The successful launch of the SpaceX Crew Dragon Spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley on May 30th 2020, at 3:22 p.m. EDT Saturday, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida marked a point in the history books where a commercially built and operated American crew Spacecraft launched from American soil would go to the International Space Station for the first time.
Soon after the launch, returning back on the drone ship “Of course I still Love You” in the Atlantic Ocean on 30th May 2020 at T+ 9 minutes 30 seconds, was the Falcon 9 after a successful ejection.
About the SpaceCraft…
The Dragon spacecraft– equipped to stay in the Earth’s orbit for about 110 days is capable of carrying 7 persons to and from the Earths orbit and beyond.
It is the only spacecraft that is capable of returning significant amounts of cargo to Earth and the first private spacecraft to take humans to the space station.
The Dragon is about 8.1m in height, having a trunk and capsule capacity of 37 m³ and 9.3 m³ respectively and a diameter of 4m.
- The Trunk– carries unpressurized cargo and supports the spacecraft during ascent. One half of the trunk is covered in solar panels which provide power to Dragon during flight. The trunk remains attached to Dragon until shortly before re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
Volume: 37 m³. - The Capsule– also known as the pressurized section, allows for the transport of people as well as environmentally sensitive cargo. Dragon is equipped with Draco thrusters that allow Dragon to manoeuvre while on orbit.
Volume: 9.3 m³.
Propellents such as hydrazine and fuel and an oxidiser are added which ignite and provides the vehicle with enough power.
The Falcon– is a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of people and payloads into Earth orbit and beyond. Falcon 9 is the world’s first orbital-class reusable rocket. Reusability allows SpaceX to refly the most expensive parts of the rocket, by returning back to Earth.
Falcon 9 was designed from the ground up for maximum reliability.
Demo 2: the final major test for SpaceX’s human spaceflight system to be certified by NASA for operational crew missions to and from the International Space Station. SpaceX is returning human spaceflight to the United States with one of the safest, most advanced systems ever built, and NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is a turning point for America’s future in space exploration that lays the groundwork for future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
