SpaceX says it has sent the first upgraded Dragon 2 cargo spacecraft to Florida, which opened the door to the first space release of one of the two dragons simultaneously.
More or less a version of SpaceX’s fast-maturing crew dragon spacecraft, the company says the Cargo Dragon 2 will be able to carry “% 0% more science payloads” than the original cargo dragon. The Cargo Dragon became the first privately developed spacecraft to reach orbit, entry and splashdown, exploring numerous Earth-observing targets in its career; The first commercial spacecraft to collect and deliver cargo to the International Space Station (ISS), and the first regularly reusable orbital capsule.
After SpaceX retired the 21st historic vehicle after launching its 21st successful orbital launch and landing in April 2020, Crew Dragon landed on an even more historic historic astronaut launch two months ago. Prior to Demo-2, Crew Dragon, in March 2019, completed what NASA and SpaceX both considered an almost unreliable flawless uncrowded launch. Now, the spacecraft successfully returned two NASA astronauts to Earth from orbit for the first time, with SpaceX getting ready. Cargo Dragon 2 is preparing for its own launch around the same time for the crew dragon’s operational astronaut launch.
According to NASA’s October 10 October update, SpaceX and the Space Agency have decided to delay Crew Dragon’s Crew-1 launch by a double and triple-check for several weeks as there is no common ground in the booster engine issue that booster the recent Falcon 9 satellite launch. With his sister Rocket. Presumably SpaceX’s thhorn, built next to the CA factory, is not unreasonable to test that the Falcon 9 booster B1061 (Crew-1) is not affected by the same issue that caused B1062 to lose its U.S. The military forced the GPS III satellite launch to close on 2 October. .
As a result, the crew-1 hold has dropped from the placeholder launch date on October 23 and October 31 to sometime “early November to mid-November”, while most external sources suggest that the mid-to-late target is more likely. NASA and SpaceX never confirmed the arrival but Crew Dragon Capsule C207 arrived in Florida in late August or early September, from where teams are processing it by equipping the spacecraft for final inspection and closeout procedures.
SpaceX, meanwhile, says it sent the first crew dragon-based cargo dragon to Florida several days ago, meaning the company will soon begin preflight processing of two upgraded dragons simultaneously for the first time. Notably, SpaceX did not give any launch targets in its CRS-21 update, although NASA’s planning documents – prior to the latest Crew-1 delay – stated that the mission was to launch on November 22, November 22.
In other words, CRS-21 and Crew-1 are currently preparing to launch within a period of about two weeks – a situation that could cause some unique problems. For now, both Crew Dragon and Cargo Dragon 2 will have to launch from the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A, as the pad is equipped with a unique tower and crew access arm (CAA) that allows both astronauts to ride and load cargo. SpaceX’s Pad39 has a turnaround record – the time between a single pad and two launches is about 10 days, a much higher figure for a crew dragon mission.
If it has current dates, NASA will have to decide which mission SpaceX Dragon will launch first. Either way, there will be a big delay in not marking when the first two SpaceX Dragon spacecraft for CRS-21 and Crew-1 will not be found in ISS orbit. If successful, it is safe to say that SpaceX will visually strengthen its position as the only spaceflight company on Earth – from affordable and reusable rocket launches, crude spacelights and space station reversible missions to orbital tourism and more.
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