Escape! Spaceflight Abort Systems from the Launch Pad to Interplanetary Travel
On Sunday, January 19th, 2020, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying its newly designed Crew Dragon spacecraft. 84 seconds into flight, at the moment of maximum aerodynamic pressure, the capsule fired its eight SuperDraco thrusters, detaching from the top of the rocket and flying ahead.
Moments after, the Falcon 9 rocket exploded in midair, destroying a completely good rocket, but the capsule was completely safe, jettisoning its trunk and landing gently in the ocean a few minutes later.
Nobody was on board the spacecraft, just a couple of test dummies, but this test proved that in the case of an emergency during the ascent stage of the mission, Crew Dragon would be able to carry its astronaut crew to safety.
You can watch the video right now, or wait and watch the premiere on Tuesday, February 4th at Noon Pacific here with me on YouTube:
Escape! Spaceflight Abort Systems from the Launch Pad to Interplanetary Travel.mp4 (Vimeo)
Comments (7)
Loved the episode
You don't know the power to weight ratio of my mum's sprouts
I'd get out of orbit and maybe into the troposphere this way at least?
I think I would survive if I curled myself into a really tight ball and let off a few mums Sunday dinner farts in the appropriate direction following through would help me as it would provide a second layer would it not
NASA looked into your Mom's Sunday dinner flatulence and found that the system wouldn't scale up. There's only so many Brussel sprouts your mom can make at one time.
Fraser, "17 year-old Juliane Koepcke was sucked out of an airplane in 1971 after it was struck by a bolt of lightning. She fell 2 miles to the ground, strapped to her seat and survived after she endured 10 days in the Amazon Jungle." I wouldn't like to rely on this for my escape, nor would the other 91 people who died from it!
That's crazy, no, not the most reliable abort system.