After Crew Dragon, SpaceX looks at a drone instead of Cape Canaveral

SpaceX plans to move the target's landing zone for its next Falcon 9 mission from Cape Canaveral to a drone in the Atlantic Ocean, according to officials and documents filed at the Federal Communications Commission.

The planned flight Tuesday at 04:22 with the unprepared space shuttle to the International Space Station was aimed at an emergency landing in the landing zone 1 of Cape Canaveral Air Base. But officials have confirmed to FLORIDA TODAY 'HUI Of course I still love you Drone ship after Saturday's explosive incident involving a Crew Dragon capsule.

The incident, which occurred during testing of its SuperDraco engines designed to keep astronauts away from a failed rocket, resulted in the loss of the Crew Dragon capsule, which flew off early March to the ISS. SpaceX performed the tests on a stand at LZ-1, which is typically used for make-up landings because it provides a strip of land that can serve as a security buffer in case of an anomaly.

Industry officials told FLORIDA TODAY that moving the landing area on a drone would help "preserve valuable information" during the investigation, as far as landing a booster could prevent cleanup and technical crews. It could also destroy or create obsolete critical evidence.

If SpaceX decides to move the landing zone on the drone next week, the mission will not be as far away as in the Atlantic Ocean – corporate documents filed this week by the FCC say that It would stop about 16 hours. miles off Port Canaveral Jetty Park, a popular place to follow launches and landings. In comparison, LZ-1 is about 10 km from Jetty Park, which means that spectators will for the first time be able to see a reminder landing on a drone from Space Coast.

SpaceX is required to file authorizations with the FCC for ground-rocket communications.

Tuesday's mission will bring thousands of scientific experiments to astronauts on the ISS. The Dragon spacecraft, controlled by computer, is expected to stay there about a month before landing in the Pacific Ocean, where it will be recovered through scientific experiments back. Cargo flights are part of NASA's commercial replenishment service program.

Dragon and Crew Dragon, despite the sharing of certain materials, are different vehicles. The first is designed for cargo missions, while the latter is still being tested for possible manned flights to the ISS. SpaceX had planned its inaugural flight with astronauts in July, but experts expect this to be delayed due to the weekend's incident.

Contact Emre Kelly at [email protected] or 321-242-3715. Follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram on @EmreKelly.

Launch Tuesday

• Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9
• Mission: ISS Dragon Replenishment
• Launch time: 4:22
• Launch window: Instantaneous
• Launching complex: 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base
• Landing: Yes, of course, I still love you.
• weather: Forecast forecast Saturday

Join floridatoday.com/space for countdown updates and online chat from 3:00 am Tuesday, including the webcast of the SpaceX launch webcast 30 minutes before takeoff.

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