SpaceX Will Test Their Launch Abort System Wednesday

If you want to launch astronauts in space, you have to make sure the procedure is as safe as possible. That’s why, for any launch system, NASA requires an abort procedure: A way to get the astronauts away from the rocket as quickly as possible if something goes wrong.

SpaceX is working on getting their Dragon capsule crew-rated, so they need an abort system. A recent upgrade includes eight SuperDraco engines, set in pairs around its base. The idea is that is something catastrophic were to happen to the Falcon 9 rocket, the SuperDracos will fire to fling the capsule away.

They will put the engines to the test on Wednesday, May 6 for a “pad abort test”. The Dragon will sit atop a truss to mimic the launch conditions on a Falcon 9 rocket. During the test, they’ll fire with 15,000 pounds of thrust each^*, flinging the capsule about 1600 meters up and over the Atlantic, where it will parachute down^†. The capsule is loaded with sensors, including a human test dummy (which they named “Buster”, an obvious homage to the dummy from Mythbusters).

You can watch live on NASA TV, NASA’s UStream channel, and (I suspect) the SpaceX livestream. The window for this opens at 11:00 UTC (07:00 Eastern US time) and lasts until 18:30 UTC.

This is a necessary (and needed) step to complete on the way back to space for American astronauts. As I mentioned recently, we’re in a gap in our ability to launch Americans from American soil, but it’s really no longer than the one from Apollo to the Space Shuttle. And it’ll end very soon. SpaceX is making great strides, as is Blue Origin (though I want to iterate, again, my displeasure with NASA’s Space Launch System). I expect that by the end of 2017 we’ll see a very different landscape in crewed space exploration.

* I tend to use metric for measurements, but NASA and its contractors still report thrust in pounds. The metric unit is Newtons, which is basically unknown outside of engineering or physics and the like. But in case you care, each SuperDraco will generate roughly 70,000 Newtons.

^† As a bonus, under more normal circumstances, the engines can be used for maneuvering the capsule when it’s in space.  The SuperDraco engine chamber is 3D printed, more technically called metal laser sintering. I saw a bit of that process when I visited the SpaceX factory, and it was pretty cool. 

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