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SpaceX Launch Abort Test Successful

Posted by Soulskill on from the failed-correctly dept.

An anonymous reader writes: As we discussed yesterday, SpaceX launched a prototype this morning to test its Dragon passenger capsule in an aborted launch. The test was a success — the capsule separated cleanly, propelled itself to a safe distance, deployed its parachutes, and lowered gently down to a water landing, where it remained floating. You can watch video of the test on SpaceX's website — skip to 15:40 to get right to it. Externally, everything seems to have gone fine. I'm sure we'll hear in the coming weeks whether the downrange distance was ideal, whether they hit their splashdown target, and how the crash test dummy inside the capsule weathered the abort!

4 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. Sort-of-worked. by queazocotal · · Score: 2, Informative

    Close examination of the video shows that one of the near thrusters shut off. Look carefully and you see a puff of smoke, and one of the thruster clusters dims as one of the two superdracos has stopped thrusting.
    At the same moment, the vehicle begins to pitch.
    The thrust was perhaps then terminated early - the vehicle did not quite get nominal total velocity.

    1. Re:Sort-of-worked. by bareman · · Score: 4, Informative

      Pitch is part of the plan. Escape systems need to move the capsule out of the path of the rocket below it.

      "T+.5s: After half a second of vertical flight, Crew Dragon pitches toward the ocean and continues its controlled burn. The SuperDraco engines throttle to control the trajectory based on real-time measurements from the vehicle’s sensors."

  2. Very similar to the Mercury tests by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    From space-x sub-reddit:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/34yote/rspacex_dragon_2_pad_abort_live_discussion/cr073cj

    Looks like it landed just a bit further off-shore than the unmanned Mercury capsule from an Atlas 3 failure April 25, 1961: https://youtu.be/Vp9BnBDKa0s?t=5m55s Flight terminated after 43 seconds, LES tower ignited, pulling capsule free. Apogee of 7.2km, downrange only 1.8km. Capsule recovered and used again.

  3. Re:Super Draco by cbhacking · · Score: 3, Informative

    They are, in fact, the engines the Musk said were fully 3D printed. Good point about the first flight thing.

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