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While the world’s attention is focused on the return of human orbital space flight from the US soil. USA After an almost decade-long absence with the upcoming Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission on May 27, SpaceX is simultaneously preparing for the first NASA-certified Crew Dragon operational mission, dubbed Crew-1, slated to occur later this year. .
On Friday, April 24, SpaceX treated its Twitter followers with some rare images of static litmus tests completed at the company’s development facility in McGregor, Texas. The company highlighted a newly manufactured Falcon 9 booster and a Falcon 9 second-stage Merlin Vaccum (MVac) engine intended for the Crew-1 mission. Crew-1, the follow-up mission to the May Demo-2 mission and SpaceX’s first operational human space flight mission to NASA, will power a crew of three NASA astronauts and one JAXA astronaut in a Crew Dragon capsule. to the International Space Station.
SpaceX also provided followers with a view of the pristine Crew-1 mission stage two MVac engine before it was sent to Texas for testing. The 100th production MVac engine is seen inside SpaceX’s manufacturing facility located in Hawthorne, California, before preparing for shipment. The second stage MVac engine is the only Falcon 9 piece of hardware that SpaceX does not actively recover and reuse, unlike the first stage booster and payload guard fairing.
Part of the process
A static litmus test is a typical event before shipping the boost and second stage to Florida for payload integration and launch. The static fire process involves holding down the booster and starting the engines to run during a full-length shot. A similar test is also carried out with the second stage MVac engine. These litmus tests are conducted at the Mcgregor facility to test the vehicle and verify any inconsistencies or non-nominal test readings that may occur before shipping the vehicle to the launch site. After the litmus test, the entire vehicle is inspected, cleaned, and prepared for shipment.
A litmus test at Mcgregor is not the last time the engines will be tested before launch. Typically, about a week before the scheduled launch date, the Falcon 9 booster is transported to the launch pad. There, the propeller is fully propellant fed while securely attached to the launch pad. All nine Merlin-1D engines briefly re-ignite (6-12 seconds) to test the propellant charging process and collect engine ignition measurements, such as temperature and pressure.
Certification before the operation
Although the Crew-1 mission is tentatively on the books by the end of this year, SpaceX and the Crew Dragon capsule have yet to achieve NASA certification to begin operational missions to and from the International Space Station. The second orbital demo flight of the Crew Dragon capsule (Demo-2) will serve as the final end-to-end test of SpaceX’s crew transport system.
However, SpaceX still faces some hurdles before getting a full go-ahead from NASA for the Demo-2 launch. As reported by SpaceNews.com, NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) met by conference call on Thursday, April 23, for a routine quarterly briefing. At that meeting, it was briefly discussed that there are still some “technical elements” that have yet to be approved by NASA prior to the launch of the Demo-2 mission.
Although not specified in the briefing, and likely to be followed up during “part 2” of the ASAP meeting to be held in early May, those elements likely refer to concluding the joint investigation of a recent failure of the in-flight engine of a Falcon 9 Merlin-1D Engine and one more qualifying drop test for the Crew Dragon Mark 3 parachutes. However, SpaceX does not show plans to allow formalities to halt preparation to support future astronaut missions.
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