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No showstoppers were found during a crucial flight readiness review (FRR) for SpaceX's Demo-2 mission, keeping the company's first-ever crewed flight on track for a May 27 liftoff, NASA officials announced today (May 22). "The Flight Readiness Review has concluded, and NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission is cleared to proceed toward liftoff on the first crewed flight of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program," NASA officials wrote in an update today. SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule sits ready for launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket on Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. On Wednesday (May 27), two NASA astronauts will launch to the International Space Station for the first crewed test flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft. The Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 rocket reached the launch site on Thursday (May 21). (Image: © SpaceX) Demo-2 will send NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule, which will launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The mission will be the first orbital human spaceflight to depart from American soil since NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in July 2011. Ever since then, the space agency has relied completely on Russian Soyuz rockets and spacecraft to get its astronauts to and from the orbiting lab. NASA is counting on SpaceX and Boeing to end that dependence. In 2014, the agency awarded SpaceX $2.6 billion to finish development of the Crew Dragon-Falcon 9 system and fly six operational crewed missions to the ISS. Boeing got a similar, $4.2 billion deal at the same time, which the aerospace company will fulfill using a capsule called CST-100 Starliner. "It was an excellent review," NASA associate administrator Steve Jurczyk said during a teleconference with reporters today. "There are no significant open issues, I am happy to report." But there are still some boxes to tick before Demo-2 can get off the ground. For example, this afternoon, SpaceX will conduct a "static fire" of the Falcon 9 that will launch the mission, testing out its first-stage engines while the rocket remains tethered to the ground. And tomorrow (May 23), the teams will hold a "dry dress" exercise, during which Behnken and Hurley will suit up and the teams will run through many of the procedures that will occur on launch day. Data from these two tests, as well as other information, will then be analyzed in detail on Monday (May 25) during a final launch readiness review. "We're going to stay vigilant over the next few days," Kathy Lueders, NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager, said during today's telecon. "We're going to take it one step at a time, and we're going to still fly when we're ready." Videos and more: https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-dragon-demo-2-go-for-launch.html
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SpaceX's first astronaut mission for NASA is in the books. A Crew Dragon capsule carrying NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley splashed down off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, at 2:48 p.m. EDT (1848 GMT) today (Aug. 2), bringing an end to SpaceX's historic Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station. "Welcome back to planet Earth," SpaceX's mission control radioed the two astronauts aboard the capsule, which is named Endeavour. "Thanks for flying SpaceX." "It was truly our honor and privilege," Hurley radioed back. Just hours earlier, while still in space, Hurley said the experience is one he won't soon forget. "It's hard to put into words just what it was like to be a part of this expedition — Expedition 63," Hurley said during a farewell ceremony aboard the space station on Saturday (Aug. 1), the day Endeavour undocked and began its journey home. "It'll be kind of a memory that will last a lifetime for me." SpaceX Demo-2's Crew Dragon lifted onto recovery vessel The SpaceX recovery ship GO Navigator met Endeavour and hoisted the capsule aboard shortly after splashdown. After a series of checkouts, recovery teams opened Endeavour's hatch at 3:59 p.m. EDT (1959 GMT) and extracted the two astronauts about 10 minutes later. Medical personnel can now begin assessing Behknen and Hurley, making sure the two spaceflyers are in good shape after their journey home from orbit. We haven't seen such activity at sea for more than four decades. The most recent crewed ocean return occurred in July 1975, when NASA astronauts Tom Stafford, Vance Brand and Deke Slayton wrapped up the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project by splashing down in the middle of the Pacific. Demo-2 began on May 30, when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lofted Endeavour from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, kicking off a one-day trip to the station. It was the first crewed orbital launch to depart from the United States since the final flight of the space shuttle fleet in July 2011. Since then, the United States had been dependent on Russian Soyuz rockets and spacecraft to ferry its astronauts to and from the station, at a price, most recently, of about $90 million per seat. A private American astronaut taxi has now broken that stranglehold, as NASA long intended. In 2010, the space agency began funding the development of a variety of homegrown commercial spacecraft. SpaceX and Boeing emerged as the winners of this competition in 2014, each scoring multibillion-dollar contracts to finish work on their spaceflight systems and fly at least six operational crewed missions to and from the ISS for NASA.
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SpaceX is about to launch a beer experiment, "mighty mice" and much, much more to the International Space Station. The CRS-19 launch scheduled for today (Dec. 4) will be SpaceX's 19th resupply mission to the space station. The uncrewed Dragon spacecraft will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida carrying over 5,700 lbs. (2,585 kilograms) of crew supplies and scientific equipment. Roughly 2,200 lbs. (998 kg) of those 5,700 lbs. will be dedicated to scientific investigations on board the station. Liftoff is set for 12:51 p.m. EST (1751 GMT). You can watch SpaceX's launch live here and on Space.com's homepage courtesy of NASA TV. NASA's webcast will begin at 12:30 p.m. EST (1730 GMT). SpaceX will host its own webcast here, beginning at about 12:35 p.m. EST (1735 GMT). This mission will mark the third flight of this particular Dragon spacecraft, SpaceX has said, though the mission will use a new Falcon 9 booster. Thats not an experiment, astronauts want to get drunk in space and thats just an excuse https://www.space.com/spacex-dragon-weird-science-launch-crs-19-webcast.html
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For more than a decade now, Tesla CEO Elon Musk's SpaceX company has seemingly been focused on creating commercial rockets that will one day be reusable, making it much cheaper to shoot stuff up to orbit, the International Space Station or beyond. But it's all just a prelude to the main mission to Mars, one SpaceX investor recently revealed onstage at a conference on working toward human settlements in space, which this writer attended. This may come as little surprise to those who follow Musk and SpaceX closely. The billionaire industrialist for the 21st century loves to talk about going to Mars (and even nuking it) when he's not busy trying to make those recyclable rockets land just right or worrying about artificial intelligence while slowly making his electric cars more autonomous. There's always been reason to wonder how high Mars really is on Musk's list of priorities. While he's talked about sending people there in the next decade, he's been known to be a little overly optimistic with his timelines (getting his rockets off the ground took several years longer than initially hoped), and clearly the guy has other problems to solve and companies to run. But video game legend, citizen astronaut and SpaceX investor Richard Garriott told a small audience of space enthusiasts at the New Worlds conference in Austin, Texas, on Friday that the company only exists to colonize Mars. Garriott said that Musk likes to joke with investors, saying things like, "By the way, none of this money is coming back until we are on Mars. " On SpaceX's own website "About" page, the company is described this way: "SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets." Garriott's anecdote also jives with what Musk told Tesla shareholders earlier this year on the topic of a possible future SpaceX initial public offering (Tesla is a public company, SpaceX is not): "It will go public once we have regular flights to Mars," Musk said, according to USA Today. If that's the plan, perhaps Musk will have the motivation to hit his tight timeline for getting to the Red Planet after all, which will no doubt please investors, and probably a few more-traditional gamblers who are betting on him to beat NASA to Mars, too. Source http://www.cnet.com/
