SpaceX says it has successfully completed the final major test between a flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft and the company’s next historic astronaut launch.
Right on schedule, the once-flown Falcon 9 booster B1061, orbit-proven Crew Dragon capsule C206, and a new replaceable Falcon upper stage rolled out to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Launch Complex 39A on Friday, April 16, bringing the final big steps for SpaceX’s second operational astronaut launch. Captured in great detail by NASA and SpaceX photographers, the rollout was completed without a hitch and the rocket was brought vertically and connected to the launch pad later in the day.
Less than 24 hours later, the fully integrated Falcon 9 was charged with supercooled liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene (RP-1) and finally started its nine first stage Merlin 1D engines – a procedure almost identical to a normal launch flow. So all systems were completely checked out and released for flight, SpaceX and NASA went into a “dry dress rehearsal” early Sunday.
Just as Saturday’s static fire replicated nearly every rocket-related aspect of the launch, Sunday’s ‘dry dress’ fulfilled a similar role for the human elements of the mission – an international group of astronauts and the SpaceX and NASA teams preparing them. on the run. For Crew-2, Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon will transport Japanese (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, European (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet, and NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur.
Those four astronauts will fly on Falcon 9 booster B1061, which is already responsible for the launch of Crew Dragon’s operational debut in November 2020, making Crew-2 the first time in history that astronauts will fly on a flight-proven liquid rocket booster and a proven private jet. missile of any kind.
(Quite literally) on top of that, they’ll also ride the Crew Dragon capsule responsible for the first orbital manned spaceflight launch in nearly a decade less than a year ago. Dragon C206 successfully launched NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station (ISS) in late May 2020 and flawlessly returned them to Earth in early August, marking the first manned US spaceflight since the Space Shuttle’s premature retirement in July 2011.
That means that Crew-2 of Crew Dragon C206 will make the first manned space capsule in history to have launched astronauts more than once – a truly historic achievement, but just the latest in a long line of successful unmade Dragon re-uses in the past four years. That NASA – a famous risk-averse space agency – is all the way be prepared to allow astronauts to fly on a flight proven dragon or The Falcon 9 booster is totally impressive and was only seen as a highly unlikely result a few years ago.
For NASA to make SpaceX perform both reuse performance of unprecedented manned missiles and spacecraft on Dragon’s third manned space flight ever is nothing short of the most resounding endorsement and validation of the company’s technical expertise that the space agency could ever provide. Thanks in large part to NASA’s flexibility and seemingly boundless trust in SpaceX, the company has been able to accelerate its astronaut launch plans to avoid major delays hampering the Commercial Crew Program’s other partner – Boeing. disrupt NASA’s presence on the ISS.
Falcon 9 will launch Crew-2 no earlier than (NET) 6:11 a.m. EDT (10:11 UTC) on Thursday, April 22.
