{"id":45348,"date":"2024-03-22T17:16:02","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T09:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacexs-workhorse-launch-pad-now-has-the-accoutrements-for-astronauts\/"},"modified":"2024-03-22T17:16:02","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T09:16:02","slug":"spacexs-workhorse-launch-pad-now-has-the-accoutrements-for-astronauts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacexs-workhorse-launch-pad-now-has-the-accoutrements-for-astronauts\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX\u2019s workhorse launch pad now has the accoutrements for astronauts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Upgrades at SpaceX\u2019s most-used launch pad in Florida got a trial run Thursday with the liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon cargo ship heading for the International Space Station.<\/p>\n<p style=\"\">SpaceX\u2019s Cargo Dragon spacecraft launched at 4:55 pm EDT (20:55 UTC) Thursday from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This mission, known as CRS-30, is SpaceX\u2019s 30th resupply mission to the space station since 2012.<\/p>\n<p>The automated Dragon supply ship took off on top of a Falcon 9 rocket, heading for a monthlong stay at the International Space Station, where it will deliver more than 6,000 pounds of hardware, fresh food, and experiments for the lab\u2019s seven-person crew.<\/p>\n<p>In the last few months, SpaceX has outfitted the launch pad with the equipment necessary to support launches of human spaceflight missions on the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The Cargo Dragon capsule is the same size and shape as SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon, but it\u2019s filled with cargo racks and storage platforms rather than seats and cockpit displays.<\/p>\n<p>This week, SpaceX technicians used the newly installed launch tower and crew access arm at SLC-40 to load time-sensitive experiments and supplies into the Cargo Dragon capsule atop the Falcon 9 rocket.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCRS-30 will be our first Dragon to launch from Pad 40 since we put that brand-new crew tower in place,\u201d said Sarah Walker, SpaceX\u2019s director of Dragon mission management, in a prelaunch press conference.<\/p>\n<h2>Building new capability<\/h2>\n<p>Starting last year, construction crews at Cape Canaveral erected segments of a more than 200-foot-tall metal lattice tower at SLC-40, right next to the starting blocks for SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket. Before then, SLC-40 was based on a \u201cclean pad\u201d architecture, without any structures to service or access Falcon 9 rockets while they were vertical on the pad.<\/p>\n<p>,<\/p>\n<p>In November, contractors raised the crew access arm to an attach point near the top of the tower. This walkway will allow astronauts to crawl into the Crew Dragon spacecraft during a launch countdown. It also provides access to the hatch on the Cargo Dragon spacecraft for final cargo loading.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, SpaceX tested an escape chute at SLC-40 that would be used in an emergency to help astronauts and ground crews quickly get away from the pad. The chute is similar in function to slide-wire baskets in use for decades at LC-39A, but instead of riding a basket from the top of the tower, personnel escaping a pad emergency would slide down a chute to carry them several hundred feet from the rocket.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX employees tested the pad escape chute last month at SLC-40. Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX\u2019s president and chief operating officer, took the ride down the chute. \u201cAstronaut and personnel safety is SpaceX\u2019s highest priority, which is why I had to personally test the new slide,\u201d she posted on X, alongside a wink emoji.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?dnt=false&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1770214627051471132&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Fspace%2F2024%2F03%2Fspacexs-workhorse-launch-pad-now-has-the-accoutrements-for-astronauts%2F&amp;partner=tfwp&amp;sessionId=125140331058b78012a8ccc3532debe57d1b5ca1&amp;siteScreenName=arstechnica&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"1770214627051471132\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-twitter-extracted-i1784863739198164167=\"true\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Teams test the new emergency chutes from the pad 40 crew tower in Florida pic.twitter.com\/rWVj7zaHp0<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 19, 2024<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThe team took commercially available off the shelf technology and applied it to the crew tower,\u201d Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX\u2019s vice president of launch, wrote on X. \u201cYou are trained on it the same way you are trained on using an emergency exit door on airplane. Only takes a couple of quick physical actions to deploy the slide and anyone can effectively do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As more people travel to space, particularly on larger vehicles like SpaceX\u2019s Starship, simplifying safety systems will be important.