Cape Canaveral, Fla. – SpaceX has just launched a rocket that will take a crew of astronauts to the International Space Station this weekend.
The private spaceflight company conducted a static-fire test of its Falcon 9 rocket at Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center here on Wednesday (November 11). The test is one of the final big goals ahead of the planned launch on Saturday (November 14).
Routine preflight testing began calculating the expected flight of the company’s first operational mission of its Dragon Crew capsule, named Crew-1. The spacecraft is bound for the International Space Station, with three NASA astronauts and a Japanese spaceflyer.
The test, originally scheduled for Tuesday evening (November 10), was postponed for 24 hours so that SpaceX could test and replace the pure valve in the second phase of the rocket.
Live updates: SpaceX’s Crew-1 astronaut launches for NASA
In the photo: SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station
On Wednesday afternoon, the Falcon 9 rocket roared for life as smoke billowed from its engine during preflight testing. The short ignition, known as the static-fire test, is a standard part of prelaunch processes and is one of the last major targets before the lift lift f.
During testing, the Falcon 9 is held down on the pad while its nine first-stage engines are soon fired. This ensures the crew that all systems are working properly and the rocket is ready to fly. SpaceX shortly after testing Tweeted Static-fire testing was successful and the company plans to launch EST (Sunday, November 15, 0049 GMT) at 7:49 pm on Saturday.
The flight marks SpaceX’s 21st mission of the year and 1st long-term mission to launch from Florida. The first phase of the rocket is expected to land at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station about 9 minutes after the lift off. If all goes according to plan, the crew capsule will spend just 8.5 hours at the back of the space station before arriving at the orbit early Sunday (November 15).
Both the Dragon Capsule and its launcher are new to this mission. Following the success of the Demo-2 mission, which launched two NASA astronauts on the space station in May for a two-month stay, NASA has allowed SpaceX to reuse both the crew capsule and the rocket on future missions. In fact, Crew-2 Mission Demo-2, which starts next year, will re-use the Dragon Capsule and Crew-1 mission booster.
Given the premise determined by the Demo-2 mission, the shiny first phase of the rocket’s exterior is decorated with NASA’s iconic worm logo.
As the dragon capsule flew over the rocket, the pair swung out of the hangar at Critical 39A and on the launch pad on Monday evening (November 9). At 256.3 feet (78.1 m) tall, the pair also lifted overnight.
Related: SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Space Capsule explained (infographic)
Protected by the launching pad, the teams loaded the rocket with super-shield propellants – kerosene and liquid oxygen, and then briefly ignited the first stage nine Merlin 1D engines.
The engines fired briefly at 3:52 p.m. EST (2052 GMT), generating 1.7 million pounds of thrust while the booster remained firm on the ground. Engineers reviewed the data on Saturday evening before deciding to proceed with the Falcon 9’s planned launch effort.
“Falcon 9’s steady fire completes – Saturday, November 14, at 7:49 pm EST to put the crew dragon’s first operational mission on board with four astronauts on the space station,” SpaceX Tweeted Immediately after testing.
The company also said teams will monitor weather conditions for the liftoff and the flight path closely moving toward the launch.
Falcon 9’s steady fire completes – Saturday, November 14 at 7:49 pm EST ક્ર The Crew is on target with four astronauts for the inauguration of the Dragon’s first operational mission on the space_station. Teams will continue to monitor the weather conditions along the lift and flight pathsNovember 11, 2020
Fixed fire testing comes on the heels of a hardware swap. Originally scheduled for Oct. 31, the Crew-1 flight was delayed by two weeks in its first phase to give SpaceX time to replace one of Booster’s nine Merlin 1D engines.
Last month, SpaceX attempted to launch an upgraded GPS satellite when it took into account engine incompatibility. The rocket’s on-board computer caused an abortion and the mission was postponed indefinitely while teams worked to resolve the issue.
A thorough investigation has revealed that the remaining masking lacquer from the manufacturing process prevented the remaining engines from operating as expected. SpaceX replaced the two engines on that rocket and the GPS mission was able to land on November 5th.
SpaceX also took time to investigate two other boosters and determined that two other Falcon 9s had similar traces of Rogan in the first phase engine – a rocket that would launch the Sentinel-6 Earth-observation satellite and one on the crew. -1 booster. SpaceX then turned on the affected engines.
Under his belt now ready rocket ready to fly, with successful static fire testing. After launching on Saturday night, SpaceX plans to land a first phase booster on its two large-scale drone vessels “Just Read Instructions” based in the Atlantic. If successful, this will mark the 65th booster recovery.
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