SpaceX Aces First Launch of Crew Dragon, Built to Carry Humans, and Falcon 9 Touchdown (cnn.com)

"SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule, its first spacecraft designed to carry humans, took flight for the first time Saturday," reports CNN.

Slashdot reader Applehu Akbar calls it "a perfect launch," noting the test flight is hauling a sensor-loaded dummy named "Ripley" -- plus a 400-pound cargo of essentials for the International Space Station. Crew Dragon will dock on Sunday, CNN reports, then return to earth five days later. "SpaceX's capsule is now en route to the International Space Station, which flies about 254 miles above Earth at tremendous speeds: about 10 times faster than a bullet."
The successful launch puts SpaceX one step closer to a historic landmark: Crew Dragon could be the first commercially built spacecraft to carry NASA astronauts to orbit. And Crew Dragon -- along with a capsule called Starliner built by Boeing -- could end the United States' decade-long reliance on Russia for human spaceflight...

This marks the first and only demo mission that Crew Dragon will fly without humans on board. If all goes well, the capsule design will undergo a few more reviews and safety checks, and it could be ready to fly two NASA astronauts to the space station in July, based on the space agency's current timeline.
Space.com reports that the reusable rocket also landed safely back on earth about 10 minutes after the liftoff, "acing a touchdown on the SpaceX drone ship Of Course I Still Love You, which was stationed off the Florida coast."

Comments

Re:YES!

[XXongo]

Finally, the beginning of delivery of the implicit promise of Apollo. Late, and not by the government that implied human space travel would become commonplace,

It is worth reminding people here that this launch, and this capsule, was developed under a NASA contract (And NASA had funded the development of both Falcon-9 and Dragon before the Crew Dragon project as well).

Not to take away from SpaceX, but just a reminder that this was an example of NASA and industry working together.

instead of a ****-waving political exercise and cancelled at step 1. Money was of course, an issue, and as usual, private enterprise - and not one yet totally involved in crony capitalism, managed to deliver what the government and their heavily subsidized old-school aerospace contractors could not.

More specifically, this was an example showing how government contracts can be done right.

(The booster landing, on the other hand, was NOT a NASA contract-- that was SpaceX all the way. )

All possible congrats, props, general hip hip hurray and so forth. Just wish I didn't have to wait from childhood until too old to fly for this.

Agreed.

Re:Correction

[bill_mcgonigle]

It's important to note that abort is at MaxQ - the point in flight of maximum aerodynamic pressure. Yes, it's above Mach 1, but the reason is that if crew escape works there it works everywhere else.

Since the inside of Falcon 9 will be exposed to atmosphere at MaxQ without a fairing it is expected that the vehicle will be a total loss. They are using a thrice-landed vehicle for the launch, probably without legs or fins to minimize costs.

Re:First âoeCommercial lâ Spacecraft?

[Graymalkin]

Most of NASA's equipment is built by contractors. The key difference is the design specs are created by NASA and the equipment is built by contractors according to those specs with feedback from those contractors' own engineers. The Dragon capsule on the other hand was designed and built entirely by SpaceX. It'll end up with an NSN and NASA will buy them like they buy Dell laptops or Bic pens.

That difference is significant. Even when the Apollo project was ongoing you couldn't buy a CSM and Saturn rocket for any price. With the Dragon being man-rated you, literally you, could buy a Falcon and Dragon pair and get launched into space. You'd probably have to wait as the slated production runs have been pre-sold but SpaceX's production capacity is the only real limitation now.