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

Posted by EditorDavid on from the reusable-rockets dept.

"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."

5 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. YES! by DCFusor · · Score: 5, Insightful
    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, 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.
    .

    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.

    --
    Why guess when you can know? Measure!
    1. Re: YES! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Tesla is irrelevant, as is your strongman argument. Tesla is a separate company.

      ULA gets a bunch of money every year whether they launch or not. Thatâ(TM)s a government subsidy.

      SpaceX is paid by nasa to perform tasks or build products. If thatâ(TM)s your standard for subsidies then pretty much every company receives subsidies, since the government buys from many private companies.

    2. Re:YES! by XXongo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

  2. Correction by XXongo · · Score: 5, Informative

    "This marks the first and only demo mission that Crew Dragon will fly without humans on board."

    Almost.

    Next flight, without crew, is the in-flight abort test, where they launch, but shut the rocket down at about Mach one and let the excape system pull the capsule away. http://www.parabolicarc.com/20...

    Then comes the first flight with crew.

  3. Congratulations! by ReneR · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Finally the next steps of human space exploration. A pity most governments are more interested in their own shady, old fashioned business, making war, or playing golf. Cudos to Musk and the team he gathers, ..!