one-hour alert from the time of a SpaceX or Boeing crew launch until docking with the space station, with a goal of getting to the astronauts within 24 hours after an emergency landing anywhere in the world.
Mosteller told CBS News that the SpaceX and Boeing crew capsules both carry radio beacons to help the military search and rescue team locate the spacecraft. The Crew Dragon and Starliner both have flashing lights, and crews will carry handheld radios and personal locator beacons to communicate with search and rescue teams if the astronauts have to leave the spacecraft after splashdown.
The SpaceX and Boeing crew capsules both have a raft on-board, plus a survival kit with medications, food and fresh water, signaling mirrors, blankets and other equipment, Mosteller told CBS News.
Military rescue teams are also equipped with a larger life raft that can accommodate the search and rescue forces, along with the astronaut crews, and carries provisions for up to three days.
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Pararescue specialists from the 304th Rescue Squadron, located in Portland, Oregon and supporting the 45th Operations Group’s Detachment 3, based out of Patrick Air Force Base, deploy their parachutes and prepare to touch down on the Atlantic Ocean surface during an April 2018 astronaut rescue exercise with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and SpaceX off of Florida’s eastern coast. The pararescue specialists, also known as “Guardian Angels,” jumped from military aircraft and simulated a rescue operation to demonstrate their ability to safely remove crew from the SpaceX Crew Dragon in the unlikely event of an emergency landing. Credit: NASA
SpaceX developed the Crew Dragon under a $2.6 billion contract with NASA signed in 2014. NASA also awarded a contract to Boeing, which is also awaiting its first crewed mission — giving the agency two vehicles to help end U.S. reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecraft for crew transportation to the station.
SpaceX conducted the first Crew Dragon test flight to the space station last March, but engineers ran into trouble in April, when the capsule exploded during a ground test. The accident occurred moments before a ground test-firing of the Crew Dragon’s SuperDraco abort engines and resulted in no injuries, but it destroyed the spaceship that just returned from the space station.
Engineers say they resolved the problem that led to the explosion, and SpaceX performed a similar ground firing of the SuperDraco engines on a new Crew Dragon vehicle in November, paving the way for the In-Flight Abort Test.
Assuming the launch escape test goes well Saturday, SpaceX could be on pace to launch astronauts Hurley and Behnken on the next Crew Dragon test flight in the next few months. That mission, designated Demo-2, is a precursor to the start of SpaceX’s operational crew rotation service, with missions ferrying up to four astronauts to and from the space station for stays of up to 210 days.
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/01/16/spacex-abort-test-serves-as-practice-run-for-astronauts-rescue-teams/
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Pending test outcomes, NASA says SpaceX could launch astronauts in early March
January 17, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 6 a.m. EST (1100 GMT) Saturday with abort test launch delay.
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NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley inside SpaceX’s crew access arm early Friday at launch pad 39A, where they participated in a dry run of their suit-up activities and movements before their launch on a Crew Dragon spacecraft later this year. Credit: NASA
A NASA official said Friday that SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft could be ready to ferry astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station as soon as early March, pending the results from a major demonstration of the ship’s launch abort system this weekend, a pair of parachute drop tests, and space station crew schedules.
Kathy Lueders, head of NASA’s commercial crew program, told reporters Friday that the Crew Dragon capsule slated to carry Hurley and Behnken into orbit on the so-called “Demo-2” mission could be ready for for flight within a couple of months.
“The vehicle will be all ready at the end of February,” Lueders said. “We’re kind of shooting for early March, right now, from a planning perspective. That would be the earliest.”
That schedule hinges on a good outcome of a Crew Dragon high-altitude launch abort test planned Sunday over the Atlantic Ocean east of Florida’s Space Coast. The abort test was delayed from Saturday due to rough seas and winds in the capsule’s downrange recovery zone.
NASA and SpaceX also plan to perform two more full-scale drop tests of the Crew Dragon’s parachutes beginning in mid-February using a boilerplate version of the spacecraft.
The outcome of those tests, coupled with data reviews to analyze their results, will ultimately drive when NASA is comfortable with flying its astronauts on the Crew Dragon spacecraft. And space station managers will also have input into the schedule to determine when Demo-2 flight best fits in the orbiting laboratory’s busy schedule of visiting vehicles.
“We’re obviously trading lots of different things, including what’s going on on (the) station, and when’s the right time to be able to provide crew coverage for ISS also, because crew on ISS right now is very valuable, so having additional hands — and Doug and Bob are additional hands — that’s going to be a very big deal,” Lueders said.
SpaceX plans to launch a Crew Dragon capsule — without any astronauts — aboard a modified Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center during a six-hour window opening at 8 a.m. EST (1300 GMT) Sunday. Around 84 seconds after liftoff, the Crew Dragon’s SuperDraco engines will ignite to push the capsule off the top of the Falcon 9 rocket, simulating a maneuver to quickly carry astronauts away from a failing launch vehicle.
The in-flight launch abort capability is a crucial part of the Crew Dragon safety system. SpaceX verified the Crew Dragon’s ability to escape an emergency on the launch pad in 2015 during a ground-launched pad abort test.
“Tomorrow’s test is one of these things that’s actually going to allow us test that whole system end-to-end,” said Benji Reed, SpaceX’s director of crew mission management.
“The main objective of this test is to show that we can carry the astronauts safely away from the rocket in case anything’s gone wrong,” Reed said.
The Crew Dragon capsule will trigger an abort command shortly after the Falcon 9 passes the point in its ascent where it undergoes the maximum aerodynamic stress. The eight SuperDraco engines will ignite with nearly 130,000 pounds of thrust and burn for nearly 10 seconds, while the Falcon 9’s first stage will automatically shut down its Merlin engines.
The booster is expected to break apart from aerodynamic forces, and leftover propellant in the rocket could ignite in a fireball visible from the ground, assuming clear skies, Reed said.
Meanwhile, the Crew Dragon will reach a top speed of Mach 2.3 and arc on a ballistic trajectory to a peak altitude of some 138,000 feet (42 kilometers), then use its thrusters to re-orient for descent. The capsule will jettison an unpressurized trunk section and deploy four main parachutes to gently splash down in the Atlantic Ocean around 20 miles (32 kilometers) offshore, where U.S. military, NASA and SpaceX recovery teams will recover the capsule to practice procedures they would execute on a crew mission.
The entire abort test flight, from liftoff through splashdown, will take around 10 minutes.
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Illustration of the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 rocket during the company’s uncrewed In-Flight Abort Test for NASA’s commercial crew program. Credit: SpaceX
The In-Flight Abort Test is the last major planned test flight of a full-up Crew Dragon spacecraft before NASA clears the vehicle to carry astronauts.
According to Reed, SpaceX is finishing up work on the Crew Dragon capsule assigned to the Demo-2 mission at the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
“We just recently completed heat shield mate, where we attach the heat shield to the spacecraft, and we’re on track for completing the vehicle and delivering it later this month from Hawthorne to the Cape (the Kennedy Space Center),” Reed said. “There are number of checkouts that we do as part of that process.”
The Crew Dragon will be outfitted for Hurley and Behnken’s mission, filled with propellant for its maneuvering thrusters and abort engines, then mated with a Falcon 9 booster before liftoff from pad 39A.
Amid the hardware checkouts in Florida, NASA engineers will reviewing data packages submitted by SpaceX to verify the Crew Dragon meets the space agency’s safety requirements. NASA officials have not said how long that process will take.
Lueders said SpaceX will conduct two more drop tests of the Crew Dragon’s Mark 3 parachutes, which were strengthened after an earlier chute design failed during testing. The Mark 3 chutes are also flying on the Crew Dragon for Saturday’s abort test.
Read our earlier story (https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/12/07/after-redesigns-the-finish-line-is-in-sight-for-spacexs-crew-dragon/) for details on the parachute issues, and other reasons for delays in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon development.
“We’re getting ready to do, working with SpaceX … a couple more system-level tests with brand new chutes,” Lueders said. “We’d like to really characterize getting a brand new chute system and getting a couple of tests. So we’re working on that with SpaceX.”
The Mark 3 parachutes aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft for Saturday’s abort test have flown before.
“So what we’d like to do is, you really want to know what’s your initial capability,” Lueders said. “We’re very happy with the strength and capability of the chutes, but what we’d really like to do is go take a brand new set of chutes straight off the shelf, never used — same design that we’ve been testing, but just made — and then run some tests with that.”
SpaceX announced last month that it completed its 10th consecutive successful multi-parachute drop test using the Crew Dragon’s new Mark 3 parachute design.
In a tweet Dec. 29, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk wrote that the Crew Dragon spacecraft assigned to the Demo-2 mission should be at Cape Canaveral and “physically ready” for flight in February.
“But completing all safety reviews will probably take a few more months,” Musk tweeted.
At the end of a typical mission, the SpaceX crew capsule will splash down in the Atlantic Ocean around 27 miles (44 kilometers) off Florida’s east coast, allowing astronauts to return to port on a boat within a few hours of landing.
SpaceX is developing the Crew Dragon under a $2.6 billion contract awarded by NASA’s commercial crew program in 2014. NASA also has a $4.2 billion commercial crew contract with Boeing to develop the Starliner spaceship.
In 2014, NASA and company officials aimed to have the commercial crew capsules ready to carry astronauts in 2017. But delays in both programs have pushed back that milestone.
One of the two new commercial crew spaceships will be the first U.S. vehicle to fly astronauts to orbit since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011. Since then, NASA has purchased rides on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to fly U.S. astronauts to and from the space station, paying the Russian government more than $80 million per round-trip ticket in the space agency’s last Soyuz seat contract.
The onset of regular commercial service with the new SpaceX and Boeing spaceships will end U.S. reliance on Russia for crew transportation. But U.S. astronauts will continue flying on Soyuz capsules through an “in-kind” no-funds-exchanged arrangement with Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, in which Russian cosmonauts will also launch and land on Crew Dragon and Starliner capsules.
Lueders said the duration of Hurley and Behnken’s stay at the space station has not been decided.
“Right now, we’re focused on when this vehicle going to be ready, and then we’ll be working together as an agency and with SpaceX about how do we best use it,” Lueders said. “But the first thing I’ve got to do is get through this test, and then we’ll go look at it, along with the other tests we talked about — the chute tests and other things.
“And then when we get a better idea of when the vehicle is really going to be ready to fly, we’ll go look at and work with the space station program — and obviously NASA leadership — on what’s the best way to use this capability.”
The space station is usually staffed with a crew of six, but NASA’s contract with Roscosmos for Soyuz seats expires later this year.
A three-person crew — Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA flight engineer Christina Koch — is scheduled to depart the space station in a Soyuz spacecraft and return to Earth on Feb. 6.
That will leave a team of three — commander Oleg Skripochka and NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Andrew Morgan — living and working on the International Space Station until the next Soyuz crew launch scheduled for April 9.
Russian commander Nikolai Tikhonov, flight engineer Andrei Babkin and veteran NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy are training for the April 9 Soyuz launch, briefly boosting the station’s crew complement back to six for around a week until Skripochka, Meir and Morgan are scheduled to undock and land in their Soyuz spaceship.
That will leave a three-man crew on the station, with Cassidy as the only crew member to operate experiments and maintain hardware on the U.S. segment of the orbiting research complex. The crew downsizing will limit NASA’s ability to perform spacewalks, except in the case of an emergency, when a Russian cosmonaut could accompany Cassidy to conduct repairs outside the station.
Cassidy is flying in the final Soyuz seat under NASA control before the start of commercial crew transportation services, but NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has said the agency could purchase additional Soyuz seats to ensure U.S. astronauts maintain access to the space station through early 2021.
Cassidy and his crewmates are scheduled to land in October after a six-month mission, and NASA has not paid for a seat on the next Soyuz mission late this year.
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NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy prepares for a spacewalk training session at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston. Credit: NASA/James Blair
NASA is seeking to address concerns about a possible gap in U.S. crew access to the station by extending the length of the Crew Dragon and Starliner test flights, which originally were expected to last just days or weeks. The piloted demonstration missions will pave the way to NASA’s final certification of both commercial crew capsules, and SpaceX and Boeing could begin operational crew rotation missions late this year, assuming no additional delays.
Boeing’s first piloted Starliner mission, which the company calls the Crew Flight Test, has already been approved to stay at the space station for up to six months. Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson, a former NASA space shuttle commander, will be joined on the Starliner’s Crew Flight Test by NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Nicole Mann.
Late last year, NASA officials said they were also considering an extension to the Crew Dragon’s Demo-2 mission.
“We have been working with SpaceX to have the capability for an extended mission for a while — the same thing that we’ve been working with Boeing, too,” Lueders said Friday. “We want to make sure that we are providing the capability to have additional crew presence if we need them … We’re going down to NASA crew member on station.”
Operational flights by Starliner and Crew Dragon spacecraft could last up to 210 days, with the vehicles remaining at the space station to serve as escape pods.
The launch schedule for Boeing’s Crew Flight Test is uncertain as engineers assess the results of the Starliner’s first unpiloted orbital test flight in December. A wrong setting on a mission elapsed timer on the Starliner spacecraft caused the capsule to miss a critical orbit insertion maneuver minutes after an otherwise-successful launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket Dec. 20.
The error prevented the Starliner from docking with the space station as planned, and NASA officials are determining whether Boeing should conduct another unpiloted Starliner demonstration flight to complete the unaccomplished test objectives (https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/01/15/boeing-to-perform-minimal-refurbishment-on-reusable-starliner-crew-capsule/) on the December mission.
The Starliner safely landed Dec. 22 in New Mexico to complete the abbreviated test flight.
“We have an anomaly investigation team going on right now,” Lueders said Friday. “We also have our post-flight review teams that the program is doing. We’re looking at both of those, and then we’re going to get together in February and say, ‘OK, what do we need to do to get to Crew Flight Test’.
“And that may be go do another uncrewed demo,” she said. “But there are other options, too … There are always lots of options. People do lots of different things to prove out spacecraft.”
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/01/17/pending-test-outcomes-nasa-says-spacex-could-launch-astronauts-in-early-march/
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SpaceX will trigger an intentional rocket failure to prove crew capsule’s safety
January 18, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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Illustration of the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 rocket during the company’s uncrewed In-Flight Abort Test for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. This demonstration test of Crew Dragon’s launch escape capabilities is designed to provide valuable data toward NASA certifying SpaceX’s crew transportation system for carrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
SpaceX will sacrifice a Falcon 9 rocket Sunday in a fiery test a minute-and-a-half after liftoff from Florida’s Space Coast to prove the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft can safely push astronauts away from a failing launch vehicle, simulating a daring maneuver that would only be attempted on a piloted mission during an in-flight emergency.
The launch escape demonstration could be a spectacle for local residents, rocket fans and enthusiasts along the Space Coast, assuming clear skies and good visibility, according to SpaceX.
While the Crew Dragon capsule — flying without astronauts on Sunday’s test — fires away from the top of the Falcon 9 rocket, the booster itself is expected to tumble and break apart, possibly in a fireball visible from the ground.
The purpose of the test — the final planned demonstration of a full-scale Crew Dragon before NASA astronauts fly it int orbit — is to validate the ship’s launch escape system. Abort rockets mounted around the circumference of the capsule would activate to rapidly carry the spaceship and its astronaut crew away from an emergency during launch on a Falcon 9 rocket, such as a booster failure or explosion.
“On launch day (with crews), we’re really hoping for it not to be exciting,” said Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA’s commercial crew program. “I will tell you (Sunday) will be an exciting day. We are purposely failing a launch vehicle to make sure that our abort system on the spacecraft that we’ll be flying for our crews works.”
The Crew Dragon’s eight liquid-fueled SuperDraco escape engines will ignite around 84 seconds after liftoff on top of a Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A, soon after the point in the launch sequence where the booster and capsule experience the most extreme aerodynamic pressures.
The abort thrusters will generate nearly 130,000 pounds of thrust, pushing the gumdrop-shaped crew capsule away from the top of the Falcon 9 with an acceleration of up to to 4Gs.
The six-hour test window opens at 8 a.m. EST (1300 GMT) Sunday. SpaceX called off a launch attempt early Saturday due to concerns about rough seas in the Atlantic Ocean east of Florida, where the Crew Dragon splash down under parachutes around 10 minutes after launch from pad 39A the Kennedy Space Center.
“What will happen, basically, is we’ll initiate launch escape, and the Falcon engines will shut down,” said Benji Reed, SpaceX’s director of crew mission management. “So the thrust of the Falcon will shut down right after that happens.”
The abort burn should happen as the Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon are flying at an altitude of roughly 62,000 feet (19 kilometers) and traveling nearly twice the speed of sound.
“Dragon, at the same time, will be getting away,” Reed said. “It takes about 10 seconds for a SuperDraco burn on the Dragon. Dragon will hit about Mach 2.3 as its getting away. We expect it to be actually quite far away from falcon at the acceleration its going before anything starts to happen on Falcon … That’s a very quick process.”
The sudden separation of the Dragon spacecraft from top of the rocket, coupled with the loss of thrust from the Falcon 9’s Merlin main engines, will likely cause the launcher to begin tumbling in the upper atmosphere.
“The Dragon will have left, so the top end of the second stage is now basically a big air scoop, so you’ve got all this air pushing against it, huge amounts of force pushing against it, and it’s also cut thrust, so its no longer pushing up in a trajectory,” Reed said. “It’s going to be a lot more susceptible to the winds and starting to fall as it loses its velocity and starts to tumble.
“At some point, we expect that the Falcon will start to break up,” Reed said. “Both stages are loaded with fuel because we want have the right mass, and test the right (way), so with those both stages loaded with fuel, we do expect there will probably be some amount of ignition, flame. We’ll see something. On a clear day, possibly from the ground you could see it.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qObBRM4euxk&feature=emb_title
The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket launching the Crew Dragon on Sunday’s abort test is designated B1046. It’s set to fly for the fourth and final time, and was the first upgraded Falcon 9 “Block 5” booster to launch in May 2018.
The Block 5 is the most recent, human-rated variant of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
Before the Crew Dragon abort test, the B1046 booster launched the Bangabandhu 1 communications satellite for Bangladesh from the Kennedy Space Center in May 2018, then launched again in August 2018 with the Indonesian Merah Putih communications spacecraft. The booster’s third mission occurred in December 2018 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on a rideshare mission with 64 small satellites.
The booster landed on a SpaceX drone ship after each of its previous missions, but will not be recovered intact after the Crew Dragon abort test. SpaceX says teams will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean just east of Cape Canaveral to pick up any floating debris from the rocket.
There is no second stage engine on the Falcon 9 rocket that will launch the abort test.
“The second stage will be loaded with propellant,” Reed said. “There will still be quite bit of propellant in the first stage. We expect there to be some sort of ignition and probably a fireball of some kind.
“Whether I would call it an explosion that you would see from the ground, I don’t know,” he added. “We’ll have to see what actually happens, but I wouldn’t be surprised, and it wouldn’t be a bad outcome.”
In the unlikely event of a rocket mishap before the planned time of the Crew Dragon abort burn, the capsule will be armed to trigger a premature escape burn Sunday, according to Reed.
While the Falcon 9 booster’s demise could prove a spectacle, SpaceX’s attention will be on the performance of the crew capsule.
The in-flight launch abort capability is a crucial part of the Crew Dragon safety system. SpaceX verified the Crew Dragon’s ability to escape an emergency on the launch pad in 2015 during a ground-launched pad abort test.
“(Sunday’s) test is one of these things that’s actually going to allow us test that whole system end-to-end,” Reed said.
After firing its SuperDraco engines, the Crew Dragon will reach a top speed of Mach 2.3 and arc on a ballistic trajectory to a peak altitude of some 138,000 feet (42 kilometers), then use its thrusters to re-orient for descent. The capsule will jettison an unpressurized trunk section and deploy four main parachutes to gently splash down in the Atlantic Ocean around 20 miles (32 kilometers) offshore, where U.S. military, NASA and SpaceX recovery teams will recover the capsule to practice procedures they would execute on a crew mission.
The entire abort test flight, from liftoff through splashdown, will take around 10 minutes.
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands 215 feet (65 meters) tall at pad 39A Friday with a Crew Dragon spacecraft ahead of SpaceX’s In-Flight Abort Test. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now
SpaceX and NASA officials will have to carefully monitor weather and sea conditions for the in-flight abort test.
In addition the the typical launch weather constraints — such as high winds and lightning — engineers want good visibility to optically track the Falcon 9 launcher and Crew Dragon spacecraft during the escape sequence. And sea conditions in the Atlantic Ocean splashdown zone — roughly 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of pad 39A — are also important.
“It’s a nice dance between launch weather, optics, and the winds and waves offshore, so we’re trying to find a time where all those things match up,” said Mike McAleenan, the launch weather officer from the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron. “But we’ll find it, and we’ll make sure we go when i’ts ready and everything is lining up.”
Launch abort systems have been used during emergencies on other rockets, most recently in October 2018, when a Russian Soyuz booster failed two minutes after liftoff. The Soyuz abort rockets fired to safely carry Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and NASA flight engineer Nick Hague away from the Soyuz booster as it tumbled out of control.
SpaceX is conducting the in-flight abort test under the terms of a commercial crew agreement awarded by NASA in 2012.
NASA has awarded SpaceX a series of funding agreements and SpaceX since 2011 worth more than $3.1 billion for development of a human-rated Dragon spacecraft. Boeing has received more than $4.8 billion from NASA since 2010 for its Starliner crew capsule.
Both companies aim to fly astronauts for the first time later this year, ending U.S. reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecraft for crew transportation to the International Space Station. NASA paid the Russian government $3.9 billion for crew transport services to the space station since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, according to the agency’s inspector general.
A NASA official said Friday that SpaceX’s next Crew Dragon spacecraft could be ready to launch astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the space station as soon as early March. But that schedule hinges on a good outcome to Sunday’s abort test, the results of two more parachute drop tests, NASA data reviews and final assembly and processing milestones for the Crew Dragon spacecraft itself.
