NASA and SpaceX successfully launched its crew Dragon spacecraft

A Historic Mission 

SpaceX flew a mission last year to the space station. They used a mannequin at that time as their test subject. The software behaved perfectly. It delivered the capsule safely to the ISS.

On Saturday, May at 3.22 p.m.  EDT SpaceX launched Falcon 9 at the same Launchpad where Neil Armstrong and his team were sent to the Moon at Launch complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. This was Crew Dragon’s second demonstration. This flight had NASA’s brave astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. They reached the Space station easily and reached back to United States safely.

This was a historic day in modern space travel as the astronauts who were working for NASA flew the first ever truly private spacecraft.  This spacecraft was completely designed by SpaceX which is Elon Musk’s Aerospace Company.

This is Falcon 9 it’s a partially usable two-stage-to-orbit medium lift launch vehicle. It is a safe vehicle for transporting people and payloads into earth orbit and beyond.  It has capacity to lift payloads up to 22,800kg to low earth orbit, 8300kg to geostationary transfer orbit when expended and   5,500kg to GTO when first stage is recovered.  It has height of 229.6ft  and diameter of 12ft. the name falcon was inspired from the movie Star Wars where the famous Millennium Falcon is shown as the best ship in the galaxy.

First Stage

The first stage has 9 Merlin engines and aluminum-lithium alloy tanks which contains liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene.

Second Stage

This stage is powered by Single Merlin Vacuum Engine. The engine ignites after few seconds of stage separation and can be restarted multiple times to give multiple payloads in different orbit.  It has burn time of 397sec and thrust of 981kN.

Interstage

This is a combined structure that connects first and second stage, and houses the pneumatic pushers which allows the first and second stage to separate during its flight. Its equipped with 4 hypersonic grid fins.

Payload

•   Fairing 

Made of carbon mixture material, the fairing helps in protecting satellites on their way to orbit. SpaceX recovers the fairings for reuse on future flights. It has height of 43ft.  

•  Dragon

It has capacity to carry up to 7 people or cargo in the space craft’s pressurized section. Addition to that it can carry a cargo in unpressurized trunk which can accommodate secondary payload as well. It has height of 26.6ft.

Fairing and Dragon 

Merlin

It’s a rocket engine developed by SpaceX themselves. It uses rocket grade kerosene [RP-1] and liquid oxygen as propellants. It was originally designed for recovery and reuse.  And during Vacuum it features a larger exhaust section and nozzle. Its combustion chamber is regeneratively  cooled while expansion nozzle is radioactively cooled.  

Sea level and Vacuum Level

 More about the Dragon Crew

Dragon space craft is the only spacecraft currently in motion that is capable of returning cargos and people back to earth. SpaceX says soon this is going to be the first private spacecraft to take humans to space stations.

Dragon's trunk

Dragons trunk not only carries unpressurized cargo but also supports spacecraft while it ascents. The solar panels covers only one half of the trunk which provides energy during its flight.

Capsule

Capsule

Dragon capsule allows transportation for people and environment friendly cargo. Its equipped with Draco thrusters that allow dragon to move while in the orbit.

Draco

This dragon spacecraft is equipped with 16 draco thrusters which helps in orientation during the mission. Each of them is capable of generating 90 pounds of force in vacuum of space.

Super draco

Eight SuperDraco engines provide fault-tolerant propulsion for its launch escape system. In an unlikely event of emergency   these engines can power the Dragon half a mile from lauch vehicle in less than 8 seconds.

Draco and Super Draco

Two Astronauts from NASA BobBehnken and Doug Hurley were the first in history to ride in a private space craft.

 If something goes wrong to the astronauts NASA had to take the blame so they did have glitch but Elon Musk he himself said that to place the blame completely on him if something goes wrong.  Hurley and Benkhen were tested for COVID-19 twice before they had their launched.  In their true fashion the astronauts were brought to the Launchpad in their classic Tesla X with NASA logo on the side.

 Dragon would autonomously dock with ISS and the astronauts meet US astronaut and Russian cosmonauts at 1.02 p.m. ET. The dragon Space craft flies autonomously but when they feel the astronauts can take over the control anytime.

When the Demo 2 astronauts leave the ISS they fly the dragon back to earth’s atmosphere and wallow down the coast using four parachutes.

Of the two astronauts Douglas Hurley was selected as an astronaut in 2000. He was a mechanical engineer and former Marine Corps pilot.

Douglas Hurley

Bob Behnken holds Ph. D in mechanical engineering and the rank of colonel in U.S. Air Force. He joined NASA in the year 2000.

Bob Behnken

 SpaceX was one of two teams to be selected for Human spaceflight. Well the other company being Boeing. Who had their own system but had some few setbacks. But now SpaceX has edged Boeing in the effort to send NASA astronauts to space.  Hurley and Benken are expected to remain at the ISS for one month prior. And when it returns they can inspect the data from Demo 3 and start their next flight which is scheduled around August.

 To conclude Elon Musk did a fabulous job with his Tesla Cars and with his team of SpaceX he proves his himself as one of the greatest. I would like to congratulate Elon Musk, NASA and whole team who were on this amazing historic mission.

To know more on this mission click on the image below