For the third time, SpaceX has installed a Crew Dragon spacecraft scheduled to launch astronauts on the Falcon 9 rocket that will transport it into orbit, passing one of the last major landmarks of the flight mission.
Known as the Crew-2, the NASA Commercial Crew Program (CCP) mission will be the second operational mission with the SpaceX crew after its Crew-1 operational debut launched flawlessly on November 15, 2020. From November 16, the Crew-1 Crew Dragon has been anchored at the International Space Station (ISS) in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) – scoring at least two major awards – and will not return to Earth until crew-2 safely joins the station.
Developed simultaneously as part of the Commercial Crew Program, a number of technical and organizational shortcomings greatly delayed Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule, effectively forcing NASA to rely on SpaceX to lift the weakness with multiple back-to-back Crew Dragon missions. back. With the exception of organizational excellence, Crew-2 is also on track to ensure two of the most significant reuse achievements in the long history of significant SpaceX reuse achievements.
A few days after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and a Crew Dragon spacecraft took off with NASA astronauts on board for the first time, becoming the first manned launch in history to use a commercially developed rocket or spacecraft, the space agency effectively gave the company permission to fly its astronauts proven flight versions of the same vehicles.
While those plans actually fell under the radar compared to other SpaceX activities, it’s not unreasonable to say that a successful launch of the Crew-2, both with a proven Falcon 9 booster flight and The Crew Dragon capsule would be one of the most significant technical achievements in the company’s history. At the very least, it is Vol to be the most significant symbolic achievement in the history of SpaceX.
In essence, success would mean that SpaceX has unequivocally proven that a private company can develop – from scratch – methods of reusing missiles and spacecraft that are so successful and so reliable that it can be the most averse customer on Earth. he is willing to place the lives of his astronauts in the hands of those spaceships and rockets proven to be flying. If SpaceX can do this with Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon, there’s no practical reason to doubt it could be repeated with Starship – a vehicle that has already sparked NASA interest.
The Crew Dragon capsule assigned to crew-2 debuted on May 30, 2020 and transported NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the ISS without any major problems, where it spent just over two months in orbit. On August 2, the spacecraft re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere safely, traveling at about 7.5 kilometers per second (17,000 mph) and crashed in the Gulf of Mexico, with both astronauts, all the worse for wear. Since then, SpaceX has disassembled the Dragon, carefully inspected every possible inch, and renovated the 2-crew vehicle.
Despite the historical nature of the task of qualifying and reconditioning the first commercial spacecraft in history expected to launch NASA astronauts twice, Crew Dragon C206 will be the fastest in the history of the Dragon – and with a margin of almost 40%.
Following its role in the first launch of SpaceX operational astronauts five months ago, the Falcon 9 Booster B1061 will also fly for the second time on Crew-2 – especially suitable because Crew-2 will meet the only other spacecraft and astronauts launched on the same ISS booster. Starting Thursday, April 15, Crew-2 is seven days away from the planned launch no earlier than 6:11 a.m. EDT (10:11 UTC) on Thursday, April 22. The proven flight and Dragon Booster 9 booster and a new higher consumption stage are expected to be launched on Pad 39A in the next few days for an integrated static fire test 4-5 days before launch.