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SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday afternoon, clearing a major obstacle before launch Saturday night – weather permitting – with a crew of four headed for the International Space Station.
The 65-meter (215-foot) tall Falcon 9 rocket fired its nine Merlin 1D main engines on Wednesday at 3:49 PM EST (2049 GMT) and accelerated to full power for several seconds. The retaining clamps kept the launcher firmly on the ground as the motors fired to generate 1.7 million pounds of thrust.
An exhaust gas discharge emerged from the flames trench at Pad 39A and a low rumble could be heard for miles around as the Falcon 9 completed a pre-flight test shot before a launch scheduled for 7:49 PM EST on Saturday (0049 GMT on Sunday) with three NASA astronauts and a Japanese space plane headed to the space station.
The mission will be SpaceX’s first operational crew rotation flight using the Falcon 9 rocket and the Crew Dragon capsule, following a successful test flight piloted by the Crew Dragon to the space station earlier this year.
Wednesday’s static fire test was a usual test that SpaceX performs before most of its missions. Stationed inside the launch control center firing room near Kennedy’s iconic Vehicle Assembly Building, the SpaceX launch team ran an automated countdown timer that loaded kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants into the all-new rocket. two-stage three miles away on pad 39A.
After the engine was turned on, the launch team drained the rockets of propellants and prepared for the next task: a “dry dress rehearsal” scheduled for Thursday in which NASA Commander Mike Hopkins, pilot Victor Glover , mission specialist Shannon Walker and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi will don their pressurized suits and board their Crew Dragon “Resilience” capsule at Pad 39A.
Hopkins and his teammates will use the evidence to perform the steps they will take on the launch pad, from clothing in the NASA crew quarters to racing to Pad 39A inside two Tesla Model X cars. At the pad, the astronauts will board an elevator to the service facility and cross the crew access arm to the white room, where the SpaceX crew will help them board the spaceship.
Thursday’s dress rehearsal will not involve filling the Falcon 9 rocket with propellants.
SpaceX and NASA officials plan to convene a Launch Readiness Review on Friday to assess the state of preparations for the launch opportunity on Saturday night. They will also discuss the weather forecast.
In a tweet confirming the successful static fire test on Wednesday afternoon, SpaceX said officials are monitoring weather conditions for takeoff from Kennedy Space Center and along the rocket’s flight path north-east over the Atlantic Ocean. .
Mission leaders will monitor winds, wave conditions, lightning and rainfall in more than 50 locations in the Atlantic Ocean off the east coast of the United States, east of the Canadian maritime provinces and just west of Ireland. The Crew Dragon capsule could break and splash into those areas if the launch fails.
The first official weather forecasts for the Falcon 9 launch opportunity on Saturday evening show a 60% chance of favorable conditions for takeoff at the Florida spaceport. The main weather problem is with cumulus clouds, according to the US Space Force’s 45th Meteorological Squadron.
The forecast does not take into account wind and wave conditions along the Crew Dragon spacecraft’s ascent corridor across the Atlantic, nor the higher level wind criteria for the Falcon 9’s ascent through the atmosphere.
A backup launch opportunity is available at 7:27 pm EST on Sunday (0027 GMT on Monday).
Once launch has taken place, the Crew Dragon will fly an automated rendezvous profile to connect with the space station, delivering Hopkins, Glover, Walker and Noguchi to the outpost in orbit for a six-month expedition. They will join three other crew members who currently live and work on the space station.
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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @ StephenClark1.
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