SpaceX: Humans Would Have Survived Dragon Crew Test
The vessel that could one day take astronauts to space passed a huge test today.
— -- The spectacular seconds from when the SpaceX Crew Dragon launched this morning, detached from a rocket and parachuted into the Atlantic would have been survivable for human astronauts had they been on board for today's test, SpaceX said.
It took less than two minutes this morning for Elon Musk's private space company to show NASA it has the right stuff to one day take humans to space.
A dummy stood in for a human crew, allowing SpaceX to collect data on how the emergency abort procedure could potentially affect the human body.
SpaceX tweeted this afternoon that had a human been on board the Crew Dragon, they would have "been in great shape" after the successful test.
The abort system is located inside Dragon, allowing future crew members to quickly escape in the event of a potential failure.
The remarkable feat played out around 9 a.m. ET today as eight SuperDraco engines lifted Dragon 5,000 feet above the launch pad.
Dragon detached from its rocket, deployed its parachutes and continued a controlled descent into the Atlantic Ocean, landing a mile from shore, where it bobbed in the water and waited for a recovery vessel.
NASA last year awarded multi-billion dollar deals to Boeing and SpaceX for development of spacecraft to shuttle astronauts to and from space.
In the interim, NASA has been purchasing seats aboard the Russian Soyuz.