Posted on 01/23/2020 8:52:40 PM PST by aquila48
On Sunday (Jan. 19), SpaceX's Crew Dragon launched on a brilliant a high-altitude test of its launch escape system.
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk called the in-flight abort test flight "picture perfect," and, in looking at the stunning images of the test, he was absolutely right. Following a weather delay, Crew Dragon lifted off at 10:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT) atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
With the test, SpaceX successfully (and intentionally) destroyed one of its Falcon 9 rockets to show that, if there were a launch anomaly, the capsule could still safely return to Earth with its crew still aboard and unharmed. The rocket exploded, Crew Dragon's parachutes opened and the craft landed safely back on Earth. And the cherry on top? The photos of the test launch are absolutely amazing.
With the test mission successfully completed, Musk did not hide his excitement. "I'm super fired up. This is great," he said about the launch. "It's really great."
The successful completion of this in-flight abort test was the last major hurdle that SpaceX had to jump over before they could begin to plan to launch their first crewed mission to the International Space Station. Following this mission, Musk has stated that he aims for the first astronauts to fly to space aboard Crew Dragon to make the inaugural flight this upcoming spring, 2020.
"We're highly confident that the hardware will be ready in Q1, most likely end of February but no later than March," Musk said, referring to the first quarter of 2020. "And we think it appears probable that the first crewed launch would occur in the second quarter."
Per Robin Williams...
If you smoke pot you may not be a rocket scientist... or maybe...if you look at NASA, maybe you can.
*ping*
A follow-up to my comment because I was going nuts trying to remember/find the info that I mentioned about failure studies. Turns out I wasn’t remembering the source correctly.
I actually saw this stuff on a youtube channel called the Everyday Astronaut. He collected info from various sources, regarding SpaceX decision to not have abort system in Starship.
Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6lPMFgZU5Q
Link to article version of video: https://everydayastronaut.com/starship-abort/
I have a photograph of a Gemini capsule looking at an approaching vehicle, which I believe is an Agena. Not sure of that, but it shows the nose of the unmistakable Gemini capsule. I’ll try to put it on here if you want to see it.
A person can smoke pot and still be a damned good engineer., doctor, lawyer, etc. Less intelligent people have a hard time with it and they don’t understand why it works well for some people but not for them.
The shuttle was designed to have the crew compartment separate from the rest of the craft, and the original design had pyrotechnics to accomplish that, and parachutes to lower it safely to the earth.
It was decided that the type of incident that would require this was too low a probability to justify the risks inherent in having enough pyrotechnics to cut the shuttle in half on board.
The parachutes were then removed, too heavy to carry to orbit (at $10,000/pound) and not needed if the crew compartment wasn’t separated from the rest of the craft.
The explosion broke the shuttle at the seam originally designed to be the deliberate separation line.
Without parachutes the intact crew compartment free fell to the sea.
Since your father is clearly blind, the separation event happened after the engine shutdown command was executed, but WHILE the stage was still under propulsion... just like the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo program test plans.
Nice photos but the caption on one photo starts with “an amazing shot”. A nice shot but what’s amazing about it?
I’ll confirm #20.
Musk noted that is not an explosion, it’s a fireball. The capsule has a heat shield built to resist fire & pressure. Automatic safety sensors should launch the escape system before a first stage blast would cause terminal damage to the crew.
“Challenger go with throttle up”
Columbia wasn’t lost during launch. This escape system would only help during launch. Challenger’s onboard computers only detected anomalies a few hundred msec before the vehicle came apart.
A portion of astronaut training is focused on just that situation: Put you head between your legs and kiss your a** goodbye!
“A person can smoke pot and still be a damned good engineer., doctor, lawyer, etc.”
Roger that - I’ve known all 3 types who do (and are very good at their professions).
Musk said it’s still likely to survive and look like the millennium falcon at the death, coming out of a wave of fire. I tend to believe him.
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