![]() The crew capsule that will bring astronauts to space will be delivered to Kennedy Space Center next month, but Musk says it will be a “ few more months” before it’s ready to fly. If Sunday's in-flight abort test goes well, SpaceX will be nearly ready to return human spaceflight to American soil for the first time since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011. Crew Dragon Freedom will carry four astronauts to the station where they will stay for six months. In December, however, SpaceX completed its tenth consecutive successful parachute test, which is required by NASA before astronauts can fly. Crew-4 (USCV-4) Crew-4 is the fourth regular crew rotation mission to the ISS to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. At the same time, both SpaceX and Boeing struggled to perfect their capsules’ parachute systems. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, with the company’s Dragon Endeavour spacecraft atop, lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission at 12:34 a.m. ![]() Last year, its Crew Dragon capsule exploded during a test, a problem that the company traced to a leaky valve. ET, Falcon 9 launched the spacecraft to orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Late last year, Boeing had to prematurely end its uncrewed demo mission to the space station after a timer glitch on the spacecraft.Īlthough SpaceX’s uncrewed demo mission went off without a hitch, it has had problems of its own. Approximately 29 hours earlier at 12:00 p.m. Each company has a slightly different certification process with NASA, which means that Boeing only had to demonstrate a launchpad abort test rather than an in-flight abort test. SpaceX and Boeing are each vying to be the first commercial company to send NASA astronauts to space later this year, but the road to crewed flight has been plagued with setbacks. Crew Dragon at the ISS for Demo Mission 1. The WIRED Guide to commercial space flight The spacecraft launches atop a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket and the capsule returns to Earth through splashdown. The Falcon 9 will get torn to shreds over the Atlantic Ocean during its descent, but the Crew Dragon will gently land in the ocean under parachute. After separation, they will continue coasting through the stratosphere before they begin their return to Earth. At this point, the rocket and the capsule will both be traveling around 1,000 miles per hour. ![]() Just a minute and a half after launch, the Falcon 9 will kill its engines and the Crew Dragon will fire its SuperDraco engines to separate from the rocket. But this time, neither the rocket nor its payload will make it to space-and that’s the point. A Crew Dragon capsule will be mounted atop the rocket, just as it will be later this year when SpaceX sends its first astronauts on a mission to the International Space Station. On Sunday morning, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is expected to lift off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, the same launchpad where astronauts departed for the moon 50 years ago. Editor's note: The launch was postponed to Sunday, January 19, with a launch window opening at 8 am ET. ![]()
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