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/01/18/spacex-will-trigger-an-intentional-rocket-failure-to-prove-crew-capsules-safety/
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SpaceX aces final major test before first crew mission
January 19, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster disintegrated in a fireball — as expected — a few seconds after the Crew Dragon capsule fired away from the top of the rocket in an in-flight escape demonstration Sunday. Credit: Spaceflight Now
SpaceX performed a dramatic high-altitude test flight Sunday of the company’s Crew Dragon capsule over Florida’s Space Coast, testing the human-rated ship’s ability to escape a rocket failure and save its crew before two NASA astronauts strap in for a flight to the International Space Station as soon as this spring.
The unusual test flight included an intentional failure of the Crew Dragon’s Falcon 9 rocket about a minute-and-a-half after liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center. The rocket, with a recycled first stage booster flown three previous times, disintegrated in a fireball high over the Atlantic Ocean as the crew capsule sped away from the top of the launcher with a powerful boost from eight SuperDraco engines.
The SuperDraco engines — mounted around the circumference of the gumdrop-shaped crew capsule — fired around eight seconds to carry the spaceship a safe distance from the Falcon 9 rocket after the booster’s first stage engines shut down, a standard part of the launch escape sequence.
The Crew Dragon arced on a ballistic trajectory to a top speed of about Mach 2.2 and a peak altitude of about 131,000 feet, according to Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and chief executive. The capsule then deployed four main parachutes for a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean roughly 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of the Kennedy Space Center.
SpaceX@SpaceX
Crew Dragon separating from Falcon 9 during today’s test, which verified the spacecraft’s ability to carry astronauts to safety in the unlikely event of an emergency on ascent
8:20 PM - Jan 19, 2020
Twitter (https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1218976479150858241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1218976479150858241&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fspaceflightnow.com%2F2020%2F01%2F19%2Fspacex-aces-final-major-test-before-first-crew-mission%2F)
Musk, NASA officials and astronauts were pleased with the performance of the Crew Dragon’s launch escape system.
“I’m super fired up,” Musk said. “This is great … We’re looking forward to the next step.”
NASA has signed agreements with SpaceX valued at more than $3.1 billion since 2011 to fund the design, development, construction and testing of the Crew Dragon spacecraft.
The next major step for the Crew Dragon program is the capsule’s first trip to space with astronauts. The Crew Dragon’s in-flight abort test Sunday was the last major flight demonstration of a full-scale Crew Dragon spacecraft before its first launch with humans on-board.
Veteran NASA shuttle fliers Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are training for the mission — designated Demo-2 — to fly the Crew Dragon to the International Space Station.
Musk said after Sunday’s in-flight abort test that the Demo-2 mission would likely launch in the second quarter of this year — between the beginning of April and the end of June — although rocket and spacecraft hardware for the Demo-2 flight could be in place at the Kennedy Space Center by the end of February or early March.
“The hardware necessary for first crewed launch, we believe, will be ready by the end of February,” Musk said. “However, there’s still a lot of work once the hardware is ready to cross-check everything, triple-check, quadruple-check, go over everything again so that every stone has been turned over three or four times.
“And there is also the schedule for getting to (the) space station because space station has a lot of things going to it, so what’s the right timing for this?” Musk said. “The sort of collective wisdom at this point is we’re highly confident the hardware will be ready in Quarter 1, most likely the end of February, but no later than March, and that it and it would appear probable that the first crew launch would occur in the 2nd Quarter.”
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SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk speaks with reporters Jan. 19, 2020, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now
In the meantime, SpaceX will collect all the data from the Crew Dragon abort test and analyze the results for any potential problem areas. NASA is also reviewing numerous Crew Dragon data packages provided by SpaceX before agreeing to fly Hurley and Behnken on SpaceX’s next crew capsule launch.
SpaceX plans at least two more atmospheric drop tests of the Crew Dragon parachute system to gain more confidence in the capsule’s decelerators, which have been a problem area on the project after chute failures on a cargo-carrying Dragon spacecraft and in Crew Dragon testing.
Engineers found that NASA was using wrong assumptions in models that predict how much force parachutes experience on spacecraft returning to Earth. Data from testing showed the parachute risers, or suspension lines, encountered more significant loads than expected, raising concerns about chutes across the agency’s human spaceflight programs, including on the Starliner commercial crew capsule being developed by Boeing.
SpaceX and NASA agreed to switch to a new generation of Crew Dragon parachutes dubbed the Mark 3, and testing of the new Mark 3 chutes — made by a company named Airborne Systems — has proceeded without failure since late last year.
Sunday’s in-flight abort test provided the parachute engineers with another successful test of the Mark 3 chutes, adding additional confidence about the system’s reliability.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine called Sunday’s abort test “another amazing milestone” in the agency’s nearly decade-long effort to resume crew launches to the space station from U.S. soil.
“Make no mistake, there’s a lot left to do,” Bridenstine said. “We have a number of parachute tests upcoming, and of course, we’re going to get a lot of data from this particular test. So we’re not quite there yet, but by all accounts, this was a very successful test.”
After a one-day delay due to rough seas in the splashdown zone — and a two-and-a-half-hour hold Sunday to wait for improved winds — the Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) Sunday from pad 39A at Kennedy, the same launch pad once used by NASA’s Saturn 5 moon rockets and space shuttles.
The 215-foot-tall (65-meter) rocket flew off the launch pad powered by nine kerosene-fueled Merlin 1D engines and pitched on an easterly trajectory from the Florida spaceport.
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The Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) Sunday. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now
The Falcon 9 surpassed the speed of sound in less than a minute, and the Crew Dragon’s pre-programmed escape sequence initiated around 84 seconds after liftoff, when the rocket was at an altitude of roughly 62,000 feet (19 kilometers).
The abort was triggered soon after the point in the launch sequence where the booster and capsule experience the most extreme aerodynamic pressures.
While the nine Merlin engines on the Falcon 9 rocket cut off in response to the escape command, nearly 130,000 pounds of thrust from the SuperDraco engines pushed the Crew Dragon rapidly away from the top of the launcher.
SpaceX said the capsule, and two mannequins seated inside, accelerated at about 3.5Gs during the abort, a relatively gentle ride for astronauts in good physical condition.
The Crew Dragon can initiate an abort and free itself of a failing launch vehicle in just 700 milliseconds, according to Musk.
“It’s way more than a human could do,” he said. “It’s occurring in a fraction of a second. There’s a command for the engines to shut down, and then the abort system then presses up very rapidly, the SuperDracoss are ignited to initiate separation from the upper stage. All of this is occurring in literally a split second, and it’s really quite remarkable how quickly those engines reach full thrust.”
The SuperDracos keep the Crew Dragon pointed in the right direction using differential thrust, Musk said.
“So it’s making those thrust adjustments at the almost millisecond level,” he said. “It’s very, very fast.”
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Illustration of the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 rocket during the company’s uncrewed In-Flight Abort Test for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. This demonstration test of Crew Dragon’s launch escape capabilities is designed to provide valuable data toward NASA certifying SpaceX’s crew transportation system for carrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
Sunday’s in-flight abort test builds on a Crew Dragon demonstration in 2015 that proved the craft’s SuperDraco engines could safely boost itself away from the top of a rocket on the launch pad in the event of a preflight emergency.
The Crew Dragon successfully flew to the International Space Station in March 2019 on its first unpiloted space mission, named Demo-1. The round-trip six-day mission included a launch on a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy, an automated docking with the orbiting research laboratory, and a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean.
But SpaceX suffered a setback the next month when the same Crew Dragon spacecraft was destroyed during an attempted test-firing of its SuperDraco engines on a test stand at Cape Canaveral.
Investigators determined the Crew Dragon explosion on the ground last April was caused by a leaky valve that allowed nitrogen tetroxide — the oxidizer that feeds the SuperDraco engines — into the abort propulsion system’s high-pressure helium lines. When the system pressurized before ignition, the nitrogen tetroxide was driven back against the valve, leading to an ignition event that destroyed the vehicle.
SpaceX replaced the faulty valve with a “burst disk” to block the pathway and prevent similar leaks. The disk designed for rupture when the abort system pressurizes.
Musk said the Crew Dragon’s abort system, which is integrated on the crew module itself instead of using a top-mounted launch abort tower like the Apollo spacecraft or Russia’s Soyuz capsule, comes with the benefit of enabling an abort maneuver from before the time of liftoff all the way through the Falcon 9’s ascent to orbit.
“The fact that the launch abort system is integrated with the spacecraft, with the SuperDraco thrusters in the sidewall, means that you have launch abort capability all the way to orbit, whereas previously with launch escape tower — because that’s top heavy — that is discarded 20 or 30 percent of the time into flight.”
SpaceX designed the SuperDracos with another purpose in mind.
The company originally intended to use the high-power engines to slow the Crew Dragon for propulsive vertical landings on solid ground, aiming to achieve a helicopter-like precision similar to the braking burns and landings performed by SpaceX’s Falcon rocket boosters.
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SuperDraco thrusters on a ground test article of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft fire during a hover test in 2015, when SpaceX intended to use the thrusters for landings. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX gave up on that goal after determining it would be too difficult to certify the propulsive landings for crew missions, company officials said.
The SuperDracos proved to be a difficult part of the Crew Dragon’s development, Bridenstine said.
The escape engines appeared to perform well Sunday, along with other Crew Dragon systems, according to Musk.
While wreckage from the Falcon 9 booster fell to Earth at high speed, the Crew Dragon’s parachutes slowed the capsule for an ocean landing. Winds in the splashdown area were near the limit for a Crew Dragon return.
The winds at the splashdown zone were around 18 mph, or 16 knots, providing data on the performance of the parachutes under more stressing conditions than they might see on a typical return, Musk said.
U.S. military search and rescue teams deployed in the Atlantic Ocean practiced procedures to approach the capsule after splashdown. The teams from Patrick Air Force Base just south of Cape Canaveral would rescue astronauts from the spacecraft after a launch abort.
SpaceX’s “Go Searcher” recovery ship hoisted the capsule from the sea and returned the Crew Dragon to Port Canaveral, where teams will offload the ship to begin inspections and analysis.
The schedule for the Demo-2 launch with Hurley and Behnken will partly be determined by a NASA decision in the coming weeks on whether to extend the length of their mission at the space station from a short-duration stay of about a week to an expedition that might last as long as several months.
Bridenstine said the Demo-2 crew will have to undergo additional training to perform duties on the space station if NASA extends Hurley and Behnken’s mission.
Kathy Lueders, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, suggested Friday that the Demo-2 mission might be ready for launch as soon as the first half of March.
But it’s more likely to happen in April — at the soonest — when the space station’s crew is downsized to three people through October, assuming no U.S. crew launches in that period.
“We might look at making that first crew be a long-duration crew for the purpose of getting the max amount of capability out of the International Space Station,” Bridenstine said. “Bascially we’ll be able to maintain a larger presence of astronauts on the space station for a longer period of time.
“I’m not saying this is the direction we’re going to go,” he added. “We just haven’t decided, yet and we’re working through it … Given what looks like to be a very successful test (Sunday), we now have options, so that’s a positive thing.”
Boeing, NASA’s other commercial crew partner, is readying its Starliner crew capsule for its first space mission with people later this year. The first Starliner unpiloted orbital test flight in December failed to reach the space station due to a software timing error that caused the ship to burn too much fuel just after an otherwise-successful deployment in space from a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.
NASA is reviewing the results of the Starliner test flight to determine if the next Boeing crew capsule launch can carry astronauts, as officials originally intended. Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson and NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Nicole Mann are assigned to the first Starliner crew flight.
When Boeing’s first piloted Starliner mission might fit on the space station’s schedule of visiting vehicles remains uncertain. NASA has already approved an extended-duration Starliner test flight that could allow Ferguson, Fincke and Mann to remain on the space station up to six months.
Chris Cassidy is set to launch to the station in April on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft with two Russian crewmates. Cassidy will fly on the last Soyuz seat under NASA control before the commercial crew vehicles begin flying regular crew rotation missions, a milestone to come after the initial test flights with astronauts.
Cassidy is scheduled to return to Earth in October, at which point the space station will not have a U.S. crew member unless NASA buys more Soyuz seats from Russia or a commercial crew vehicle successfully docks at the orbiting outpost.
While it looks increasingly likely at least one of NASA’s commercial crew transportation providers will launch astronauts to the space station before October, Bridenstine said Sunday the agency will proceed with plans to procure at least one more Soyuz seat from Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.
“As much confidence as we have in the team, I think it’s probably not prudent to go in that direction,” he said. “I think it’s important that we have options … and make sure that the International Space Station has continuous American presence, so we’re not ready to make any adjustments on that front. We’re going to buy another Soyuz seat.”
NASA has paid the Russian government some $3.9 billion since the space shuttle’s retirement in 2011 for seats on Soyuz crew ferry vehicles flying to and from the space station.
Once the Boeing and SpaceX crew capsules are declared operational, the U.S. capsules will begin flying Russian cosmonauts. NASA astronauts will continue launching and landing on Soyuz spaceships through an “in-kind” arrangement involving no exchange of funds.
The arrangement ensures at least one Russian cosmonaut and one U.S. astronaut are always on the space station, even if the Soyuz, Crew Dragon or Starliner is grounded by a technical concern.
With a U.S. crew vehicle on the cusp of launching astronauts into orbit for the first time since 2011, Musk said the space industry is at a “profound” moment.
“I think the United States is very much a nation of explorers,” he said. “Anyone who has an adventurous bone in their body is going to be very excited about this, and I think it will help reinvigorate interest in space.”
“I think it’s something that matters to all Americans and to people worldwide.”
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/01/19/spacex-aces-final-major-test-before-first-crew-mission/
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SpaceX releases preliminary results from Crew Dragon abort test
January 23, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule is offloaded from the company’s recovery ship, Go Searcher, after returning to Port Canaveral on Jan. 19 following an in-flight launch escape demonstration. Credit: SpaceX
Data from the Jan. 19 in-flight launch escape demonstration of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft indicate the performance of the capsule’s SuperDraco abort engines was “flawless” as the thrusters boosted the ship away from the top of a Falcon 9 rocket with a peak acceleration of about 3.3Gs, officials said Thursday.
The Jan. 19 test demonstrated the Crew Dragon’s ability to safely carry astronauts away from a launch emergency, such as a rocket failure, and return the crew to a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean.
For its final full-scale test before astronauts ride it into space, the Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) on Jan. 19 from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A Falcon 9 rocket carried the capsule aloft — just as it would on a crewed mission — for the first 85 seconds of the mission.
The Crew Dragon began its launch escape maneuver at 10:31:25 a.m. EST (1531:25 GMT) — initiated by a low setting of an on-board acceleration trigger — when the Falcon 9 was traveling at a velocity around 1,200 mph (536 meters per second), according to SpaceX.
Eight SuperDraco thrusters immediately pressurized and ignited as the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage engines were commanded to shut down as part of the abort sequence.
The escape engines on the Crew Dragon produced nearly 130,000 pounds of thrust at full power. The SuperDracos performed flawlessly, SpaceX said, accelerating the capsule away from the top of the Falcon 9 at a peak acceleration of 3.3Gs.
The SuperDracos accelerated the spacecraft from about 1,200 mph up to more than 1,500 mph (about 675 meters per second) in approximately seven seconds, according to SpaceX.
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The Crew Dragon’s SuperDraco thrusters are seen igniting at the time of the launch escape command Jan. 19 to separate from the top of its Falcon 9 rocket. Credit: SpaceX
While the Crew Dragon boosted itself away from the Falcon 9, the rest of the rocket was expected to break apart from aerodynamic forces. It did just that, disintegrating suddenly in a fireball as the crew capsule safely sped away.
Although the Falcon 9 erupted in a fireball seconds after the Crew Dragon escaped the rocket on the Jan. 19 abort test, the crew capsule is designed to get away from a rocket even if it explodes or breaks apart with little warning, according to Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO.
“In principle, the system is designed to withstand an adverse booster explosion … that happens even before the escape event,” Musk said at a press conference after Sunday’s abort test. “So it’s it’s intended to be very robust, in principle. And … it’s less of an explosion than it is fire. It’s a fireball, but it’s more for a fireball than it is an over overpressure event like an explosion.
“And since the spacecraft has a very powerful base heat shield and even the leeward side heat shield, it should be really not significantly affected by a fireball,” Musk said. “So it could quite literally — like something out of Star Wars — fly right out of the fireball. Obviously, we want to avoid doing that but. But it is really meant to be something that can fly out of the fireball.”
Unlike other crew capsules, such as Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft and NASA’s Orion deep space exploration vehicle, the Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon do not have a large abort tower mounted to the top of the rocket. The Soyuz and Orion capsules use solid-fueled “tractor” abort systems that pull the spacecraft away from its launch vehicle in the event of a failure.
The Crew Dragon uses SuperDraco engines fed by hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants to push the capsule away from a failing rocket.
Musk said the Jan. 19 abort test appeared “picture-perfect” at first glance.
SpaceX said the telemetry signal from the Falcon 9 rocket halted around 11 seconds after the escape burn, suggesting a “comfortable” distance of about 4,900 feet (1.5 kilometers) between the Crew Dragon and the Falcon 9 fireball.
The Crew Dragon reached a top speed on the abort test of about Mach 2.3, and a maximum altitude of more than 131,000 feet (40 kilometers).
The capsule jettisoned its unpressurized trunk section, which fell to the Atlantic Ocean, before deploying parachutes to slow itself for splashdown.
The drogue chutes deployed at an altitude of about 19,000 feet (5.8 kilometers), and the Crew Dragon’s four main chutes unfurled around 6,500 feet (2 kilometers) above the ocean.
The capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean around 26 miles (42 kilometers) east of the launch site at 10:38:54 a.m. EST (1538:54 GMT), just under nine minutes after liftoff, according to data released by SpaceX.
Recovery teams picked up the capsule from the sea and hoisted it on the deck of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon retrieval ship — named Go Searcher — for the trip back to Port Canaveral. The spaceship returned to port less than nine hours after launch, demonstrating SpaceX teams can quickly return the capsule to land after a splashdown close to shore.
With the Crew Dragon in-flight escape test complete, engineers will analyze additional data over the coming weeks to verify everything functioned as designed. Assuming no showstoppers, the abort demonstration was the final planned test flight of a full-scale Dragon capsule before NASA clears the commercial crew ferry ship to carry astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station.
At least two more drop tests to test the Crew Dragon’s parachutes are planned beginning in mid-February.
The parachutes and launch abort propulsion system have been the primary drivers of Crew Dragon schedule delays over the last year. SpaceX encountered chute failures during the capsule’s development, and an explosion destroyed a Crew Dragon spacecraft during an attempted ground test-firing of its SuperDraco thrusters last year.
While data reviews are underway, NASA is evaluating whether to extend the duration of the Crew Dragon’s first piloted test flight from a week-long mission to the space station to a longer stay that could have Hurley and Behnken live and work aboard the orbiting outpost for months.
Officials said they will factor in the astronauts’ training schedules — which may be lengthened if they’re approved for an extended stay at the space station — and the schedule of other crew rotation missions to the orbiting research lab before setting a target launch date for Hurley and Behnken.
NASA and SpaceX said after the Jan. 19 abort test that the first Crew Dragon launch with astronauts could occur in the second quarter of this year, between the beginning of April and the end of June.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft and Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule are in the final stages of testing before NASA approves the vehicles to carry astronauts. NASA has multibillion-dollar contracts with both companies to develop the human-rated spaceships.
Both capsules are designed to end NASA’s sole reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecraft for crew rotation missions to the space station, an operating scheme NASA has been in since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/01/23/spacex-releases-preliminary-results-from-crew-dragon-abort-test/
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SpaceX’s Crew Dragon delivered to Cape Canaveral for first flight with astronauts
February 14, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft that will deliver astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station has arrived at Cape Canaveral for launch preparations. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX’s next Crew Dragon capsule was delivered to Cape Canaveral this week from a California factory for a liftoff as soon as this spring with veteran NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on a test flight to the International Space Station, officials announced Friday.
The human-rated spaceship arrived at a test and processing facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Thursday following a cross-country trip from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
SpaceX tweeted a photo of the crew capsule Friday, showing ground teams wearing lab coats and hair nets rolling the capsule into position on a wheeled trolley soon after arriving on Florida’s Space Coast.
“The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for its first crew launch from American soil has arrived at the launch site,” NASA said in a statement. “NASA and SpaceX are preparing for the company’s first flight test with astronauts to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.”
In a previous version of the statement Friday, NASA said the Crew Dragon will be the first spacecraft to launch astronauts from U.S. soil since 2011, when the space shuttle was retired.
But the space agency updated the statement without explanation, and deleted a tweet from the commercial crew program’s Twitter account that said SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft will be the first to fly astronauts into orbit from U.S. soil since 2011.
In 2014, NASA tapped Boeing and SpaceX with contracts valued at $4.2 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively, to develop, test and fly commercial human-rated spacecraft designed to ferry astronauts to and from the space station.
Barring a major setback, SpaceX is widely expected to be ready to fly astronauts before Boeing.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft will lift off on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the same departure point as the Apollo 11 moon landing mission, and the first and last space shuttle flights.
Hurley, a pilot on two space shuttle missions, will serve as vehicle commander on the Crew Dragon test flight, known as Demo-2. Behnken, also a veteran of two shuttle flights, will be the vehicle pilot.
NASA officials are considering launch dates in May for the Demo-2 mission, but the schedule could shift as SpaceX steps through launch preparations. The space station’s busy schedule of visiting crew and cargo vehicles could also change, forcing a shift in the Demo-2 launch date.
Another factor that could drive the Demo-2 launch schedule is additional training for Hurley and Behnken in case NASA extends their stay on the space station.
The first piloted missions aboard the Crew Dragon and Boeing Starliner spacecraft were originally designed as shorter-duration test flights lasting days or weeks. After the test flights, NASA intended to certify the two spacecraft for longer-duration missions lasting up to 210 days for regular crew rotation flights to the space station.
