SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently announced that a key Crew Dragon safety test could take place as early as November.
The test will be an in-flight abort (IFA), which will assess Crew Dragon’s ability to shuttle itself to safety in a launch emergency scenario, Space.com reported.
During the operation, a Crew Dragon will takeoff atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Florida-based Kennedy Space Center. A few minutes later, the capsule will light up its escape thrusters and the Crew Dragon will be blasted away from the rocket.
All hardware is at the Cape. Need to do static fire and reconfigure for flight. Launch probably late Nov / early Dec.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 8, 2019
In an October 8 tweet, Musk noted that all the hardware for the test is already at SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral hub in Florida and that the IFA’s target date is late November or early December.
“All hardware is at the Cape. Need to do static fire and reconfigure for flight,” Musk wrote on Twitter. “Launch probably late November / early December.”
The IFA test is an important step for the Crew Dragon, since it will be used to transport American astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) in the future. Once completed, the next milestone will be the Demo-2, a test flight that will ferry NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the space station and back to Earth. SpaceX has not announced a target date for the Demo-2 test flight at this time.
Starship serves as a large, long-duration spacecraft capable of carrying passengers or cargo to Earth orbit, planetary destinations, and between destinations on Earth pic.twitter.com/NoNoOjBW50
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 29, 2019
Musk’s Crew Dragon news comes on the heels of SpaceX’s major Starship update. On September 28, Musk discussed the development of Starship, along with design initiatives, at SpaceX’s launch facility in Texas. Musk announced that the Starship Mk1 prototype, which is 164 feet high and 30 feet wide, will take its first suborbital test flight within the next two months. MK2 will have a similar test as soon as November, while Mk3 is expected to start construction this month and fly in December.
More on Geek.com:
- Gaze Upon SpaceX’s Steely Starship Prototype
- Elon Musk: SpaceX’s Mk1 Starship Prototype Is Almost Completed
- Elon Musk Teases SpaceX Starship Prototype’s Construction
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