SpaceX Tests Launch Abort System
Posted: May 6, 2015 Filed under: Science & Technology, Space & Aviation | Tags: Atlantic Ocean, Cape Canaveral, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, CNN, Comparison of space station cargo vehicles, Draco (rocket engine family), Dragon (spacecraft), Falcon 9, Florida, International Space Station, SpaceX Leave a comment
SpaceX has put its Dragon astronaut capsule through a practice abort.
The demonstration simulated what would happen to the crewship in the event of a rocket failure on the launch pad.
Wednesday’s test was conducted at Cape Canaveral in Florida, and saw a test vehicle – carrying no humans, only a dummy – hurled skywards by a set of powerful in-built thrusters.
The Dragon ship was propelled to a safe distance, lowering itself softly into the Atlantic via three parachutes.
SpaceX expects to start launching astronauts in 2017.
Missed this morning’s @SpaceX Pad Abort Test or want to watch it again? Here it is. #LaunchAmerica @Commercial_Crew https://t.co/jyia4CPxRV
— NASA (@NASA) May 6, 2015
It is one of two companies that have been contracted by the US space agency (Nasa) to develop vehicles to ferry people to and from the International Space Station (ISS). The other firm is Boeing.
Both have to demonstrate effective launch escape technologies for their rockets and capsules to receive certification. Only with the necessary assurance will Nasa permit its astronauts to climb aboard.
SpaceX has elected to use a so-called pusher system on the Dragon.
Eight SuperDraco thrusters have been integrated into the side of the ship, and these fired in tandem for just over five seconds at the start of the test to hurl the ship up and to the east of the Cape.
At switch-off, the vessel continued to coast upwards for a further 15 seconds or so, to an expected altitude of about 1,500m. It then dropped its trunk (a structural, aerodynamic collar), and headed downwards, deploying first a couple of drogue chutes to stabilise itself, before putting out three main canopies to make the ocean splashdown.
From beginning to end, the flight lasted a little over 100 seconds, with the Dragon travelling no more than about 2km downrange of the pad.
The capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean…(read more)
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