But delays in the readiness of the new commercial crew spaceships forced NASA to consider extending the duration of the test flights. NASA has purchased seats on Russian Soyuz capsules flying to the station, which have provided the only ride to the orbiting research complex for U.S. astronauts since 2011.
The last Soyuz mission with a seat currently under NASA’s control launches April 9 and returns to Earth in October. With reduced demand from NASA expected after the start of SpaceX and Boeing crew services, Russia slowed the manufacturing of new Soyuz vehicles.
But the Crew Dragon and Starliner spacecraft were not ready when NASA expected. The space station typically has a crew of six, but with the slower rate of Soyuz launches, the research lab will operate with a crew of three for most of 2020, at least until a U.S. vehicle arrives with reinforcements.
The space agency has approved an extension of the first crewed Starliner mission to last up to six months. NASA may also approve a months-long extension of the Crew Dragon’s Demo-2 mission to ensure the space station is staffed with more than three crew members.
That gives station managers more flexibility in planning repairs and scientific research.
Hurley and Behnken are training to live and work aboard the station in case NASA authorizes the astronauts to stay in orbit longer than initially planned. Hurley is training as a robotic arm operator, and Behnken is receiving refreshed training on spacewalks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1jYx4UKvUk&feature=emb_title
A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft completed a successful six-day automated test flight to the space station in March 2019, but the capsule exploded in a ground test last April just before ignition of the ship’s SuperDraco launch abort engines on a test stand at Cape Canaveral.
The spaceship was destroyed in the accident, and SpaceX determined nitrogen tetroxide propellant leaked into the abort propulsion system’s high-pressure helium lines before the test-firing. The activation of the abort system during the ground test forced the nitrogen tetroxide back into a titanium at high energy, leading to ignition and an explosion.
SpaceX changed the design of the pressurization system by replacing the reusable valve with a single-use “burst disk,” which is designed to separate different sides of the fluid lines, then rupture before ignition.
The redesigned abort propulsion system aced a high-altitude launch abort test Jan. 19, when SpaceX demonstrated the Crew Dragon’s ability to escape an in-flight rocket failure. The capsule — with two instrumented test dummies on-board — separated from the top of its Falcon 9 launcher in the upper atmosphere and parachuted to a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean.
The in-flight abort demonstration last month was the last major Crew Dragon test flight before NASA approves SpaceX to launch astronauts. Lower-level testing continues, including several upcoming drop tests of a Crew Dragon mock-up to gather additional data on parachute performance.
Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule flew its first unpiloted test flight in orbit in December, but the mission encountered multiple in-flight malfunctions, primarily caused by software problems. The Starliner capsule returned to Earth for a successful landing, but could not dock with the space station as intended.
Engineers have identified at least two software errors that occurred during the abbreviated mission.
One of the errors was disclosed soon after the Starliner’s launch Dec. 20 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. The spacecraft’s mission elapsed timer had a wrong setting, causing the capsule to miss a planned orbit insertion burn before ground controllers could intervene to manually command the maneuver.
The error caused the spacecraft to burn too much fuel to reach the space station, and Boeing and NASA officials decided to bring the Starliner back to Earth two days later at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.
But engineers found a second software defect as they reviewed the spacecraft’s code following the mission timing malfunction on launch.
Boeing teams discovered an error in the software controlling the Starliner service module’s separation sequence before re-entry. The mis-configured software could have led the service module to drive back into the Starliner’s crew module on the unpiloted test flight, possibly damaging the capsule, or worse.
The second software error was not disclosed by Boeing or NASA until last week (https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/02/07/investigators-fault-boeing-for-potentially-catastrophic-software-errors-in-starliner-test-flight/).
Boeing is reviewing all of the crew capsule’s software code to look for other potential defects after investigators discovered “numerous process escapes in the software design, development and test cycle for Starliner,” said Doug Loverro, head of NASA’s human spaceflight division, in a media teleconference last week.
NASA and Boeing officials have not determined whether another the Starliner spacecraft needs to fly another test flight without astronauts before proceeding with a crew mission.
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/02/14/spacexs-crew-dragon-delivered-to-cape-canaveral-for-first-flight-with-astronauts/
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NASA preparing for long-duration SpaceX commercial crew test flight
by Jeff Foust — February 24, 2020 [SN]
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The crewed test flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft increasingly appears will be a long-duration mission in order to bolster the station's crew. Credit: NASA
WASHINGTON — NASA is leaning increasingly towards making SpaceX’s crewed test flight to the International Space Station a long-duration mission, a move that could alleviate concerns about a lack of crew on the station later this year.
NASA’s Johnson Space Center released Feb. 22 images of NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley training for their upcoming Demo-2 mission to the station on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. That included Behnken in a spacesuit, training for spacewalks in the center’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, while Hurley worked on robotics training.
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Johnson Space Center@NASA_Johnson 7:00 PM - Feb 22, 2020
The big day is on the way: We're launching astronauts to space from American soil once again. @Astro_Doug Hurley & @AstroBehnken continued @space_station & spacewalk training this week for their upcoming flight on NASA's @SpaceX DM-2 @Commercial_Crew mission. 🚀 #LaunchAmerica
View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter
Twitter (https://twitter.com/NASA_Johnson/status/1231277497985183746?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1231277497985183746&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fspacenews.com%2Fnasa-preparing-for-long-duration-spacex-commercial-crew-test-flight%2F)
“The last week NASA Johnson included EVA and robotics training as well as medical testing and training,” said Hurley in a tweet referencing one from JSC. “We also had a day of SpaceX lessons here in Houston. Headed back to California next week. More Crew Dragon training!”
The original plans for the Demo-2, also known as DM-2, mission called for the flight to be a relatively short one, spending no more than a couple weeks at the station. In recent months, though, agency officials have suggested that they might extend the mission for months in order to have more astronauts on the station. The station’s crew will be at just three people, including one NASA astronaut, Chris Cassidy, starting in roughly mid-April.
“We might look at making that first crew be a longer duration crew for the purpose of getting the maximum amount of capability out of the International Space Station,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said at a Jan. 19 press conference after the successful in-flight abort test of the Crew Dragon spacecraft.
In order to extend it, he said, the crew would need additional training, such as for spacewalks. “It also gives us the opportunities to do extravehicular activities that may not right now be scheduled but may pop up based on things that happen on the ISS,” he said. “It’s always better to have more crew on board to do those activities rather than less.”
Bridenstine added that no decision had been made yet, and that a decision would come in several weeks. The spacewalk training by Behnken — who performed six spacewalks on two space shuttle missions in 2008 and 2010 — is evidence that NASA is, at the very least, continuing to preserve that option, if it has not made a decision.
One former astronaut said he believes NASA has already decided to extend the Demo-2 mission. Garrett Reisman, a former astronaut and SpaceX employee who is now a professor at the University of Southern California and an advisor to SpaceX, said Feb. 23 that Behnken and Hurley “are being trained for a long-duration mission as ISS crewmembers. This is a change from the original plan to do a min. duration test flight, driven by NASA needs to staff the ISS.”
Another factor in any decision to extend Demo-2 is the status of the other commercial crew vehicle, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner. That vehicle flew an uncrewed test flight in December, but software problems during the flight, including one which shortened the mission and prevented a docking with the ISS, have raised questions about whether a second uncrewed test flight will be needed. An investigation into those problems is expected by the end of this month.
Even if NASA decides a second uncrewed test flight of Starliner is not needed, a review of all of the spacecraft’s one million lines of code, and other reviews, is likely to delay a crewed test flight of the spacecraft. NASA and Boeing had previously agreed to make that test flight a long-duration mission, with NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Nicole Mann and Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson performing space station training in addition to that for the Starliner itself.
The additional training needed for a long-duration mission could delay the Demo-2 launch, although it’s not clear by how much. SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said at that January press conference that while the spacecraft should be ready in the first quarter, final reviews and other assessments made it likely the mission would take place in the second quarter of this year. The Crew Dragon spacecraft arrived in Florida earlier this month for final tests and launch integration activities.
“Like all NASA astronauts, we’ll be ready for whatever Space Station needs during our visit,” Behnken tweeted Feb. 23 in response to the JSC training photos. “These photos are just some of the recent training for NASA’s & SpaceX’s DM2 test flight. But for some reason, housekeeping (our top skill!) didn’t make the highlights…”
Source: https://spacenews.com/nasa-preparing-for-long-duration-spacex-commercial-crew-test-flight/
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NASA targets May for Crew Dragon test flight
by Jeff Foust — March 19, 2020 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/behnken-hurley-spacexsuits.jpg)
NASA astronauts Bob Behnken (left) and Doug Hurley will fly on the Demo-2 mission to the ISS that NASA is currently scheduling for no earlier than mid-to-late May. Credit: SpaceX
WASHINGTON — NASA announced March 18 it plans to perform a crewed flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, with two NASA astronauts on board, as soon as the latter half of May.
In a media advisory, NASA said the launch of the Demo-2 mission was scheduled for no earlier than mid-to-late May on a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. While that date is subject to change, the fact that NASA is starting the media accreditation process indicates some degree of confidence in that timeframe.
Before the announcement, there were signs that NASA would attempt a launch around that time. SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said after a successful in-flight abort test in January that he believed the company would be ready to fly the mission in the second quarter of the year, or between April and June.
At a press conference before a cargo Dragon mission launched to the International Space Station March 6, Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of build and flight reliability for SpaceX, said the company at the time had two more parachute tests to perform that would test “corner cases” that put specific stresses on the parachute system. SpaceX had run into problems with past parachute designs, forcing the development of a new, stronger parachute system that started test last fall. “We have an enormously large test series behind us,” he said, calling it “very successful.”
During a panel discussion at the Satellite 2020 conference here March 10, Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, said the company was “gunning for May” for the Demo-2 mission. She added, though, that both the company and NASA still had work to complete prior to the mission.
On the Demo-2 mission, NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will fly the Crew Dragon spacecraft to the ISS, remaining there for at least several days before returning to Earth. While there have been discussions of extending the Demo-2 mission for weeks or months to address a shortfall in the station’s crew size, the announcement did not state how long NASA expected the mission to last.
Two other issues could affect planning for the mission. One of nine Merlin engines on a Falcon 9 that launched March 18 (https://spacenews.com/spacex-launches-starlink-satellites-misses-booster-landing-for-second-time/) shut down prematurely, a problem that appeared to lead to the failure of the booster to land on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. The problem did not prevent the payload, a set of 60 Starlink satellites, from reaching orbit.
Musk tweeted after the launch that a “thorough investigation” of the problem would take place before the next launch, suggesting delays that could have ripple effects on the company’s manifest. However, while the engine failure took place on a booster making its fifth flight, a record for the company, the Demo-2 mission will use a new Falcon 9 first stage.
Another issue is effects on NASA operations caused by the coronavirus pandemic. KSC, like the rest of the agency’s field centers, is requiring mandatory telework for all but mission-essential employees for the foreseeable future. At the Ames Research Center in California, even mission-essential personnel are barred from accessing the center, with only safety and security personnel present to comply with a “shelter in place” order by the local government.
“NASA is proactively monitoring the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation as it evolves,” the agency said in a media advisory about the upcoming launch. “The agency will continue to follow guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the agency’s chief health and medical officer and communicate any updates that may impact mission planning or media access, as they become available.”
Source: https://spacenews.com/nasa-targets-may-for-crew-dragon-test-flight/
Crew training continues for SpaceX’s first launch with astronauts
April 3, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley inside the Crew Dragon spaceship they will ride into orbit as soon as mid-to-late May. Credit: SpaceX
During a visit to Cape Canaveral this week, NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken strapped in to the SpaceX crew capsule they will ride into orbit as soon as mid-to-late May. Next week, the astronauts will be in Houston to continue training for an extended stay on the International Space Station that could last two-to-three months.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/04/03/crew-training-continues-for-spacexs-first-launch-with-astronauts/
Photos: Astronauts train to ride a Dragon into space
April 3, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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NASA astronauts Doug Hurley (foreground) and Bob Behnken (background) participate in a two-day flight simulation. The astronauts are inside a SpaceX flight simulator in this photo. Credit: SpaceX
Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, two veteran space shuttle fliers, are gearing up to fly a privately-developed SpaceX Dragon capsule into orbit this year.
The two astronauts participated in several major training events in March, including long-duration simulations to rehearse procedures they will execute during launch on top of a Falcon 9 rocket, their docking with the International Space Station, and then departure from the orbiting lab for return to Earth.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/04/03/photos-astronauts-train-to-ride-a-dragon-into-space/
Video: Astronauts participate in Crew Dragon launch day dress rehearsal
April 3, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9m2QJz6fk8
NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, assigned to fly SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft on its first piloted mission into orbit, participated in a dress rehearsal of their suit-up procedures and a trip to launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 17, 2020.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/04/03/video-astronauts-participate-in-crew-dragon-launch-day-dress-rehearsal/
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Bridenstine says Crew Dragon could launch with astronauts at end of May
April 13, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine speaks at a bipartisan Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues event in September 2019. Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine says he is “fairly confident” that astronauts can fly to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spaceship at the end of May or early June, pending final parachute tests, data reviews and a training schedule that can escape major impacts from the coronavirus pandemic.
An investigation into an engine failure on the most recent launch of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket — the same design that will launch the Crew Dragon astronauts — is also expected to be completed in short order, Bridenstine said.
“I think we’re really good shape,” Bridenstine said in an interview Thursday. “I’m fairly confident that we can launch at the end of May. If we do slip, it’ll probably be into June. It won’t be much.”
NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are training for the Crew Dragon test flight, which will be the first mission to launch astronauts into Earth orbit from U.S. soil since the retirement of the space shuttle in July 2011. The astronauts will take off from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and dock with the space station a day or two later.
Hurley and Behnken are expected to live and work aboard the space station for two or three months, then return to Earth for a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean east of Cape Canaveral.
SpaceX and Boeing won multibillion-dollar NASA commercial crew contracts to develop human-rated spaceships in 2014, following several years of preliminary development and testing. SpaceX is ahead of Boeing, and the crew capsule for the upcoming test flight — designated Demo-2 — is currently at Cape Canaveral undergoing pre-launch processing and testing.
NASA is paying SpaceX more than $3.1 billion for the Crew Dragon development program, plus six operational crew rotation flights to the space station following the Demo-2 mission.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing’s Starliner capsule will give NASA a U.S.-built ship to ferry crews to and from the station, ending the space agency’s reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecraft for crew transportation.
Hurley and Behnken continue preparing for the Demo-2 mission despite the coronavirus pandemic, which is affecting other government and industry sectors. Personnel working on some NASA missions are working remotely, but Bridenstine said the agency’s Commercial Crew Program and the Mars Perseverance rover remain top priorities, and physical preparations continue for launches in the coming months.
While the Crew Dragon’s first piloted test flight is set for launch from the Kennedy Space Center around the end of May, the Perseverance rover is scheduled for liftoff on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket during a planetary launch period that opens July 17.
As of late last week, no personnel working on NASA’s Commercial Crew Program had tested positive for the coronavirus, Bridenstine said.
“Number one, the people that are working on commercial crew right now are practicing social distancing and (wearing) personal protective equipment,” Bridenstine said. “We’ve moved and changed shifts so that fewer people are in the room when you have to have multiple people in the same room. So we’ve done a lot of those things to make sure that you’re as safe as possible working on these missions.
“We’ve also said, if people don’t feel safe, they don’t have to work on the mission,” he told Spaceflight Now in an interview. “I’ve been very clear with all of the agency leaders that nobody should feel pressure to do work if they don’t feel safe. And as leaders, we need to make sure that if somebody does bring up the fact that they don’t feel safe, we need to give them some other work to do, where they do feel safe, and then make adjustments.”
NASA has drawn up contingency plans if a commercial crew worker tests positive. In that event, the agency plans to use contact tracing to determine who was in close proximity to the infected employee.
“If there is a positive case on commercial crew, depending on where it is and how the person is doing the work, it may or may not impact the mission,” Bridenstine said. “If it’s somebody who is largely teleworking, it might not impact the mission at all. If it’s somebody who is very rare contact with other people, on the mission, then we might have to do some tracing.
“What we’re trying to do is we’re trying to mitigate the fact that if there is a case, that we can quickly identify the people that that person was in contact with, and do the tracing and get all the people that were that were involved off the mission and replace them with other people.
“If there’s an outbreak, yeah, it will affect the date. But we’re doing everything we can to minimize that eventuality,” Bridenstine said.
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A Crew Dragon parachute drop test conducted in December 2019 with a mass simulator. Credit: SpaceX
Other work remaining before the Crew Dragon Demo-2 launch involves final testing of the capsule’s parachutes and technical reviews of the readiness of the ship’s launch abort system, Bridenstine said.
During SpaceX’s most recent parachute test last month, the test rig was dropped from a helicopter prematurely after the craft became unstable over a test site in Nevada. NASA officials said the parachutes were not to blame for the botched test, and the helicopter pilot decided to release the test rig for safety reasons.
“It got unstable,” Bridenstine said. “The pilot dropped the test article, which was basically just a weight simulator. Nothing from that was recoverable, including the parachutes that were on-board. So we’ve got two more parachute tests, and now they’re going to be done out of the C-130 (cargo plane) instead of from a helicopter. We’ve got agreement from the chief engineer and the program manager, and the astronaut office, that those two parachute tests that we have remaining are good to go out of the C-130.”
The first of the two remaining parachute tests was expected to occur as soon as Easter weekend. During that drop test, SpaceX intended to rig the craft to only deploy one of its two drogue parachutes, then unfurl just three of the Dragon’s four main chutes. The test would allow engineers to assess the performance of the parachute system in the event of a double failure.
“After that, we’ll be doing another full test with two drogue chutes and four main chutes,” Bridenstine said. “And once we’re complete with those two tests, we’ll be confident in the parachute system. I think we’re pretty much confident in the parachute system right now. We just want to get more data.”
NASA is also evaluating data from testing on the Crew Dragon’s modified launch abort propulsion system, which would be activated to push a crew capsule away from a failing rocket, either on the launch pad or in flight.
A faulty valve inside the high-pressure propulsion system caused nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer to leak into the abort system’s helium pressurization plumbing before a ground test-firing of the abort engines last April. When SpaceX tried to test-fire the SuperDraco abort engines on a test stand at Cape Canaveral, the nitrogen tetroxide was pushed back into the titanium valve, causing an explosion that destroyed the spacecraft.
“We’re replacing all of that titanium with with another metal that isn’t going to be as combustible,” he said. “That’s taken a little bit of time, but we’re moving along very rapidly on that at this point, and we’ve done all the testing out at White Sands (in New Mexico) on that. I feel very confident that that’s that’s going to be OK.”
The design changes in the abort system were successfully tested during a high-altitude launch abort demonstration in January, when SpaceX activated the SuperDraco engines on a Crew Dragon capsule more than a minute after launch on a Falcon 9 rocket.
NASA is also reviewing the failure of a Merlin engine on SpaceX’s most recent Falcon 9 launch last month. One of the Falcon 9 first stage’s nine Merlin engines shut down prematurely, but the rocket was able to overcome the engine problem and deliver the mission’s 60 Starlink satellite payloads into their planned orbit.
“We’ve been doing some root cause on what caused that engine to fail … and what I’ve been told is that they’ve got a really good understanding of what that failure was, and it’s not going to impact our commercial crew launch,” Bridenstine said.
The reusable Falcon 9 booster on the most recent launch was flying for the fifth time. SpaceX is launching the Demo-2 mission on a brand new Falcon 9 rocket.
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NASA astronauts Doug Hurley (foreground) and Bob Behnken (background) participate in a two-day flight simulation in March 2019. The astronauts are inside a SpaceX flight simulator in this photo. Credit: SpaceX
Assuming the Demo-2 launch remains on track for late May, NASA and SpaceX will convene a series of data reviews in the coming weeks, culminating in a flight readiness review next month.
Once the Crew Dragon is connected with its Falcon 9 launcher, SpaceX will roll the rocket to pad 39A for a test-firing of its Merlin main engines. Ground teams and the Demo-2 astronauts will also complete final rehearsals and training before the launch.
Hurley, the Crew Dragon’s vehicle commander, will strap in to the left seat inside the spaceship. Behnken, the mission’s pilot, will sit in the right seat during launch.
The two-man crew will ride the Crew Dragon capsule on a trajectory northeast from Cape Canaveral over the Atlantic Ocean. After entering orbit around 10 minutes later, the Crew Dragon will perform a series of pre-planned demonstration maneuvers under the guidance of the astronauts and ground controllers at SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
The Crew Dragon will approach the space station for an automated docking within a day or two of launch, and Hurley and Behnken will open hatches to enter the station to join commander Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner.
The arrival of the Crew Dragon will raise the station’s crew size from three to five for several months.
“Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will go up as not just demonstration pilots for Demo-2, but they would actually become crew on-board the International Space Station for a period of months to do work, and they would continue to operate on the ISS,” Bridenstine said. “And then when we’re ready with the next Crew Dragon, they’ll come home.
“We will do a full evaluation of the Demo-2 Crew Dragon, so we’ll be on Earth for about a month with the Demo-2 Crew Dragon just doing inspections and evaluations and making sure that it’s safe, and then when we make sure that it operated how we expected it to operate, we’ll be ready to launch right into crewed missions for normal operations.”
The Demo-2 mission was originally scheduled to last a couple of weeks, but NASA is extending the flight’s duration to give the space station additional crew members.
The station is typically staffed with a six-person crew, and that will increase to seven people once SpaceX and Boeing spaceships are regularly flying to the orbiting research lab.
But the commercial crew capsules are running years behind schedule, and NASA’s current contract with Roscosmos — the Russian space agency — to purchase Soyuz seats for U.S. astronauts expires this year. That will leave the station with a crew of three until the Crew Dragon arrives.
Cassidy, who launched April 9, is the final NASA astronaut with a confirmed ride to and from the station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. He is scheduled to return to Earth in October.
