Space dummy’s big step
The Dragon craft for astronauts has a lot riding on it successfully completing the mission for SpaceX, Nasa
We’ll be ready when SpaceX and Nasa are ready for us to fly it
Nasa astronaut Doug Hurley
The United States space programme took a significant step towards returning human spaceflight to American soil after a SpaceX rocket successfully blasted off from a historic pad.
Carrying a dummy called Ripley after the Alien movies and 180kg of supplies, the company’s Dragon spacecraft was hurled into orbit on its way to the International Space Station in a crucial flight for both Nasa and SpaceX, the California company founded in 2002 by Elon Musk.
While no people were on board, the flight represents a significant step for Nasa. The spacecraft is the first commercially built vehicle designed for humans to fly to the space station. And if all goes well, a flight with humans could happen this year.
“We’re on the precipice of launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil,” Nasa Administrator Jim Bridenstine told reporters.
Since the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011, Nasa has been unable to fly people to space and has been forced to rely on Russia to ferry its astronauts to the space station, the orbiting laboratory about 400km above the Earth.
In a risky move, Nasa decided to outsource transportation to what’s known as low Earth orbit to the private sector. In 2014, as part of the “commercial crew” programme, the agency awarded contracts worth a combined US$6.8 billion to SpaceX and Boeing to develop spacecraft capable of flying up to four astronauts to the station at a time.
While Nasa has continued to fly probes and robots into deep space, and has even landed on Mars, the inability to fly humans has remained an embarrassment for an agency that beat the Soviet Union in the Cold War space race to the moon.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from pad 39A at Cape Canaveral, the same launch pad that hoisted Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon and many of the space shuttle missions as well.
Speaking to reporters after the launch, Musk said he was “emotionally exhausted” after the flight, which he said was “super stressful. But it worked — so far.”
He said the flight was the culmination of 17 years of “an incredible amount of hard work and sacrifice.”
SpaceX has used the site to ferry cargo and supplies to the space station. But despite all its successes, the company has yet to fly astronauts. SpaceX and Boeing originally planned to make their first flights with people within a few years of receiving the contracts but both programmes faced technical challenges and funding issues from Congress.
Boeing is scheduled to follow SpaceX’s flight with an uncrewed test launch of its Starliner spacecraft as early as next month. SpaceX is scheduled to fly its first mission with astronauts on board by July. Boeing’s first flight with people is scheduled for August.
Bridenstine said he was “100 per cent confident” those flights would happen this year. But he stressed it was more important to move deliberately so “we get it right.” Many officials have warned that since the programme is still in the test phase the schedules are likely to slip, perhaps even significantly.
Nasa astronaut Doug Hurley, slated to be on the first SpaceX test flight with humans, said the prospect of the mission “is pretty exciting.”
The latest flight “is the next critical step in putting people on Dragon,” he said.
“I can’t begin to explain to you how exciting it is for a test pilot to be on a first flight of a vehicle. And we’ll be ready when SpaceX and Nasa are ready for us to fly it.”
After the Dragon spacecraft separated from the rocket, Musk said he checked in with Hurkey and Bob Behnken, the other Nasa astronaut scheduled to fly on the first SpaceX crewed test flight. “I went over and asked what they thought, and how they felt about flying on it,” Musk said. The response was positive.
While the Dragon spacecraft launched successfully, the mission still has several hurdles to clear.
Dragon had to safely dock with the station early today NZT. The spacecraft was relying on its computers to autonomously fly the spacecraft gently alongside the station and then attach itself to one of the docking ports. There are three astronauts on board the station — Nasa astronaut Anne McClain, Canadian David Saint-Jacques and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenk — so the pressure was on to make sure the spacecraft does not pose a threat to the station as it approaches.
If it is able to dock successfully, the spacecraft would remain attached to the station for five days. Then it would disembark and fly back to Earth, where it would fall through the atmosphere, a big test for the spacecraft’s heat shield and parachute system.
If all goes according to plan, it would splash down in the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday.