NASA and SpaceX have set April 22 as the target for the upcoming launch date for the Dragon Crew International Space Station. A senior crew of four aboard the previously upgraded Falcon 9 spacecraft and reusing the Dragon spacecraft said one of the sabotage officers said the missile and capsule was “in excellent condition” after repairs were completed on the Cape this week. .
The same capsule that flew into space last year with astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behanken – the Crew Dragon spacecraft – will be launched onto a Falcon 9 rocket from Platform 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. A NASA spokesperson said the April 22 release date was 6:11 pm. EST (1011 GMT).
NASA on Friday confirmed the April 22 release date, which is two days behind the target’s previous launch site, April 20. NASA and SpaceX officials said earlier this week that the launch would be delayed for “two days” and would allow the line to “reach the space station upon departure”.
A NASA spokesman said Crew Dragon will be at the EDT space station (1105 GMT) on April 23 at 7:05 a.m., assuming the Crew-2 mission will launch as scheduled on April 22. Now for space travel.
Senior NASA astronaut Shane Kimberly will lead crew 2. Kimberly, who is on his third mission in orbit, will join forces with second astronaut Megan MacArthur, who will pilot the Dragon spacecraft. Japanese astronauts Akihiko Hoshit and European Space Agency astronauts Thomas Pesket Kembra and MacArthur will travel on the space station for six months.
Hoshid and Pesket will carry out the third and second space missions, respectively.
SpaceX technicians at Cape Canaveral are taking out a Falcon 9 booster and dragon crew for launch on April 22.
“I can happily say that most spacecraft have proven effective in flight,” said Benji Reid, senior director of SpaceX’s human space flight program, referring to the Crotragon spacecraft. “In this case, we replaced some valves, for example, some thermal protection systems. In group vehicles… we always fly with new parachutes. So there are some that are new, but apart from that, the very same cars that are very carefully examined. ready.
NASA Commercial Crew Project Director Steve Stitch said at a press conference Monday that the Crew 2 dragon spacecraft for the Crew 2 mission will have “advanced capabilities” designed to be safe and ready for inshore and strong winds.
“One of the improvements to this vehicle is the improved bearing performance,” said Stitch. “Designed to be able to carry out continuous abortions in orbit since the dragon was launched. SpaceX takes off, looking for ways to improve the impulse system and give more of a boost to off-pad abortion. “
“It does two things,” said Stitch. “First, if we have an unfortunate situation, if the pillow is turned over, the crew has to leave the stage for an emergency. Second, it actually increases the output capacity. We were able to handle slightly stronger shore winds and increased launch capacity. “
Dragon Crew can be defeated if there is a big problem with the Falcon 9 missile at the launch location. The capsule will launch a Super Traco engine canceled from the rocket and over the Atlantic Ocean near the Florida Coastal Launching Complex, where the spacecraft will park the parachute and land on the beach.
Having a miscarriage or abortion on board can help ensure that astronauts can avoid devastating missile failures.
One of the technical issues that delayed the Crew Dragon spacecraft’s first astronaut flight was that the test capsule exploded in 2019 before the Super Draco engine was delivered to Earth. Investigators discovered that the explosion was caused by an unexpected reaction from nitrogen tetroxide, one of the impulses used in the Super Traco engine, and that there was a titanium valve in the high-pressure impulse system. Stitch says SpaceX has revamped the propulsion system to make future missions safer.
“We learned a lot about titanium, nitrogen tetroxide and antioxidants and their compatibility,” said Stitch. “We upgraded the Super Draco motor, removed some of the titanium from the system, used some steel, and increased safety there.”
“I think this trip is a journey to improve abortion,” said Stitch. “If you come back and see this ride, we improve the racing status of the vehicle by increasing abortion, increasing abortion tolerance, removing titanium in the propulsion system, and increasing abortion by changing the program. So overall… we continued… “trying to reduce risk in the plan over time.”
NASA engineers on the SpaceX Dragon Reconnaissance Team at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station have been monitoring the spacecraft since landing in the Gulf of Mexico on August 2. Dragon Endeavor’s Capsule Crew spent 64 days in orbit, most of the time at anchor. With the space station.
A spacecraft repair review last Friday showed SpaceX and NASA were in “good shape” with plans to reuse the capsule in Crew Mission 2.
“When we went through this certification process, we really focused on every part of the car,” said Stitch. “There are new umbrellas, new heat shields, new nose cones, new components, and then we see what we were doing during the renovation process… In general, I don’t see much risk for reuse, because with the process, we check to reinstall the components. . “.
Kimbero said on Monday that the astronaut crew-2 would retain the name “Endeavor” for the Hurley and Behanken spacecraft.
Another modification of the Crew Dragon Endeavor spacecraft strengthens the outer shell of the capsule to handle splashes of liquid in extreme ocean conditions. This change was primarily intended to minimize surface impact with a “secondary splash” as the parachute would hit the spacecraft immediately after landing.
“If wave height, wind and vehicle speed were the right combination of entry, this secondary flow would be devastating,” said Reid. “We do a lot of things to analyze and test it. We’re done. We need to make the car as strong as possible to handle it, but you also pay attention to the weather. So you have a lot of control over the weather, wind speed and wave height and all the different things that happen. “
But weather restrictions will limit the chances of humans launching and landing.
“One of the things we’ve done is we’re strengthening the hull unit so we can expand the opportunities to bring the crew home, while at the same time maintaining that safety and all the margin for the crew,” said Reid. This is especially the dragon. Going forward, this will always be part of the design. “
Reed said SpaceX needed time to switch Crew Dragon between test flight and Crew-2 last year. Duty. “As we go through this process, we learn what needs to change completely because we need to look deeper and the things we need to do move forward.”
According to Reid, SpaceX wants to reduce its renewal schedule to “two months”. Finding repair work near the launch site at Cape Canaveral, not at the SpaceX plant in California or at a test station in central Texas, could make the process easier.
“The key to entering this new space era is to reject and reuse vehicles,” said Reid.
Team training for the upcoming Dragon Launch is coming to an end. Kimberly and his colleagues will travel to the Florida launch pad later this month and crawl on their spaceship for a final check, then return to Florida in mid-April for final training before departing on April 22.
The Crew Dragon Recession spacecraft, currently docked at the space station, will go to another port in orbit in late March or early April to provide a docking station for Crew-2 astronauts to arrive. Launched in November, Group-1 astronauts will board a vehicle to perform robotic traffic maneuvers.
After the crew-2 mission arrives next month, 11 astronauts will temporarily be on the space station. After a week-long surrender, Crew Commander 1 Mike Hopkins, pilot Victor Clover and mission experts Sochi Nokucci and Shannon Walker will leave the space station in late April or early May and depart from the Florida coast, with the moon in orbit five and a half.
NASA and SpaceX want the Crew-1 mission to return to Earth before May 9, when the space station’s orbiter will give the dragon crew a chance to land one night.
The Cro-2 release will reuse the same Falcon 9 boosters that were restored after the Cro-1 launch in November.
April is a busy month for group rotation on the space station. A Russian Soyuz spacecraft is scheduled to launch from Kazakhstan on April 9 with two Russian astronauts and a NASA astronaut. To replace the crew of Soyuz who had been at the station since October. The departing Soyuz plane will land in Kazakhstan on April 17.
“We are very happy and ready to go,” said Reid. “Obviously, we’re going to go through all the boxes, three times under all the rocks and everywhere, to make sure we’re ready to move this crew.” As we always say, we won’t fly until we’re ready. “
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