NASA is negotiating with Roscosmos at least one additional Soyuz seat on the next Russian crew launch in October. Bridenstine said Thursday those negotiations are continuing.
Bridenstine said the second piloted Crew Dragon mission — and the first operational crew rotation flight to use the SpaceX capsule — could launch in August or September, assuming the Demo-2 mission takes off in late May or early June.
Meanwhile, NASA’s other commercial crew contractor may not launch astronauts until 2021.
Boeing said earlier this month that its Starliner crew capsule will launch on a second unpiloted test flight later this year. The Starliner’s first space mission, called the Orbital Flight Test, encountered major problems after launch, preventing the ship from docking from the space station as planned.
The Crew Dragon completed a successful unpiloted flight to and from the space station in March 2019.
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/04/13/bridenstine-says-crew-dragon-could-launch-with-astronauts-at-end-of-may/
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NASA sets May 27 launch date for SpaceX commercial crew test flight
by Jeff Foust — April 17, 2020
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The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will launch the Demo-2 commercial crew mission being prepared for a launch now scheduled for May 27. Credit: SpaceX
WASHINGTON — NASA announced April 17 that it has set a May 27 launch date for a SpaceX commercial crew test flight that will be the first mission to launch NASA astronauts to orbit from the United States in nearly a decade.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced the launch date in a tweet, saying that NASA “will once again launch American astronauts on American rockets from American soil.” The agency had previously stated it anticipated a launch in mid-to-late May, but had not given a specific date before this announcement.
The May 27 launch, which would take place at 4:32 p.m. Eastern from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, will place a Crew Dragon spacecraft into orbit with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley into orbit. The spacecraft will dock with the International Space Station less than 24 hours later for what NASA calls an “extended stay” there. The exact length of the mission has yet to be determined, the agency stated.
Hurley will serve as “spacecraft commander” for the mission, designated Demo-2. He will be responsible for launch, landing and recovery activities. Behnken will be the “joint operations commander” for the mission, responsible for rendezvous, docking and undocking, as well as activities while the spacecraft is docked to the station.
SpaceX has been wrapping up parachute testing despite an incident in a March 24 test (https://spacenews.com/spacex-reports-problem-in-crew-dragon-parachute-test/) where a test article had to be released early from a helicopter. The parachute system was not armed at the time of the release and thus did not deploy. The test article was destroyed on impact with the ground.
SpaceX noted in an April 17 statement that, despite this incident, it had completed 26 tests of the new Mark 3 parachute system to date, including during the in-flight abort test of a Crew Dragon spacecraft in January. Industry sources say at least one more parachute test is scheduled before the Demo-2 launch.
Behnken and Hurley have been completing training for the mission, such as a series of simulations from launch to docking as well as undocking and preparations for re-entry and splashdown. They have also been training for ISS operations, given that their mission, which originally was to spend only a couple weeks at the ISS, will now likely last for two to three months.
The launch is touted as the first flight of American astronauts from American soil since the final space shuttle mission, STS-135, in July 2011. However, it is only the first orbital crewed flight from the United States since the end of the shuttle program. Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo flew two suborbital flights, in December 2018 and February 2019, that went beyond the altitude of 50 miles (approximately 80 kilometers) used by U.S. government agencies for awarding astronaut wings. The five Virgin Galactic employees who were on those flights late received commercial astronaut wings from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Source: https://spacenews.com/nasa-sets-may-27-launch-date-for-spacex-commercial-crew-test-flight/
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Citing coronavirus, NASA urges public not to travel for launch of astronauts
April 24, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine speaks during a presentation in November 2018 at NASA Headquarters announcing the companies that will compete for the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on Thursday urged space enthusiasts not to travel to the Kennedy Space Center next month to view the first launch of astronauts from the Florida spaceport since 2011, and asked people to instead watch the launch on television or online.
Preparations for the launch of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft continue on pace for liftoff May 27. NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken will be strapped into seats inside the commercial spaceship when it takes off on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The launch is the culmination of a decade-long, multibillion-dollar effort by SpaceX and NASA to design, develop and test the Crew Dragon spacecraft. It will be the first time astronauts launch into orbit from U.S. soil since the retirement of the space shuttle, making next month’s launch perhaps the most highly-anticipated space mission in years to depart the Kennedy Space Center.
The crew launch is a high priority for NASA, and astronaut training, readiness reviews, and hands-on processing of the crew capsule and rocket continue amid the coronavirus pandemic, even as other agency programs encounter delays due to restrictions ordered to slow the spread of the viral disease.
“We are very excited about launching commercial crew here on May 27, this will be the first time we’ve launched American astronauts on American rockets from American soil since the retirement of the space shuttles back in 2011,” Bridenstine said Thursday. “So this is a this is a big deal for the country, it’s important for the country. This is our access to the International Space Station, which is a $100 billion investment by the American taxpayer. So we need to make sure that we have access to the International Space Station.”
But the long-awaited launch will have a different feel than anticipated. Citing concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic, NASA is expected to limit the number of news media representatives allowed to cover the launch at the Kennedy Space Center, and Bridenstine urged space enthusiasts not to flock to the Florida spaceport to watch the launch in person.
“Yes, we are moving forward. It is a mission essential function for the United States government to launch commercial crew on May 27,” Bridenstine said.
Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to Florida’s Space Coast to watch the liftoff of the final space shuttle mission in July 2011, the last time astronauts launched into orbit from U.S. soil.
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Crowds gather on a bridge in Titusville, just outside the gates of the Kennedy Space Center, to view the final launch of the space shuttle program in July 2011. Credit: NASA
“We’re asking people to join us in this launch, but to do so from home,” he said. “We’re asking people not to travel to the Kennedy Space Center … When we launch to space from the Kennedy Space Center, it draws huge, huge crowds, and that is not right now what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to make sure we have access to the International Space Station, without drawing the massive amount of crowds that we usually would for these activities.
“It’s especially important now because we haven’t done this since 2011, so the crowds are probably going to be bigger than they have been in a very long time,” Bridenstine said Thursday. “We’re asking people to stay at home, to watch from home. We want them engaged. We want them to participate. We want them to tell their friends and family, but we also want them to watch from a place that’s not the Kennedy Space Center.”
NASA has contracts with SpaceX and Boeing to develop new human-rated crew capsules to ferry astronauts to and from the space station. The privately-owned Crew Dragon and Starliner spaceships will end NASA’s sole reliance on Russian Soyuz vehicles to transport station crews.
Any restrictions on viewing the launch from locations off NASA property would fall to state and local authorities, Bridenstine said.
“We’re not going to open up the Kennedy Space Center to the public the way we normally would,” he said. “As far as the beaches and the areas around the Kennedy Space Center, those are public roads. We’re going to follow the protocols of the past, how we do crowd control around big launches.”
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The Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Demo-2 mission is at Cape Canaveral being readied for launch. Credit: SpaceX
Employees from SpaceX, NASA and other contractors involved in the Crew Dragon launch preparations are maintaining physical distancing as much as possible, Bridenstine said.
“We have modified shift schedules,” he said. “So instead of having 12 people work on on a rocket all at the same time, we separate them out to where we’ve got four working for eight hours, a different four working for the next eight hours, and a different four working for the eight hours after that. So we’re dividing things up by shifts.
“We’re also making sure people that are in close proximity have the right personal protective equipment,” he said.
“When we think about mission control, when we launch to space, there’s a lot of people in the mission control facilities,” Bridenstine said. “We need to make sure that we are separating people as much as possible using different rooms, and in fact those rooms where people are going to be located, maybe having Plexiglas between the different stations.
“So we’re looking at all the things where we can practice the guidelines for social distancing and at the same time, launch this very important mission to the International Space Station,” he said.
Hurley and Behnken are will begin a quarantine protocol a couple of weeks before launch on the Crew Dragon’s Demo-2 mission in late May. During that time, the astronauts will only be around people with medical clearance.
The astronauts will spend several months on the space station before returning to a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean inside the Crew Dragon spacecraft. If everything goes according to plan, NASA officials after the Demo-2 mission’s return will officially certify the Crew Dragon spaceship for regular crew rotation flights to the space station.
“I’ve stressed it over and over again to our entire workforce and our leadership teams, if there’s anybody who feels uncomfortable working on this project, they need to say something,” Bridenstine said. “We will find something else for them to do where they could work from home or they can do other things. The last thing we want to do is make anybody feel uncomfortable working on these projects, and there will be absolutely no retribution if people do want to move on to something else.
“That being said … this is a very exciting project and the NASA workforce is very excited about it,” he said. “So we’re doing everything we can to, to make sure that we’re safe as we go forward.”
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/04/24/citing-coronavirus-concerns-nasa-discourages-public-from-attending-launch-of-astronauts/
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SpaceX aces last Dragon parachute test before crew launch
May 3, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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A Crew Dragon mass simulator descends under four main parachutes during a drop test Friday. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX completed Friday the last drop test of the Dragon crew capsule’s parachutes before the first launch of astronauts on the human-rated ship May 27, while technicians at Cape Canaveral have mated the spacecraft’s crew module with its unpressurized trunk section.
The drop test from a C-130 cargo plane Friday was the 27th and final test of the “Mark 3” parachute design SpaceX will use for the Crew Dragon spacecraft. Drogue parachutes and then four main chutes unfurled from a test vehicle designed to mimic the Crew Dragon’s weight during return to Earth.
SpaceX said in a tweet that the parachute test moves the Crew Dragon “one step closer” to flying NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station, “and safely returning them back to Earth.
Meanwhile, SpaceX’s Dragon processing team at Cape Canaveral have connected the spaceship’s pressurized crew module with the spacecraft’s rear trunk, which generates electricity through body-mounted solar panels and houses radiators for thermal control in orbit.
The parachute and spacecraft processing milestones kick off a busy month of preparations ahead of the the Crew Dragon’s launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket set for May 27 from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The test flight will head for the International Space Station, where Behnken and Hurley will live and work for one-to-four months before returning to Earth for a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean just off Florida’s East Coast.
The launch later this month will mark the first time astronauts have flown into Earth orbit from a U.S. spaceport since the retirement of the space shuttle in July 2011.
“My heart is sitting right here (motioning to throat), and I think it’s going to stay there until we get Bob and Doug safely back from the International Space Station,” said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer, in a press conference Friday. “But between now and then, there’s still work to do.”
NASA has awarded SpaceX more than $3.1 billion since 2011 to develop, test and fly the Crew Dragon spacecraft. SpaceX has put in its own funding, but Shotwell could not provide a figure Friday for the level of internal funds SpaceX has spent on developing the crew capsule.
The public-private partnership is a hallmark of NASA’s strategy since the end of the space shuttle program to commercialize transportation to and from low Earth orbit, beginning with cargo services for the space station pioneered by SpaceX’s Dragon capsule and the Cygnus supply ship owned by Northrop Grumman, formerly known as Orbital ATK.
“This is a new generation, a new era in human spaceflight,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “And when I say it’s new what I mean is, NASA has long had this idea that we need to purchase, own and operate hardware to get to space. In the past that has been true, but now, in this new era … NASA has an ability to be a customer, one customer of many customers in a very robust commercial marketplace in low Earth orbit.”
NASA selected Boeing alongside SpaceX in 2014 to design and build new commercial spaceships to ferry astronauts to and from the space station. Boeing’s Starliner ship is unlikely to fly with astronauts until early 2021 after an unpiloted test flight in December encountered software trouble, preventing the capsule from docking with the space station.
Bridenstine said NASA and SpaceX are continuing preparations for the Crew Dragon test flight — designated Demo-2 — amid the coronavirus pandemic while introducing new physical distancing guidelines for the astronauts and support teams.
“We’re going to do it in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic,” Bridenstine said. “I’m going to tell you that this is a high-priority mission for the United States of America. We, as a nation, have not had our own access to the International Space Station for nine years.”
In the time since the last shuttle flight, all astronauts traveling to the space station have flown aboard Russian Soyuz capsules. In the most recent agreement with Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, NASA paid the Russian government more than $80 million per round-trip seat on the Soyuz spacecraft.
NASA’s inspector general last year reported the agency is paying SpaceX approximately $55 million per Crew Dragon seat.
Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, said Friday that NASA and SpaceX engineers are “making sure that all the Is are dotted and Ts are crossed” in preparation for the Crew Dragon launch.
In parallel with hardware preparations at the Kennedy Space Center, SpaceX and NASA engineers are completing pre-flight data analyses, safety assessments and readiness reviews.
The work in the coming weeks will make sure SpaceX and NASA “are ready for this important mission to safely fly Bob and Doug up to the International Space Station, serve as a lifeboat, and return them to their families,” Lueders said.
“This is a humbling job,” she said. “I think we’re up to it.”
Behnken, 49, will serve as joint operations commander for the Demo-2 mission, responsible for rendezvous, docking, undocking and other activities at the International Space Station. Hurley, 53, will be the spacecraft commander, responsible for launch, landing and recovery, according to NASA.
Both astronauts joined NASA’s astronaut corps in 2000, and each has flown twice on space shuttle missions. Behnken and Hurley are also both married to other astronauts.
“I think we have a different perspective of the importance of coming to Florida, launching again on an American rocket from the Florida coast,” Behnken said. “And generations of people who maybe didn’t get a chance to see a space shuttle launch, getting a chance again to see human spaceflight in our own backyard, if you will, is pretty exciting to be a part of.
“I think that’s the thing that’s most exciting for me, as well as on my first flight, I didn’t have a small child,” he said. “I didn’t have a son, so I’m really excited to share the mission with him and have him have a chance to be old enough at six to see it and share it with me when I get home and while I’m on orbit.”
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Astronauts Doug Hurley (left) and Bob Behnken (right) pose for a photograph at launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida before the launch of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon In-Flight Abort Test in January. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Hurley piloted the shuttle Atlantis on the final space shuttle mission in July 2011.
“It’s well past time to be launching an American rocket from the Florida coast to the International Space Station, and I am certainly honored to be part of it,” Hurley said.
“We would be asked questions along the lines of, well, the space program is over because the shuttle is not flying,” Hurley said. “And that certainly was not the case. We’ve had people on board the International Space Station since the fall of 2000. And we continue to fly to the space station on Soyuz vehicles. So part of it was just a lack of understanding by the public as far as what we were continuing to do as an agency, but it was also the time it took to develop new vehicles in order to take their place, take the shuttle’s place, to get folks to and from the International Space Station from the United States.”
Once Behnken and Hurley return to Earth, NASA will formally certify the Crew Dragon for regular crew rotation flights to the space station, each carrying four astronauts. Another Crew Dragon is scheduled for launch later this year with three NASA astronauts and a Japanese space flier.
The Dragon crew has essentially been in quarantine since March, when the threat of coronavirus interrupted daily life for millions of Americans. Behnken and Hurley will begin a formal quarantine protocol next week, then spend a few days inside a controlled facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston before flying to Kennedy in a NASA aircraft May 20.
The astronauts will participate in a final integrated simulation Monday with NASA and SpaceX ground controllers and mission managers.
“Then we start a quarantine process which escalates as we get closer to launch,” Hurley said. “And we also get some off time to kind of get everything in our lives sort of squared away since we’ve been busy getting ready for this flight, and we are likely to be in space for a few months.”
“We have a few more sims with SpaceX, we’ll have some proficiency sims later on, before we go down to Kennedy,” Hurley said. “And then we’ll get down to Kennedy around six or seven days before launch and then spend the rest of the time (in Florida) prepping from that location in the astronaut crew quarters down there.”
SpaceX plans a flight test readiness review May 8, followed by a NASA-led test readiness review May 11.
Lueders said Friday that NASA has reviewed SpaceX’s investigation into an engine failure that occurred on a Falcon 9 launch in March. One of the rocket’s nine Merlin engines shut down prematurely during a launch with 60 Starlink Internet satellites, but the rocket overcame the malfunction and still delivered the payloads to their intended orbit.
“We’re finishing testing on some other launch vehicle components,” Lueders said. “We have reviewed the anomaly resolution of the Starlink launch and actually have cleared the engines on our vehicle for that failure, so that actually is behind us right now.
“But like everybody knows, the spacecraft is still processing, the launch vehicle is still processing, and as you’re processing vehicles there are little issues that come up that we have to work through,” Lueders said. “Most of our human certification activities are being completed with this mission, so the team is going through really about 95 percent of the human-rating certification on this mission.”
In mid-May the Dragon spacecraft is expected to be transferred from a processing facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to the nearby Kennedy Space Center, where the crew capsule will be attached to its Falcon 9 launcher inside a hangar near the southern perimeter of pad 39A.
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The Crew Dragon spacecraft’s pressurized module has been mated with the ship’s unpressurized trunk section at Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX
Behnken and Hurley are scheduled to fly to Florida’s Space Coast on May 20.
A test-firing of the Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled around May 22, followed the next day by a “dry dress” rehearsal when the astronauts will put on their black and white SpaceX flight suits and strap inside the Crew Dragon spacecraft at the launch pad.
A launch readiness review is scheduled for May 25.
On May 27, Behnken and Hurley will again put on their flight suits inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy, the same facility where Apollo and shuttle astronauts prepared for launch. They will ride inside a Tesla Model X from the O&C Building to pad 39A, passing by the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building and the Press Site on the way to the seaside launch complex.
They will begin boarding the Crew Dragon spaceship around three hours before liftoff. SpaceX’s ground crew will close the Dragon’s side hatch and evacuate the pad before fueling of the Falcon 9 rocket with super-chilled kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants.
SpaceX’s sleek crew access arm, installed on pad 39A in 2018, will retract around 42 minutes before liftoff. The Dragon’s powerful abort engines will be armed 37 minutes prior to launch, giving the astronauts the ability to escape an explosion or other emergency during fueling of the Falcon 9 rocket.
Kerosene and liquid oxygen will begin flowing into the two-stage launcher 35 minutes before liftoff, which is timed for 4:32 p.m. EDT (2032 GMT) on May 27.
Assuming liftoff occurs May 27, the Crew Dragon is slated to autonomous dock with the International Space Station on May 28 at approximately 11:29 a.m. EDT (1529 GMT).
Hurley and Behnken will take over manual control of the spaceship at multiple points during the Dragon’s trip to the space station, testing out their ability to fly the capsule using novel touchscreen controls in the cockpit.
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/03/spacex-aces-last-dragon-parachute-test-before-crew-launch/
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Dragon astronauts wrap up training, prepare to enter quarantine
May 8, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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NASA astronauts Doug Hurley (left) and Bob Behnken (right) monitor the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket inside Firing Room 4 at the Launch Control Center located at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley completed their final training sessions in Houston this week before their scheduled May 27 liftoff on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft from the Kennedy Space Center, the first launch of humans from the Florida spaceport since 2011.
The two veteran space fliers participated in their final full-up launch simulation Monday, strapping into a Dragon simulator at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and tying in with SpaceX and NASA teams at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
Behnken tweeted Thursday that the crew’s formal training activities were complete. The astronauts were expected to have a few days of off-duty time before preparing to travel from their home base in Houston to the Kennedy Space Center on May 20.
Bob Behnken@AstroBehnken 8:25 PM - May 7, 2020
https://twitter.com/AstroBehnken/status/1258463007375491078
L-3 weeks means training complete! It also means that the launch and mission memorabilia is coalescing... https://twitter.com/Commercial_Crew/status/1258016896810725376 …
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NASA Commercial Crew✔@Commercial_Crew
We are officially three weeks away from NASA's SpaceX Demo-2 launch! 🇺🇸🚀 #LaunchAmerica
Astronauts @AstroBehnken & @Astro_Doug will fly to the @Space_Station aboard the #CrewDragon spacecraft. Liftoff from @NASAKennedy's Launch Complex 39A is slated for May 27 at 4:32 p.m. EDT.
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Brandi Dean, a spokesperson at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, said Behnken and Hurley will begin their formal pre-launch quarantine protocol May 13. The astronauts are expected to spend several days inside a quarantine facility at Johnson, then fly aboard NASA aircraft to Kennedy on May 20 to begin final launch preparations.
The pre-launch quarantine protocol is a regular part of all human spaceflight missions, but Behnken and Hurley have effectively been quarantined for weeks, once physical distancing measures were introduced to combat the spread of the COVID-19 viral disease.
In quarantine, the astronauts will only be in close proximity to close family members and SpaceX and NASA personnel who receive medical screening.
“We’re already in quarantine with our families, and we plan to continue that,” Behnken said May 1. “NASA has a plan to get our families to Kennedy in a quarantined fashion, and then to allow us to continue to see each other.”
NASA and SpaceX are continuing with preparations for Behnken and Hurley’s launch on the Crew Dragon spacecraft amid the coronavirus pandemic. NASA is limiting the number of guests permitted at the space center, and the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is not selling tickets for public viewing on NASA property.
The visitor complex temporarily closed in mid-March and has not announced a schedule to reopen.
“What will be different is the causeway and the number of guests who will be able to watch form a distance, normally in large groups kind of looking across the water and seeing the launch happen,” Behnken said. “We’re not expecting that to be possible based on the COVID-19 situation.
“So folks will be hopefully watching at home on their computers, or on television, when we launch into space rather than seeing it with their own eyes, which is a little bit of a disappointment,” said Behnken, an Air Force colonel and veteran of two space shuttle missions. “But with the situation, I think it’s the right thing for folks to stay protected.”
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The Crew Dragon’s pressurized crew cabin was mated with the spacecraft’s trunk module April 30. Credit: SpaceX
Behnken will serve as the joint operations commander for the Crew Dragon flight, designated Demo-2, or DM-2. The 49-year-old Missouri native will be responsible for the mission’s rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station, along with activities once aboard the orbiting research lab.
Hurley, a Marine Corps colonel who hails from Upstate New York, will be the spacecraft commander on the Demo-2 test flight. His responsibilities include launch, landing and recovery operations.
Behnken and Hurley were two of four NASA astronauts selected in 2015 to train for commercial crew missions on SpaceX and Boeing capsules. NASA assigned the two-man crew to the SpaceX Demo-2 mission in 2018.