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis system will help us scale to bigger towers and spaceships (think 100 people on Starship),\u201d Dontchev wrote.<\/p>\n<p>,<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX and its contractors completed all of this work as Falcon 9s fired off SLC-40 every few days with Starlink satellites and other missions.<\/p>\n<p>For the last four years, all of SpaceX\u2019s crew and cargo launches to the space station have departed from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center, a few miles up the coast from SLC-40. In 2018 and 2019, SpaceX outfitted LC-39A for Cargo Dragon and Crew Dragon missions ahead of the company\u2019s first human spaceflight mission in 2020.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"ars-img-shortcode id-2011798 align-center\">\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GJEXcCkaYAAR3nS-scaled.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GJEXcCkaYAAR3nS-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GJEXcCkaYAAR3nS-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GJEXcCkaYAAR3nS-640x427.jpeg 640w, https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GJEXcCkaYAAR3nS-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GJEXcCkaYAAR3nS-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GJEXcCkaYAAR3nS-2048x1365.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GJEXcCkaYAAR3nS-980x653.jpeg 980w, https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GJEXcCkaYAAR3nS-1440x960.jpeg 1440w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\"><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Walker said the new infrastructure added at SLC-40 is \u201cnearly functionally identical\u201d to the equipment for crew missions at LC-39A. The primary differences are the means of pad escape\u2014the chute instead of slide-wire baskets\u2014and a more robust elevator in the tower at SLC-40.<\/p>\n<p>Previously, SpaceX used both SLC-40 and LC-39A for launches of its now-retired first-generation Dragon cargo capsules, which had their final supplies loaded before SpaceX raised the rocket vertical for launch. Like regular satellite launches on Falcon 9s, both pads could support the first-generation Dragon cargo missions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThanks to this new state-of-the-art crew tower required for our human spaceflight missions, that late-load cargo operation got a massive upgrade, too,\u201d Walker said. \u201cIt is much easier to load a huge complement of time-critical NASA science into our Dragon spacecraft in the flight orientation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX has drastically ramped up its launch cadence since building LC-39A for Dragon missions. The company plans nearly 150 Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy launches this year. When you\u2019re flying rockets every two or three days, it\u2019s inevitable two missions will end up vying for the same launch slots. Most recently, that happened in February, when a NASA crew mission was ready to launch from LC-39A around the same time as a narrow launch window for Intuitive Machines\u2019 first commercial lunar lander. Both had to go off of LC-39A.<\/p>\n<p>,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHistorically, Pad 40 has kind of become our high rate pad,\u201d Walker said. \u201cWe\u2019ve gotten the time between launches down to just a couple of days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>LC-39A has seen less use, primarily for Dragon crew and cargo flights, Falcon Heavy missions, and other \u201cuniquely complex\u201d missions like the Intuitive Machines lander, Walker said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"ars-img-shortcode id-2011799 align-center\">\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GJI_PsmbkAABBI4-scaled.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GJI_PsmbkAABBI4-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GJI_PsmbkAABBI4-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GJI_PsmbkAABBI4-640x427.jpeg 640w, https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GJI_PsmbkAABBI4-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GJI_PsmbkAABBI4-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GJI_PsmbkAABBI4-2048x1365.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GJI_PsmbkAABBI4-980x653.jpeg 980w, https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GJI_PsmbkAABBI4-1440x960.jpeg 1440w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\"><\/p>\n<p>                SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket and Cargo Dragon spacecraft, seen here with the new launch tower and access arm at SLC-40.