SpaceX Crew Dragon suffers ‘anomaly’ during engine test, smoke seen for miles
- par Amanda Heroux
- dans Science
- — Déc 1, 2019
Williams says no one was injured and the anomaly was contained.
SpaceX released a statement confirming the malfunction.
Crew Dragon undertook a successful test flight in March, sending an unmanned capsule to dock for five days with the International Space Station before returning to Earth.
During the test, eight SuperDraco engines - which are embedded in the Dragon's hull - will fire, demonstrating that the spacecraft can pull itself away from the rocket. Key for Mars landing.
SpaceX suffered an "anomaly" in a Crew Dragon capsule during static fire tests at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Saturday. A final assessment, however, "resulted in an anomaly on the test stand". "Ensuring that our systems meet rigorous safety standards and detecting anomalies like this prior to flight are the main reasons why we test", the spokesperson added. "Our teams are investigating and working closely with our NASA partners".
USA aerospace manufacturer SpaceX said on Sunday that an "anomaly" had occurred during static fire tests for the abort engines of its Crew Dragon spacecraft. This is why we test. The Crew Dragon vehicle has four thruster pods that each have two Draco thrusters and two SuperDraco thrusters.
The propulsive devices use nitrogen tetroxide and hydrazine propellants: a hypergolic combination that ignites on contact, according to the space blog. The storable propellant mixture consists of monomethylhydrazine fuel and dinitrogen tetroxide - an oxidizer. If the issue was serious, it could derail plans to fly astronauts aboard the capsule later this year. SuperDraco is created to be highly throttleable, from 100 to 20 percent of full thrust.
In terms of the location of the testing, SpaceX originally planned to build a test stand for Crew Dragon near Landing Zone 1.
The in-flight abort test is meant to demonstrate the Crew Dragon's system for rocketing the crew to a safe landing in the event of an emergency experienced in the early stages of flight.
A mysterious but apparently serious incident occurred Saturday in Cape Canaveral, Florida, involving the SpaceX capsule meant to carry American astronauts into space late this year, the private company and NASA announced. Created to keep a crew safe, this feature will only be used in case of an emergency during flight, but SpaceX must show it works properly.
