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SpaceX is still collecting and analyzing recorded data, high speed images and recovered material as a result of a catastrophic abandonment system. test failure Last weekend, a Crew Dragon-type spacecraft was seriously damaged or destroyed, officials said on Thursday.
The vehicle in question, known as the Demo 1 vehicle, successfully completed an unmanned maiden flight to the International Space Station last month. He was ready for a critical flight test to help pave the way for the first crewed mission using another crew, a mission called Demo 2, this summer.
But these plans are now unresolved following an incident last Saturday during a static shot of the Demo 1 capsule engines stopped on a test bench at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base.
SpaceX provided little details beyond the vehicle's identity, the type of tests in progress and the confirmation that no one was injured. It did not reveal the condition of the spacecraft nor even confirmed whether an explosion had occurred, as is generally assumed, qualifying the event as a "simple" anomaly.
Despite this lack of public details, a spokesman for NASA said in an e-mail that the agency "had a complete knowledge of the results of the investigation into the accident, which goes into review all data collected during the test, including high-speed imaging and detailed satellite telemetry. " data and will include an analysis of the material recovered from the test. "
"We have every confidence in the SpaceX team and NASA conducting the investigation to determine the cause of the incident and update the design if necessary," he said. "We do not yet know what impact this will have on our target calendars."
The incident was briefly discussed Thursday at a meeting of the NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Committee.
"The first efforts were focused on securing sites, collecting and reducing data, and developing the anomaly schedule," said Patricia Sanders, president of ASAP. "The investigation will take some time before the analysis of the root cause is complete and will determine the impact on the Demo 2 test and the flight drop test."
On Saturday, the Demo 1 spacecraft was mounted on a test bench at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base for a series of tests in which its small propellers maneuvering Draco were launched. These tests were to be followed by the ignition of eight more powerful Draco Super engines of the capsule.
SpaceX does not announce these tests in advance and the first obvious signs are large clouds of reddish smoke, visible for many kilometers along the beaches and highways of the region, floating in the air above the station of the air force.
A few hours later, SpaceX only confirmed that an "anomaly" involving a "Crew Dragon test vehicle" had occurred. A second update the next day confirmed that Crew Dragon in question was the Demo 1 capsule, that the test involved a static shot of the Super Draco engines and that no one was hurt.
It is not yet clear whether the Super Dracos actually fired or were trying to shoot, when the incident occurred or if another system could have been involved. No photo or video was published and the company did not specify whether the vehicle had been destroyed, as is generally assumed.
Although no definitive answer is expected in the early stages of a failure investigation, the lack of basic detail prompted an editorial in the Orlando Sentinel earlier this week to criticize a lack of perceived transparency.
"" Anomaly "is a buzzword that informs the public of what has happened to a program in which the federal government spends billions to bring astronauts back into space with equipment. American rather than to catch Russian rockets, "the paper said.
He added that "the secret aspects of Elon Musk's businesses are acceptable when he spends his own money (or that of the investors) to build electric cars or dig tunnels through the ground. This n & # 39; "It's not good if the public funds its efforts because it's with SpaceX's crew space flight program."
At the ASAP meeting Thursday, Sanders said the incident had occurred "during a static fire test conducted prior to the flight drop test" . The goal, she said, was to collect vibration and acoustic measurements in the abandonment environment.
"The shooting of eight Super Dracos resulted in an anomaly," she said. "The test site was completely cleared and all the security protocols were followed. The incident did not result in any injury. "
Sandy Magnus, ASAP member and former astronaut, said that even before the launch of Demo 1, NASA and SpaceX had identified configuration changes and other work "that should be completed before demo 2 is possible ".
"Despite the recent incident, there is still a lot of work between Demo 1 and a crewed flight," she said. "It is still too early to speculate on how this body of work will evolve based on recent events."
She pointed out that the commercial crew program would not allow astronauts to be launched "before the program received the data needed to make sure we understood the margins, that we are controlling these margins and moving in the environment required by these margins, and we will continue to focus on this theme as work progresses. "
SpaceX and Boeing are both building ferry ships with an $ 8 billion push from NASA to restore US capacity to launch space in the space of US astronauts and partners in the aftermath of the company's retirement. space shuttle, in 2011.
Boeing holds several contracts worth $ 4.82 billion for the development of the CST-100 Starliner, a capsule that will be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas rocket 5.
SpaceX has contracts totaling approximately $ 3.1 billion to develop the Dragon Crew, designed to be placed on the company's Falcon 9 rockets. SpaceX holds a separate freight contract, valued at $ 3.04 billion, for 20 space station replenishment flights, as well as another contract of unspecified amount for at least six additional flights up to In 2024.
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