{"id":16346,"date":"2015-05-04T21:31:09","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T13:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-preps-for-test-of-dragon-capsules-life-saving-abort-system\/"},"modified":"2015-05-04T21:31:09","modified_gmt":"2015-05-04T13:31:09","slug":"spacex-preps-for-test-of-dragon-capsules-life-saving-abort-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-preps-for-test-of-dragon-capsules-life-saving-abort-system\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX preps for test of Dragon capsule\u2019s life-saving abort system"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"SpaceX
SpaceX ground crews transfer the Dragon pad abort vehicle to the launch pad. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A commercial spaceship designed to ferry U.S. astronauts into orbit by 2017 is set for a major test Wednesday, when SpaceX plans to blast the capsule away from a launch mount at Cape Canaveral on a mile-high demo flight to simulate the craft\u2019s ability to protect occupants in the event of a catastrophic rocket mishap on the pad.<\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2019s Dragon spacecraft will not travel far, but data from Wednesday\u2019s test should arm engineers with results to prove the capsule\u2019s emergency safety system can save astronauts from an explosive launch failure.<\/p>\n

The test is scheduled for 7 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT) Wednesday from Cape Canaveral\u2019s Complex 40 launch pad, the same facility used by SpaceX for operational flights of the Falcon 9 booster.<\/p>\n

It is the most visible test to date for NASA\u2019s commercial crew program at Cape Canaveral, where SpaceX and Boeing plan to launch crews to the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

NASA last year selected the aerospace contractors to develop the Crew Dragon and CST-100 commercial space capsules to end U.S. reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the space station. Both companies say they will be ready for the task in 2017.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s test flight will go by in 107 seconds, with less than six seconds under power from the Dragon capsule\u2019s eight SuperDraco rocket thrusters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t last long,\u201d said Garrett Reisman, a former astronaut and current director of crew operations at SpaceX. \u201cThe boost phase is only a few seconds, and it\u2019s pulling almost 5 G\u2019s when it\u2019s coming off the pad, so it\u2019s going to get out of here in a hurry. My advice to you if you go outside to watch it is don\u2019t blink.\u201d<\/p>\n

The abort system is top-of-mind for astronauts like Reisman, who flew two times on the space shuttle, which had no way for crews to safely get away from a launch failure, a lesson bitterly learned with the Challenger accident in 1986.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, in retrospect, that was kind of obvious,\u201d Reisman said. \u201cAs an astronaut, having that (escape) ability is huge \u2014 absolutely huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Garrett
Garrett Reisman during training before a 2010 flight aboard the shuttle Atlantis. Credit: NASA\/Robert Markowitz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The astronauts on Challenger did not wear spacesuits, and crews donned bright orange partial pressure suits on all future shuttle missions. NASA also installed a telescoping pole astronauts could extend from the shuttle\u2019s hatch, but the system could only be used when the shuttle was in stable flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did the best we could with shuttle,\u201d Reisman said. \u201cWhen I flew, we had pressure suits, we had parachutes on our back, we had the pole out the side. We had a lot of things that Challenger didn\u2019t have, but the situations in which those things could really help you were pretty limited.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a full-up escape mechanism, an entire spacecraft can be whisked away from its launcher with its passengers safely strapped inside.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the shuttle was developed, NASA was very much feeling its oats,\u201d said Jon Cowart, a NASA manager assigned to work with SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon development program. \u201cWe had just gone to the moon, which everybody said was impossible. We thought we could design a spaceship that did not need one, and we did.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs physics and nature will sometimes do, they taught us a lesson that maybe you should not go do that,\u201d Cowart said.<\/p>\n

NASA mandated the Boeing and SpaceX spacecraft \u2014 along with the agency\u2019s own Orion crew capsule tailored for deep space exploration \u2014 be outfitted with escape rockets.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving something that can help you, with validated performance and with a requirement to be over 95 percent reliable if it\u2019s ever needed, and have that available from the ground all the way up to orbit, that\u2019s huge,\u201d Reisman said. \u201cAs an astronaut, I can\u2019t overstate the importance of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crews carried notecards with instructions on how and when to bail out of a stricken shuttle, and Reisman kept a copy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have it at home as a reminder of just how crazy that was,\u201d Reisman said. \u201cWe would have tried it. If we got into a Challenger-type situation again, we would have tried it, but the odds of success were not 95 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s test is a step in proving future astronauts have a little less to worry about when strapping into a rocket.<\/p>\n

