Posted on 05/07/2015 2:11:01 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
(Reuters) - A Space Exploration Technologies' passenger spaceship made a quick debut test flight on Wednesday, shooting itself off a Florida launch pad to demonstrate a key emergency escape system.
The 20 foot- (6 meter) tall Dragon capsule, a modified version of the spacecraft that flies cargo to the International Space Station, fired up its eight, side-mounted thruster engines at 9 a.m. EDT to catapult nearly one mile (1.6 km) up and over the Atlantic Ocean.
The flight ended less than two minutes later with the capsule's parachute splash-down about 1.4 miles (2.6 km) east of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launch site.
“I think this bodes quite well for the future of the program,” SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk told reporters on a conference call after the flight. “It was quite a complicated test.”
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Where’s the video link?
Watched this live yesterday. Pretty cool
Thank you, link worked great.
Direct link to video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=79&v=1_FXVjf46T8
I love the sound of rocket motors in the morning.
Spacex photos and commentary:
http://www.spacex.com/news/2015/05/06/crew-dragon-completes-pad-abort-test
0 to 100mph in 1.2 seconds. Make sure you keep your tongue in your mouth when launching.
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