SpaceX has successfully launched their Crew Dragon spacecraft designed to carry human beings on a Falcon 9 rocket.
Achieving main engine cutoff and stage separation, the first stage rocket has also successfully landed on the autonomous spaceport drone ship Of Course I Still Love You.
“It’s an exciting evening,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “What today really represents is a new era in spaceflight. We’re looking forward to being one of many customers in a robust commercial marketplace in low-Earth orbit.”
“We’re only partway through the mission, but the system thus far has passed an exhaustive set of reviews, and the launch itself,” said SpaceX CEO and lead designer Elon Musk. “The launch went as expected and so far everything is nominal.”
On board Crew Dragon’s unmanned demonstration flight is 400 pounds of supplies and equipment, an anthropomorphic test device fitted with various sensors called Ripley, and a plush toy of planet Earth.
“We call it a smarty, and her name is Ripley,” said SpaceX vice president of Build and Flight Reliability Hans Koenigsmann.
“The goal is to get an idea of how humans would feel in her place, basically,” explained Koenigsmann. “I don’t expect, actually, a lot of surprises there, but it’s better to verify, make sure that it’s safe and everything’s comfortable for our astronauts going on the next flight of the capsule.”
On route to the International Space Station (ISS), the Crew Dragon is scheduled to autonomously dock at approximately 6:00 am EST on March 3rd and will spend five days docked before returning to Earth.
Designed to carry 7 passengers, the fully autonomous Crew Dragon spacecraft is fitted with three windows alongside an Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) to provide “a comfortable and safe environment for crew members”. It also features a Launch Abort System.
“The uncrewed test flights will be the first time commercially-built and operated American spacecraft designed for humans will dock to the space station,” said NASA in a statement. “The uncrewed flight tests are a great dry run for not only our hardware, but for our team to get ready for our crewed flight tests,” added Kathy Lueders, Commercial Crew Program manager at NASA.
NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are scheduled for a crewed flight to the ISS on board the Crew Dragon in July 2018.
While on board the Crew Dragon, the NASA astronauts will be wearing SpaceX’s custom tailored suit.
Designed to “provide a pressurized environment for all crew members aboard Dragon in atypical situations such as cabin depressurization”, the suit is fitted with communications, cooling systems, touchscreen compatible gloves, flame resistant outer layer, hearing protection for ascent and reentry, a single connection point between the suit and vehicle, and heel sliders for securing feet to a footrest.
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