NASA has signed a series of funding agreements with SpaceX since 2011 valued at more than $3.1 billion. With NASA funding and technical oversight, SpaceX has developed the human-rated Crew Dragon spacecraft to launch on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket.
Boeing has received a similar series of contracts from NASA to develop the Starliner crew capsule.
SpaceX completed a six-day unpiloted Crew Dragon test flight, known as Demo-1, to the space station in March 2019. The Crew Dragon has also completed two launch abort tests, one demonstrating the ship’s ability to escape an emergency on the launch pad, and another to prove the capsule can safely fire off the top of a Falcon 9 rocket in flight.
Behnken and Hurley are expected to spend one to four months on the space station. Since their assignment to the Dragon test flight, the astronauts have completed thousands of hours of training, much of it inside simulators at SpaceX headquarters in Southern California.
“A lot of times we focus on Crew Dragon, which, of course, is kind of the crown jewel and what carries the astronauts,” said Benji Reed, SpaceX’s director of crew mission management. “But there’s really a whole system that runs from the engineers and design and analysis that goes on, to the factory fabrication and all the testing, and it is all involved in the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, the Dragon spacecraft, the operational teams and all the operational centers.”
The Demo-2 astronauts also completed refresher training on space station systems in Houston. Behnken was certified to perform spacewalks from the space station’s airlock, and Hurley is trained to operate the station’s Canadian-built robotic arm.
The Demo-2 crew was originally training for a stay of just one or two weeks, but NASA extended the duration of the Demo-2 test flight after development delays in the commercial crew program left the space station with just one U.S. astronaut on-board.
NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy is commander of the space station’s Expedition 63 currently living and working on the orbiting research lab. Cassidy launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Soyuz spacecraft April 9 with two Russian crewmates.
Since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, Russian Soyuz spacecraft have been the only way for U.S. astronauts to fly to and from the space station. NASA has paid Roscosmos — Russia’s space agency — approximately $3.9 billion for Soyuz seats since 2006.
NASA officials intend to end the cash payments to Russia once declaring the Crew Dragon and Starliner spacecraft operational. Final certification of the Crew Dragon is expected after Behnken and Hurley return to Earth later this year, allowing future Crew Dragons to carry up to four astronauts at a time on regular crew rotation flights to the space station.
Space station managers eventually plan to fly a Russian cosmonaut on U.S. crew missions and a NASA astronaut on Russian Soyuz flights, ensuring at least one representative of each nation is aboard the station at all times.
But Russian officials said they will not approve the plan for mixed crews on U.S. crew capsules until the Crew Dragon and Starliner complete their first piloted space missions.
The first operational Crew Dragon mission is scheduled to launch after the Demo-2 astronauts return to Earth. Three NASA astronauts and a Japanese crew member are assigned to that flight to the space station.
But the schedule for that mission hinges on a successful Demo-2 test flight.
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The Demo-2 mission patch. Credit: NASA
Once at the Kennedy Space Center, Behnken and Hurley will participate in final briefings, spacesuit checkouts, and a full launch day dress rehearsal scheduled for May 23. During the launch day dry run, the astronauts will put on their SpaceX-made flight suits, walk out of the Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy, and travel to launch pad 39A inside a Tesla Model X.
The crew members will board the Crew Dragon and strap into their seats, running through many of the pre-launch procedures they will execute on the real launch day.
On May 22, the day before the scheduled dress rehearsal, SpaceX plans to fill the Falcon 9 rocket with super-chilled kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants and ignite the first stage’s nine Merlin engines on pad 39A. The engines will fire for several seconds in the static fire test, which is a customary part of all SpaceX launch campaigns.
SpaceX will drain the rocket’s propellant tanks before the crew dress rehearsal on the following day.
NASA and SpaceX officials also plan to convene a flight readiness review around May 21 to give approval to proceed with final mission preparations. Another meeting of top managers is planned May 25 in a launch readiness review.
Liftoff of the 215-foot-tall (65-meter) Falcon 9 rocket with Behnken and Hurley is set for May 27 at 4:33 p.m. EDT (2033 GMT) to begin a nearly nine-minute climb into orbit.
Assuming an on-time launch, the Crew Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to dock with the space station around 11:30 a.m. EDT (1530 GMT) on May 28.
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/08/dragon-astronauts-wrap-up-training-prepare-to-enter-quarantine/
Video: Demo-2 crew training reel
May 8, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1MGNihE_Lc
This video reel offers insights into the training of NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley for their launch on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Behnken and Hurley are scheduled for launch no earlier than May 27 from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The two-man crew will be fastened into seats inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule for a journey to the International Space Station.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/08/video-demo-2-crew-training-video-reel/
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Dragon solar array concerns driving duration of first crewed test flight
May 12, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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Artist’s concept of a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule docked at the International Space Station. Credit: SpaceX
NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will be geared up for the long haul when they launch from the Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft later this month, but they won’t know exactly how long they will be in orbit until they are already aboard the International Space Station.
The Dragon astronauts, both veterans of two space shuttle missions, could live and work on the space station for one to four months, according to NASA officials. The duration will primarily hinge on how well the Crew Dragon’s solar panels hold up in the harsh environment of space.
“The minimum mission duration is really about a month, and the maximum is 119 days,” said Steve Stich, deputy manager of NASA’s commercial crew program.
The Crew Dragon test flight — set for liftoff at 4:33 p.m. EDT (2033 GMT) May 27 — will be the first launch of astronauts into orbit from the Kennedy Space Center since July 8, 2011, when the shuttle Atlantis rocketed into space on the final flight of the space shuttle program.
If the mission launches May 27, the Crew Dragon is scheduled to autonomously dock with the International Space Station at 11:39 a.m. EDT (1539 GMT) May 28. Behnken and Hurley originally planned to fly to the space station for no more than a couple of weeks after launching on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The purpose of the Crew Dragon demonstration flight, named Demo-2 or DM-2, is primarily intended to test the commercial crew ship’s performance with astronauts on-board. It follows a six-day unpiloted Crew Dragon test flight to the space station in March 2019.
But NASA has approved an extension to the Demo-2 mission. Faced with the prospect of a period of months with just one U.S. astronaut aboard the space station — limiting opportunities for maintenance and repair spacewalks, and restricting the station’s scientific output — NASA is planning to keep Behnken and Hurley at the $100 billion orbiting research outpost for up to four months.
NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy launched from Kazakhstan on a Soyuz rocket April 9 with two Russian crewmates.
“This launch will allow researchers around the globe to work with astronauts on-board the space station to undertake many different scientific investigations,” said Kirk Shireman, NASA’s space station program manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. “The SpaceX crew, with Chris Cassidy already on-board the International Space Station, will be doing experiments on physiology, cardiovascular experiments, physical and life sciences, testing out life support systems … and testing out habitation experiments for our future human space exploration.”
Behnken could also join Cassidy in a series of spacewalks to replace batteries on one of the space station’s solar power trusses. The new lithium-ion batteries will be delivered to the space station later this month on an automated Japanese HTV supply ship.
NASA originally intended to have SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing’s Starliner crew capsules certified by now for operational crew rotation flights to and from the space station. But development delays in both programs — originally due to NASA funding shortfalls, then caused by a series of technical problems — have pushed back the start of regular commercial taxi service to the space station by years.
NASA has signed agreements with SpaceX worth more than $3.1 billion since 2011 to pay for development of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. SpaceX has also pitched in an undisclosed sum of its own money to help fund the program.
Boeing and NASA have a similar series of contracts valued at nearly $5 billion in a public-private partnership to develop the Starliner spacecraft. The Starliner failed to dock with the space station on an automated test flight in December, and Boeing plans to repeat the orbital demonstration mission later this year before NASA clears the Starliner to fly astronauts.
The Russian Soyuz capsule has been the only spacecraft capable of carrying crews to the space station since the space shuttle program ended. NASA has paid the Russian government approximately $3.9 billion since 2006 to purchase Soyuz seats for astronauts from the United States and the station’s other international partners, according to a report last year by NASA’s inspector general.
NASA expects to end payments to Russia once the new U.S. crew ships are operational. Under the space agencies’ current plans, U.S. astronauts will continue flying on Soyuz spacecraft and Russian cosmonauts will launch and land on the new U.S. vehicles under a barter arrangement, with no funds exchanged.
But Russian officials say they are not assigning cosmonauts to missions on U.S. vehicles until they are flight-proven.
Flush with NASA money, Russian space contractors doubled the production of Soyuz crew capsules for launches beginning in 2009 to meet the demand for astronaut transportation to the space station. After NASA’s last Soyuz seat purchase in 2017, the schedule for Soyuz crew missions has been cut back to two flights this year.
Cassidy took the last Soyuz seat under NASA’s control, but the agency is negotiating to purchase one more round-trip Soyuz ticket for a launch in October.
NASA and SpaceX hope the first operational Crew Dragon mission, designated Crew-1, could be ready to launch some time this fall. But NASA wants a backup plan to ensure a U.S. astronaut can get to the space station in case of additional delays.
Regular crew rotation flights using the Crew Dragon capsule could last up to 210 days, but NASA and SpaceX are setting tighter limits for Behnken and Hurley’s mission due to the experimental nature of the Demo-2 test flight.
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NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken address the media in October 2019 at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
Stich said preflight analyses show the Crew Dragon spacecraft set to fly the Demo-2 mission can safely remain in orbit for up to 119 days, or about four months, based on a “worst-case” prediction for how the ship’s solar arrays will perform in orbit.
“Any solar array in low Earth orbit tends to degrade a little bit over time,” said Stich, a former space shuttle flight director. “It turns out the atmosphere has a little bit of oxygen in it — it’s called atomic oxygen — so there’s a little bit of degradation in the ability of that solar array, the cell itself, to generate power.”
Once the Crew Dragon is docked to the space station, SpaceX and NASA engineers will assess data the solar arrays’ performance and efficiency to determine when to bring the crew back to Earth.
“What we’ll do is we have this curve of what we expect that degradation to be over time,” Stich said. “We can kind of look at the power the arrays generate each day, and kind of plot that against this prediction, and that can give us the overall total capability.”
The solar arrays on SpaceX’s new-generation Dragon spacecraft, called Dragon 2 or Crew Dragon, are mounted on the body of the spaceship’s unpressurized trunk. The trunk is attached to the aft end of the Dragon’s pressurized crew cabin, and a thermal radiator sits on the opposite side of the cylindrical trunk from the solar arrays.
SpaceX’s previous Dragon design, which retired earlier this year after 20 unpiloted cargo delivery flights to the space station, used unfolding solar panels to generate electricity.
“We looked at the rest of the vehicle, (and) we don’t see any other life limiters,” Stich said in a May 1 press conference. “We looked at the pumps on the thermal system, we looked at the propulsion system, all the other components, when we talked about extending the mission, and the solar arrays are the only one really that have a little bit of a poke-out.
“So we’ll just kind of watch their performance in flight and be able to make a good decision about how long to stay docked,” he said.
NASA is balancing the objectives of the Demo-2 test flight with satisfying the agency’s desire for extra manpower on the space station.
“We’re really trying to do both a test flight with this vehicle, and also have the vehicle docked to station to allow Bob and Doug to augment the station crew,” Stich said.
2:33 PM - May 13, 2020 Spaceflight Now @SpaceflightNow
When astronauts launch on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule from the Kennedy Space Center on May 27, it will be the first time a new vehicle design has carried people into orbit from the United States in more than 39 years, says NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/12/dragon-solar-array-concerns-driving-duration-of-first-crewed-test-flight/ …
Twitter (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/1260548820649365505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1260548820649365505&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fspaceflightnow.com%2F2020%2F05%2F12%2Fdragon-solar-a)
Hurley, the Demo-2 spacecraft commander, said the unknown mission duration is one of the challenges of preparing for the trip to the space station.
“I think that’s more of a human element,” Hurley said. “We go in it knowing that it could be 30 days up to four months, and it’ll probably end up being somewhere in between that. But that’s certainly an unknown, from a personal standpoint, that you’d like to maybe have a little bit better answer for, but we certainly understand the reasons why, and I think hopefully we’ll be able to offer some good support to Chris Cassidy, who’s up there in the U.S. segment on his own right now.”
Officials will also look at the schedule for the following Crew Dragon flight, which will carry four astronauts to the station, when deciding on a schedule for Behnken and Hurley’s return to Earth. And mission managers will assess weather and sea conditions in the Dragon’s splashdown zone roughly 27 miles (24 nautical miles; 44 kilometers) off Florida’s East Coast.
The Dragon demonstration flight will mark the first time astronauts have climbed into a newly-designed spaceship and launched into orbit since 1981, when the first space shuttle took off from pad 39A, the same historic launch complex where Behnken and Hurley will launch later this month.
“We think about Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and then space shuttle,” Bridenstine said. “Those are really the four times in history when we have put humans on brand new spacecraft, and now we’re doing it for a fifth time, and that’s just the United States.
“If you look globally, this will be the ninth time in history when we’ve put humans on a brand new spacecraft (design),” he said. “And the last time the United States did it was on STS-1, when we launched the the space shuttle for the first time back in 1981. So it’s been a long time since we put humans on a brand new spacecraft. Thats what this is and it is truly a test flight.”
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/12/dragon-solar-array-concerns-driving-duration-of-first-crewed-test-flight/
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Astronauts to ride NASA-adorned Tesla Model X to SpaceX launchpad
May 13, 2020 — The first NASA astronauts to launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket will have more than one new ride designed by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
(http://www.collectspace.com/images/news-051320b.jpg)
SpaceX will transfer NASA astronauts to the launchpad in a NASA-logo adorned Tesla Model X SUV. (SpaceX)
Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who will be the first to fly on a SpaceX Dragon to the International Space Station, will arrive at their launchpad in a Tesla Model X SUV. In addition to helming the commercial spaceflight company, Musk also leads the electric car company.
NASA revealed the SpaceX Model X on Wednesday (May 13), two weeks before the scheduled May 27 launch.
"Here's some Tesla news that everyone should love," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine posted on Twitter (https://twitter.com/JimBridenstine/status/1260667420777353216). "Check out the Model X that will carry Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the launchpad for the Demo-2 mission!"
(http://www.collectspace.com/images/news-051320a.jpg)
SpaceX's Tesla Model X astronaut transfer vehicle is emblazoned with both NASA's insignia and its retro logotype. (SpaceX)
The white SUV features decals of NASA's red, white and blue insignia (http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-051120a-nasa-vab-logo-repaint.html), dubbed the "meatball," on its two front doors and the agency's resurrected logotype, the red "worm," across the top of its rear window. The Demo-2 Falcon 9 rocket will also be emblazoned with both NASA identifiers (http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-040220a-nasa-worm-logotype-spacex-rocket.html).
About three hours before launch, after donning their spacesuits, Behnken and Hurley (http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-101119a-spacex-crew-dragon-demo2-patch.html) will walk out of NASA's Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and climb into the backseat of the Model X through the car's falcon-wing rear doors. The all-electric SUV will then be used to drive them the 9 miles (14 kilometers) to Launch Complex 39A.
The drive will mark the first time that NASA astronauts have taken a car to the launchpad to then leave Earth.
The original U.S. spacemen, the Mercury 7 astronauts, were transferred from a hangar to their waiting Redstone or Atlas rockets using a modified trailer pulled by a Reo Motor Company tractor. The Gemini astronauts suited up in a trailer near the launchpad and then rode a transfer van the short way to their Titan boosters.
The Apollo program introduced the first "Astrovan," in the form of a converted Clark Cortez motorhome. The white vehicle with a blue and red stripe and a large NASA "meatball" logo was used by moon-bound crews from 1968 through 1972, and then continued in service for the Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz and early space shuttle missions.
A new Astrovan was introduced in November 1983, with the ninth space shuttle mission. The modified Airstream Excella Motorhome sported a chrome body with a red, white and blue stripe, a large NASA meatball and enough room on board to accommodate the larger shuttle crews.
NASA's other commercial crew partner, the Boeing Company, also worked with Airstream to create the Astrovan II (http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-102119a-astrovan-boeing-starliner-airstream.html), a customized Airstream Atlas Touring Coach. Revealed in 2019, the new van is wrapped with graphics depicting the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that the van's riders will launch aboard to the space station.
SpaceX's Tesla Model X was previously seen in January, without its newly-applied NASA insignia decals, when it was used to drive Behnken and Hurley for a launch-day dress rehearsal.
The official use of the "meatball" and "worm" on the same vehicle marks a return to NASA's early-1980s livery. Since then, the space agency's rules for the retro logotype, if permitted at all, was that it never appear together with the insignia.
(http://www.collectspace.com/images/news-051320c.jpg)
SpaceX's Tesla Model X astronaut transfer vehicle features NASA's red, white and blue insignia, dubbed the "meatball," on its front doors. (SpaceX)
(http://www.collectspace.com/images/news-051320d.jpg)
SpaceX's Tesla Model X astronaut transfer vehicle features NASA's resurrected, retro logotype, the red "worm," across its rear window. (SpaceX)
Source: http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-051320a-spacex-tesla-modelx-astrovan.html
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After redesigns, the finish line is in sight for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spaceship
December 7, 2019 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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A Crew Dragon spacecraft is seen on top of a Falcon 9 rocket earlier this year standing on pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida before launch on an unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station. Credit: SpaceX
(...) A requirement change from NASA also contributed to delays, Shotwell said.
After SpaceX had already designed the interior layout of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, NASA decided to change the specification for the angle of the ship’s seats due to concerns about the g-forces crew members might experience during splashdown.
The change meant SpaceX had to do away with the company’s original seven-seat design for the Crew Dragon.
“With this change and the angle of the seats, we could not get seven anymore,” Shotwell said. “So now we only have four seats. That was kind of a big change for us.”
(...)
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/12/07/after-redesigns-the-finish-line-is-in-sight-for-spacexs-crew-dragon/
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Dragon crew begins augmented version of NASA’s standard pre-launch quarantine
May 15, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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Astronaut Doug Hurley undergoes a fit check in his SpaceX spacesuit. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
NASA has added extra safeguards to the agency’s standard pre-launch quarantine protocol to protect astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley from the coronavirus and other contagions in the final two weeks before their scheduled May 27 launch on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.
The two-man crew will quarantine at their homes near the Johnson Space Center in Houston until next Wednesday, May 20, when they fly aboard a NASA Gulfstream jet to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to begin the final week of preparations for liftoff, according to Brandi Dean, a NASA spokesperson.
(...)
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/15/dragon-astronauts-begin-augmented-version-of-nasas-pre-launch-quarantine-protocol/
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Crew Dragon capsule meets Falcon 9 rocket inside launch pad hangar
May 16, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft arrives at the Falcon 9 rocket hangar at pad 39A late Friday, May 15, for integration with its launch vehicle. The Crew Dragon is set for launch May 27 with astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
SpaceX transferred the first astronaut-ready Crew Dragon spacecraft Friday night from a fueling facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where teams will join the capsule with its Falcon 9 launcher for liftoff later this month.
The spacecraft arrived at the pad 39A hangar late Friday night, according to Kyle Herring, a NASA spokesperson.
Before its transport by road to the Falcon 9 hangar, the Crew Dragon capsule’s propulsion system was loaded with hypergolic hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants inside a fueling complex a few miles south of pad 39A at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
(...)
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/16/crew-dragon-capsule-meets-falcon-9-rocket-inside-launch-pad-hangar/
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Pence plans to attend launch of astronauts from Florida next week
May 19, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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Vice President Mike Pence speaks at a previous National Space Council meeting in August 2019. Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
Vice President Mike Pence plans to travel to the Kennedy Space Center on May 27 for the first launch of astronauts from a U.S. spaceport since 2011.
Officials at a meeting of the National Space Council Tuesday said Pence will attend the launch, and a Space Council spokesperson confirmed the plans. Details about Pence’s visit have not been released. (...)
Hurley and Behnken entered an enhanced version of NASA’s standard pre-launch quarantine protocol May 13, in which they will be tested twice for the COVID-19 viral disease before their launch May 27. The astronauts are each veterans of two space shuttle missions, and they began training in 2015 for a flight on one of two U.S. crew vehicles developed by SpaceX and Boeing.
(...)
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/19/pence-plans-to-attend-launch-of-astronauts-from-florida-next-week/
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Before SpaceX can 'capture the flag,' an astronaut had to find it
May 20, 2020 — It might be the most high-profile, if not also the highest game of "capture the flag" ever played, but unbeknownst to many, the flag waiting to be captured by SpaceX's soon-to-be-launched first astronaut crew was briefly lost in space.
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An American flag flown on the first and last space shuttle missions awaits the arrival of the first U.S. commercial crew to launch to the International Space Station. The small flag went missing for a time during its nine years aboard the orbiting laboratory. (NASA)
Soon after NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley arrive on board the International Space Station later this month, they will claim a small American flag as a symbol of their success. The stars and stripes banner, which was left on the orbiting laboratory by the crew of NASA's final space shuttle mission in 2011, will be SpaceX's prize for becoming the first U.S. commercial company to launch U.S. astronauts on a U.S. rocket from U.S. soil in nearly a decade.
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NASA astronauts Bob Behnken (at left) and Doug Hurley are set to launch aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft on the first U.S. rocket to launch into orbit from U.S. soil in nearly a decade. (SpaceX)
"The plan always was, or we thought it would be back in 2011, that the first U.S. vehicle to launch from Florida and come to the International Space Station would grab that flag that flew both on STS-1 and STS-135, the first and last flights of the shuttle program," said Hurley, who was the shuttle's last pilot and is now the spacecraft commander on SpaceX's Demo-2 test flight of its new Dragon capsule.
"I think we will probably grab it from Chris [Cassidy, the space station's current commander] and put it in a safe place while we do our work on the space station. Then we'll bring it back when we come back later this summer," Hurley said at a pre-flight press conference on May 1.
Hurley and his STS-135 crewmates probably thought much the same thing, at least in regards to putting the flag in a safe place, when it was affixed to the hatch leading out to the space shuttle's — and now Dragon's — docking port nine years ago. It didn't take long, though, for that flag to migrate and ultimately, go missing.
