Tag: Dragon

NASA today signed off on the first launch to send a crew into orbit from U.S. soil in nearly nine years, and the rocket for that launch had its final test firing.

After reviewing mission plans for a day and a half, mission managers cleared SpaceX to send NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station at 4:33 p.m. ET (1:33 p.m. PT) May 27.

“We had a very successful flight readiness review, in that we did a thorough review of all the systems and all the risks,” NASA Associate Administrator Steve Jurczyk, who presided over this week’s meetings, said at KSC during a post-review news briefing. “It was unanimous on the board that we are go for launch.”

After the briefing, SpaceX fired up the first-stage engines on its Falcon 9 rocket at Launch Complex 39A, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, to conduct its traditional static-fire system check. In the wake of the test, SpaceX reported that everything was on track for the May 27 liftoff.

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Two NASA astronauts landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida today to go through a set of pre-launch traditions that haven’t been followed for nearly nine years — and create a few new traditions as well.

When Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken walked out of a NASA Gulfstream jet and met the press, they began a routine that’s due to climax next week with the first orbital launch from U.S. soil since the space shuttle fleet’s retirement in 2011.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is due to loft their commercial Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station a week from today. But first, they’ll participate remotely in a launch readiness review on Thursday, and then go through an in-person launch rehearsal at historic Launch Complex 39A on Saturday.

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With a fiery flash and volleys of cheers, SpaceX and NASA today rehearsed something they hope will never happen: a catastrophic rocket failure at the worst time in the launch of a crewed mission to the International Space Station.

Fortunately, the closest things to crew members on today’s in-flight abort test of the Crew Dragon spaceship were two test dummies, sitting on sensors in the seats that will tell engineers how flesh-and-blood fliers would have weathered the aborted trip.

If the results of the test look good, that should take care of the final major hurdle before two actual NASA astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, ride a different Crew Dragon to the station and back later this year.

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