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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – SpaceX is moving quickly toward one of the most important launches in 17 years: the first launch of Crew Dragon, a spacecraft designed by Elon Musk's aerospace company to send NASA astronauts on orbit.
Crew Dragon is part of NASA 's commercial crewing program, with a budget of about $ 8 billion, which was created to restore the agency' s ability to launch people on the International Space Station. (NASA abandoned its space shuttle program in July 2011 and has been sending astronauts aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.)
NASA has agreed to the inaugural launch of Crew Dragon aboard a Falcon 9 rocket Saturday at 14:49 ET. According to forecasts released Thursday, the mission has about 80% chance of good weather for the launch.
Read more: SpaceX will launch its Crew Dragon spacecraft in orbit for the first time in its history on Saturday. Here's how to watch live.
For this experimental mission called Demo-1, SpaceX will not launch any of NASA's top performers on the International Space Station. Instead, he will send 400 pounds of cargo and a crash test manikin wearing a spacesuit.
Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of reliability of construction and SpaceX flights, revealed at a press conference Thursday that the model would have a female body and a space suit.
"It has a lot of sensors, we call it a smarty, and it's called Ripley," Koenigsmann said. This name is a tribute to Ellen Ripley, the main character of the movie "Alien" performed by Sigourney Weaver.
Why "Ripley" is an essential part of the mission of SpaceX and NASA
The reason a model was first chosen for the ISS was to ensure that astronauts' lives were not endangered; Crew Dragon can still have quirks that are not fully understood.
"This is an invaluable exercise to learn, in the space environment, how these systems will work," said Kathryn Lueders, NASA's Business Team Program Manager at Business Insider.
"We have made tons of landing tests, parachute tests – all of those individual pieces, but, in fact, returning with Ripley instead is crucial," said Lueders. "We have instrumented the shit of this vehicle."
NASA officially calls Ripley an "anthropomorphic test device" or ATD. Lueders said the manikin will monitor sudden changes in speed that can induce an artificial gravity, or G. Loads. If these forces are too powerful, a crew Dragon astronaut could be knocked out or possibly injured.
Ripley and other sensors onboard Crew Dragon will also measure temperatures, listen for harmful noise levels, and ensure that the probe does not vibrate too much at any point in the mission.
"Just like you test your car, all the answers will be measured.Ideally, the whole environment will be soft and easy, but we know that when you land under a parachute, these landings can be difficult," said Lueders. . "We obviously do a whole series of tests in different ways, but they are reluctant to use people in an untried vehicle."
Once Ripley returns to the field, Lueders said engineers would integrate his data into computer simulations to model Crew Dragon's behavior in various situations with real people on board.
If everything goes well with Demo-1, SpaceX will then do a flight test of an abandonment system in April. SpaceX hopes to launch its first astronauts as part of its Demo-2 mission.
"Every mission is important, but [Demo-1] is even more important. I'm sure it's not just me. I'm pretty sure everyone at SpaceX is of that opinion, "said Koenigsmann.
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