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The combined crews of STS-135 and Expedition 28 pose with the STS-1 flag on the International Space Station in July 2011. The STS-135 crew included NASA astronauts Chris Ferguson, Doug Hurley, Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim; the ISS Expedition 28 crewmembers were JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, NASA astronauts Ron Garan and Mike Fossum and cosmonauts Andrey Borisenko, Alexander Samokutyaev and Sergei Volkov. (NASA)
From hatch to hallway to...
Launched in secret, the first time that the 8-by-12-inch (20-by-30.5 centimeter) American flag was seen in space was on July 15, 2011, during a call between the combined space station and STS-135 crews and then-President Barack Obama.
"I understand it will be kind of like a capture-the-flag moment for commercial spaceflight (http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-071511a-sts135-capture-flag-obama.html)," said Obama. "So good luck to whoever grabs that flag."
In addition to SpaceX, NASA also contracted with Boeing to launch its astronauts to the space station. Although NASA refrained from billing it as a formal race, it was not known until earlier this year which company would launch a crew first and capture the flag.
Three days after Obama's call, as the shuttle's crew was getting ready to depart for Earth, the astronauts hung the small American flag on the forward-facing hatch (http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-071811a-sts135-flag-shuttle-station.html) in the space station's Harmony node, positioned between STS-1 and STS-135 mission patches.
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The STS-1 and STS-135 American flag was originally affixed to the forward-facing hatch in the space station's Harmony node. (NASA)
And there the flag stayed, or at least was thought to stay, for what was then expected to be just a few years until a new vehicle would arrive. Budget cuts and technical setbacks, however, delayed NASA's commercial crew program and with it SpaceX's and Boeing's efforts to begin launching astronauts.
As the years passed, the flag apparently began to drift. There are only a few publicly-released photos that capture the flag, but by May 2014, it could be seen in a clear plastic bag hanging on a wall adjacent to the hatchway where it had been.
The search begins
"I don't know the reason why it was moved off the hatch, but we're constantly using and reusing every area," NASA astronaut Scott Tingle, who was on the space station for 168 days from December 2017 to June 2018, told collectSPACE in a recent interview. "We're constantly moving [science and equipment] racks. We're pulling racks out and moving them into different modules and eventually you have to take everything down to be able to make those adjustments."
"It's impossible to put something up in one spot and expect that it's going to be there, even just a couple of months later," he said.
Sometime in late 2014 or early 2015, the space station's flight controllers must have realized this as well and called up instructions for then-crew member Butch Wilmore to put the flag into one of the many crew transfer bags (CTBs) that was used to hold supplies.
Flash forward three years.
Not only was Wilmore back on Earth, but 40 or so other astronauts and cosmonauts had cycled through the space station by early 2018. Tingle was now on board when a call came from the ground.
"We got a message from one of our astronauts mentioning that in preparation for commercial crew that they wanted to make sure that we still had the flag and could I go and find it?" he recalled. (Unbeknownst to Tingle at the time, the request had been triggered by a media inquiry from The Planetary Society (https://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2018/20180315-funpost-flag-in-space.html) about the status of the flag.)
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Butch Wilmore with an open crew transfer bag (CTB) in the Unity node aboard the International Space Station in 2014. Wilmore put the American flag in a CTB at Mission Control's direction. (NASA)
But just like the flag during its first few years on the station, its CTB had also gone missing.
"We looked and looked and looked," said Tingle. "I talked to my fellow astronauts that were on board the ISS and everybody had a little bit of a different memory on where it could be or where it might be. So we spent probably three or four weeks just kind of scouring in our spare time, trying to find it."
NASA has a system and a team on the ground devoted to tracking items on the space station. Items are given barcodes and there are label makers (http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-112008a-space-station-tracking-labels.html) for the crew's use. But with multiple areas devoted to storage and cargo coming and going on a regular basis, an item like a flag — even a historically- and symbolically-important flag — can slip out of sight.
"It's just the sheer volume of work that makes it impossible to track every single little detail that goes on up there," said Tingle.
The right stuff
The flag Tingle and his crewmates were seeking — the flag that Behnken and Hurley (http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-101119a-spacex-crew-dragon-demo2-patch.html) ultimately will capture — was one of only 1,000 American flags of its size that flew on the first space shuttle mission (http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-041206a.html) and was the only such example left aboard the space station by the final shuttle crew. But it was not the only American flag on the space station in 2018.
In the course of the search, multiple flags were found. But was it the right flag?
"At one point, we ended up thinking that we just couldn't find it or maybe it mistakenly just got sent back home or thrown out or something," said Tingle. "So we ended up calling the person who last saw it and that was Butch Wilmore when he was up on the station."
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Scott Tingle, seen inside a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft attached to the International Space Station, found the lost American flag that SpaceX's first astronaut crew will soon claim. (NASA)
"He told me exactly what kind of CTB it was in and what some of the other things that were in there with it," Tingle told collectSPACE, explaining how he identified the correct flag.
After weeks of searching, Tingle found the American flag in a transfer bag buried behind other bags at the edge of Unity, another of the station's connecting nodes.
"Miraculously it was in the CTB that Butch mentioned. It was about, I don't know, a couple of meters away from where he originally left it," Tingle described.
The flag was now just a little worse for the wear. It had gained some creases from being folded up in the CTB.
"To me, it just adds character, because that's what human spaceflight is all about," said Tingle.
The flag's discovery came near the end of Tingle's stay on the space station and within a few weeks of his departure in early June 2018, the flag found a new semi-permanent home to the left of the hatchway leading from the U.S. Destiny lab into the Unity node.
Wrapped in a plastic bag, the flag is now labeled, "Flown on STS-1 & STS-135" and "Only to be removed by crew launching from KSC [Kennedy Space Center]."
Star-spangled banner yet wave
The history of U.S. space exploration is rich with symbolic American flags (http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-070410a.html). The first U.S. astronaut to fly into space carried a large U.S. flag on his historic 15-minute spaceflight. Twelve Apollo astronauts left six American flags on the moon. And the first spacecraft to successfully land on Mars was emblazoned with the red, white and blue star-spangled banner.
For Tingle, the American flag now waiting to be captured on the space station is symbolic of a new chapter in U.S. space history.
"It means we're back," he said. "The last 10 years has been pretty hard. We have relied on our international partners. We have trained to facilitate that. We've made a lot of sacrifice to keep our space program up and running while we're developing new vehicles."
"Capturing that flag is an effort that has been an effort like no other," said Tingle. "We're back."
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The STS-1 and STS-135 flown American flag as seen on space shuttle Atlantis when it arrived at the International Space Station in 2011. (NASA)
Source: http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-052020a-capture-flag-lost-spacex.html
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Dragon crew arrives at Florida spaceport kick off final week of launch preps
May 20, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will ride SpaceX’s first crewed mission into orbit. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now
Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken arrived Wednesday at the Kennedy Space Center, ready for spacesuit and spacecraft fit checks, and some time off with their families before launching next week on the first crewed flight into orbit from U.S. soil since 2011.
Hurley and Behnken, each veterans of two space shuttle flights, rode a NASA Gulfstream business jet from their home base in Houston to Florida spaceport, where they were greeted by NASA managers and a limited number of reporters and photographers, all wearing masks and observing physical distancing guidelines due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Both Doug and I are really excited to be here,” Behnken said. “This is an awesome time to be an astronaut with a new spacecraft to get a chance to go and fly.”
The astronauts are scheduled to launch next Wednesday, May 27, from pad 39A at Kennedy aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft. Liftoff is set for 4:33:33 p.m. EDT (2033:33 GMT), a time set to allow the Dragon capsule to launch into the same orbital plane of the International Space Station.
Assuming an on-time launch next Wednesday, Hurley and Behnken are slated to dock with the orbiting research laboratory around 11:39 a.m. EDT (1539 GMT) on May 28.
Behnken will serve as the joint operations commander for the Crew Dragon flight, designated Demo-2, or DM-2. The 49-year-old Missouri native will be responsible for the mission’s rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station, along with activities once aboard the orbiting research lab.
Hurley, a retired Marine Corps colonel who hails from Upstate New York, will be the spacecraft commander on the Demo-2 test flight. His responsibilities include launch, landing and recovery operations.
Behnken and Hurley were two of four NASA astronauts selected in 2015 to train for commercial crew missions on SpaceX and Boeing capsules. NASA assigned the two-man crew to the SpaceX Demo-2 mission in 2018.
NASA has signed a series of funding agreements with SpaceX since 2011 valued at more than $3.1 billion. With NASA funding and technical oversight, SpaceX has developed the human-rated Crew Dragon spacecraft to launch on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket.
Boeing has received a similar series of contracts from NASA — valued at more than $4.8 billion — to develop the Starliner crew capsule.
But those figures include NASA payments to the contractors to cover crew transportation services, once the Crew Dragon and Starliner vehicles are operational. Phil McAlister, NASA’s head of commercial spaceflight development, said May 13 that the space agency invested around $5 billion toward Crew Dragon and Starliner design and development.
The companies also put in an unspecified level of private funding, a requirement under the public-private partnership arrangement pursued by NASA’s commercial crew program since 2010.
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The Demo-2 crew members were greeted by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and Bob Cabana, director of the Kennedy Space Center. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
At the time of the space shuttle’s retirement in 2011, NASA hoped to have the commercial crew ships flying astronauts by 2015. But that schedule has slipped, initially due to a lack of funding appropriated by Congress, then by myriad technical delays suffered by SpaceX and Boeing.
“Bob and I have been working on this program for five years, day in and day out, and there are folks here at NASA and at SpaceX, (for whom) it’s been longer than that,” Hurley said. “It’s been a marathon in many ways, and that’s what you would expect to develop a human-rated space vehicle that can go to and from the International Space Station,” Hurley said. “So I think it’s a long time coming in some ways.”
SpaceX completed a six-day unpiloted Crew Dragon test flight, known as Demo-1, to the space station in March 2019. The Crew Dragon has also completed two launch abort tests, one demonstrating the ship’s ability to escape an emergency on the launch pad, and another to prove the capsule can safely fire off the top of a Falcon 9 rocket in flight.
The Starliner program is likely nearly a year from its first piloted spaceflight. Boeing’s first Starliner test flight without astronauts faltered before reaching the International Space Station due to a software error in December, and engineers are wringing out the problems before trying another unpiloted demonstration mission this fall.
Wednesday’s arrival of space-bound astronauts at the Kennedy Space Center was the first such event at the Florida spaceport since July 4, 2011, when the final space shuttle crew jetted to the launch base.
Hurley was the pilot on that mission, giving him the distinction on flying on back-to-back spaceflights taking off from Kennedy.
“When you fly a shuttle flight, by the time you land, you’re just exhausted,” Hurley said Wednesday. “You’re glad that you had a successful mission, and you just want to see your family. I think after that, you think about, ‘OK, what’s next?'”
NASA astronauts continued soaring into space on Russian Soyuz spaceships, logging record-long expeditions on the International Space Station. But Hurley said didn’t know if he would ever fly in space again.
“It’s an evolving thing, and the folks at NASA had a great idea to form a public-private partnership with companies and compete for … and it has ended up in this situation,” Hurley said. “And we’re lucky enough to be on the vehicle. It has been a long road in a lot of ways, but I certainly consider myself lucky to be part of it.”
Behnken and Hurley are expected to spend one to four months on the space station. Since their assignment to the Dragon test flight, the astronauts have completed thousands of hours of training, much of it inside simulators at SpaceX headquarters in Southern California.
After the final full-up launch simulation May 4, the Demo-2 crew wrapped up their official training sessions and entered NASA’s quarantine protocol May 13. Hurley said they completed their final pre-launch “proficiency” session Tuesday in a Dragon simulator at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
SpaceX teams at Kennedy plan to roll out the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft to pad 39A ahead of a static test-firing of the launch vehicle’s Merlin main engines Friday.
Behnken said he’s looking forward to spending some time with his family at the famed Astronaut Beach House — officially named the Kennedy Space Center Conference Center — where numerous crews have passed time before their space missions
“They’ve been observing a pretty tight quarantine to make that a possibility,” Behnken said of the crew’s families.
On Saturday, Hurley and Behnken will put on their SpaceX-made spacesuits and travel to pad 39A inside a Tesla Model X, an example of cross-branding between two companies founded by billionaire Elon Musk. The astronauts will board the Dragon capsule at pad 39A and run through pre-launch procedures up to the point where the rocket would be fueled during a real countdown.
“We’ll get a chance to put our spacesuits on again to make sure that they’re finally completely up and ready for the actual event,” Behnken said. “We’ll get a chance to climb into the Dragon capsule, strap in and walk through the pre-launch timeline inside the vehicle.
“That’ll involve riding in the Teslas out to the launch pad, going through that whole exercise just to polish the team one more time prior to the launch. Then, of course, the big show in the 27th.”
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/20/dragon-crew-arrives-at-florida-spaceport-kick-off-final-week-of-launch-preps/
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Ready to make history on SpaceX's Crew Dragon, NASA astronauts touch down at KSC
Emre Kelly Florida Today Published 7:01 PM EDT May 20, 2020
A NASA business jet descended into Kennedy Space Center airspace Wednesday, its touchdown signaling the kickoff of a packed schedule for its astronaut passengers.
Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, both spaceflight veterans, landed at KSC's former shuttle runway just before 4 p.m., eventually greeted by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and KSC Director Bob Cabana. The flight was organized in such a way to keep them safely distanced from others during the coronavirus pandemic.
But unlike the Gulfstream III that flew them from Houston to the Space Coast, their next ride looks like something out of science fiction: SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule, which will host humans for the first time when it launches from pad 39A on May 27. The mission to the International Space Station, known as Demo-2, is targeting 4:33 p.m. for liftoff.
"Both Doug and I are really excited to be here," Behnken, an Air Force colonel and former shuttle astronaut, said after landing. "As graduates of military test pilot schools, if you gave us one thing we could have put on our list of dream jobs we could have had some day, it would have been to be aboard a new spacecraft."
The mission to launch astronauts from U.S. soil is nearly a decade in the making. The capability disappeared with the space shuttle program's last flight in July 2011, forcing NASA to buy seats on Russian Soyuz spacecraft until its investments in commercial companies came through. First up to the plate is SpaceX, but Boeing and its Starliner capsule were also selected as part of the program.
"It's just an amazing vehicle, but it's definitely not the space shuttle in many ways. It's much smaller, but it's a capsule. It's state-of-the-art from a technology standpoint," Hurley, a retired Marine Corps colonel who flew on the last space shuttle mission, said of Crew Dragon. "We are so excited to be in a real spaceship and not the simulator here in just a week."
Until launch next week, the duo will continue their training and rehearsals. They'll conduct fit tests with SpaceX's spacesuits; ride out to the pad in Tesla Model X SUVs just like on launch day; and spend time in the Crew Dragon capsule now at pad 39A. All the while, they'll follow stringent quarantine procedures and regularly get tested for COVID-19 before their flight to the ISS.
Sometime this week, their families – also observing strict quarantine – will arrive to join them. They'll likely spend time in the famous "Astronaut Beach House," a spot where astronauts from Gemini to Apollo to space shuttle would gather to socialize and work.
"Maybe we'll get a chance to go and visit that facility and maybe start a tradition or two out there with our families as a part of the new era that we're embarking on," Behnken said.
On Thursday, the critical flight readiness review will take place – if all is "go," that gives teams permission to proceed with operations until the launch readiness review, which is tentatively slated for Monday.
This weekend, the Space Force is expected to release a weather forecast for the instantaneous launch window, meaning that Falcon 9 has to launch at exactly 4:33 p.m. or push to the backup date of May 30.
Source: https://eu.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/2020/05/20/nasa-astronauts-arrive-ksc-ready-make-history-spacex-crew-dragon/5215723002/
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Photos: Crew Dragon mated with Falcon 9 rocket
May 21, 2020 Stephen Clark
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The Crew Dragon’s body-mounted solar panels are visible in this picture. Credit: SpaceX
Crew Dragon, meet Falcon 9.
SpaceX has released photos showing the Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket that will carry NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken aloft next week.
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Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/21/photos-crew-dragon-mated-with-falcon-9-rocket/
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Photos: Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon roll out to pad 39A
May 21, 2020 Stephen Clark
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft emerged from the company’s hangar at the Kennedy Space Center early Thursday for the quarter-mile trip up the ramp to historic Launch Complex 39A, ready for final testing before liftoff on the first U.S. mission to carry astronauts into orbit in nearly nine years.
These photos show the 215-foot (65-meter) rocket rolling out of the SpaceX hangar, which the company built over the Apollo- and space shuttle-era crawlerway between pad 39A and NASA’s iconic Vehicle Assembly Building. The 54,000-square-foot (5,000-square-meter) hangar accommodates multiple Falcon rocket cores at one time.
Riding a strongback transporter system, the Falcon 9 climbed the incline to the pad surface early Thursday after departing the hangar shortly after 12 a.m. EDT (0400 GMT).
By around 2:30 a.m. EDT (0630 GMT) Thursday, the rocket was on the pad deck. SpaceX engaged the hydraulic system to raise the Falcon 9 vertical around 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT), and the crew access arm swung into position next to the Crew Dragon spacecraft a few minutes later.
SpaceX is readying the rocket for a test-firing of its nine Merlin 1D main engines as soon as Friday afternoon.
Liftoff is scheduled for 4:33 p.m. EDT (2033 GMT) next Wednesday, May 27, with astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on-board.
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Credits: NASA/Bill Ingalls
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Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/21/photos-falcon-9-and-crew-dragon-roll-out-to-pad-39a/
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NASA’s chief of human spaceflight resigns on cusp of critical crew launch
May 19, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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Doug Loverro, NASA’s former chief of human spaceflight, participates in a town hall meeting with NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on Dec. 3, 2019. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
The head of NASA’s human spaceflight programs has abruptly resigned, announcing his departure from the space agency two days before before he was to chair a crucial readiness review ahead of the launch of the first crewed U.S. space mission in nearly a decade.
Doug Loverro joined NASA in December after decades managing military space programs, and his tenure at NASA lasted just six months. He replaced Bill Gerstenmaier, who was removed from his post by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine last July in a shakeup of the space agency’s human spaceflight efforts.
In a statement Tuesday, NASA said Loverro resigned from the agency effective Monday. NASA did not specify a reason for Loverro’s departure, which happened eight days before the first launch of U.S. astronauts from the Kennedy Space Center in nearly nine years.
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Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/19/nasas-chief-of-human-spaceflight-resigns-on-cusp-of-critical-crew-launch/
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NASA human spaceflight head Loverro leaves agency
by Jeff Foust — May 19, 2020 [SN]
Updated 8:15 p.m. Eastern with comments from Rep. Horn.
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NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine (left) and Doug Loverro, associate administrator for human exploration and operations, during an interview in December, shortly after Loverro started at the agency. Loverro resigned May 18 after less than six months on the job. Credit: Lisa Nipp for SpaceNews
WASHINGTON — Doug Loverro, the NASA official responsible for human spaceflight programs, left the agency May 18 after less than six months on the job.
In a May 19 statement, NASA said that Loverro resigned from his position as associate administrator for human exploration and operations effective May 18. Ken Bowersox, Loverro’s deputy, will serve as acting associate administrator. A NASA spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions about the reasons for Loverro’s resignation, but industry sources say that Loverro and Bridenstine disagreed over aspects of the exploration program.
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Source: https://spacenews.com/nasa-human-spaceflight-head-loverro-leaves-agency/
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Commercial crew launch preparations continue despite leadership shakeup
by Jeff Foust — May 21, 2020 [SN]
Updated 7 p.m. Eastern with new time for post-Flight Readiness Review briefing.
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NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley discuss the upcoming Demo-2 commercial crew test flight after arriving at the Kennedy Space Center May 20. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
WASHINGTON — Preparations for the launch of a SpaceX commercial crew test flight with two NASA astronauts on board are continuing despite the unexpected departure of the head of the agency’s overall human spaceflight program.
NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley arrived at the Kennedy Space Center May 20 ahead of their launch on the Demo-2 mission, also called DM-2, currently scheduled for May 27. They will carry out some final preflight checks of the Crew Dragon vehicle and other systems in the coming days.
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Source: https://spacenews.com/commercial-crew-launch-preparations-continue-despite-leadership-shakeup/
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SpaceX Demo-2 commercial crew mission passes flight readiness review
by Jeff Foust — May 22, 2020 [SN]
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SpaceX conducted May 22 a static-fire test of the Falcon 9 that will launch the Demo-2 commercial crew mission, shortly after the completion of a flight readiness review. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
WASHINGTON — NASA has given SpaceX approval to proceed with final preparations for the first commercial crew mission with astronauts on board, although there is still work to complete ahead of the planned May 27 launch.
NASA and SpaceX completed a flight readiness review (FRR) May 22 that lasted one and a half days. At the end of the review, agency leaders gave their approval to continue with plans for a May 27 launch of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on the Demo-2 mission, with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on board.
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Source: https://spacenews.com/spacex-demo-2-commercial-crew-mission-passes-flight-readiness-review/
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NASA clears SpaceX crew capsule for first astronaut mission
May 22, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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The Falcon 9 rocket that will carry astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken into orbit fired its engines in a ground test at 4:33 p.m. EDT (2033 GMT) on Friday, May 22. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now
After a two-day readiness review, NASA managers gave a green light Friday for SpaceX to proceed with final preparations for launch next Wednesday, May 27, of a commercial spaceship carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station on the first orbital spaceflight from U.S. soil since 2011.
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Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/22/nasa-review-clears-spacex-crew-capsule-for-first-astronaut-mission/
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Trump to visit Kennedy Space Center for crew launch
May 22, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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President Donald Trump, joined by Vice President Mike Pence, delivers remarks at a 2018 meeting of the National Space Council at the White House. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
President Trump plans to visit the Kennedy Space Center in Florida next week to view the first launch of astronauts into orbit from U.S. soil in nearly a decade, according to White House officials.
