20TH NOVEMBER 2019 ISSUE NUMBER 02

What about it!? The need for knowledge

NEWS UPDATE Road to Success

By STINGER NSW

The last Space Shuttle mission STS-135 launched back on July 8, 2011, forward to An artistic rendering of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon launching on a today and its now been over eight years Falcon 9 rocket | Image Credit >>> SpaceX since astronauts have launched from US soil however SpaceX is now on the verge The Story so Far… of completing the verification requirements to permit a private § April 18, 2011 | CC Dev2 Phase American aerospace company to SpaceX awarded USD$75 M transport astronauts into space as part the NASA Commercial Crew Program. Dragon’s SuperDraco Engines | Picture Credit >>> SpaceX § August 3, 2012 | CCiCap Phase SpaceX awarded USD$440 M The next milestone is the inflight abort At the same time, SpaceX is continuing with the testing of the capsules Mk 3 § December 10, 2012 | CPC Phase 1 test to which SpaceX had opted to carry parachutes to verify that it can reliably and SpaceX awarded USD$9.6 M out. This comes on the back of a successful test firing of the Crew Dragon’s safely return the Dragon capsule to earth. § September 14, 2014 | CCtCap redesigned SuperDraco engines on the On the conclusion of the inflight abort and Crew Flights Contract Awarded November 13, 2019 without incident, parachute tests there will be a period for SpaceX could receive up to USD$2.6 B clearing a major hurdle on the way to evaluating all the data before a “Go” for § May 6, 2015 | Pad Abort Test launching manned missions. launch is “Green Lighted”, the final step DragonFly Prototype Capsule The infight abort test which is targeted for before we can all witness the SpaceX § March 2, 2019 | SpX-DM1 December 2019 will use a three times history making moment when Robert First unmanned flight of a Crew Dragon flight proven booster B1046 on its fourth Behnken and Douglas Hurley enter the to the International Space Station and final mission. The booster will be Dragon Capsule aboard a shiny new Falcon 9 Block 5, B1051.1, C201 expended during the test. Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket blasting off on the § April 20, 2019 | Static Fire Test Crew Dragon Demo-2 test mission to the The atmospheric test of the Crew Dragon C201 SuperDraco Engines (Failure) ISS hopefully in March 2020, signalling a abort system will occur during Max Q. 88 new decade in space advancement. § November 13, 2019 | Static Fire Test seconds into flight, the onboard C205 SuperDraco Engines computer will cut power to the booster Robert Behnken | Born July 28, 1970 Upcoming; engines simulating an emergency loss in USAF Officer and NASA Astronaut. Space thrust. At this point the SuperDraco Shuttle Mission Specialist for STS-123 and § December 2019 | Inflight Abort Test engines will fire and pull the capsule away STS-130 plus 37 hours of spacewalk time. Falcon 9 Block 5, B1046.4, C205 from the launch vehicle. The Dragon will § March 2020 | Crew Dragon Demo-2 deploy its parachutes and splashdown in Douglas Hurley | Born October 21,1966 First Crewed Flight to the ISS the Atlantic Ocean where SpaceX will Engineer and NASA astronaut. Space Falcon 9 Block 5, B1058.1, C206 recover it for evaluation. Shuttle pilot for STS-127 and STS-135.

§ May 2020 | USCV-1 Expedition 64/65 The test was planned to be performed on Crew to the International Space Station the SpX-DM1 capsule C201 before it Falcon 9 Block 5, Booster, C207 exploded during the SuperDraco engine

test on April 20, 2019. SpaceX was on NASA has awarded six missions with Crew track to surpass Boeing to launch before Dragon to carry up to four astronauts and it’s April testing failure and as a result this 100 kg (220 lb) of cargo to the ISS as well as pushed back SpaceX’s road to success. feature a lifeboat function to evacuate astronauts from ISS in case of an The inflight abort test will now use capsule NASA astronauts Robert “Bob” Behnken (left) and Douglas emergency. C205, originally manufactured for the first Hurley (right), are assigned to fly on Crew Dragon’s Demo-2 test crewed flight. flight and will thus become the first humans to fly in a SpaceX spacecraft | Picture Credit >>> NASA