WASHINGTON – NASA has officially certified the crew Dragon spacecraft of SpaceX to the International Space Station and for transport, clearing the way for the November 14 launch.
During the flight readiness review for the Crew-1 mission, agency officials completed the spacecraft’s certification by signing a document called the Human Rating Certification Plan. Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 launch vehicle.
“It’s just a tremendous day that culminates in a ton of work,” Kathy Ludders, NASA’s associate administrator for human research and operations, said in a briefing on the November 10 flight readiness review. Ludier had been running the business crew program at NASA for many years before he met in his current state in July. “NASA tells SpaceX that you have shown us that you can deliver a crew transport capability that meets our needs.”
NASA officials said earlier that in that review, the certification, overall commercial crew development program is planned to be finalized. This allowed them to analyze minor changes made after the Demo-2 test flight this summer, such as changes to its heat shield and sensors that trigger the parachute to release during capsule descent.
After years of contentious relationships, both NASA and SpaceX were kind words to each other. NASA Administrator Jim Brydenstein said in an agency statement that the certification goal is an incredible achievement of NASA and SpaceX that highlight the progress we can make working together in the professional industry.
Elon Musk, Chief Executive of SpaceX, said in a statement: “Thank you to NASA for its continued support of SpaceX and its partnership in achieving this goal. “I can’t be more proud of everyone on SpaceX and all of our suppliers who worked tirelessly to develop, test and fly the first commercial human spacecraft system in history to be certified by NASA.”
Certification, and completion of the flight readiness review, clears the way for the start of the Crew-1 mission east of the Kennedy Space Center at 7:49 p.m. The launch will send NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Vic Glover and Shannon Waker and JXA astronaut Sochi Noguchi to the ISS for a six-month stay.
Although SpaceX has made minor improvements to the Falcon 9 rocket, it is still on the launch schedule. The company said it would rotate the valve to the top of the rocket after reviewing test data. Which delayed the first phase of the rocket’s steady-fire test by one day, until November 11th.
According to Benji Reed, senior director of SpaceX’s Human Spaceflight programs, the repair will only take a few hours. “I am not worried about the need for further delays. We have a little more time, ”he said at the briefing. Successful static-fire test 11 Nov. This will allow NASA and SpaceX to conduct a “dry dress rehearsal” of the launch preparations on November 12, as well as a final launch readiness review.
The review also confirmed that SpaceX had taken into account the problem of the engines on the Falcon 9 which had a GPS cut. 2 GPS 3 left the final-second route of satellite launch. SpaceX later determined that the “masking lacquer” material blocked a small valve in the engine’s gas generator. SpaceX fixed the problem and successfully launched it GPS3 Satellite 5 Nov.
SpaceX replaced the Falcon 9 with two engines in the first phase for this mission as part of that investigation. “We reviewed all the data on those two new engines. All that data looks good, “said Steve Stitch, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Manager. “So I feel really good about this vehicle.”
NASA and SpaceX highlighted various aspects of the mission in a briefing, including the first operational commercial crew mission and the first time NASA flew four people on a capsule. It will also be the first orbital crew mission to be licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration’s Commercial Space Transportation. Stitch said the FAA will be responsible for public safety during the launch and rentry.
“We are thrilled to have crossed this milestone and the agency has recognized our human rating certificate,” Stitch said, handing over the certificate to NASA’s Crew Dragon, who has been involved in the program for 10 years. “Even though we are certified, I do not treat this flight differently from other flights. We are going to systematically ensure that we are ready to go to the launch. “
