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SpaceX has released a video of one of its latest Crew Dragon tests, with the spacecraft’s launch exhaust system put to the test in case an emergency abortion is required. Conducted in mid-January, the tests focused on one of the most important safety systems the spacecraft will offer, designed to lift astronauts out of danger in the event of a Falcon 9 explosion.
No team was on board the Crew Dragon during the test. Instead, the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft took off in the morning from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida under remote control.
However, after approximately ninety seconds, the cancel sequence started. At that point, Crew Dragon automatically activated its eight SuperDraco engines, which separated the Falcon 9 spacecraft. It is not a quiet or relaxing process, with Crew Dragon propelled at over 400 mph to maximize the distance between him and the rocket.
After that separation has been established, Dragon deployed his parachutes and descended on the Mark III improved chutes to the Atlantic Ocean. There, SpaceX recovered it for reuse. CEO Elon Musk has suggested that future splashes could cause Crew Dragon capsules to land directly on their autonomous barges, rather than a water recovery.
It was a big step forward for SpaceX and for NASA. Crew Dragon is on its way for its first manned flight to the International Space Station later this year, initiating new missions using the spacecraft to transport astronauts and cargo to the orbiting research platform. NASA has scheduled that first trip for May 27, with astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley selected to be on board. The journey will take approximately 24 hours, including en-route time to test the spacecraft’s systems, among other things. The docking process – and, at the other end of the mission, the decoupling process – is automatic, with Crew Dragon mating with the ISS airlocks.
However, beyond that, Crew Dragon technology will form the basis, at least in part, of the SpaceX Starship project. One of the three final candidates for NASA’s Artemis mission human landing system, and the return of the Moon to 2024, Starship will use Raptor engines and iterated capsule technology from Crew Dragon. SpaceX plans several different versions of the spacecraft, in fact, configured for different tasks: taking astronauts into space, acting as a refueling station in low Earth orbit, and more.
