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Coming out of this blackout period was classed as \u201can early Christmas present\u201d by Commercial Crew Program Manager Kathy Lueders, although she intimated NASA is hoping to continue to work with SNC through to a second free flight test.<\/p>\n
The goal for the Commercial Crew Program is a huge priority for NASA and the United States, as it aims to return a domestic crew launch and transportation capability to its astronauts for the first time since Atlantis concluded her STS-135 mission in 2011, ending the three decade long career of the Space Shuttle fleet.<\/p>\n
Since then, NASA has been paying for seats on the Russian Soyuz in order to allow for a continued US presence on the International Space Station (ISS), in turn draining the Agency\u2019s limited financial resources by effectively outsourcing crew transportation to the Russians.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope I never have to write another check to Roscosmos (Russian Space Agency),\u201d noted NASA administrator Charlie Bolden during the media event.<\/p>\n
SpaceX
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While NASA class Commercial Crew as a flagship program, its funding forecast continues to place a strain on the IOC (Initial Operating Capability) targets, likely resulting in the first NASA crew to ride on a certified commercial vehicle to the ISS not occurring until 2017 at the earliest.<\/p>\nIn fact, NASA\u2019s own internal schedules show that first NASA crewed mission \u2013 known as USCV-1 (US Crew Vehicle -1) \u2013 slipping to what is now shown as launching in May of 2018 \u2013 per L2\u2019s long term manifests.<\/p>\n
However, that schedule is based on \u201cconservative stretch\u201d for long-term program goals. Current targets show both commercial partners continuing to aim for a 2017 operational stance.<\/p>\n
![\"2015-01-26](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/2015-01-26-19_23_28-forum.nasaspaceflight.com_index.php_actiondlattachtopic35307.0attach630229-350x170.jpg\")
To get to that point, a vast amount work is required, with SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell updating the current near term goals for the crewed Dragon program.<\/p>\nLeveraging the company\u2019s experience with the Cargo Dragon spacecraft \u2013 one of which is currently berthed on the ISS during her CRS-5\/SpX-5 mission \u2013 SpaceX is deep into work to upgrade the vehicle to be able to carry crew.<\/p>\n
![\"2015-01-26](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/2015-01-26-19_24_37-L2-Level_-SpaceX-F9_FH_BFR_MCT-Renderings-350x249.jpg\")
That work resulted in the revealing of a spacecraft with a new Outer Mold Line (OML), a trunk with fins, along with a sci-fi \u201cease of use\u201d interior and control panel.<\/p>\n\u201cWe understand, and we have been told, that crew (flight) is clearly different \u2013 so there\u2019s a number of upgrades that we\u2019ve been working on for the past few years to ensure this crew version of Dragon is as reliable as it can possibly be,\u201d noted Ms. Shotwell.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, we plan for it to be the most reliable spacecraft flying crew ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"2015-01-26](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/2015-01-26-18_44_31-L2-Level_-SpaceX-F9_FH_BFR_MCT-Renderings-350x247.jpg\")
One of the big leap forwards is Dragon\u2019s Integrated Launch Abort System (LAS), which provides a full abort capability through ascent.<\/p>\nEight liquid SuperDraco engines, built into the side walls of the Dragon spacecraft, will be capable of producing up to 120,000 pounds of axial thrust to drive the Dragon away from its failing launch vehicle.<\/p>\n
These engines were recently tested at SpaceX\u2019s test facility in McGregor, Texas.<\/p>\n
However, it is their future role that will provide one of Dragon\u2019s unique charms \u2013 the ability for propulsive landings.<\/p>\n
![\"2015-01-26](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/2015-01-26-19_21_26-index.php-1680%C3%971050-350x229.jpg\")
Initially, the crewed Dragon will return under parachutes for an ocean splashdown, as is the case with the cargo Dragon. The \u201cultimate goal\u201d \u2013 according to Ms. Shotwell \u2013 is for fully propulsive landings, mirroring the ongoing efforts with the Falcon 9 v1.1 first stage.<\/p>\n\u201cFully propulsive landings is, I believe, in the best interests of the astronauts. I would love to see this vehicles land right here at Ellington Field.\u201d<\/p>\n
With safety a key thread throughout Ms. Shotwell\u2019s overview, SpaceX is aiming to fly \u201cmany\u201d Falcon 9 missions to get \u201ccomfortable\u201d with the rocket.<\/p>\n
*Click here for over 200 SpaceX News Articles*<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should fly over 50 Falcon 9 missions prior to putting a crew atop of that vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"2015-01-28](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/2015-01-28-03_24_25-Twitter-350x233.jpg\")
Up next are two abort tests, the first involving a Pad Abort, followed later in the year by the In Flight Abort test.<\/p>\nThe pad abort test will utilize a very flight-like Dragon and Trunk, departing from a truss structure rather than sitting atop of a Falcon 9, according to early comments by Crewed Dragon Program Lead Dr. Garrett Reisman last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just largely completed the build of the pad abort system,\u201d Ms. Shotwell continued during Monday\u2019s update. \u201cIt took us quite a while to get there, but there\u2019s a lot of great technology and innovations in that pad abort vehicle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat test will be coming in a month or so from Cape Canaveral. We\u2019re very excited about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Z15.jpg\")
The In Flight Abort test will utilize a Falcon 9 that will provide a real life test of an abort \u201cnot quite at Max-Q, but at Max Drag, which is in the transonic region,\u201d per Dr. Reisman\u2019s earlier comments.<\/p>\n\u201cWe plan to fly a modified Falcon 9 as the launch vehicle and then have Dragon punch out right when we hit that criteria,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
No specific date for the In Flight Abort test was mentioned during Monday\u2019s event, other than later in 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe In Flight Abort will test the highest dynamic regime of this crew capsule and the Falcon 9 system, (scheduled for) later this year,\u201d added Ms. Shotwell, noting SpaceX has a few \u201cenvironmental hurdles\u201d to get through ahead of the test.<\/p>\n
![\"2015-01-26](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/2015-01-26-19_17_03-L2-Level_-SpaceX-F9_FH_BFR_MCT-Renderings-350x282.jpg\")
Successful testing and continued progress with getting the crewed Dragon ready to fly in space for real will then be the focus of the company for the following few years.<\/p>\n\u201cAs far as the overall flight test program, we anticipate doing our uncrewed mission to the International Space Station with the upgraded crew vehicle later in 2016, shortly thereafter with our crewed flight in early 2017,\u201d noted Ms. Shotwell.<\/p>\n
It has not yet been decided if the test flight will be either a SpaceX crew, a NASA crew, or a mix of the two.<\/p>\n
An article outlining Boeing\u2019s CST-100 progress will follow this week.<\/p>\n
(Images: via NASA, SpaceX and L2\u2019s SpaceX Section, including renderings created by L2 Artists Nathan Koga and Jeffrey Channell \u2013 Click here for full resolution F9, F9-R, FH Dragon V2, BFR renderings and more \u2013 these are not official SpaceX images.)<\/p>\n
(Click here: http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/l2\/ \u2013 to view how you can support NSF\u2019s running costs and access the best space flight content on the entire internet)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SpaceX has revealed more details into its upcoming drive to bring the crewed version of its Dragon spacecraft on line, in its bid to return a domestic crew transportation system to the United States. Near term milestones include two abort tests, ahead of launching a crew on the Dragon V2, following what SpaceX estimates will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30256,"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":[7893,3985,8726,233,316],"class_list":["post-39412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ccp","tag-cctcap","tag-dragon-v2","tag-iss","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39412"}],"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=39412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}