<\/p>\n<p>                    Credit:<br \/>\n                                          SpaceX<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been trying to build up redundant Dragon capability on our two neighboring pads,\u201d Walker said. \u201cIt gives us the flexibility that if there\u2019s ever a traffic conflict on 39A and two missions have to launch at the same time, and one of them is a Dragon, now we can move over to SLC-40 and prioritize both of those missions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Later this year, SLC-40 could be used for a Crew Dragon launch with astronauts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re happy to have Pad 40 in place,\u201d said Steve Stich, manager of NASA\u2019s commercial crew program, which oversees a multibillion-dollar contract with SpaceX to ferry astronauts to and from the space station. \u201cIt\u2019s great to have a cargo vehicle that\u2019s common (to Crew Dragon) so we can test that pad ahead of time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NASA is reviewing SpaceX\u2019s changes at SLC-40 to formally certify the pad for crew missions. Officials want to have SLC-40 available in time for the launch of the next space station crew, Crew-9, scheduled to fly no earlier than August. Even with SLC-40 available, SpaceX and NASA will decide on a launch pad for Crew-9 closer to the launch date.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s good to have that redundancy,\u201d Stich said. \u201cSomething could aways happen with the systems at 39A, so we\u2019re really happy to have a backup pad.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>A good problem to have<\/h2>\n<p>NASA and SpaceX saw this coming. The launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, formerly home to the Saturn V rocket and the space shuttle, has been the only launch facility capable of handling Dragon crew and cargo missions and also the sole pad designed to accommodate the Falcon Heavy, a popular launcher for NASA science missions and US military satellites.<\/p>\n<p>,<\/p>\n<p>At times, this has led to some gentle tension between SpaceX, NASA, and the Space Force. Historically, it has taken SpaceX about three weeks to reconfigure the ground infrastructure at LC-39A between a Falcon 9 launch and a Falcon Heavy flight.<\/p>\n<p>This is a good problem to have for SpaceX and government officials. In the past, the Pentagon has paid United Launch Alliance, formerly the military\u2019s sole heavy-lift launch provider, billions of dollars to maintain launch pads and other ground facilities in the months or years between missions.<\/p>\n<p>NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick, commander of SpaceX\u2019s Crew-8 mission that launched to the space station earlier this month, had to wait on Earth an extra week earlier this year as the Intuitive Machines lunar launch took priority at LC-39A.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCould you imagine if I had walked up to you five years ago and said our constraint to launch is launch pad availability?\u201d Dominick said in a prelaunch press conference. \u201cYou would have thought I was crazy, but we\u2019re at a cool spot in spaceflight right now. We\u2019ve got rockets competing for launch pads, so you\u2019re not waiting on payloads, you\u2019re not waiting on rockets, you\u2019re waiting on launch pads now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Waiting an extra week to launch is not the end of the world, but it\u2019s a problem SpaceX, NASA, and the Space Force would like to avoid.&nbsp;In any case, this isn\u2019t the only motivation for readying SLC-40 for Crew Dragon and Cargo Dragon missions. If an accident or malfunction ever knocks LC-39A offline, SLC-40 is now available to help NASA keep the space station staffed with astronauts.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX is also looking at basing future flights of the giant Starship rocket from a separate launch mount at LC-39A in Florida. NASA officials have raised concerns that if a Starship exploded at liftoff or landing at LC-39A, it could damage the nearby Falcon 9 and Dragon launch facility.<\/p>\n<p>With SLC-40 now ready for crew launches, there are four launch pads at Cape Canaveral designed to support astronaut flights, alongside crew-rated pads for NASA\u2019s Space Launch System and ULA\u2019s Atlas V rocket. A decade ago, there were none, and during the heyday of NASA\u2019s Apollo and shuttle programs, there were two.<\/p>\n<p><em>This story was updated to reflect the launch of <i data-stringify-type=\"italic\">SpaceX\u2019s CRS-30 mission<\/i>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Upgrades at SpaceX\u2019s most-used launch pad in Florida got a trial run Thursday with the liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon cargo ship heading for the International Space Station. SpaceX\u2019s Cargo Dragon spacecraft launched at 4:55 pm EDT (20:55 UTC) Thursday from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45351,"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":[1432,1395,479,717,190,675,316],"class_list":["post-45348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-crs-30","tag-dragon","tag-falcon-9","tag-international-space-station","tag-nasa","tag-slc-40","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45348"}],"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=45348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}