A day after weather interfered with plans for a test flight, SpaceX had a successful launch and splash-down this morning, putting it on the path to be the first company certified to bring humans to space from U.S. soil since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011.
At 10:30am today, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew Dragon lifted up from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The purpose of this mission is to show the spacecraft’s capability to safely separate from the rocket in the unlikely event of an inflight emergency.
“This critical flight test puts us on the cusp of returning the capability to launch astronauts in American spacecraft on American rockets from American soil,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “We are thrilled with the progress NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is making and look forward to the next milestone for Crew Dragon.”
As part of the test, SpaceX configured Crew Dragon to trigger a launch escape about 1.5 minutes after liftoff. All major functions were executed, including separation, engine firings, parachute deployment and landing. Crew Dragon splashed down at 10:38 a.m. just off the Florida coast in the Atlantic Ocean while the Falcon 9 was terminated; it had previously flown three missions into space.
“As far as we can tell thus far, it’s a picture perfect mission. It went as well as one can possibly expect,” said Elon Musk, Chief Engineer at SpaceX. “This is a reflection of the dedication and hard work of the SpaceX and NASA teams to achieve this goal. Obviously, I’m super fired up. This is great.”
“The past few days have been an incredible experience for us,” said astronaut Doug Hurley. “We started with a full dress rehearsal of what Bob and I will do for our mission. Today, we watched the demonstration of a system that we hope to never use, but can save lives if we ever do. It took a lot of work between NASA and SpaceX to get to this point, and we can’t wait to take a ride to the space station soon.”
Prior to the flight test, teams completed launch day procedures for the first crewed flight test, from suit-up to launch pad operations. The joint teams now will begin the full data reviews that need to be completed prior to NASA astronauts flying the system during SpaceX’s Demo-2 mission.
While rare, launch problems do occur from time to time. In October 2018, a Russian rocket carrying Russians and American to the International Space Station suffered from an anomaly shortly after launch. In that mishap, the crewed Soyuz capsule successfully deployed from the rocket and returned the people safely to Earth. Today’s test shows that SpaceX has a similar program to keep astronauts safe should a problem pop-up as they travel into space.
The Crew Dragon, containing dummies fitted with sensors to collect data on the journey back to Earth, will be recovered and examined over the next several days and weeks. Once all test results are final and SpaceX completes necessary paperwork, they could become the first entity certified for human space travel, with a possible crewed launch to the International Space Station as soon as later this spring.
Beyond the Crew Dragon, SpaceX is also working on another rocket/spacecraft project to bring people and cargo to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Musk hopes to be able to bring a million people to Mars by 2050 as part of colonization plans there.