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It has It has been a long way from concept to fly for the Commercial Crew Program (CCP) which culminated in the successful launch of the Demo 2 flight, launched on May 30, 2020. SpaceX is now starting to please his contract with NASA that takes astronauts to the International Space Station and brings them home safely with the launch of the Crew-1 mission, currently scheduled for Sunday night, November 15, 2020.
The hardware needed to run them first missions was developed by SpaceX.
The Booster
The Falcon 9 Booster in different configurations will do his 97th launch when it pushes the Crew-1 mission into orbit. The current booster is 5th different version of the rocket and the most powerful so far outside the Falcon Heavy which uses three Falcon 9 cores tied together.
The The Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket is a 229 feet tall reusable booster is powered with a blend of Rocket Kerosene grade (RP-1) and liquid oxygen. Each booster is expected to be flown up to 10 times with minimal restructuring between launches and perhaps up to 100 launches with a more thorough refurb. The first stage is powered by 9 Merlin engines that generate 1.7 million pounds of thrust on takeoff. The first stage burns for 2 minutes and 38 seconds before the main engine (MECO ).
The interstage is the black section you see near the top of the booster. Made of a composite structure, it allows the second stage to be hooked to the first stage and contains pneumatic pushers that separate the second stage by pushing it away from the first stage a few seconds after MECO. At the bottom of the interstage are a pair of grille fins that are used to stabilize and orient the rocket as it descends to Earth,
The task of the second phase is to put the capsule in the correct orbit to reach the space station. The second stage is powered by a single Merlin vacuum motor that produces 220,500 pounds of thrust and is capable of firing multiple times depending on mission requirements
Dragon 2 Crew Pod
Carrying the crew of 4 will be the crew version of the Dragon 2 capsule. The Dragon 2 will be used as both a dedicated cargo ship and crew. The vehicle is partially reusable, which should reduce costs. While the previous version of the Dragon capsule flew into space 19 times along with 1 failure to reach orbit due to a booster failure, this will only be the third flight of the Dragon 2 capsule into space.
Dragon 2 has enough supplies on board to fly up to 10 days in space and is designed to remain attached to the International Space Station for up to 210 days for each mission. The Crew Dragon 2 capsule can hold up to 7 astronauts, However for crew-1 and any other ISS trips currently on the schedule, NASA only uses 4 seats. Located inAbove the seats are three screens used for ship monitoring and control. While the vehicle flies autonomously, performing everything during the flight including docking to space station, in case of need the astronauts have full control of the vehicle via these screens. Previous Dragon pods that were only used for cargo would maneuver close to the station and then be picked up by the station crew using the station’s CanadaArm and then docked at the ISS docking port.
Back inside the crew capsule, you’ll find that behind the spacecraft’s control screens is a well, a toilet, and also the docking hatch used to move from the capsule to the ISS. The vehicle is equipped with Draco thrusters which are used for orbital maneuvers. The Crew Dragon capsules were to have the ability to stop the booster in the event of a catastrophic failure, the vehicle’s SuperDraco engines make up the LAS (Launch Abort System) that pushes the capsule away from the booster.
Under the capsule, there is another section that SpaceX calls the trunk. The solar panels that power the spacecraft are stored inside the trunk during launch and deployed after reaching orbit. The trunk also has radiators which allow the heat to be removed from the nacelle and fins which are used to provide stability in the event of an interrupted launch. The trunk also offers space for non-pressurized cargo. The boot is discarded during the return and is not recovered.
The capsule in use for the Crew-1 mission is a new capsule, called Resilienceand should be able to be reused for future missions.
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