The Dragon\u2019s eight SuperDraco thrusters, made with 3D-printed engine chambers, will power the capsule off SpaceX\u2019s seaside launch pad with a blazing pulse of thrust. After a quick vertical rise, the hydrazine-fueled engines will guide the spaceship east toward the beach.<\/p>\n

\"A
A SuperDraco engine during a firing at SpaceX\u2019s Central Texas test facility. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After a nearly six-second burst of energy, the thrusters will switch off and the gumdrop-shaped spacecraft will coast through a peak altitude of nearly 5,000 feet, where it will drop a rear-mounted disposable trunk structure, then deploy a pair of stabilizing drogue parachutes.<\/p>\n

Three main parachutes will unfurl moments later to slow the capsule\u2019s descent until splashdown about 7,200 feet east of the Cape Canaveral launch complex.<\/p>\n

The abort test is critical to prove to NASA managers that SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon capsule is safe enough for astronauts.<\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon spaceship is a wholesale upgrade of the company\u2019s Dragon supply ship now flying cargo to the International Space Station. The version poised for takeoff Wednesday features the new SuperDraco engines and a different aerodynamic shape, and SpaceX plans to introduce a new solar panel design, a docking port, updated computers and avionics, a cockpit control panel, seats and a life support system before flying astronauts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe SuperDracos are big thrusters,\u201d said Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of mission assurance at SpaceX. \u201cThey\u2019re really big compared to the Dracos we fly on cargo Dragon \u2026 These have a total thrust of 120,000 pounds, so it\u2019s a lot of kick.\u201d<\/p>\n

The engines are arranged around the circumference of the Dragon capsule in four pods of two thrusters each, and Koenigsmann said SpaceX has never fired all eight engines at once.<\/p>\n

SpaceX engineers planned to a brief test of the SuperDraco thrusters on the launch pad Tuesday. Restraints will keep the spacecraft on the ground.<\/p>\n

Assuming the hotfire test goes according to plan, ground crews will prep the capsule for flight just after sunrise Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The Dragon\u2019s side-mounted SuperDraco abort thrusters will do the same job as escape rockets carried on previous crew capsules, but the safety system does not feature a needle-like tower like Russia\u2019s Soyuz spaceship and NASA\u2019s Apollo moon craft.<\/p>\n

The solid-fueled abort motors on earlier capsules were designed to pull astronauts away from a dangerous rocket explosion. SpaceX went with liquid-fueled engines to push the Dragon spaceship off the rocket booster in case of failure.<\/p>\n

\"SpaceX
SpaceX has installed instrumentation, mass simulators and a crash test dummy inside the Dragon pad abort vehicle. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A benefit of SpaceX\u2019s abort mechanism, according to Koenigsmann, is crews can use the SuperDraco thrusters for landing if not needed during launch. Rockets jettison the conventional throwaway launch escape towers once out of the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to throw it away every time, (so) you make it to some extent safer,\u201d Koenigsmann said. \u201cIt\u2019s integrated into your system, so you have redundancy in the system that you also use for other parts. I think, overall, it\u2019s the more integrated approach, it\u2019s the more sophisticated, modern approach, and in my opinion, it\u2019s also the safer approach to launch escape.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a successful liftoff, the SuperDraco engines would be available for a high-speed braking maneuver on descent for helicopter-like propulsive landings eventually planned for the Crew Dragon capsule.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are different ways to do business,\u201d Cowart said. \u201cSpaceX came up with this way we think is fantastic. We see, inherently, there\u2019s nothing wrong with going and putting the rockets on the side. You get some benefits from doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

SpaceX says the space taxi\u2019s initial flights will splash down at sea under parachutes like the Dragon cargo ship.<\/p>\n