Vice President Mike Pence previously announced plans to travel to the Kennedy Space Center for the launch of NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.
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Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/22/trump-plans-to-be-at-the-kennedy-space-center-for-crew-launch/
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Trump to attend Demo-2 launch, but fewer other guests
by Jeff Foust — May 23, 2020 [SN]
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Vice President Mike Pence and President Donald Trump are both expected to attend the Demo-2 commercial crew launch attempt May 27. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
WASHINGTON — While both the president and vice president plan to attend the Demo-2 commercial crew launch, there will be far fewer people attending the first American human orbital spaceflight in nearly a decade than once expected.
The White House announced May 22 that President Donald Trump will go to the Kennedy Space Center for the Demo-2 launch on May 27, but provided few other details about the visit.
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Source: https://spacenews.com/trump-to-attend-demo-2-launch-but-fewer-other-guests/
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Dragon crew runs through launch day dress rehearsal
May 23, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken donned their SpaceX-made launch and entry flight suits Saturday and rode to pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in a final dress rehearsal before launch day.
They rode in a Tesla SUV with the license plate “ISSBND” — noting the crew’s destination of the International Space Station.
The two NASA astronauts — each a veteran of two space shuttle flights — departed crew quarters at Kennedy’s Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building a little before 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT) Saturday.
After a 20-minute drive to the launch pad, Hurley and Behnken rode an elevator to the 265-foot-level of the seaside complex, walked across the 50-foot crew access arm, and boarded SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule. The strapped into their seats and performed their initial spacecraft fit checks, following the same timeline as launch day.
Spaceflight Now@SpaceflightNow 7:37 PM - May 23, 2020
Dragon astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are riding a Tesla Model X to launch pad 39A, where they will strap into the Crew Dragon spacecraft for today’s dress rehearsal. The just drove by the Kennedy Space Center press site. https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/20/falcon-9-crew-dragon-demo-2-launch-preps/ …
Twitter (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/1264249048992710656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1264249048992710656&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fspaceflightnow.com%2F2020%2F05%2F23%2Fphotos-dragon-crew-runs-through-launch-day-dress-rehearsal%2F)
The countdown was expected to halt an hour prior to the simulated launch time of 4:33:33 p.m. EDT (2033:33 GMT), the same time of the Crew Dragon’s scheduled liftoff Wednesday. The astronauts were expected to exit the Crew Dragon spacecraft within a half-hour after the simulated scrub, then return to crew quarters for a debriefing.
Saturday’s “dry dress rehearsal” was the final practice session for the astronauts with the Crew Dragon capsule they will fly into orbit.
A preliminary forecast issued Saturday by the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron predicts a 40 percent probability of favorable conditions for launch Wednesday. That does not take into account additional weather restrictions for a crewed mission, such as favorable winds and sea states downrange in the Atlantic Ocean.
Backup launch opportunities are available May 30 at 3:22 p.m. EDT (1922 GMT) and May 31 at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT).
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Credits: NASA/Bill Ingalls
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The convoy carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken is seen in the background behind SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket on pad 39A. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
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This view inside Firing Room 4 at NASA’s Launch Control Center at the Kennedy Space Center shows a video monitor, where astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are visible in the crew access arm at pad 39A Saturday. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
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Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of build and flight reliability at SpaceX, speaks with Steve Stich, NASA’s deputy commercial crew program manager, inside Firing Room 4 at NASA’s Launch Control Center on Saturday. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
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Credits: SpaceX
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Dragon spacecraft commander Doug Hurley and joint operations commander Bob Behnken pose at launch pad 39A Saturday during a dress rehearsal for their launch scheduled May 27. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/23/photos-dragon-crew-runs-through-launch-day-dress-rehearsal/
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Astronauts have a surprise name for their Crew Dragon spacecraft
May 23, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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The Crew Dragon spacecraft sits atop a Falcon 9 rocket on pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Credit: SpaceX
Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken plan to reveal a name for their Crew Dragon spaceship on the day they launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, reclaiming a tradition that dates back to the dawn of the Space Age.
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Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/23/astronauts-have-a-surprise-name-for-their-crew-dragon-spacecraft/
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NASA astronauts spending Memorial Day in quarantine
Rachael Joy Florida Today Published 7:01 PM EDT May 22, 2020 [FT]
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Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken in front of the SpaceX Flacon 9 that will carry them to the ISS on their historic flight. NASA/Kim Shiflett
Like most people in Brevard County, astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken hope to spend some time at the beach this Memorial Day – if they can break away from their busy schedule preparing for their historic launch next week.
“It’ll be a unique Memorial Day weekend for us being in quarantine. The good thing is our families arrive tomorrow so we’ll get to see them,” Hurley told FLORIDA TODAY during a virtual press conference.
They’re slated to lift off at 4:33 p.m. on Wednesday, May 27, aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft carried by a Falcon 9 rocket – the first launch of American astronauts from American soil to the International Space Station in nearly a decade.
Before then, the astronauts have a jam packed schedule of events starting with the full dress rehearsal on Saturday for launch day.
“Hopefully we’ll get a chance to be outside, maybe get out to the beach house and at least enjoy some of the traditional things folks hope to enjoy on most Memorial Days,” he continued.
The Astronaut Beach House is a historic structure on the Kennedy Space Center built in 1962 for the astronauts and their families to enjoy time together before a launch.
Hurley and Behnken arrived at Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday and were greeted by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana.
Hurley and Behnken's first astronaut jobs were at Kennedy Space Center where they spent several years early in their careers.
"This is a very, very special place to us. It’s almost like a home away from home so it’s great to be back,” Hurley said.
So where do they like to go locally when they aren’t in quarantine?
“Anywhere in Cocoa Beach. It’s always just neat to get out, see the beach and some of the different restaurants and places we try to go whenever we get down here but the docs will not allow it on this trip,” Hurley joked.
Source: https://eu.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/2020/05/22/nasa-astronauts-spending-memorial-day-quarantine-before-spacex-launch/5245869002/
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How Elon Musk beat Boeing in the commercial space race to launch NASA astronauts
Rachael Joy Florida Today Published 1:33 PM EDT May 23, 2020
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks before unveiling the Model Y at Tesla's design studio on Thursday, March 14, 2019, in Hawthorne, Calif. Jae C. Hong, AP
To understand how a former software engineer with no space experience built a company selected to launch NASA astronauts to orbit, it might help to go back to a brisk February evening in 2008, when a guy you probably never heard of rode shotgun next to Elon Musk, holding on for dear life as Musk raced the first ever production Tesla through the streets of Los Angeles.
"This thing just slams you to the back of your seat like a fighter jet does,” Silicon Valley tech blogger, Robert Scoble wrote on his blog the next day.
(...)
Source: https://eu.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/2020/05/22/elon-musk-beats-out-boeing-space-race-launch-nasa-astronauts/3054947001/
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Trump to attend Demo-2 launch, but fewer other guests
by Jeff Foust — May 23, 2020 [SN]
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Vice President Mike Pence and President Donald Trump are both expected to attend the Demo-2 commercial crew launch attempt May 27. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
WASHINGTON — While both the president and vice president plan to attend the Demo-2 commercial crew launch, there will be far fewer people attending the first American human orbital spaceflight in nearly a decade than once expected.
The White House announced May 22 that President Donald Trump will go to the Kennedy Space Center for the Demo-2 launch on May 27, but provided few other details about the visit.
https://spacenews.com/trump-to-attend-demo-2-launch-but-fewer-other-guests/
SpaceX overcame parachute, thruster problems in Crew Dragon development
by Jeff Foust — May 24, 2020 [SN]
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SpaceX conducted the last parachute test for its Crew Dragon spacecraft May 1, wrapping up an accelerated test program. Credit: SpaceX
WASHINGTON — To get a new, state-of-the-art crewed spacecraft ready to carry astronauts, SpaceX and NASA had to overcome problems with a technology long thought to be understood.
One of the last tests that SpaceX had to complete for the Crew Dragon was for its Mark 3 parachute system. The company announced May 1 that it successfully carried out the final test of the parachute system, with 27 tests overall carried out since last fall.
https://spacenews.com/spacex-overcame-parachute-thruster-problems-in-crew-dragon-development/
Video: Dragon astronauts practice for launch day
May 24, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHjMUP_Vq7s
Following the same timeline as they will on launch day, NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken put on their SpaceX flight suits and strapped inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft Saturday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/24/video-dragon-astronauts-practice-for-launch-day/
Crew Dragon astronauts, both married to veteran space fliers, share unique bond
May 25, 2020 William Harwood [SFN]
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NASA astronauts Bob Behnken (left) and Doug Hurley (right) pose on the tower at launch pad 39A Saturday during a dress rehearsal for launch day. Credit: SpaceX
It’s one thing to watch a spouse blast off on a rocketship, especially when the spacecraft is making its first flight with people on board. But it’s altogether another matter when the anxious spouse is an astronaut as well.
That’s the case for Karen Nyberg and Megan McArthur, both veteran astronauts married to the two men who plan to take off aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon Wednesday for a historic flight to the International Space Station.
It will be the first flight of an American spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts launching from U.S. soil since the space shuttle completed its final mission in 2011. And it will be the first time in space history that astronauts will ride commercially developed American-made rockets and spacecraft not owned and operated by the space agency.
A veteran of two space flights, including a long-duration stay aboard the space station, Nyberg, now retired from the astronaut corps, is married to Crew Dragon commander Douglas Hurley, a two-flight veteran and pilot of the shuttle Atlantis during the program’s final mission. The couple has a 10-year-old son, Jack.
McArthur, who helped service the Hubble Space Telescope during a final shuttle overhaul in 2009, is married to Crew Dragon joint operations commander Robert Behnken, one of Hurley’s best friends. They have a 6-year-old son, Theodore.
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NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, veteran of a shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, is married to Crew Dragon astronaut Bob Behnken. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
By almost any standard, the Hurleys and Behnkens are standouts — even by astronaut standards.
Hurley is a veteran Marine Corps F/A-18 test pilot. Behnken holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from CalTech and served as an Air Force flight test engineer with the F-22 program. Nyberg holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and McArthur earned a doctorate in oceanography.
All four met after being selected by NASA as part of a 17-member astronaut class in 2000.
“We know how they’re going to feel on launch day,” Hurley said in an interview with CBS News. “And it is way harder on them to watch somebody that you care for get on a rocket and go fly than it is for those two guys on the rocket. I mean, it’s a tough job to be the one watching.
“They understand the risks, they understand the trades, they understand why you’re doing it and how you feel about it. That in itself makes it a lot easier. But I think they understand a lot more in most cases maybe somebody who came from another background.”
Asked how she felt about it, Nyberg said, “I think in some ways you can know too much.”
“But I have so much confidence in the two of them as operators,” she said. “I know if there are any problems, they are cool, calm and collected and (will) work through it. As far as the risk goes, you know, I accepted risk for myself a long time ago and just understand that that’s part of our career.”
Karen L. Nyberg@AstroKarenN 2:49 PM - May 24, 2020
Arriving in Florida with a flyby of your dad’s spaceship on the launch pad... Priceless. #LaunchAmerica #CrewDragon
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Twitter (https://twitter.com/AstroKarenN/status/1264539030013857793?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1264539030013857793&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fspaceflightnow.com%2F2020%2F05%2F25%2Fcrew-dragon-astronauts-both-married-to-veteran-space-fliers-share-unique-bond%2F)
Said McArthur: “It’s comforting to us in a way to have knowledge of the technical challenges that they might be facing, to understand how the teams work when they’re trying to resolve those challenges because it gives you a lot of confidence. As Karen said, it gives you a lot of confidence in the process as they go through this mission.”
Hurley and Behnken have been training for the past several years for their Crew Dragon flight, routinely flying from Houston to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, to SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, and various other job-related destinations.
While managing life on the home front is difficult for the spouse who stays behind, the fact that the families are such close friends definitely helps.
“We’ve been friends for 20 years,” said McArthur. “We started together, we’re still friends together, we have kids now who are playing well together. And so sometimes when Bob and Doug are out in California, and we know they’re working hard, we’ll go out to dinner together, we’ll take the boys and go out to dinner together somewhere.
“But as Karen said, it’s just, you know, in any couple (where) both people are working, you kind of hand back and forth that domestic responsibility when somebody else’s work is surging, and it’s not really any different for us. You take the opportunity to support one another when it’s the other person’s turn.”
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Karen Nyberg, wife of Crew Dragon commander Doug Hurley, has logged 180 days in space on two missions. She’s seen here in the Cupola on the International Space Station in 2013. Credit: NASA
SpaceX launched an unpiloted Crew Dragon to the space station last year, a test flight flight that went off without a hitch. The company has resolved earlier problems with the parachute system needed to lower the capsule to an ocean splashdown and replaced pressurization mechanisms responsible for an explosion during a subsequent ground test.
In January, SpaceX launched a Crew Dragon atop a Falcon 9 booster and deliberately triggered a rocket-powered abort, showing the spacecraft can quickly and autonomously propel a crew capsule to safety in the event of a catastrophic failure.
Unlike the space shuttle, which had so-called “black zones” during ascent in which unsurvivable propulsion failures were a reality, the Crew Dragon was designed to safely abort at any point from the launch pad to orbit. In addition, the Falcon 9 can suffer one and possibly two first stage engine failures and still reach space.
But Hurley and Behnken will still be riding a rocket, and the risks are higher than most people are used to dealing with.
“We have those discussions inside the house,” Behnken said. “I don’t want to spoil the movie for folks who haven’t seen it, but the ‘First Man’ movie that recently came out, there’s a scene in there where Neil Armstrong is tasked by his wife with explaining to his children what the risk in front of them actually is.
“My son is a little bit on the young side for that explanation, but we’ve had that conversation. That’s part of my job … not put it all on her to make sure that the rest of the family understands as well that there’s risk associated with it. It isn’t all just interviews and laughing and joking around. There’s risk involved, and folks need to appreciate that.”
Bob Behnken@AstroBehnken 7:25 PM - May 12, 2020
My son and I took in a recent Falcon 9/Dragon launch together. This is what it took to get his approval for me to be onboard later this month!
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Twitter (https://twitter.com/AstroBehnken/status/1260259862400905218?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1260259862400905218&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fspaceflightnow.com%2F2020%2F05%2F25%2Fcrew-dragon-astronauts-both-married-to-veteran-s)
When he explained the flight and his assignment to his son, Theodore, “the only question he had was whether or not the Dragon was going to roar. So they went to Florida where they watched a Dragon cargo ship blast off “and he got to (hear) the roar of the Dragon himself.”
Behnken said he told his son “we’ve done everything we can … to make sure that the Dragon isn’t gonna bite us and if it tries, there’s an escape system that’s going to help us get away from the Falcon.”
“I think the thing I’m most looking forward to is being able to share this experience with my son,” he said. “This’ll be something completely new for him. And so I’m just really excited to share that experience with him.”
Nyberg said their son was only 18 months old when Hurley took off aboard Atlantis and just 3 years old when she took off aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on her last flight.
“He hasn’t talked about being scared or nervous,” she said of 10-year-old Jack. “He’s talked about how proud of his of his dad but you know, I don’t want to talk about being scared or nervous either and have him pick up on that. So we’ll see how it how it goes when the day comes.””
For her part, McArthur said she and Behnken “just try to talk to him as normally as possible about you know, this is daddy’s job, this is mommy’s job, dad’s gonna go and launch on a rocket and go to space station so that it’s just kind of a normal thing for him to absorb.”
“I’m trying to not build up a lot of excitement around this one moment because that just can be overwhelming, I think, for for children.”
One unusual aspect of the Crew Dragon test flight is that the families will not know when the mission might come to an end until well after the astronauts reach orbit. The spacecraft can remain aloft of up to 120 days, but the crew might come down earlier depending on landing weather and a variety of other factors.
Neither Hurley nor Behnken have spent more than about two weeks at a time in space. McArthur also had a relatively short shuttle mission. But Nyberg spent 166 days aboard the International Space Station in 2013.
Asked if she had any advice for her husband, Nyberg said it’s important to savor the experience because “the time goes so fast.”
“When I was there, I knew my mission was going to be five-and-a-half months. What I really tried to do was enjoy the things that were unusual about it. Knowing that once I got back I was not going to be able to look out at the Earth anymore, I was not going to be able to fly, to float quickly, grab a handrail and zoom around the corner.
“All those little things that are special about being in space, just take advantage of those while you can.”
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/25/crew-dragon-astronauts-both-married-to-veteran-space-fliers-share-unique-bond/
Weather primary concern for Demo-2 launch
by Jeff Foust — May 25, 2020 [SN]
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SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft atop its Falcon 9 rocket at Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: SpaceX
WASHINGTON — NASA and SpaceX officials said after a final pre-launch review they had no major issues about the upcoming Demo-2 commercial crew launch beyond one over which they have no control: the weather.
NASA concluded a launch readiness review May 25 for the Demo-2 mission, the final pre-launch review for a mission that will send NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station on the first crewed flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.
https://spacenews.com/weather-primary-concern-for-demo-2-launch/
SpaceX crew launch comes with new weather constraints for downrange aborts
May 26, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Demo-2 mission’s May 27 launch attempt was scrubbed due to poor weather. SpaceX plans another launch attempt at 3:22 p.m. EDT (1922 GMT) Saturday, May 30.
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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft stand on launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Mission managers will be closely monitoring the weather for the first launch of astronauts aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, not just around the Kennedy Space Center, but along a corridor stretching thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean in case the crew capsule has to escape from its Falcon 9 rocket during the climb into orbit.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/26/spacex-crew-launch-comes-with-new-weather-constraints-for-downrange-aborts/
Current and former NASA leadership share credit for commercial crew
by Jeff Foust — May 26, 2020 [SN]
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Former NASA administrator Charles Bolden said his successor, Jim Bridenstine, is "working out to be a great administrator," as the two men shared credit for the commercial crew program. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
WASHINGTON — On the eve of the first crewed orbital flight from the United States in nearly nine years, both the current NASA administrator and his predecessor agreed that credit for the ultimate success of the commercial crew program should be shared.
https://spacenews.com/current-and-former-nasa-leadership-share-credit-for-commercial-crew/
Crew Dragon ready for historic launch as NASA looks ahead to next mission
by Jeff Foust — May 26, 2020 [SN]
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 with the Demo-2 Crew Dragon at Launch Complex 39A during recent pre-launch preparations. Credit: SpaceX
WASHINGTON — As NASA and SpaceX complete final preparations for the first crewed flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, the agency is already looking ahead to the spacecraft’s next mission.
Technicians spent the day May 26 wrapping up work ahead of the scheduled 4:33 p.m. Eastern May 27 launch of the Crew Dragon spacecraft on the Demo-2 mission. That included lowering the Falcon 9 rocket from the vertical to horizontal position at Launch Complex 39A for what NASA described as an inspection of a water radiator system used by ground support equipment to keep the spacecraft cool. The work was completed and the rocket returned to the vertical position later in the day.
https://spacenews.com/crew-dragon-ready-for-historic-launch-as-nasa-looks-ahead-to-next-mission/
NASA adding new television views for SpaceX crew launch
May 27, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated to reflect a scrub of the May 27 launch attempt.
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The convoy carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken is seen in the background behind SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket on pad 39A during a dress rehearsal Saturday, May 23. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
NASA’s live television coverage of the first human spaceflight to take off from the Kennedy Space Center in nearly nine years will include features familiar to launch viewers, and new camera views to document the historic flight of astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/27/nasa-adding-new-television-views-for-spacex-crew-launch/
Commercial crew astronauts accept risks of test flight
by Jeff Foust — May 27, 2020 [SN]
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NASA astronauts Bob Behnken (left) and Doug Hurley, seen here in a May 23 launch rehearsal, say they understand the risks associated with flying a new spacecraft. Credit: SpaceX
WASHINGTON — The astronauts who will fly the first Crew Dragon mission say they understand and accept the risks of a new spacecraft, which they believe can’t be boiled down to a single number.
NASA’s commercial crew program set a number of safety requirements for the spacecraft whose development it supported. Among them was a “loss-of-crew” figure of merit — a measure of the probability of death or permanent disability of one or more people on a spacecraft during a mission — of 1 in 270.
https://spacenews.com/commercial-crew-astronauts-accept-risks-of-test-flight/
Weather scrubs SpaceX commercial crew launch
by Jeff Foust — May 27, 2020 Updated 6:05 p.m. Eastern with Bridenstine comments. [SN]
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The SpaceX Falcon 9 with its Crew Dragon spacecraft moments before weather conditions scrubbed the launch. Credit: NASA TV
WASHINGTON — The first human orbital spaceflight from the United States in nearly nine years came within 17 minutes of launch May 27 before weather conditions postponed the launch.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 was scheduled to lift off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 4:33 p.m. Eastern placing a Crew Dragon spacecraft, with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on board, into orbit.
https://spacenews.com/weather-scrubs-spacex-commercial-crew-launch/
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Stormy weather delays Crew Dragon launch to Saturday
May 27, 2020 William Harwood STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION [SFN]
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands on pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center during a launch attempt Wednesday, May 27. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now
Stormy weather across Florida’s Space Coast forced SpaceX to call off the long-awaited launch of two astronauts aboard the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, the first piloted flight to orbit from U.S. soil in nearly nine years.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/27/stormy-weather-delays-crew-dragon-launch-to-saturday/
Managers weigh weather odds in deciding next Crew Dragon launch attempt
May 29, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft stand on pad 39A Friday. Credit: Walter Scriptunas II / Spaceflight Now
Mission managers are weighing a motley mix of weather models, safety criteria and astronaut workload considerations as they decide when SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft might have the best chance to launch from the Kennedy Space Center.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/29/mission-managers-weigh-weather-odds-in-deciding-next-crew-dragon-launch-attempt/
Photos: Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon await next launch attempt
May 30, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
These photos show the 215-foot-tall (65-meter) Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft on pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, ready for launch on a test flight to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken when weather cooperates.
