Tag: Falcon 9

Mission managers have cleared the final paperwork for SpaceX’s first-ever crewed launch, aimed at sending two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

The stage is now set for the first NASA mission to send humans into orbit from U.S. soil since the retirement of the space shuttle fleet in 2011.

Only one big question remained after today’s launch readiness review, which looked at all the technical issues surrounding the scheduled May 27 liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“We’re burning down the final paper,” Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, told reporters during a teleconference. “All the teams were ‘go,’ and we’re continuing to make progress toward our mission. Now the only thing we need to do is figure out how to control the weather.”

Today’s weather forecast called for a 60% chance of scrubbing the launch due to concerns about rain and clouds at the launch site. The weather was rainy at the Cape today, but Mike McAleenan, launch weather officer for the 45th Weather Squadron at Patrick Air Force Base, said the outlook was improving.

“If I was to issue the forecast today, right now, we would probably be down to a 40% chance of violation. … So we have some hope for launch day,” McAleenan said.

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NASA and SpaceX put astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken and the rest of the team at Kennedy Space Center in Florida through a “dry dress rehearsal” today in preparation for next week’s historic launch to the International Space Station.

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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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