RETURN OF THE DRAGON
First-of-its-kind mission sees unmanned capsule from Spacex conclude its five-day visit to the International Space Station
SPACEX’S Crew Dragon, an unmanned capsule designed to take humans into space, has returned to Earth, completing a successful landmark mission for the US company.
Slowed by billowing orange-andwhite parachutes, the spacecraft splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean not far off the coast of Florida at 8.45am (1.45pm GMT) on Friday as planned.
In a live webcast on the Spacex website, applause and whooping could be heard from the company’s headquarters as scientists watched the spacecraft’s return.
The vehicle had undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) earlier in the day, beginning its sixhour journey home from orbit.
The crewless mission, called Demo1, was Spacex’s chance to show it could build a spaceship to carry people.
The firm, founded by celebrity entrepreneur Elon Musk, has so far shuttled only cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).
The unmanned capsule had a short stay on the ISS, capping the first orbital test mission in Nasa’s long-delayed quest to resume human space flight from US soil later this year.
A Spacex rocket had launched the 5m-tall capsule from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida last Saturday morning. After a five-day mission on the orbital outpost, Crew Dragon was set to autonomously detach about 2.30am local time on Friday and descend to Earth for an 8.45am splashdown off Florida’s Cape Canaveral coast.
Officials at the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration will scrutinise the performance of the Spacex capsule’s parachute deployment and buoyancy after splashdown – two of the design and functionality concerns first reported in February.
Musk, also co-founder of electric car maker Tesla, will be watching closely. “I would say hypersonic re-entry is probably my biggest concern,” he told reporters after the launch, referring to the capsule reaching thousands of kilometres per hour as it goes through the Earth’s atmosphere.
The first-of-its-kind mission, ahead of Spacex’s crewed test flight slated for June, brought 181kg of test equipment to the space station, including a dummy named Ripley, outfitted with sensors around its head, neck, and spine to monitor how a flight would feel for a human.
The space station’s three-member crew greeted the capsule on Sunday morning, with US astronaut Anne Mcclain and Canadian astronaut David Saint-jacques entering Crew Dragon’s cabin to carry out air quality tests and inspections.
The capsule’s approach as seen on Earth’s horizon from the station represented “the dawn of a new era in human spaceflight”, Mcclain tweeted on Sunday.
By Thursday, the space station crew bid farewell to Ripley and closed the hatch ahead of Dragon’s Friday morning departure.
Nasa has awarded Spacex and Boeing $6.8 billion (R98bn) to build competing rocket and capsule systems to launch astronauts into orbit from American soil, something not possible since the US Space Shuttle was retired from service in 2011.
The launch systems are aimed at ending US reliance on Russian Soyuz rockets for $80 million-per-seat rides to the $100bn orbital research laboratory, which flies about 400 km above Earth.
Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine said the cost per seat on the Boeing or Spacex systems would be lower than for the shuttle or Soyuz. |