- \n
- SpaceX General Section<\/li>\n
- L2 SpaceX Section<\/li>\n
- L2 ISS Section<\/li>\n
- Click here to Join L2<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
While the near-term importance of returning a domestic crew launch capability to the United States is obvious, the funding to achieve that goal has been placed on a low calorie diet when compared to some of NASA\u2019s more obese flagship projects, such as SLS, Orion and even the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).<\/p>\n
This is mainly due to the challenging allocation of NASA\u2019s numerous budget lines, within the outlined program of record goals, all of which is heavily influenced by political direction.<\/p>\n
![\"2014-12-19](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-12-19-21_01_23-FPIP_working_20141208.pdf-350x271.jpg\")
The lack of a prioritized funding allocation has resulted in the debut mission of a NASA crew riding on a commercial spacecraft to the ISS \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>\nThis slippage also results in a \u201cCatch 22\u201d scenario where hundreds of millions of addition dollars is being sent to Russia to cover the ever-increasing gap in NASA\u2019s crew launch requirements.<\/p>\n
Soyuz seat purchases are also expected to continue through the early phase of commercial crew flights, providing the contingency of a back up option.<\/p>\n
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n
![\"2014-09-26](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/2014-09-26-22_37_39-CST-100-Dragon-Google-Search-350x214.jpg\")
This year, NASA downselected to just two commercial crew options, Boeing\u2019s CST-100 and SpaceX\u2019s crewed Dragon \u2013 known as Dragon 2, or V2 \u2013 with SNC\u2019s Dream Chaser losing out.<\/p>\nWhile a protest against NASA\u2019s decision has been lodged by SNC, the Agency received legal approval to continue to advance through the CCtCAP milestones with Boeing and SpaceX.<\/p>\n
The Dragon V2 \u2013 now better known as the Dragon 2 internally \u2013 is a stunning vehicle, despite belonging to a breed of spacecraft \u2013 called capsules \u2013 that normally receive less enthusiastic comments from the general public when compared to the beautiful and iconic space shuttle orbiters.<\/p>\n
*Click here for more SpaceX News Articles*<\/p>\n
However, thanks to a sci-fi interior and a sporty Outer Mold Line (OML), this new Dragon is undoubtedly the first capsule that people would be forgiven for classing as sexy.<\/p>\n
As revealed by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk at the end of May, the crewed Dragon is a major step up from her cargo hauling cousin.<\/p>\n
![\"Z9\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Z9.jpg\")
She will also, eventually, join SpaceX\u2019s prime directive of propulsive returns and landings on terra firma for quick and efficient reuse. The opening missions will involve parachute landings.<\/p>\nBut first, SpaceX needs to develop, build, test and fly the spacecraft \u2013 all while jumping through a considerable amount of hoops known as NASA-level certification requirements.<\/p>\n
The sheer amount of NASA requirements likely explains why the first milestone to be completed under the CCtCAP contract involves a large amount of focus on the path towards certification.<\/p>\n
![\"Z7\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Z711.jpg\")
NASA noted that during the Certification Baseline Review, SpaceX successfully described its current design baseline plans for manufacture, launch, flying, landing and recovering the crewed Dragon, in tandem with outlining how it will achieve NASA certification of its system to enable transport of crews to and from the space station.<\/p>\n\u201cThis milestone sets the pace for the rigorous work ahead as SpaceX meets the certification requirements outlined in our contract,\u201d noted Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Program. \u201cIt is very exciting to see SpaceX\u2019s proposed path to certification, including a flight test phase and completion of the system development.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Z5\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Z510.jpg\")
The company hasn\u2019t been making much noise about their advancements with the crewed Dragon lately, likely due to the ongoing legal protest from SNC. However, with this CCtCAP milestone, Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer, spoke of her pride in the team tasked with the ongoing work.<\/p>\n\u201cSpaceX designed the Dragon spacecraft with the ultimate goal of transporting people to space,\u201d noted Ms. Shotwell. \u201cSuccessful completion of the Certification Baseline Review represents a critical step in that effort -we applaud our team\u2019s hard work to date and look forward to helping NASA return the transport of U.S. astronauts to American soil.\u201d<\/p>\n
A large amount of work will be required ahead of the first test flight of the crewed Dragon, some of which is already ongoing.<\/p>\n
![\"2014-12-20](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-12-20-01_07_58-index.php-2500%C3%971285-350x227.jpg\")
SpaceX is now deep into the conversion of the historic Pad 39A complex, ahead of next Summer\u2019s Falcon Heavy debut.<\/p>\nThis pad will also be the base from which NASA astronauts will once again head down the road next to the crawlerway, prior to boarding a space vehicle for a flight to the ISS.<\/p>\n
Immediate milestones on the horizon related to the abort requirements, with a pad abort and an in-flight abort test on the books for next year.<\/p>\n
Noted as big ticket items by Crewed Dragon Program Lead Dr. Garrett Reisman, the pad abort test \u2013 to be conducted from the Cape\u2019s SLC-40 \u2013 will involve a flight-like Dragon and Trunk departing from a truss structure rather than sitting atop of a Falcon 9.<\/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 the safety systems, with the abort occurring \u201cnot quite at Max-Q, but at Max Drag, which is in the transonic region\u201d according to Dr. Reisman.<\/p>\nWhile this is being conducted, SpaceX will be pushing through another busy year with its \u201cbread and butter\u201d contracts, involving numerous satellite launches and CRS Dragon missions.<\/p>\n
Should all go to plan, SpaceX will launch two missions in January, the SpX-5\/CRS-5 Dragon and the DSCOVR missions.<\/p>\n
SpaceX also recently noted to NASASpaceFlight.com that it is set to achieve a milestone on its path toward sending humans to Mars next year \u2013 to be outlined in an upcoming article.<\/p>\n
*Click here to grab your 2015 Visions Of SpaceFlight NSF Wall Calendar*<\/p>\n
(Images: via SpaceX and NASA \u2013 Plus L2\u2019s ISS and SpaceX Sections, including Falcon Heavy rendering by L2 Artist Nathan Koga \u2013 Click here for full resolution F9, F9-R, FH and 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":"
NASA has approved SpaceX\u2019s first Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) milestone. Known as the Certification Baseline Review, the milestone covers SpaceX\u2019s plans for the design, manufacture, integration, launch and recovery of the crewed Dragon \u2013 through to her test flight \u2013 with the goal of achieving certification to launch NASA astronauts to the International Space […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30196,"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":[8996,7893,3985,8726,316],"class_list":["post-39433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ccdev","tag-ccp","tag-cctcap","tag-dragon-v2","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39433"}],"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=39433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}