Reisman said SpaceX scheduled the pad abort early in the Crew Dragon\u2019s design cycle, allowing plenty of time for engineers to incorporate changes into the final spacecraft if the test does not go perfectly.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime we do a flight test, we learn a lot,\u201d Reisman said. \u201cThe sooner you do it, the sooner you can make design changes, and the less painful it is. It\u2019s always painful to make changes at the last minute. Testing early and testing often is kind of our mantra at SpaceX, and this falls neatly into that category.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA set up its funding agreements with SpaceX and Boeing as public-private partnerships. The space agency pays out financial awards to the companies under the cost-sharing scheme, and SpaceX is set to receive a $30 million payment with a successful pad abort test.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we have a bad day, we don\u2019t get paid,\u201d Reisman said. \u201cThat\u2019s the interesting thing about the contract. You have success criteria, and if the thing doesn\u2019t work, you might not get any money at all, and this is a $30 million milestone.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore importantly though, we have to do it again because we don\u2019t feel it\u2019s safe to fly until it works,\u201d Reisman said. \u201cWe think it\u2019s also important to demonstrate it not only at pad abort but also in flight, and we\u2019re going to do both.\u201d<\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2019s in-flight abort test is scheduled later this year from Vandenberg Air Force Base with the same Dragon capsule from the pad abort.<\/p>\n

\"Hans
Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX\u2019s vice president of mission assurance, says the Dragon pad abort vehicle is a \u201cflying instrumentation deck.\u201d Credit: NASA\/Kim Shiflett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Boeing plans a similar pad abort demo \u2014 with pusher escape rockets \u2014 of its CST-100 crew capsule in early 2017, a few months before the craft\u2019s first flight with astronauts. The seasoned aerospace giant decided to schedule the abort test late in the capsule\u2019s development timeline, after Boeing engineers complete the bulk of the spaceship\u2019s design and ground tests.<\/p>\n

SpaceX still has much work to do on the Crew Dragon after Wednesday\u2019s test, officials said.<\/p>\n

Engineers have scheduled a test of the Dragon\u2019s propulsive landing system later this year, along with final qualification of the capsule\u2019s primary structure and the in-flight abort test.<\/p>\n

SpaceX is also working on spacesuits, cockpit controls and displays, and life support and environmental control systems. Construction workers are modifying Kennedy Space Center\u2019s shuttle-era launch pad 39A for crew flights.<\/p>\n

The Crew Dragon should be ready for an unpiloted mission to the space station by late 2016, followed by the first crewed flight in early 2017, likely with a SpaceX test pilot and a NASA astronaut, SpaceX officials said.<\/p>\n

Koenigsmann sought to lower expectations for Wednesday\u2019s abort test flight in a press conference last week, emphasizing the test flight\u2019s experimental purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is basically a flying instrumentation deck,\u201d Koenigsmann said.<\/p>\n

Technicians installed sensors aboard the capsule to measure acceleration, temperature, acoustics and the environment inside the spaceship, where a crash test dummy is strapped into a seat to mimic the ride an astronaut would experience during an abort.<\/p>\n

The capsule has a seven-and-a-half hour window to blast off Wednesday, and the weather forecast calls for a 70 percent chance of good weather, with breezy winds the only concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we get it back, there\u2019s going to be lots of data analysis \u2014 lots of cool pictures and new data,\u201d Koenigsmann said. \u201cThat, at the end of the day, is the point of the test. We collect data and see how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA officials concurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can live with something less than perfect, and no matter what happens on test day, we are going to learn a lot,\u201d Cowart said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re here. This is a development test, so let\u2019s go learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SpaceX ground crews transfer the Dragon pad abort vehicle to the launch pad. Credit: SpaceX A commercial spaceship designed to ferry U.S. astronauts into orbit by 2017 is set for a major test Wednesday, when SpaceX plans to blast the capsule away from a launch mount at Cape Canaveral on a mile-high demo flight to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[524,235,4066,4068,316],"class_list":["post-16346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-crew","tag-crew-dragon","tag-dragon-pad-abort","tag-garrett-reisman","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16346"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}