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Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/30/photos-falcon-9-and-crew-dragon-await-next-launch-attempt/
NASA astronauts launch from U.S. soil for first time in nine years
May 30, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft take off from the Kennedy Space Center on the first orbital spaceflight from U.S. soil since 2011. Credit: Walter Scriptunas II / Spaceflight Now
Two veteran NASA astronauts rocketed away from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday to begin a test flight of a new commercial spaceship designed, built and owned by SpaceX.
The long-awaited return of human spaceflight to the Florida spaceport marked just the fifth time in U.S. history that astronauts flew into orbit on a new type of spacecraft, and the first time since the inaugural space shuttle launch in 1981.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/30/nasa-astronauts-launch-from-us-soil-for-first-time-in-nine-years/
Crew Dragon in orbit after historic launch
by Jeff Foust — May 30, 2020 Updated 9:05 p.m. with post-launch press conference statements. [SN]
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center May 30 placing the Demo-2 spacecraft, with two NASA astronauts on board, into orbit. Credit: Craig Vander Galien for SpaceNews
WASHINGTON — The first crewed orbital launch from the United States in nearly nine years took place May 30, placing a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft with two NASA astronauts on board into orbit, bound for the International Space Station.
A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 3:22 p.m. Eastern. The Crew Dragon spacecraft atop the rocket’s upper stage separated 12 minutes later after achieving low Earth orbit.
https://spacenews.com/crew-dragon-in-orbit-after-historic-launch/
Dragon crew names their spacecraft Endeavour; complete first manual flight test
May 30, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 7:30 a.m. EDT (1130 GMT) on May 31 with downlink video.
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Credit: NASA TV / Spaceflight Now
Hours after arriving in orbit, Dragon astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken completed their first manual flight test using touchscreen controls on the SpaceX’s new crew capsule, and revealed “Endeavour” as the name of their ship.
The astronauts entered Earth orbit around nine minutes after lifting off on top of a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center at 3:22 p.m. EDT (1922 GMT) Saturday, marking the first human spaceflight to originate from the Florida spaceport since the final space shuttle mission in July 2011.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/30/dragon-astronauts-name-their-spacecraft-endeavour-complete-first-manual-flight-test/
Trump takes victory lap after Crew Dragon launch
by Jeff Foust — May 30, 2020 [SFN]
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President Donald Trump speaks at the Kennedy Space Center shortly after the successful Demo-2 commercial crew launch May 30. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump used a speech after the successful SpaceX Crew Dragon launch May 30 to tout his administration’s accomplishments in space, some of which predate his time in office, rather than announce any new initiatives.
https://spacenews.com/trump-takes-victory-lap-after-crew-dragon-launch/
Making history, astronauts ride commercial capsule to space station
May 31, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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Russian flight engineer Ivan Vagner tweeted this picture of the newly-enlarged Expedition 63 crew Sunday on the International Space Station. Behnken and Hurley are seeing black shirts. Credit: Ivan Vagner/Roscosmos
A Crew Dragon spaceship built and owned by SpaceX glided to an automated docking with the International Space Station Sunday, delivering NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the orbiting research complex after a trouble-free 19-hour flight from the Kennedy Space Center.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/31/making-history-astronauts-ride-commercial-capsule-to-space-station/
Crew Dragon docks with ISS
by Jeff Foust — May 31, 2020 [SN]
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The Crew Dragon spacecraft Endeavour docked with the ISS at 10:16 a.m. Eastern May 31. Credit: NASA TV
WASHINGTON — A Crew Dragon spacecraft docked with the International Space Station May 31, less than a day after making history as the first human orbital spaceflight from the United States in nearly nine years.
The spacecraft, named Endeavour by its crew of NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, docked with the station’s Harmony module at 10.16 a.m. Eastern. The spacecraft’s approach to the ISS went smoothly, with docking taking place nearly 15 minutes ahead of schedule.
https://spacenews.com/crew-dragon-docks-with-iss-2/
Photos: Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon blast off from pad 39A
May 31, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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Credit: Walter Scriptunas II / Spaceflight Now
SpaceX’s first human-rated Crew Dragon spacecraft took off Saturday from historic launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, launching NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on the first piloted orbital space mission from a U.S. spaceport in nearly a decade.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/31/photos-falcon-9-and-crew-dragon-blast-off-from-pad-39a/
Demo-2 launch wins political praise, but future funding uncertain
by Jeff Foust — June 1, 2020 [SN]
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NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, seen here at a press event prior to the Demo-2 launch, has praised the Trump administration for its support of the agency while also emphasizing the importance of bipartisan backing for NASA. Credit: Craig Vander Galien for SpaceNews
WASHINGTON — The successful return of human orbital spaceflight to the United States generated bipartisan praise, but it’s unclear if that support will translate into funding required to enable other NASA human spaceflight ambitions.
https://spacenews.com/demo-2-launch-wins-political-praise-but-future-funding-uncertain/
SpaceX’s reusable Falcon booster returns to port after crew launch
June 2, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now
Almost exactly three days after taking off a few miles to the north at the Kennedy Space Center on SpaceX’s historic first crew launch, a 15-story-tall Falcon rocket booster returned to Florida’s Space Coast Tuesday aboard a football field-sized drone ship.
Throngs of local residents, tourists and space enthusiasts turned out at Jetty Park and Port Canaveral to see the booster as it returned from sea.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/06/02/photos-spacexs-reusable-falcon-booster-returns-to-port-after-crew-launch/
Demo-2 astronauts get to work on ISS
by Jeff Foust — June 2, 2020 [SN]
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NASA astronauts (from left) Bob Behnken, Doug Hurley and Chris Cassidy speak at a June 1 media event on the ISS, hold an American flag left on the station by the STS-135 shuttle mission nearly nine years ago. Credit: NASA TV
WASHINGTON — After making history on the first crewed flight of an orbital spacecraft launched from the United States in nearly nine years, two NASA astronauts are settling in on the International Space Station.
Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley arrived at the ISS May 31, 19 hours after the Crew Dragon spacecraft they were on launched from the Kennedy Space Center. They will remain on the station for up to four months, joining the station’s crew of NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner.
https://spacenews.com/demo-2-astronauts-get-to-work-on-iss/
Trump campaign pulls space-themed ad after complaints
by Jeff Foust — June 4, 2020 [SN]
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The "Make Space Great Again" ad mixed historical footage with that from the Demo-2 commercial crew launch May 30. Credit: Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.
WASHINGTON — The reelection campaign of President Donald Trump has taken down an online ad tied to the recent Demo-2 commercial crew launch after complaints it appeared to violate NASA media guidelines, and criticism from one person who appeared in it.
https://spacenews.com/trump-campaign-pulls-space-themed-ad-after-complaints/
Commercial crew success prompts congratulations and criticism from Russia
by Jeff Foust — June 8, 2020 [SN]
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Dmitry Rogozin (right), head of Roscosmos, meeting with NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in 2018. Rogozin offered congratulations to NASA for the successful Demo-2 commercial crew launch. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
WASHINGTON — The successful launch of the first crewed orbital flight from the United States in nearly nine years has met with a mixed reaction from Russia, with formal congratulations from Russian leadership but skepticism from others.
https://spacenews.com/commercial-crew-success-prompts-congratulations-and-criticism-from-russia/
NASA anticipates August return for Hurley and Behnken
June 9, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft approaches the International Space Station for docking May 31. Credit: NASA
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft will likely return to Earth in August to wrap up a test flight to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, a senior space agency official said Tuesday.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/06/09/nasa-anticipates-august-return-for-hurley-and-behnken/
Crew Dragon likely to support extended space station stay
by Jeff Foust — June 9, 2020 [SN]
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The Demo-2 Crew Dragon spacecraft approaching the ISS May 31. NASA says the spacecraft is doing "very well" in orbit, giving NASA confidence the mission can last until August. Credit: NASA
WASHINGTON — SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is performing well enough on orbit to give NASA confidence that the mission can last until August, an agency official said June 9.
Ken Bowersox, the acting associate administrator for human exploration and operations at NASA, told an online meeting of two National Academies committees that NASA had been monitoring the health of the Crew Dragon spacecraft since its launch May 30 on the Demo-2 mission, carrying NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station.
https://spacenews.com/crew-dragon-likely-to-support-extended-space-station-stay/
Photos: SpaceX’s first crewed mission launches from pad 39A
June 10, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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Credit: SpaceX
This collection of images from NASA and SpaceX photographers shows the Crew Dragon spacecraft lifting off on top of a Falcon 9 rocket May 30.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/06/10/photos-spacexs-first-crewed-mission-launches-from-pad-39a/
Astronauts say riding Falcon 9 rocket was “totally different” from the space shuttle
June 12, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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A view inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft during launch May 30. NASA astronaut Bob Behnken is seen in the foreground. Astronaut Doug Hurley is seated to the left of Behnken. Credit: NASA TV / SpaceX
Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken say SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was a “very pure flying machine” as it sped their Crew Dragon spaceship into orbit, but they said they were surprised by the rougher-than-expected ride on the Falcon 9’s powerful upper stage.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/06/12/astronauts-say-riding-falcon-9-rocket-was-totally-different-from-the-space-shuttle/
NASA agrees to fly astronauts on reused Crew Dragon spacecraft
June 23, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft approaches the International Space Station on May 31 with astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on-board. Credit: NASA
NASA has agreed to allow its astronauts to fly on reused Crew Dragon spaceships and Falcon 9 boosters beginning as soon as SpaceX’s third launch of a crew to the International Space Station, a mission expected to launch next year.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/06/23/nasa-agrees-to-fly-astronauts-on-reused-crew-dragon-spacecraft/
Astronauts gear up for Friday spacewalk amid planning for August Crew Dragon return
June 24, 2020 William Harwood STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION [SFN]
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NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Bob Behnken work with their spacesuits ahead of the first in a series of spacewalks scheduled for Friday. Credit: NASA
Space station commander Chris Cassidy and Robert Behnken plan to float outside Friday for the first of up to four spacewalks needed to complete the replacement of aging batteries in the lab’s solar power system. NASA managers hope to get the work done in time for Behnken and crewmate Douglas Hurley to return to Earth aboard their Crew Dragon capsule by around Aug. 2, officials said Wednesday.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/06/24/astronauts-gear-up-for-friday-spacewalk-amid-planning-for-early-august-crew-dragon-return/
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NASA using Demo-2 commercial crew astronauts to support ISS spacewalks
by Jeff Foust — June 25, 2020 [SN]
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The Demo-2 Crew Dragon spacecraft is performing "extremely well" since its launch May 30, allowing NASA to keep it at the International Space Station long enough for its crew to support a series of spacewalks to replace batteries. Credit: NASA
WASHINGTON — NASA is hoping to get as many as six spacewalks performed outside the International Space Station through late July to replace batteries in the station’s power system, taking advantage of the additional astronauts on the station during the Demo-2 commercial crew mission.
https://spacenews.com/nasa-using-demo-2-commercial-crew-astronauts-to-support-iss-spacewalks/
Cassidy, Behnken begin final series of space station battery upgrades
June 26, 2020 William Harwood STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION [SFN]
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Astronauts Chris Cassidy and Bob Behnken work outside the International Space Station on Friday. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now
Two astronauts floated outside the International Space Station early Friday for the first of four planned spacewalks to wrap up a complex multi-year job to replace 48 aging batteries in the lab’s solar power system with 24 more powerful lithium-ion units.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/06/26/cassidy-behnken-begin-final-series-of-space-station-battery-upgrades/
Spacewalkers complete another round of battery replacement work
July 1, 2020 William Harwood STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION [SFN]
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NASA astronaut Bob Behnken is pictured outside the International Space Station on a spacewalk June 26. Credit: NASA
Picking up where they left off last week, two space station astronauts ventured back outside the outpost Wednesday and completed the replacement of aging batteries in one of the lab’s eight electrical power channels. A final power circuit will be equipped with new batteries during two more spacewalks later this month, wrapping up a complex multi-year upgrade.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/07/01/iss-eva-66/
Behnken describes spacewalk views of Crew Dragon as “just awesome”
July 7, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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In this image taken July 1, a spacewalking astronaut snapped a view of the Crew Dragon spacecraft (at right) docked with the International Space Station. Japan’s HTV cargo ship, at bottom in gold, is also seen attached to the space station. Credit: NASA
NASA astronaut Bob Behnken, now in the second half of his mission to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spaceship, glimpsed the commercial crew capsule from a unique viewpoint at the far end of the station’s solar power truss during a pair of recent spacewalks.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/07/07/behnken-halfway-into-crew-dragon-mission-describes-spacewalk-views-as-just-awesome/
Spacewalkers accomplish another round of space station battery swap outs
July 16, 2020 William Harwood STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION [SFN]
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) after end of spacewalk.
https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/1283755539827175424
Now in the home stretch of a complex, multi-year upgrade, two space station astronauts floated outside the lab complex Thursday and completed the replacement of aging batteries in one of the lab’s four sets of solar arrays.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/07/16/iss-eva-67/
NASA confirms plans for Crew Dragon splashdown Aug. 2, weather permitting
July 17, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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In this image taken July 1, a spacewalking astronaut snapped a view of the Crew Dragon spacecraft (at right) docked with the International Space Station. Japan’s HTV cargo ship, at bottom in gold, is also seen attached to the space station. Credit: NASA
Assuming good weather and a smooth final few weeks on the International Space Station, astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are scheduled to undock from the orbiting research outpost Aug. 1 and return to Earth the next day to wrap up a 64-day test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spaceship.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/07/17/nasa-confirms-plans-for-crew-dragon-return-to-earth-on-aug-2/
Spacewalkers prep space station for future upgrades
July 21, 2020 William Harwood STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION [SFN]
https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/1285637705934819334
Space station commander Chris Cassidy and Robert Behnken floated back outside Tuesday for their fourth spacewalk in less than a month, completing preparations for future upgrades including the eventual installation of an airlock that will allow commercial experiments to be moved into and out of vacuum as required.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/07/21/iss-eva-68/
NASA still grappling with effects of coronavirus pandemic
by Jeff Foust — July 21, 2020 [SN]
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NASA's Mars 2020 spacecraft, encapsulated inside a payload fairing, arrives at the launch pad July 7 to be installed on its Atlas 5 rocket. Launch preparations have continued despite an increase in coronavirus cases in Florida and other parts of the country. Credit: NASA/KSC
WASHINGTON — Four months after closing centers because of the coronavirus pandemic, NASA has been able to keep its highest priority missions on track, even as others have suffered delays.
NASA’s Mars 2020 mission is scheduled for launch July 30 on an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The launch slipped from July 17 because of several launch vehicle and related processing issues, but the launch period for the mission remains open through at least Aug. 15.
https://spacenews.com/nasa-still-grappling-with-effects-of-coronavirus-pandemic/
Safety panel concerned about quality control on Boeing crew capsule
July 27, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft that flew on the Orbital Flight Test mission is pictured last November outside the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: Alex Polimeni/Spaceflight Now
Members of NASA’s independent panel of aerospace safety advisors raised concerns last week about quality control problems that “seemingly have plagued” Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule program, while urging NASA to closely monitor SpaceX’s plans to reuse Crew Dragon spaceships on astronaut flights to the International Space Station.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/07/27/safety-panel-concerned-about-quality-control-on-boeing-crew-capsule/
Crew Dragon astronauts ready for re-entry, splashdown
July 31, 2020 William Harwood STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION [SFN]
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Crew Dragon astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken aboard the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
With Hurricane Isaias threatening Florida’s East Coast, astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken are awaiting a go-ahead on plans to undock from the International Space Station Saturday, setting up a fiery plunge to splashdown Sunday, presumably in the Gulf of Mexico, to close out a 64-day flight.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/07/31/crew-dragon-astronauts-ready-for-re-entry-splashdown/
Weather could postpone Crew Dragon return
by Jeff Foust — July 30, 2020 [SN]
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A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft splashing down at the end of the uncrewed Demo-1 mission in March 2019. The Demo-2 mission is set to end with a splashdown Aug. 2, if weather is favorable. Credit: NASA/Cory Huston
WASHINGTON — NASA and SpaceX are ready to wrap up a test flight of the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, but poor weather could delay the return of the spacecraft and its two-person crew.
A July 29 “return flight readiness review” by NASA approved plans to wrap up the Demo-2 test flight and bring NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley back to Earth, a little more than two months after their launch to the International Space Station.
https://spacenews.com/weather-could-postpone-crew-dragon-return/
Crew Dragon astronauts pack up for return to Earth
August 1, 2020 William Harwood [SFN]
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Russian cosmonaut Ivan Vagner tweeted this photo Saturday of Crew Dragon astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken placing their mission patch on the space station docking port where the Dragon is attached. Credit: Ivan Vagner/Roscosmos
Crew Dragon astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken thanked their space station crewmates for a productive two-month visit, readied their SpaceX capsule for departure and stood by for a final “go” from flight controllers to undock Saturday night, setting up a Gulf of Mexico splashdown Sunday afternoon.
“All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go,” Behnken tweeted.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/08/01/crew-dragon-astronauts-pack-up-for-return-to-earth/
Hurley, Behnken heading home on final leg of Crew Dragon test flight
August 1, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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Diagram of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. Credit: SpaceX
Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken undocked from the International Space Station Saturday aboard their Crew Dragon capsule “Endeavour,” heading for a parachute-assisted splashdown Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico to wrap up a 64-day test flight of SpaceX’s commercial human-rated spaceship.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/08/01/hurley-behnken-heading-home-on-final-leg-of-crew-dragon-test-flight/
Crew Dragon undocks from space station
by Jeff Foust — August 1, 2020 [SN]
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The Demo-2 Crew Dragon spacecraft undocks from the International Space Station Aug. 1. Credit: NASA
WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying two NASA astronauts on a test flight undocked from the International Space Station Aug. 1 ahead of a splashdown less than 24 hours later.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft, named Endeavour by the crew of the Demo-2 mission, undocked from the station’s Harmony module at 7:35 p.m. Eastern and started to maneuver away from the station. The undocking went according to plan and the spacecraft performed a series of thruster burns to move away from the station.
https://spacenews.com/crew-dragon-undocks-from-space-station/
Astronauts back on Earth after ‘extraordinary’ Dragon test flight
August 2, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft splashes down in the Gulf of Mexico Sunday with two NASA astronauts on-board. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Returning home after a 64-day test flight, astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken blazed through Earth’s atmosphere and parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft Sunday, a final major step before NASA formally certifies the crew capsule for operational missions to the International Space Station.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/08/02/astronauts-back-on-earth-after-near-flawless-dragon-test-flight/
Crew Dragon splashes down to end successful test flight
by Jeff Foust — August 2, 2020 Updated 6:30 p.m. Eastern with post-splashdown press conference. [SN]
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A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft splashes down in the Gulf of Mexico Aug. 2 to conclude the Demo-2 commercial crew test flight. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
WASHINGTON — SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico Aug. 2, successfully completing a test flight and crossing the finish line of the decade-long commercial crew program.
https://spacenews.com/crew-dragon-splashes-down-to-end-successful-test-flight/
Relive the final descent of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft
August 4, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
A video from SpaceX shows the company’s Crew Dragon capsule plunging toward the Gulf of Mexico, then unfurling a series of parachutes to slow the spaceship carrying two NASA astronauts from 350 mph to a relatively gentle 15 mph for splashdown Sunday.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/08/04/relive-the-final-descent-of-spacexs-crew-dragon-spacecraft/
Dragon astronauts describe sounds and sensations of return to Earth
August 4, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are seen Sunday aboard a helicopter that carried from the SpaceX’s “Go Navigator” recovery ship in the Gulf of Mexico to Naval Air Station Pensacola, where they boarded a NASA jet for a flight back to their home base in Houston. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Two days after becoming the first U.S. space fliers to splash down in the sea in more than 45 years, astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on Tuesday described their fiery ride back to Earth aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule to cap a “flawless” test flight, setting the stage for operational flights beginning later this year.
The dramatic tracking video released by SpaceX late Monday shows the capsule deploying two drogue chutes at an altitude of around 18,000 feet, or 5,500 meters, while moving at about 350 mph, or more than 560 kilometers per hour.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/08/04/dragon-astronauts-describe-sounds-and-sensations-of-returning-to-earth/
Demo-2 astronauts praise performance of Crew Dragon spacecraft
by Jeff Foust — August 5, 2020 [SN]
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NASA astronauts Bob Behnken (left) and Doug Hurley give thumbs-up from inside the Crew Dragon spacecraft shortly after the spacecraft was brought on board a recovery ship after splashdown Aug. 2. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
WASHINGTON — The NASA astronauts who flew on the SpaceX Demo-2 commercial crew vehicle said they were pleasantly surprised at how well the Crew Dragon spacecraft performed.
At an Aug. 4 press conference, astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley praised SpaceX and NASA’s commercial crew program for their work developing the Crew Dragon spacecraft that they returned to Earth in two days earlier, completing a mission that lasted a little more than two months.
https://spacenews.com/deno-2-astronauts-praise-performance-of-crew-dragon-spacecraft/
Back at Cape Canaveral, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule preps for next mission
August 12, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
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SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft returned to Cape Canaveral on Aug. 7 aboard the “Go Navigator” recovery ship. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now
Fresh off a 64-day test flight to the International Space Station with astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, SpaceX’s first human-rated Crew Dragon spaceship is back at Cape Canaveral for inspections, refurbishment and upgrades before flying to the station again with a four-person crew next spring.
The crew capsule — named “Endeavour” by Hurley and Behnken — arrived at Port Canaveral on Aug. 7 aboard SpaceX’s “Go Navigator” recovery ship after sailing from the Gulf of Mexico, where the Dragon spacecraft splashed down under parachutes Aug. 2 south of Pensacola, Florida.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/08/12/back-at-cape-canaveral-spacexs-crew-dragon-capsule-begins-preps-for-next-mission/