NASA: Astronauts to investigate the belly of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon for damage

• SpaceX launched NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on May 30 to orbit on the private company’s first human flight.
• Behnken and Hurley traveled in SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon spacecraft, developed with NASA assistance, to the International Space Station.
• The crew is now completing its test mission and plans to return to Earth in early August.
• But before Behnken and Hurley return, NASA and SpaceX will inspect the Crew Dragon heat shield, which protects the spacecraft from temperatures of 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit during atmospheric reentry.
• In the rare event that the crew’s Dragon shield has been damaged by micrometeoroids or orbital debris, the two men can remain aboard the ISS until another spacecraft arrives to take them home.
• Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.

After living and working in space for more than two months, NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken will return to planet Earth on August 2.

But before astronauts can return, their Crew Dragon spacecraft, designed, built, and launched by SpaceX with the majority of the $ 3.14 billion that NASA awarded to SpaceX through the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, must pass a crucial inspection.

SpaceX launched Behnken and Hurley with a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on May 30. Their experimental flight, called Demo-2, is the first by the aerospace company with humans. Once in orbit, the astronauts called their spacecraft “Endeavor” (after the first space shuttle in which each man flew), and a day later they docked the new spacecraft to the International Space Station the size of a soccer field.

Aboard the ISS, Behnken and Hurley took spacewalks to upgrade the power supply system, helped with chores, and took fascinating photos of Earth, space, and even Comet Neowise. But until they have safely landed, their mission cannot be considered a success.

“I will start sleeping again when they return safely to the planet,” Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and COO, said during a televised briefing on May 1.

Astronauts plan to board Crew Dragon and undock from ISS on August 1. Depending on weather conditions, the duo should splash in the Atlantic Ocean on August 2, NASA said on Friday.

Before that happens, the agency plans to use a Canadian-made robotic arm attached to the ISS and on-board cameras to inspect the spacecraft for damage.

Looking for rare but dangerous space debris hits

NASA and SpaceX must ensure that objects in space have not damaged Crew Dragon’s belly.

In their estimated risk calculations for Demo-2, NASA determined that there was a 1 in 276 chance of the mission being fatal. Of particular concern is the threat of attacks from MMODs, or micrometeoroids (chunks of asteroids and comets) and orbital debris (man-made space debris).

Even sand grains and paint stains can cause serious damage, as they can move much faster than a bullet before crashing into a spaceship. MMOD has hit NASA’s spacecraft hundreds of times, puncturing radiators (as in the image above), breaking circuit boards, breaking windows, and more.

When Crew Dragon returns to Earth, it will do so with its rounded bottom facing the direction of its flight. That bottom is covered with a heat shield or thermal protection system, made from tiles made of an improved material by NASA’s pioneer SpaceX called PICA-X.

PICA-X tiles are designed to deflect and absorb energy from atmospheric reentry, when Crew Dragon moves at about 25 times the speed of sound. During reentry, an overheated plasma of gas molecules accumulates in front of the heat shield and temperatures can reach 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit, NASA told Business Insider.

It is unlikely that any MMOD has damaged the heat shield in the past few months, and any damage it has inflicted should be minimal. But NASA is working with SpaceX to be on the safe side and check for chips, cracks, holes, or other damage.

After the decoupling, SpaceX is responsible for ensuring that Crew Dragon is safe to return, which involves reviewing image data and running analyzes, a NASA representative, Stephanie Schierholz, told Business Insider in an email.

“Dragon was designed for today’s MMOD environment, so we anticipate that the spacecraft would be able to execute the planned exorbitant / entry, and significant damage would be highly unlikely to occur,” Schierholz said.

Schierholz said similar controls are carried out with Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft before they return to Earth.

Taking a look at Crew Dragon’s plasma-proof tummy may seem difficult at first, since a cylindrical “trunk” is attached to the capsule. (The solar-covered module, which powers the capsule in space and powers it with a rocket engine, is discarded just before re-entering.)

But the trunk is hollow and allows a view.

“The boot does not completely cover the thermal protection system, and the survey will be able to visually inspect those areas,” said Schierholz. “Also, if micrometeoroid damage is observed in the trunk, NASA may carry out additional inspection activities if deemed necessary.”

If significant damage is found after the inspection, NASA and SpaceX would not risk sending astronauts home in the vehicle. Instead, the crew would remain aboard the space station until a new spacecraft could pick them up.

“If there is concern about returning the crew in a damaged vehicle, the ISS systems, consumables and the logistics chain support leaving the crew on the ISS indefinitely as part of a ‘safe haven’ capability,” said Schierholz. “That will provide NASA and international ISS partners with the time necessary to work with all ISS launch service providers to assess the options available to return the crew safely.”

But looking for damage to the crew’s Dragon heat shield isn’t the only concern for the safety of the crew.

‘We have seen these 6 forms of Sunday’

Before the launch of the Demo-2 mission, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, told Irene Klotz of Aviation Week that he was more concerned with the landing phase.

“The part I would be most concerned about would be reentry,” Musk said.

Musk cited the asymmetric design of the capsule, due to an onboard emergency escape system. That system, powered by capsules with small SuperDraco rocket engines, is designed to move the capsule away from a Falcon 9 rocket that fails at any time during launch.

If the asymmetry Musk described somehow causes the Crew Dragon to spin or wobble at hypersonic reentry speeds, it could be dangerous.

“If it spins too far, it could trap the plasma in the SuperDraco’s escape pods,” Musk said. “We’ve looked at these six ways until Sunday, so it’s not like I think this is going to fail. It’s just that I’m a little concerned that it’s asymmetric at heart.”

In all likelihood, the risks of damage or rotation of the heat shield will not prevent astronauts from traveling. And for their part, Behnken and Hurley accepted those risks a long time ago.

Behnken told Business Insider before launch that he and Hurley had worked with SpaceX on Crew Dragon for approximately five years, allowing them to learn more about the ways the mission could fail “than any crew in recent history. “

“I think we are really comfortable with that,” Behnken said of the mission’s estimated level of risk.

This story has been updated.