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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – The most recent US astronaut capsule flew to the International Space Station on Saturday for a high-flying test flight from SpaceX.
The only passenger was a life-size model named Ripley after the main character of the movie "Alien". SpaceX must take its first steps into the capsule of its Dragon crew before being able to board people later this year.
This last Dragon, the most flashy, is on a fast track to reach the space station Sunday morning, barely 27 hours after takeoff.
He will spend five days at the outpost in orbit, before making a retro dive in the Atlantic Atlantic next Friday – an essential training for the next space demo, probably this summer, when two astronauts will attach.
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said the launch was "very stressful", but he hopes the capsule will be ready to carry people later this year.
"To be honest, I'm a little emotionally exhausted," Musk told reporters just an hour after takeoff. "We have to go to the station, we have to come back, but until now it has worked … we have adopted the riskiest elements."
NASA's director, Jim Bridenstine, called it "great night for the United States of America".
"We are about to launch US astronauts on US rockets again for the first time since the withdrawal of space shuttles in 2011," said Bridenstine, who made a special tour of the launch pad. on the eve of the launch. , by Musk.
About 5,000 NASA employees and contractors, tourists and journalists gathered in the early hours of the morning at the Kennedy Space Center with the SpaceX launch team, while the Falcon 9 rocket was taking off before dawn of same place where Apollo rockets and space shuttles had become terrible. Across the country, at SpaceX Mission Control in Hawthorne, Calif., The company's employees went wild, applauding every step of the way until the capsule reached orbit.
The two NASA astronauts, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, will attach to the second demonstration of space in July. Shortly after takeoff, Musk asked them, "What do you think of flying on board?"
It's been eight years since Hurley and three other astronauts made the last Space Shuttle mission, and launches from Florida have stopped.
NASA has turned to private companies, SpaceX and Boeing, and provided $ 8 billion for construction and operation.
crew capsules
carry astronauts to and from the space station. Currently, Russian rockets are the only way to bring astronauts to the 250-mile outpost. Soyuz bills have exploded over the years; NASA is currently paying $ 82 million per seat.
Boeing aims to perform the first test flight of its Starliner capsule in April, possibly with astronauts on board in August.
Bridenstine said he is confident that astronauts will fly on a dragon or starliner – or both – by the end of the year. But he stressed that there was no rush.
"We are not in a race for space," he said. "This race is over, we went to the moon and we won, it's done, we are now in a position where we can take our time and make sure we get it right."
SpaceX has already made 16 trips to the space station using cargo dragons. The white Dragon crew is slightly larger – 8 meters (27 feet) – and is much more sophisticated and safer. Musk said the redesigned capsule had "hardly a role in common" with its predecessor.
It has four seats, three windows, touchscreen computer screens and survival equipment, as well as eight stopping motors to pull the capsule safely in an emergency. Solar cells are mounted on the spacecraft to produce electrical energy, unlike the protruding solar wings of cargo dragons.
"It's an incredibly stylish vehicle from the inside and very easy to use," Hurley told reporters a few hours before take-off. He is amazed to see that the Dragon has only 30 buttons and touch screens, compared to the 2,000 switches and breakers in the space shuttle cockpit.
For the
test
, the model Ripley was attached to the far left of the seat, wearing the company's vivid space suit. The remaining seats were empty, with the exception of a small earth-plush toy, which was free to float when it reached weightlessness. "Super high tech zero g indicator added just before launch!" Musk tweeted. True to his word, the toy rose without weight above the seat once the capsule in orbit.
Up to seven astronauts could enter, but four will be the norm once launched flights, which will allow a bit of cargo space. About 450 pounds (200 kilograms) of supplies are going up on this flight.
The capsule is designed to automatically hang on and off at the space station. Dragon Cargo must be maneuvered with the robotic arm of the station.
Like Ripley, the capsule is equipped with sensors. Engineers will carefully monitor the noise, vibration and other constraints of the spacecraft while monitoring life support, communication and propulsion systems. Some equipment requires more work, or even a redesign, before serving human passengers.
"We will learn from this mission," said Kathy Lueders, NASA's Commercial Program Program Manager.
Members of the flight operations team, some of whom are novices, also need this six-day trial period, according to Kennedy Space Center Director Robert Cabana.
The goal is to make the next demonstration flight, with Hurley and Behnken, as safe as possible. The most immediate objective is to avoid harming the space station and its three occupants: American, Canadian and Russian.
"To see such success definitely gives us a lot of confidence in the future," Behnken said.
At Saturday's post-launch press conference, Musk said he would be happy to fly aboard the reorganized Dragon. "You think that's a good vehicle, right?" he asked Behnken and Hurley, sitting next to him. Musk jokingly said that it was better to wait a week until the dragon came back, before answering.
Despite SpaceX's success in recovering and reusing its rockets, NASA insists that new SpaceX boosters be used for the crew's capsule flights. The first relay used on Saturday landed on a floating platform in the Atlantic, after takeoff. SpaceX plans to recycle the new flying capsule for a high-altitude dropout test this spring, as well as a reminder launched and recovered a week ago.
Musk eventually plans to sell Dragon towers to private citizens, like the Russians, first at the space station and perhaps beyond. "That would be pretty cool," he said.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives
support
from the science education department of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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